Was playing around with the 270 wsm and found I like it a lot more than I thought and since it's flatter shooting, it will be going to Wyoming with me. It shoots 140 gr. Fail Safe® ammunition into quarter sized groups. Now, what would you expect the meat and cape damage to be on an antelope? I figure that since it is designed for heavy game it would leave a smaller hole and less meat damage because of it's slower expansion.

On a quick side note. For bipods, what height would you choose?

In my experience, a FailSafe is a poor choice for antelope. It will transfer little shock value and damage little tissue -- and it may also allow the animal to run quite a ways before expiring. Put it on the point of the shoulder, and secondary bone fragments will factor into the equation and give you a quick kill, but you can't always be positive of such placement, especially in the terrain where antelope live as the wind is always a factor. Don't be concerned as much about cape/meat damage. Use a bullet that will put the animal down quickly and in a humane fashion -- and leave the cape worries to the taxidermist.

Remember, an antelope is small (around 100 poinds), and a bullet that opens quickly is what you really need.

As to bipods, I believe one of mine extends from 13 to 27", and that is the height I'd recommend for your situation. Good luck in Wyoming.

I used a 87gr Hornady SP for my antelope. This bullet does not have the interlock system. I shot the goat in the neck quartering me and the bullet exited the back ribs on the far side. I tell you this to give an example of how light this game animal is, it doesn't take much to put them down.Take the FS Elk hunting.

I use the 230 gr Failsafe in my .338, which is my primary hunting rifle. It has taken a couple WY antelope and dropped both where they stood. I was above one (in coulee) and shot down smack in the spine from ~150 yards. Second was broadside, behind near shoulder and out the other shoulder. This rifle/bullet combo has also taken boar/whitetail/mulies in the states and 12 african animals (springbok to eland) and on only two (lechwe and impala) did the animal not drop at the shot and required more than one shot.

Meat damage? I lost a bit of backstrap when I shot the first antelope. On the other, I probably lost a bit of shoulder meat, thought I have no idea of amount. Don't worry about the cape, unless you take a neck shot or a facing away shot, your exit hole shouldn't be any problem. My first whitetail was shot with a 270 through the neck and the taxidermist had no problem stiching up.

It sounds like your rifle/bullet combo is shooting great, keep practicing. I use a 13-27" swivel bipod. If you are going to use, make sure you practice with it and note any change of bullet placement.

Brad

Sevens,
From my experiences with hunting antelope, they are very thin skinned compared to deer and a mature buck will only be between 85-95 pounds. I shoot them with Barnes because that is what I use for everything else and have had no problems. Your failsafe's should work fine. Don't worry about a goat getting away from you if you hit it in the boiler room. I have never had an antelope run farther than 20 or so yards, and in the terrain where you'll be hunting it won't be like you'll lose them in brush! As far as meat or cape damage, antelope are an absolute bitch if you screw up their capes. They have a LOT of large, hollow hairs that they can lose quite readily (most idiots who drag their critter out can lose ALL the hair on one side of the goat, as well as screw up the meat in the process). If you blast one in the neck, I would say don't even bother taking it to the taxidermist because you can't patch up the holes very well. I have seen some goats necks absolutely devoid of hair because someone shot them there with a cannon or with rapid expansion bullets.
As far as bipods are concerned, I have shot a pile of goats...never used a factory one. Personally, I don't like the fact that they are very cumbersome at the end of your rifle and a total waste of money for what you get. If you take a pack with you, more often than not I shoot off my pack, or off of sage. If you still want something to shoot off of kneeling or even prone, I would go buy two 1/4" wood dowles about 30" long. Drill a small hole about 6" from the end on both dowels, push a cotter pin through with a small washer in between. You should also put a washer on both ends as well, but this set up is DIRT cheap and works incredibly well. I have had my "cheap bipod" for over 5 years and it is still in great shape. I was only out about $5 for the setup as well.

Good luck on your WYO goat...what area are did you draw??

MG

I've got area 45 type 1.

Like someone said, you may have to track him a long ways if you don't hit a bone. That bullet acts like a FMJ on whitetails and Lopes' are even lighter animals. The Failsafe will work but bullet placement will be important. The good thing about wide open Antelope country is that you don't have to worry about a blood trail in most instances.

Good Luck!

Reloader

I shot a 165 FS into a nice antelope buck season before last. Range was just over 300 yards, the rifle was a 30-06. The buck fell over dead with a lung shot.

My wife and I have used Hornady's, 130 and 140, for over the years and killed several dozen, bucks and does, with these bullets. I personally prefer these fast expanding bullets on antelpoe and the animals have almost always dropped at the shot. Keep in mind that while my experience involves only fast expanding slugs, it covers over 40 animals in the last ten years alone.

I'm sure the Fail-safes will work if you place your shots, however, you need to put your bullet behind the shoulder to avoid damaging the meat or cape. If you do, your bullets will meet very little resistance and may just punch through. Yes, its real open country and loosing the animal in the bush is unlikely, but if it runs off the land you have permission to hunt on, could be an issue.

I've tried bi-pods several times, love the idea, problem is they don't work for me or my wife. They just get in the way, hand up on brush etc. If I need a rest I use the available sage brush, just be sure to put tape over the muzzel of the rifle. Practice with your rife at long range. My wife and I were up in the high country this weekend marrmot hunting, we both had kills at 400 yards (lazered yardage) with our 270's from sitting positions. We also wacked rocks, the marrmots are getting smarter and hide after the first shot, at 300 to 500 yards from a sitting as well as prone position to increase our practice. Outside of an accurate rifle there is noting you can buy which will subsitute for practice at long range to make you a better long range shot.

if you have seen any pics of failsafes you will see that they just pencil through for the most part, in your 270 I think they would be mainly for moose/grizzly or something along those lines, go load up some ballistic tips, they shoot great in any rifle I have tried and are perferct for thin skinned animlas like lopes and white tails

I've taken a great many pronghorn-size African antelope, etc., with 180 gr. F-Ss out of a 300 Win. Mag., and in every case they went over and down like a paper doll in the wind.

Quite honestly, I like F-Ss for light animals like this a whole lot better than more fragile bullets, such as Nosler Ballistics Tips that have been totally unpredictable bombs at times.

If your rifle shoots F-Ss well, by all means use them. It's one of the greatest bullets of all time............

AD

sevens,

I have a 270 that shoots the 140 gr. Failsafe very well but it's too much bullet for deer & antelope size game. It will shoot right through and you will not have a good blood trail. I have lost 2 deer that appeared untouched, and found them later stone dead. No blood and no visible sign of a hit. For Elk,Moose,Bear, they are the greatest but not for small stuff.

Hawkeye47

For best results you should match the bullet construction to the game. A super penetrator on a light skinned animal is a prime example of a poor match. However, lopes are not hard to kill so it should work OK... Most of the time! Not unlike using standard bullets on tough game, it will usually work, but yours might be the one that didnt fare so well and acts like the proverbial armor plated lope because of a penciled wound.

It sounds like your using factory ammo?? Ive killed tougher animals with BT's but that is the last bullet I would suggest for someone trying to avoid cape damage. If you handload then I would suggest Hornady interlocks or Speer Mag tips or GS, because they share a lead core and a fluted tip. If they make the factory stuff in partitions for your rifle it would be a better combo for those overgrown rabbits.

I've killed three antelope with Fail Safe bullets, none traveled over a couple fo steps before keeling over. I have also used them on elk and a great many African species with perfect results each and every time. If your rifle shoots well with them by all means use them.

Failsafes do open up on thin skinned animals. You won't see the fragmentation that you'll see in other bullets, but to me, that is a good thing. Although they are a bit of a overkill on Antelope, if your gun shoots them well, I recommend using them.
As far as bipods, I use the Harris swivel that goes up to 27". Using the bipod as the front rest, and a day pack as the back, you can get a solid rest in a hurry in places where there are no solid rests. Just a couple of warnings though:
Check your sights after you install it. It could shift your point-of-impact.
It can strip out your front sling stud. I would recomend reinforcing it.
It doesn't work well if you're on a downward slope, shooting at a animal above you on the opposite facing slope. I tried this once, and now have the "idiot ring" scar from the scope bouncing off my skull (Its a sad thing when you leave a bigger blood trail than the Elk you were shooting at).

quote:

I've taken a great many pronghorn-size African antelope, etc., with 180 gr. F-Ss out of a 300 Win. Mag., and in every case they went over and down like a paper doll in the wind.

Quite honestly, I like F-Ss for light animals like this a whole lot better than more fragile bullets, such as Nosler Ballistics Tips that have been totally unpredictable bombs at times.

If your rifle shoots F-Ss well, by all means use them. It's one of the greatest bullets of all time............

Consider yourself very lucky if you had good luck while using them on light skinned game animals.

I wish you could have been w/ me on about 10 different Whitetail tracking jobs at our camp back years ago when several of the guys started using them because "They shot soooo well" in their rifles. My friend you'd have a differing opinion than that. We lost several deer due to sparse (if any) blood trails and long, looonng runs after impact. Sometimes we luckily had a little beagle dog and found them and every time we'd think How did they run that far when hit like that? Well the answer was simple when you examined the wounds tiny holes in and tiny holes out. They perform much like a FMJ on thin skinned game so, If you do plan on using them you'd better spine em' or bust the shoulders. I'd much rather recommend someone use a violent expanding Varmint bullet over a Failsafe on light game any day.

Just read the label on the factory loads that Win. sells, I probably could dig one up but, I believe it says something to the effect of "Intended for VERY LARGE and DANGEROUS Game animals" and has a picture of a lion or something on the Box. Win. is right, they are a great bullet for their intended purpose.

By the way, those horrid experiences we had w/ them was w/ 180s in 300 WM and 140s in 270 win.

Have a Good One!

Reloader

Reloader, Winchester completely redid the makeup of that bullet "several" years ago.

Chuck

Reloader, aim for bone and you won't have to track anything very far. Break their framework down, and you break them down........

AD

Allen-Yes, you are right about breaking bone. But if you could be absolutely certain that you could break one or both shoulders every time, a full metal jacketed projectile would suffice as secondary bone fragments would aid in destruction of the vitals and put the animal down relatively quickly.

But hunting does not take place in a perfect world or an a target range where every distance is pre-determined. Shots can be pulled. Wind drift can be miscalculated.

Sticking a FailSafe through the thin ribcage and into the lungs of a small animal like the pronghorn or impala can turn into a tedious tracking job. I am thrilled that you express such confidence in the FS loads, but as you can see by a number of the posts, not everyone's experience mirrors yours.

For thin-skinned, smaller big game, there are simply much better choices than the FS.

Bobby, all I can do is relate my own experiences. I know those best. I've also taken lung shots on antelope-size animals with F-Ss, and I've never had anything go more than a few steps. I'm not afraid of using them for any sort of shot presentation on any big game animal.

AD

Allen,

Your right a bone hit will smack em' down quick regardless of the bullet used most times. I've always been a lung shooter I guess but, I do often clip a shoulder or a back bone here and there. On a good bit of the game animals I've taken the shot opportunity was so short lived I'll admit I just held on the front mass and "dropped the hammer" and like Bobby said, alot of times the hits didn't get bones just ribs and lungs.

Have a Good One

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by allen day:
Bobby, all I can do is relate my own experiences. I know those best. I've also taken lung shots on antelope-size animals with F-Ss, and I've never had anything go more than a few steps. I'm not afraid of using them for any sort of shot presentation on any big game animal.

AD

Allen -- if you were going just for Pronghorn and taking a .270 WSM as he is, would you rather have the FailSafe or a Partition, assuming you had the choice? I'm just curious as I have not used the FailSafe but have used the Partition in a .270 Weatherby.

If you have found a premium bullet that shoots quarter sized groups and you feel confident hitting targets with it, by all means use it. My wife and I shot about 3 deer and two wild hogs with a 150 gr. FS in .308 Win 2 and 3 years ago and the bullet performed great. I think if you try it, you'll love it.

I'd shoot whichever one grouped best out of my rifle.

My current 300 Win. Mag. doesn't shoot Fail-Safes as well as my old rifle did, but it loves 180 gr. Nosler Partitions, so that's what I shoot out of it for everything, from pronghorn to deer and elk. It works.......

AD

quote:

Originally posted by allen day:
I'd shoot whichever one grouped best out of my rifle.

Thanks.