OK. 416Tanzan asked for the best DEER-only cartridge. How about the best Pronghorn (Antelope) only cartridge since it starts in a week or two?

I'm afraid this will be a short lived thread, as everyone knows the 25-06 is the best...

You keep asking p, I keep saying.270 Win.

To paraphrase Duke Wayne, “Break out the Winchester...270.”

quote:

everyone knows the 25-06 is the best

If it's not.....then it's the 6mm Remington.

Based on definitions previously applied.........does "best Pronghorn-only cartridge" exclude cartridges we consider fully adequate for whitetails?

You got it right, it's the 25-06.

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Originally posted by Samuel_Hoggson:
Based on definitions previously applied.........does "best Pronghorn-only cartridge" exclude cartridges we consider fully adequate for whitetails?

No. My choice, the 25-06, is fully adequate for Whitetails.

But, I'm asking only about what you think is the 'best' Pronghorn Antelope cartridge.

What say you?

I think the .25-06 is about perfect for pronghorns. I have used both the 100 and 115 gr. Nosler partitions. The 115 gr. is probably my overall favorite. It also works well on mule deer and coyotes. Two friends have used my .25-06 to make one-shot kills on cow elk, though there are better rifles for that.

6.5 creedmoor

Mike

I’ve shot a dozen or so pronghorns. I use a custom 240 weatherby, and a custom 257 weatherby. Both worked great.
If I could use only one, it would be the 240.

The pronghorn is similar in size to deer. That means the major difference will be the typical range at which shots are taken.

That means a flat shooting cartridge with a bullet weight greater than about 100 grains should work well for both pronghorn and smaller deer.

quote:

You keep asking p, I keep saying.270 Win.

Yep

It is sometime really windy out there on the plains. Just something to consider.

For me, it is which rifle I want to shoot that hunt.
I have shot pronghorns with 243, 264, 308, 405 WCF, 45-70, 45-90 and they all worked fine. Dead speed goat, good meat.

This October in TX Panhandle we will be shooting everything from black powder to double rifles (just to make it interesting).

I have used 22-250, 243, 270 and 338 on antelope.

If I had to pick one, it would be a 270. But this year plan on using a fast twist 22-250 with 77gr Lapua's.

quote:

Originally posted by squeezenhope:
It is sometime really windy out there on the plains. Just something to consider.

As stated in my OP, I think the 25-06 is perfect for Antelope. But on windier days, I have used heavier bullets/calibers. So far, I have taken them with 25-06, 6.5x55, 275 Rigby, 280 Rem., and 338WM.

I use 115 gr. bullets in my 25-06.

I use 140 gr. in the rest, except the 338WM, where I used 200 gr.

quote:

Originally posted by Dale:
I think the .25-06 is about perfect for pronghorns. I have used both the 100 and 115 gr. Nosler partitions. The 115 gr. is probably my overall favorite. It also works well on mule deer and coyotes. Two friends have used my .25-06 to make one-shot kills on cow elk, though there are better rifles for that.

I too have two lady friends who use a 25-06 and the other a 257 Roberts with which to hunt elk. And they are successful.

I also agree there are better cartridges for elk in my opinion, if you're not fond of tracking or hauling elk up out of canyons & ravines.

I too have taken a number of mule deer with my 25-06, and the 115 gr. is my favorite also (Win. Ballistic Silvertips).

I like your style Dale!

quote:

Originally posted by crshelton:
For me, it is which rifle I want to shoot that hunt.
I have shot pronghorns with 243, 264, 308, 405 WCF, 45-70, 45-90 and they all worked fine. Dead speed goat, good meat.

This October in TX Panhandle we will be shooting everything from black powder to double rifles (just to make it interesting).

I concur. It's fun using a variety of calibers/rifles on Pronghorn.

And I couldn't agree more on your "good meat" comment. For my taste, it's the best in NA, after moose. I hear wild sheep are "the best" from some folks. Never had it so I cannot comment...

I have had moose, pronghorn and sheep.

I would take moose and pronghorn over the sheep. While the sheep is very good, the one I got is very mild tasting. That is probably why so many people like it. Moose and pronghorn have much more flavor.

I cannot say moose or pronghorn is better, they are both fantastic but just have different flavor. Axis deer has even more flavor and I would choose that over both.

Have not had sheep--but moose hands down over pronghorn. The pronghorn I shot was both running and in sagebrush--I hear either of those not good. So gamey it would stink up the house cooking it, but it made good jerky.

257 Weatherby Magnum. Faster than a 270 and better BC (117 compared to 130 weights).

I've had great success with my 25-06. If I were trophy hunting I might build a .264 Win Mag.

Speed goats are pretty tasty here in SD. The ones I've shot in Colorado and Wyoming not so much.

For just filling doe tags, my bolt action single shot 22-250 works great. It did go full auto on me once. Hit 3 does in 10 seconds and my wife started yelling for me to stop shooting.

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Originally posted by marley7x57:
257 Weatherby Magnum. Faster than a 270 and better BC (117 compared to 130 weights).

+1 on the .257 Wby.

The Wyoming pronghorns I've taken tasted great. But the secret is to get them chilled down quick rather than letting them sit in the back of a pickup all day.

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The pronghorn is similar in size to deer.

Maybe in some places but a lot of deer in the northland are easily 1.5 to 2 times the size of a speed goat.

That said 25-06

quote:

Originally posted by Cougarz:

quote:

Originally posted by marley7x57:
257 Weatherby Magnum. Faster than a 270 and better BC (117 compared to 130 weights).

+1 on the .257 Wby.

The Wyoming pronghorns I've taken tasted great. But the secret is to get them chilled down quick rather than letting them sit in the back of a pickup all day.

I've settled on a 6mm-284, 85 grain bullets. Easy on the shoulder, not that it matters much. We carry bags of ice in the coolers and shove two of them into the body cavity of the antelope right after field-dressing. Antelope wrapped in bacon and grilled is nice, also with a soy-sauce and olive oil recipe cadged from a professional cook ( modified a little with the serial numbers filed off ).

260 Remington 120gr Barnes TTSX

240 Weatherby with Berger 95gr VLD bullet.

Best caliber for pronghorn? The one you've got in your hand when you see a sixteen-incher.

When I've hunted specifically for pronghorns I've used a .264 Winchester. But anything from a .243 to a .300 Magnum will do fine so long as it shoots where you intend it to.

I shot my one and only with a 6.5X55 Swede, but if given the choice I'd pick the same rifle i mentioned for whitetail only, and that is my 25-284 on a Win 70 in a featherweight profile... So really the same as the 25-06. If I had a dedicated pronghorn rifle I used exclusively every year it might get bumped up to a 257 Weatherby...because they're just cool.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
You keep asking p, I keep saying.270 Win.

To paraphrase Duke Wayne, “Break out the Winchester...270.”

.270 or .280 or whatever you shoot well....

quote:

Originally posted by JASmith:
The pronghorn is similar in size to deer.

Not the deer in Colorado.

Biggest issue with antelope where I hunt is the wind. So I would lean toward heavier bullets (130-150) in a fast cartridge.

The 270 Win is ideal, as is the Wby 270, 7mm etc.

Having a rifle you can shoot accurately is probably more important than a singular caliber.

I never cared much for the taste personally.

BH63

25-06 of course

Real men shoot pronghorn with a 45-70.

My wife would shoot a 270Win with 110TTSX for light recoil.
But for less wind-drift, then the 270 sends the 129gnLRX at 3125fps and it only moves sideways 9.6" at 400 yards in a 10mph crosswind. That is a couple inches less than the 25-06 and Barnes bullets or 270 with 110gn .

Once again, the little 270Win does a magnum job in a standard action and rifle. There are speciality bullets available, too.

About any deer rifle is good enough for Pronghorn..Ive shot them with most calibers growing up on our West Texas ranches..Kids and grand kids used the 222 with 60 gr. Horndays, I liked the 250-3000 as well as anything else..

Way more important to hit your mark than what you hit it with. Just about any bullet placed correctly will make quick work of a goat. I like flat shooting heavier bullets that will stay on course in a heavy cross wind. The gun you shoot the best with the heaviest bullet it groups well will probably be the best performer under conditions at your personal limits. I harvested one with a 200 grain Accubond out of a 300 Weatherby in a healthy cross wind at 425+ yds. Most shooters could do the same with a 25-06, 22-250, or .223, but I wasn't worried about hold over or windage. Was able to focus on the "hunt"

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Speed goats are pretty tasty here in SD. The ones I've shot in Colorado and Wyoming not so much.

In my experience, deer taken from areas of Colorado with lots of sage brush (a huge portion of CO and WY) are nasty tasting critters. I took a pronghorn on wheat stubble in eastern CO, and it was about the tastiest wild game I’ve ever eaten.

I've taken antelope with 6mm Rem,25-06,257 Wby,270,280, 7mm Rem and 308 Norma. They all worked but the 25-06 is hard to beat

anything that shoots a 100 grain bullet, any .243 .257 .264 .277 .284 caliber, yall say 'best' there is no 'best' [260. rem 257 Roberts] would be my choice...

Just answering the rhetorical question, the .240 Weatherby immediately popped into my head, although I have never owned one.

I suppose any caliber suitable for deer..Ive never noticed that antelope are shot at any diffent range than Mule deer or coues deer, 99% are shot under 200 yards..I had a lot of antelope and mule deer on my ranch and always had a 100% kill like most Texas ranchers in the Big Bend of Texas..I kept those records for 5 years btw. I doubt that its changed,Id call it the same in Idaho today..Even a 30-30 or 25-35 would work, but my circumstances were different, I just waited for a target of opertunity, as I drove around checking on my hunters..

I suspect the poster is correct in that technically the 25-06 is about perfect for the average hunter who may tend to take the longer shots, For my self and living on the ranch I didn't need to do that I had all the time in the world, to pick a buck and shoot it..caliber was never a real question under those circumstances.