Deer/Pronghorn/Sheep/Mule Deer Caliber

[come2elmo]

"and easy ammo availability"

I love me some 6mm Rem and 25 Souper but once you get outside the 5 horsemen (243, 308, 270, '06, 300wm) arena finding the more boutique calibers in the random small town or off the beaten path gas station becomes a real chore. Also just about any self respecting gunsmith can fix or has parts for a Rem 700 and Win 70 in the event you drop it off a cliff....

 

[16Bore]

ballistic charts, chamberings, rangefinders, BC, bs, that doesn't amount to a hill of beans if ya can't shoot. It's that easy. You can zero at 50 yards to 500 yards....as long as you know where stuff is going.

A fella could go to Walmart and oufit himself with better gear than Carlos Hathcock ever had.

 

[CGW_6_actual]

I still like my 6.5s, I use the Grendels for under 600 or thin-ish hides, and the Creed for 600+ or thicker hides. Since 2009, I've never had to track anything past 50-60 yards from where it was hit. Did have to use a follow up shot once after a bad wind call though

 

[Formidilosus]

I like my 25-06 for that game selection but the disclaimer would be with premium bullets. I almost sold mine after my dad had sierra gamekings and ssts lodge in the nearside shoulder of big mule deer past 400 yards. Monolithics really have woken mine up and I can fully endorse the cartridge. I would recommend it only with a 1:9 twist or tighter though.

There are a lot of better cartridges on paper and with ideal situations where you can plug everything in a calculator. I recently went on a pronghorn hunt with two fellow hunters armed with a 6.5 creedmoor and a .308. The clay was very wet and getting ranges proved very difficult for whatever reason. The 6.5 creedmoor was very difficult to use with a 100 yard zero without precise ranges. The .308 was the same. Everyone got their antelope but the 25-06 took the first two. One at 180 and one at 375 both without laser rangefinders. The .308 and 6.5 creedmoor took their antelope at under 150 yards after a handful of misses and 4 days of hunting. The 3 different rangefinders not working well is an extreme case but fast and flat with low recoil still has it's place in the high tech present. However a 6.5 with 100-120 grain bullets could be a better option than with the slow fast dropping 140's for real world hunting at 500 yards and in.

What bullets and how fast in the 25-06?



Btw- how’d you know it was 180 and 375 without a rangefinder?

 

[realunlucky]

These discussions always go the same way

 

[PLhunter]

I was using 100 grain Barnes at 3250 FPS. Well actually for the 180 yard shot and the flat shooting rifle I knew I didn’t need to range it was well within point blank range. After the fact we were able to range by eventually finding something nearby that would read for the 375 yard shot. It was just not quick enough under hunting time scales. Something about the wet clay was really throwing things off i think? it was bizarre. A leupold, vortex, and Bushnell all were not picking up ranges. This season inspired me to put on a 1:8 twist barrel for my 25-06 so it can shoot longer heavier bullets. The difference in diameter between the 6.5 and .257 is only .007 so completely negligible. I’ll be pushing 120 grain Monolithics around 3200 FPS for next season... Nothing wrong with the cartridges mentioned by others, as of a week ago I’m a creedmoor owner, I was just bringing up the merits of the old cartridge that shoots fast and flat for real world hunting.