snox801
Well-Known Member
Of course for hour distance and hand loading I'm a stickler for hammer bullets. 70gr hammer hunter would be very fast and flat at 400. Plus we all know they kill with very minimal meat loss
Antelope bullet
- Thread starter Junglebird
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ATH
Well-Known Member
Partitions or Accubonds are great. In 6mm I used to favor AMAX but had a couple suboptimal experiences on antelope, good placement but fragmented too quickly.
Buddro
Well-Known Member
Since you have time do some shooting and try a few different bullets, see what your gun likes. .243 may be a bit of a small cartridge by today's standards but its plenty for antelope you shouldnt have to worry much about bullet selection. Keep in mind most monolithic designs like the barnes Ttsx realistically must be driven through lungs/heart to ensure quick clean kills leaving less margin of error. They also need a little more speed to help them open up to create a nice big permanent wound channel. They are ideal for helping a small cartridge bring a big animal down, but maybe not so much for a medium gun on a medium animal. Fragmenting designs like berger vlds send chunks of bullet in lines tangential to the path of the bullet increasing your chances of finding "cardio pulmonary tissue" should you misplace your shot. I personally feel they are a great way to hedge your bets. I didnt see any posts from hammer fans (I probably just missed them they are plentiful here), they make monolithic non toxic bullets designed to fragment as well.
A few more considerations you may want to make in your research. I dont know about your model seven predator but a lot of sevens come with very short barrels. Theres nothing wrong with that but you wont be developing as much speed with them. Try to shoot it over a chrony and take real world speed into consideration when you decide how far you are willing to shoot it will affect your bullets performance. Also some people find flat base bullets will generate a little extra speed in short barrels. They tend also to have greater accuracy out to ranges of 300ish yards than their boat tail counter parts provided your gun shoots them well.
At the end of the day practice and pick your shot, you cant go wrong.
A few more considerations you may want to make in your research. I dont know about your model seven predator but a lot of sevens come with very short barrels. Theres nothing wrong with that but you wont be developing as much speed with them. Try to shoot it over a chrony and take real world speed into consideration when you decide how far you are willing to shoot it will affect your bullets performance. Also some people find flat base bullets will generate a little extra speed in short barrels. They tend also to have greater accuracy out to ranges of 300ish yards than their boat tail counter parts provided your gun shoots them well.
At the end of the day practice and pick your shot, you cant go wrong.
Junglebird
Well-Known Member
Bell & Carlson medalist. I repainted it.
Seams to me a lot of people are overthinking this.
4 of the last 5 antelope have been dropped with a 100eld out of the 6.5 Grendel between 4-5 yards. The wind was howling in 2018 so the Sweede gotrdone with a 143eld.
An antelope is all lungs, not a huge target but a lot easier to hit than the prairie dogs we chase all summer(practice in the wind helps!) The wind can be accounted for and at 400 yards bc aint gonna be a big factor.
My favorite prairie dog gun is a 243 shootin 55 grainers past 4k, not something I would recommend for antelope but if you didnt hit a rib going it it would be devastating.
A prairie dog/scouting trip would teach you more a lot!
4 of the last 5 antelope have been dropped with a 100eld out of the 6.5 Grendel between 4-5 yards. The wind was howling in 2018 so the Sweede gotrdone with a 143eld.
An antelope is all lungs, not a huge target but a lot easier to hit than the prairie dogs we chase all summer(practice in the wind helps!) The wind can be accounted for and at 400 yards bc aint gonna be a big factor.
My favorite prairie dog gun is a 243 shootin 55 grainers past 4k, not something I would recommend for antelope but if you didnt hit a rib going it it would be devastating.
A prairie dog/scouting trip would teach you more a lot!
Junglebird
Well-Known Member
I like the advice of trying a few different bullets. I've got some 90g sciroccos coming and a friend is hooking me up with some 105g Berger hunting vld's. I'll ask some other friends that reload if they are have some 6mm bullets laying around I can try. Thanks so much for all the advice everyone!
Junglebird
Well-Known Member
The barrel is a 22" magnum sporter contour.
With a 9.25" twist you might not be able to get the 105's to stabilize.
could try the Berger 95 classic hunter. Put it in the boiler room and they'll go down quickly.
could try the Berger 95 classic hunter. Put it in the boiler room and they'll go down quickly.
skinnyjk
Active Member
I've been using the Scirocco for the last six years, I've never used anything that performs nearly as well, great expansion yet retain most of their weight, have not had one fail.
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gbett308
Well-Known Member
Just trying to stir up the crudmoor fan club...
snox801
Well-Known Member
That is true for Barnes but absolutely false for the hammers. Hammer open very well and a bad shot is a bad shot. I can tell you after using hammers for several years now they expand very well. Went from them to cutting edge which worked great then to hammers. Hammers are by far the best for hunting.
LOL, I took the video and left. The wind forecast for the area that day was for <15 MPH max, which is typical. Obviously, that was not the case. IIRC, the gust was over 50 MPH. I've successfully harvested many antelope in the area since 2003 even with winds 25-30 MPH. The Montana weather can change on you in a heartbeat and need to prepare for it and adapt accordingly. @dogz statement below is true ...
... I have snuck up on them many times. The "NUT" behind the trigger remains the biggest factor.
