backyardsniper
Well-Known Member
This is more of a curiosity of others opinions, I'm interested to hear the varying thoughts on this though. I just returned from a successful bear hunt with Nontypical outfitters, absolutely great bunch of guys if you ever get the chance to go with them, this was my third hunt with them. Two elk and this bear and I'm returning in Oct for an antelope hunt, which leads me to this question.
I normally shoot everything with a 338 Lapua, it is my favorite caliber and you never have to wonder if you have enough gun. I have two of them, a super heavy AI AX, which I shot the bear with, and the Christensen that I posted about earlier this week which I was considering rebarreling.. However I have an AI AT with a couple different barrels, one of which is a 243, which I thought might be suitable for this antelope hunt. It's a deadly, down right scary accurate little rifle and I've always wanted to take it on a hunt and I figured antelope might be just the right hunt for it. I would like to run the 243 barrel because it's fast, flat and bucks the wind good. I'll be running the hornady 103eldx at about 2950fps. Still in load development but that's what it's looking like. Where do you think that combo would run out of reasonable killing energy for antelope sized game. I'm Leary of taking it if it's going to limit my shooting distance because of lack of energy on target. I can confidently shoot in the 500-800yd range so I want to make sure I'm bringing enough horsepower for that at least. I hate to take the 338 on an antelope hunt but I will. Ha ha
I normally shoot everything with a 338 Lapua, it is my favorite caliber and you never have to wonder if you have enough gun. I have two of them, a super heavy AI AX, which I shot the bear with, and the Christensen that I posted about earlier this week which I was considering rebarreling.. However I have an AI AT with a couple different barrels, one of which is a 243, which I thought might be suitable for this antelope hunt. It's a deadly, down right scary accurate little rifle and I've always wanted to take it on a hunt and I figured antelope might be just the right hunt for it. I would like to run the 243 barrel because it's fast, flat and bucks the wind good. I'll be running the hornady 103eldx at about 2950fps. Still in load development but that's what it's looking like. Where do you think that combo would run out of reasonable killing energy for antelope sized game. I'm Leary of taking it if it's going to limit my shooting distance because of lack of energy on target. I can confidently shoot in the 500-800yd range so I want to make sure I'm bringing enough horsepower for that at least. I hate to take the 338 on an antelope hunt but I will. Ha ha
