Low recoil rifle for whitetails and coyotes. Opinions?

[candatus]

The felt recoil of the Swede is almost impossible to tell apart from a .243.

The muzzle blast from a Swede will get you compliments for its lack of discomfort, compared to some bigger stuff.

Both rounds can do the job.

I have a friend that shoots Mulies in the South Saskatewan Badlands with a .243 - so do both of his sons. They've never lost one because of caliber, etc.

The longest shot I've killed a deer with was with a single shot .243 NEF - 386 lasered yards. The blood trail wasn't very long.

Every deer I've shot with the Swede fell in its tracks, but I rarely shoot at a deer that is moving.

Whichever choice you make, if she kills a deer with it - she owns the gun forever - ask my wife about her Winchester '94 Trapper . . .

 

[MudRunner2005]

I saw it mentioned and completely forgot about it, but 6.5 Grendel would be an exceptional choice.

I love my .257 Wby.....Sharp recoil, but not heavy recoil. It would also make a good rifle, but not in a lightweight setup, IMO.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

The Howa or Vanguard are great choices for a factory rifle and good ones to build with. The 243 is a great cartridge but I have hunted deer with one and I would step up to a 25-06 or a 6.5.

Talk to me brother. My first & second hand experience with the 6mm's (quite a bit) on deer & 'lopes has been nothing short of high fives & back slaps.

What were your experiences?


t

 

[Trickymissfit]

Hey guys. I'm looking into several different calibers of rifle and am having trouble deciding on which one to go with. My fiancé is getting into hunting and she wants to go deer hunting. I only have a .30-06 and a .300 WM right now for her to use. I'm confident she could shoot the .30-06 fine, but with her being fairly new to shooting I want her to spend a lot of time at the range honing her skills and my 06 kicks pretty good to be putting lots of lead down range. The second part of this is I would really like a higher caliber coyote gun for longer range coyote hunts (500-600 yds). So I figured I could easily kill two birds with one stone here. And this way if she only hunts a year or two and decides she doesn't like it I still have my coyote gun. And by the way we are from eastern WA and will be hunting whitetails in the rolling hills of the Palouse. So after all of that here are some of the calibers I'm choosing between.

6.5x55 Swede (this was the caliber of my first rifle so I have a soft spot for it)

.25-06 (I am a huge .30-06 fan and I believe it to be about the best cartridge ever made, so sticking with the 06 family appeals to me)

.257 Wby
6.5x284
6.5 rem mag

Also, I do all of my own hand loading, but I would like to stick with a cartridge I could easily find brass for.

Anyone have any opinions on these calibers. Pros/Cons.... the good, the bad, the ugly.... any advice helps.

my first choice would be the .250 Savage improved, and the second would be the .257 Roberts.
gary

 

[deertroy1]

I don't see a bad choice in any of the calibers mentioned. Having owned several, I'm partial to the 7mm-08.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Talk to me brother. My first & second hand experience with the 6mm's (quite a bit) on deer & 'lopes has been nothing short of high fives & back slaps.

What were your experiences?


t

The first 2 deer I ever shot were with a 243 and the only deer I shot with a 243. In a tree stand back in PA, a 3x3 walks under me and I attempt a head shot with iron sights. Bullet goes down through side of head/jaw and neck. My fault, not the rifle. Lots of frothy blood at first and track him and another hunter gets on the track with me. He kicks him out of a stand of trees and gets a shot at him and gut shoots him with a 218 B. We track him some more to another stand of trees and I post on one end while he pushes from the other. The buck walks up with bloody tongue hanging out and stands broad side to me about 10 yards. I put one through the middle of his ribs and he runs off into a residential sub-divison. Lost him. Only animal I ever lost. Was not a good experience. 2 days later, I was in the same tree stand and a little spike walks under and gives me a broad side shot about 20 yards away. This time I put one through lungs and heart. He runs for about 30 yards and piles up. In both cases the deer both ran after being shot point blank through the lungs. I was using 100 gr Core Lokt bullets. Had I been using something like highly frangible Bergers it probably would have dropped them in their tracks.

I gave the 243 to my brother and bought a 7 Mag.

I would use a 243 or my new 6x284 for deer, but I would be careful about my shot and make sure he couldn't run anywhere i couldn't find him.

 

[Trickymissfit]

The first 2 deer I ever shot were with a 243 and the only deer I shot with a 243. In a tree stand back in PA, a 3x3 walks under me and I attempt a head shot with iron sights. Bullet goes down through side of head/jaw and neck. My fault, not the rifle. Lots of frothy blood at first and track him and another hunter gets on the track with me. He kicks him out of a stand of trees and gets a shot at him and gut shoots him with a 218 B. We track him some more to another stand of trees and I post on one end while he pushes from the other. The buck walks up with bloody tongue hanging out and stands broad side to me about 10 yards. I put one through the middle of his ribs and he runs off into a residential sub-divison. Lost him. Only animal I ever lost. Was not a good experience. 2 days later, I was in the same tree stand and a little spike walks under and gives me a broad side shot about 20 yards away. This time I put one through lungs and heart. He runs for about 30 yards and piles up. In both cases the deer both ran after being shot point blank through the lungs. I was using 100 gr Core Lokt bullets. Had I been using something like highly frangible Bergers it probably would have dropped them in their tracks.

I gave the 243 to my brother and bought a 7 Mag.

I would use a 243 or my new 6x284 for deer, but I would be careful about my shot and make sure he couldn't run anywhere i couldn't find him.

a 120 grain bullet out of a .257 Roberts will drop a 300lb. buck like a rock at 200 yards. Even the Nosler 100 grain BT will do just as well. Try 46.0 grains of AA4350 for 3000fps. That's 1130 ft.lb. of energy at 300 yards, and with a 200 yard zero the bullet drops 7" at 300 yards. Almost point blank. You can load the 100 grain bullet to about 3100fps, but what for? 40 grains of 4064 in the 250AI will give you about 3200fps with the same bullet. Have a little over 1300ft. lb. of energy at 300 yards and drop 6" with the same 200 yard zero point. That round has 1000ft. lb. of energy at 400 yards I might add.

My first hunting trip with a .257 Roberts brought out lots of laughs about my pipsqueak gun. But the first day I dropped a buck exactly where he stood. He was DOA before he hit the ground. The next day I dropped a 313 pounder at just under 200 yards like a rock. He also was doa on the way to the ground. The next year everybody but two guys had the .257, and had forsaken their trusty 30-06. Makes a fine coyote rig as well I might add. We set out the gut piles on two different days and banged dogs over them at 350+ yards.
gary

 

[m77mkII]

I own a rem 700 with jp recoil arrestor kicks like a 223.This .308 can be shot all day and hand loaded for accuracy with a wide range of bullets,also easy to unload if she doesn't take to hunting.

 

[Niles Coyote]

243 Winchester is never wrong for this combo

I have to agree, use a berger 105 or 115 hunting vld 600y easy on deer and as for coyotes, as far as you can shoot. Very little recoil and 6mm bullets cost less.... what's not to love.

 

[Trickymissfit]

a lot of deer have been taken with various 24 cailber rounds all thru the years, and no one can seriously argue the point. Now the OP wanted a low recoil round in what appears to be a Savage Mod. 10 series rifle. Short action, but also slightly longer than a Remington 700. It should take the 6.5x55 without too much trouble as it will handle the 57mm Mauser case as well. But will it handle the 55mm case with a 140 grain bullet? I just don't know, but of course he could simply drop down to a 120 grain bullet. Good round anyway. The 6.5x55 with factory loads is rather mild mannered, but is capable of much higher chamber pressure.

The surface area of the case head is the same for all the rounds mentioned sans a couple that are somewhat of an overkill. With similar chamber pressures ad similar bullet weights the rifle's recoil will be similar. (one of the laws of pneumatics). A 100 grain bullet in a .257 Roberts +P round at 3000 fps will be a shade under 51K. A 100 grain bullet in a .243 traveling at 3000 fps will generate about two percent more recoil due to chamber pressure alone 51,800 psi verses 50,800 psi). I doubt you'll see the difference in felt recoil. But you can gain another hundred fifty fps by using something like MAGPRO, and also increase the chamber pressure to 59.8K psi and about 20% more recoil.

Now compairing the 6mm Remington with a very stiff load to the .257 with a fairly stiff load and similar weight bullets we're going to see about 20% less felt recoil in the same rifle. Remember pressure is pressure no matter whatkind of a case your using, and the square inches of area with the chamber pressure pushing against it is what you will feel. I once had two rifles in 6mm, and the .257. Both were the same brand and had similar barrels and weight. The 6mm always had more recoil than the .257, and it was noticable enough that it even had slightly more recoil when I used the varmit barreled one off the same style action.
gary

 

[Skyking]

Here I the hottest thing right now. George just won the Sniper Hide cup with it.

New GAP Extreme Hunter in 6.5 SAUM

 

[Edd]

Here I the hottest thing right now. George just won the Sniper Hide cup with it.

New GAP Extreme Hunter in 6.5 SAUM

He asked about a low recoil rifle for his Fiance and you are recommending a cartridge that uses 60+ gr of H1000 with a 140 gr bullet?

 

[Skyking]

He asked about a low recoil rifle for his Fiance and you are recommending a cartridge that uses 60+ gr of H1000 with a 140 gr bullet?

Obviously you did not read over the hole thread. They are not running the case at max pressure. Thats how they are getting low recol and over 3000 rounds out of a barrel. 130 vld's going 3250. You can't win the Hide cup if you can't spot your own hits out to 1100 yards. They have no kick.

 

[jt183]

+1 for the 243 Win. I've shot over 20 head of big game with mine using 100 gr Core Lokts and 100 gr Hornady BTSP without ever losing an animal. It's also accounted for 100+ coyotes and hundreds of rockchucks out to 750 yards. Better BC than the .25s, less recoil that most of the 6.5s, easy to find ammo and reloading components. IMO it's pretty hard to beat.