[LostLouisianian]

I was just thinking out loud. Not to say that I would do it because I wouldn't but in today's world of long shot shooting if you were going to use a caliber/rifle to take an antelope at say 800-1000 yards what would you use? Heck to be honest it's just a "for kicks and giggles" question. If your gun is shooting 1MOA at 1000 yards that's 10 inches off under perfectly ideal conditions. So in effect I guess my question is, what caliber outside of a.50 BMG would have enough energy to take down an antelope or a mulie at 1,000 yards.

I was reading up and some sniper dude had a shot over a mile with a .338 Lapua that took out a bad guy. Would a .30-06, .308, .300 win mag have the punch or would you need to move up to something bigger. I see a lot of the long range target guys use 6.5....would that have enough down range energy. Let the fun begin.

 

[hazmat]

I love the 6.5 284 Norma for deer. I have taken a few elk at 500 yards one shot. I am sure it would shoot and kill elk at a farther distance but that is my comfort zone that I practice with . Love that round no recoil and deadly on accuracy

 

[Loke]

The caliber used is the least important factor in long range shooting. The most important (and given the least credit) is the shooter's ability to shoot that far. That includes his/her (let's be politically correct here) ability to judge range, dope the wind, hold for movement, pull the trigger, and so on and on and on. The next is whether or not your equipment is capable of shooting accurately that far. Putting a 6-24x50 scope on grandpa's Marlin 336 will not make it (or you) a 1000 yard tack driver. Caliber choice is the least important factor. If you and your rifle can shoot sub minute of angle groups consistently (meaning all of the time, not consistently 10% of the time), and conditions will allow it, hitting a target the size of an antelope at 1000 yards is possible with any reasonable caliber. You just adjust your hold (or dial ups) to suit whatever range you happen to be shooting. The black powder silhouette shooters are doing it with 45/70s and open sights. Surely us humans can do it with any metallic cartridge shooting close to or over 3000 fps, 20+ power scopes, laser ranging equipment, and ballistic computer programs.

Oh, and I would use my 270 Winchester.

 

[Springville Shooter]

Loke nailed it.......and I'd use my 280 for the reasons he stated. It is my most accurate, consistent rifle. In reality I would never take this shot either at a non-wounded animal.

I used to think I was a long range shooter but I am quickly realizing that I am not at all by today's standards. Thank goodness. I will happily remain as a precision marksman placing bullets within 2" of wherever I want them in any conditions out to 500 yards or so. -----SS

 

[MuscleWhitefish]

It doesn't take a lot to kill an antelope. It really depends on if you can hit them in the vitals or not.

Without wind a caliber 6.5 -.338 with a high ballistic coefficient could do the job.

The bigger the caliber the better it is at bucking the wind.

If you are going to shoot 1000 yards, I would not do it with a plastic stock, light barreled sporting/hunting gun, cheap free floated barrel, walmart scope, low grade factory ammo and a poor trigger.

A heavy target barrel, solid bedded stock, free floated barrel, large magnification scope with turrets, muzzle-brake, berger vld or other high bc reloads, and good trigger would be the way to go.

If I were to choose I would probably go with the .30-378 weatherby or the .338-378 weatherby. I could do it with a .308 or 6.5 creed, but what would be the fun in that?

 

[Loke]

The bigger the caliber the better it is at bucking the wind.

This is my favorite myth. Wind deflection is a function of time of flight. The longer your bullet is in the air, the longer the wind (or gravity) has to act upon it. It doesn't matter to the wind (or gravity) how big your bullet is. It is simply an object suspended in a fluid to be acted upon by that fluid. Air is a fluid medium. A higher ballistic coefficient will allow a projectile to maintain its initial velocity longer than a more blunt one. Allowing it to arrive at its destination in less time, giving the wind (or gravity) less time to move it off course.

 

[wyogoob]

It doesn't take a lot to kill an antelope. It really depends on if you can hit them in the vitals or not.

Without wind a caliber 6.5 -.338 with a high ballistic coefficient could do the job.

The bigger the caliber the better it is at bucking the wind.

If you are going to shoot 1000 yards, I would not do it with a plastic stock, light barreled sporting/hunting gun, cheap free floated barrel, walmart scope, low grade factory ammo and a poor trigger.

A heavy target barrel, solid bedded stock, free floated barrel, large magnification scope with turrets, muzzle-brake, berger vld or other high bc reloads, and good trigger would be the way to go.

If I were to choose I would probably go with the .30-378 weatherby or the .338-378 weatherby. I could do it with a .308 or 6.5 creed, but what would be the fun in that?

I'm voting for the 338-378 on this one. If the bullet misses the antelope the shock wave that follows will knock the animal down.

.

 

[longbow]

If you have a .30-06, .308, .300 win mag, I'd say "shoot whatcha got".

I agree with Loke on everything he said, (except slightly about the bigger bullets). Just make sure you can do it and you understand that wind is a bigger enemy than all else put together.

I also agree with SpringvilleShooter's standards. Find the farthest range you can consistantly hit a killzone and stick with it.

 

[Critter]

A long long time ago before a lot of the members here were even though of I read some articles about a wildcat making all kinds of waves at the 1000 yard shoots. They took a .300 Weatherby and necked it up to .338, then in 1962 Roy Weatherby started to chamber his Mark V rifle in it and the rest was history. At least according to long range shooters at the time. They were also having great results by shooting the 7mm Weatherby mag. Something about those long skinny bullets.

Now I am not a long range shooter but I can shoot quite well out to 600 yards with my .340 Weatherby mag and I know that if I would practice a lot more 1000 yards would not be out of the question.

But the problem that I see is that most shooters have no idea of the bullet drop at 600 yards much less 1000 yards. When that bullet drops over 5'-6' at those ranges you need to be on the top of your game to connect into the vitals of any animal.

 

[bowgy]

I seem to remember that there was a video out of a woman taking a cow elk at 1200 yards with a .243?

 

[copple2]

7mm rem mag. Fast and flat and lot's of energy. You need to make sure you have enough energy to kill an animal at that distance...not just hit it.

 

[DallanC]

I seem to remember that there was a video out of a woman taking a cow elk at 1200 yards with a .243?

If its the one I post from time to time, 688 yards:

Here's one I've also posted through of a 12 year old kid killing a elk at 1376 yards with a 7RemMag

-DallanC

 

[johnnycake]

I have taken antelope out to 1200 yards with my .270. Just get the right bullet combo, good scope, right conditions, and plenty of long range practice. My next choice is my .300 weatherby mag; I've used it at the range to 1000 yards several times, but never fired at an animal past 400 with it.

 

[Muley73]

The 7mm has been shown to buck the wind very well. I'd feel very comfortable out to 1000 with my 7mm LRM set up. However the best flying "quietest" long range caliber I believe is the 6xc. I shot an aoudad which have a reputation of being very tough with the ability to suck up lead with a 6xc at 680 yards and it was lights out. Proper placement and willingness to become effective.

 

[colorcountrygunner]

Just the other day there was some dude on Facebook saying he couldn't get his Vortex Crossfire to zero on his .338 win mag. He wanted to know where he could find somebody to pay to do it for him because once it was sighted in he could hit "dead bullseye" from zero all the way out to 800 yards. He claimed he just sucked at sighting in scopes but could shoot like Annie Oakley once the gun was sighted in. I told him I was a little skeptical of a guy that couldn't even sight his own gun in, but claimed he could hit "dead bullseye" from zero to 800 yards. I told him I would give him my left nut on a silver platter if he could hit a paper plate sized target with even 50 % consistency at 800 yards. Old deadeye Dick took great offense to my comment and told me to name the range and we could put $1,000 on it. I didn't really wanna take the time out of my schedule to do such a silly thing, but it would have been funny to go watch him fail and see if he would actually pay up.

 

[Hoopermat]

Hands down I would use my 26 nosler.
Best caliber I have ever shot at long range

 

[Vanilla]

Old deadeye Dick took great offense to my comment and told me to name the range and we could put $1,000 on it. I didn't really wanna take the time out of my schedule to do such a silly thing, but it would have been funny to go watch him fail and see if he would actually pay up.

Or, you were afraid he might actually do it! Tell you what, you put up the $1,000 and I'll go do it for you for a 10% administrative fee and cost of gas. You're probably getting $800+ out of this one for no effort of your own. But if he does it, you're paying him $1,000 and my gas only. Deal? I'll film it for you.

 

[Springville Shooter]

I'd say that I'd have about a 75% chance of hitting a 10" paper plate 3 out of five times at 800 yards. With my old 6BR it would be more like 90%.


The fact that the guy was soliciting help sighting in his rifle hedges your bet some though.-----SS

 

[Mr Muleskinner]

maybe it was the "left nut on the silver platter" that offended him. If that isn't a right nut bet I don't know what is.

For the record I have a buddy that lost his left one in a motorcycling accident. He fuctions just fine and has earned the original nickname of "Uno".

Oh yea........for me it is my 7mm RM just because I have put more rounds through it than any other big game rifle I have ever owned.

 

[Loke]

If I were to sight his gun in for him I can guarantee I would win any and all bets as to whether he could hit anything afterward.