What caliber for pronghorn and deer?

NMCoyoteHunter01

NMCoyoteHunter01

New member
I am planing on getting a hunting rifle in the near future and I don't know what caliber to get. I am kinda thinking 25-06, 260 Rem, or 6.5 Creedmoor. What's your opinion.
 
IMO 260 rem out of the three, great LD ballistics, easy to load, short action.
The other 2 will do the same thing though.
Pretty much a coin toss.
 
Hard to beat a 25-06 for what you are looking for. Decades before Remington made it a factory round wildcatters used it to kill a boatload of deer sized animals. With the right bullet (and placement, of course) it is adequate for moose and elk.
 
They are all great deer calibers. If you reload it gives you lots of choices.

The 25-06 allows you to shoot 70-120 grain bullets. I shoot a 85 grain Nosler at almost 3600fps for coyotes. My daughter has even killed a few deer with the 85's. A 115 grain Berger VLD at 3100, is what I like for deer or long range steel.

The 6.5's shoot 100-140 grain bullets. The 260 edges out the Creedmore slightly on speed, especially with the 140 grain bullets.

The 6.5's will give you a little more energy on target with the 140's, than a 25-06 with a 115-120 grain bullet. There is also a wider selection of good, high BC bullets in the 6.5's.
 
All good choices, even the .243 which is one of my favorites. But, my all time favorite is the .25-06 which I've shot for 36 years now.

As said it works for varmint to medium size game, and it works well.
 
How do you feel about a good ol' .270? Do you reload? I would say that you will need to in order to really get the best use out of either a .260 or even a 25-06. A .270 isn't much more recoil then either of the others you can buy it anywhere you go (just in case) and has a nice amount of energy for larger species of whitetail.
 
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25-06 will be the easy one to find ammo for...Reloading will get you into the other two with no problem.

They are all good adding in the other 2 or 3 that have been mentioned, .243, .270, 7-08, .257Roberts....when looking at deer and antelope there are a lot of very good cals.
 
25-06. Been shooting mine since I was just 12. That makes 32 years. Darn years are really starting to pile up. Shot lots of deer, antelope, 6 point bull elk and quite a few coyotes
 
Whichever one that drives your "cool" factor.

There are many that are very adequate for antelope and deer. As has been mentioned the .25-06 is a wonderful and versatile caliber. The .260 is also great but off the shelf ammo is iffy at times. Unless you're talking muleys the .243 is also adequate and ammo availability is very good and diverse. I'd prefer the Creedmoor over all the others if you reload. You can shoot anything from 85 grain to 140 grain with extreme accuracy and long distance reliability. I own one and it's quickly becoming my favorite all-time rifle. But I'll stress again ... you will need to reload for it to get the best out of it.

Someone mentioned the .270 and I couldn't agree more that it is a good choice for most anything on 4 legs, and ammo is readily available at most any retailer.
 
Muleys, Whitetail, Antelope, etc, etc, the 243 Would be more than enough, and it's a great coyote round. From what you listed I would go 25-06, more than enough energy and I'll take the velocity over the other two.
 
I own both .270 and 25-06. Some of the country your going to be hunting pronghorns in is country that if you wait for your fuel tank to get down to a quarter tank you probably waited to long to head in. You forget, lose what ever your ammo odds are you can fine .270. Maybe not so with .25-06. And if you ever want to go after elk the .270 will serve you better.
 
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