Originally Posted by
rut n strut
I'm hopefully going Antelope hunting this year with my dad. My question is this... I own a Ruger M77 30.06. I know this is a great all-around caliber for deer, elk, carabou, what ever. I also know it is probably a little heavy for goats. I have an itch to buy a flatter shooting new gun and am thinking of either a 7mm or a .270. I know the .270 would be a good shooter, but I guess what I am wondering is if the 7mm would be a better choice as a flat shooting long range rifle as well as an improvement over the 30.06 for elk for future hunts.
Well, it sounds like you can't decide if you should get a dedicated antelope rifle or get a 7mm to shoot flatter and still hit elk hard.
Overkill is one thing but really, there's not a ton of meat on the front of a speedgoat anyways. I shot mine with a 300WM this year. That said, if I were going to get a dedicated antelope rifle I'd get a 243 or 243AI twisted for 105-115gr bullets to buck the wind.
Don't get all focused on drop. You'll need a rangefinder to shoot far enough to be worried about drop anyways, and you can easily compensate for that. The wind in goat country is what screws up more shots. Worry about wind drift more.