Good oryx and Barbary rifle?

[nmwapiti]

So I drew not one, not 2, not even 3 tags this year. 4 freakin tags!! Archery elk and deer and also offrange oryx and Barbary. I have been nothing but archery hunting the last few years and don't really own a good rifle. Want to treat myself a little bit and want a nice set up for oryx and Audad. Any suggestions? My budget is around $1500 for rifle and scope. So far I've been looking at the rem. 700 in 300 ultra mag and thinking about vortex scope.

 

[elkmuzzleloader]

I was thinking the same thing if I drew a bunch of rifle hunts this year. I did not but was looking at the tika lite in either 30-06 or 300. For a scope I was looking at Vortex viper HS with the Dead hold duplex. Setup was right about $1000. I was going with the Tika for the weight savings, which you may want when you are chasing the Barbary.

 

[stinkystomper]

my wife has the tikka t3 lite in 300 wsm. Put a zeiss 600 rapid z on top for reliability over those worthless leupold and get comfy with 600 yard shots. your golden.

 

[delmag1942]

SS.....All Leupold's are junk?

 

[1FastGambler]

LAST EDITED ON May-05-12 AT 08:41PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON May-05-12 AT 08:33?PM (MST)

Dang man, congrats on the tags!

Offrange Oryx is TOUGH, you just have to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time.

Your choice of rifle and scope are both good choices. Don't discount Tikka T3's. I have 3 of them and a buddy has one also. They are all tack drivers. I don't really like their rings, but they work and the action is smooth as glass.

Ignore Stinky on the Leupold comments. They are made in the USA and have a fantastic warranty. If you're planning on dialing your hold get a tactical or go big and get a Nightforce or Valdada. The Leupold VX3 w/B&C Recicle works good. Nikon scopes are also nice and I like the one Ziess I have, but it has zero advantage over a top end Leupold.

Good luck on your hunts!!

Oh yea... 300 Win/WSM, 7MM Rem mag, .270 WSM, are all good calibers with plenty of energy out to 500 yds and beyond.

Since you're considering the ultra mag, why not get a 338 RUM?

 

[delmag1942]

1FG,

I was just curious as to SS details on Leupold's. I have a small gun business for a hobby and get to handle most of the manufacturers. I have VX3 4.5-14LR's on ALL my current hunting rifles (6). They are B&C reticles. I have used the reticle past 500 yards with no problem?
I would second the .300 RUM or .338RUM for consideration. I used my .338RUM to apply a dirt nap to a 40" Oryx last year.

 

[stinkystomper]

well you asked lol. not to be rude but straight to the point.

stick your leupold scoped rifle in a vice. zoom into maximum power. hopefully you have a wall 50 to 100 yards away. look through the scope and have someone mark a spot on the wall where the crosshair is. Put a spent round in the chamber. Dry fire your rifle on this spent round. now look back through your scope and have someone put a mark on where the crosshair is now looking. If you have a high magnification scope around 32 power you will see that at 100 yards the leupold will move between 1/8" and 1/4". swarovski will move more. Bushnell is less, and the best are zeiss and nightforce.

Now that you have the facts move to what they mean. Long story short is the mechanical structure of the scope sucks. This means absolute return to zero is significantly less than zeiss and nightforce. When you have shot thousands of times at 1000 yard matches you start cursing leupold and the likes. They don't return to zero consistently and never will. Sure they return to zero several times but the more you crank those turrets and the more you recoil that scope the more they will move.

Test #2 go to long range shooting sites and see what scopes they use. #1 and most commonly used is nightforce. occasionally you see zeiss but if you mention leupold you will be laughed out of those forums. Reason beings is that its common sense that leupold is incapable of long range consistent shooting.

Sure your occasional weekend warrior hits an animal at 700 or 800 yards and is then sold on it but how repeatable is that. If you could spend just 5 minutes with cookie2 on here he would personally tell you how many times I have killed coyotes over 800 yards with 1 shot from my sako trg 42 in 338 lapua mag with a nightforce nxs 5.5-22 x56 scope on it.

To save face and not piss anyone off on here i will stop. If you are an occasional hunter and don't know a whole lot about your scope and setup and want to sling bullets past 700 yards and think youve got a good setup then go right ahead. However if you want to know without a doubt where every single round is going to go for the next 5 years and 20,000 shots later get a nightforce. if you cant afford that buy a zeiss and check the zero once every two years. You will be dern close to nightforce but not quite there. I would say zeiss is on par with horus and US optics as far as reliability. However one small step over nightforce is schmidt and bender PMII but those guys are the most expensive scopes period. I only have one of those and really can't tell much of a difference in it over my nightforce other than clarity.

Just my two cents.

 

[mozey]

Just my own personal choice, but for $1500, I'd get T3 Lite in 300WSM and then put all the rest of the money into the best scope I could get for the money. I haven't had the chance to use that round on a oryx yet, but have used it to take the wind out of couple barbarys...

 

[1FastGambler]

Stinky, don't go gettin' a big head now, but your right about Leupold's not returning to zero if you dial them a bunch. However I think you're off topic a little bit, but thanks for the education on 600 yd + shooting.

I grew up with Leupold scopes and have grown to like them. If you aren't dialing in the turrets on a Leupold they are a great scope. I think I mentioned that in my original post.

Keep in mind that the OP said he had a budget for this rifle of $1500.00. That leaves all of the high end scopes out, so that's why my take on it was to get the Tikka T3 in any of the calibers i mentioned and with a Leupold VX3 4.5-14x50 w/B&C reticle and he will have an Oryx killin' machine that's well within his budget.

Your Sako rifle pkg is "just slightly" outside a $1500.00 budget!!

 

[stinkystomper]

1FG
u said u grew up on leupolds and have grown to like them. well thats the part that relly pisses me off. i to grew up on leupold and bushnell. i can remember buying leupold back in the mid 80's and bushnell for cheap. they didnt dent ur wallet at all and were the best scopes ever. i was a kid but i remember checking my scopes n always working the dials. always stayed zeroed and moved where u told them. now you can spen a grand on a leupold and they go roughly where u tell them to and need rezeroing every year. why did they mess with the best. they used to be the best. now they tell u if u want a scope almost as good as the old days it isnt $50 its $1500! damn! leupold can kiss my u know what. for that price im buyin american made nightforce and leupold can take their name and stuff it. i hate it when someone sacrafices quality because they built a name. i dont know who took over decision making at leupold but the guys making the decisions now are worried about one thing only n thats a bottom line. well they will eventually run their name into the ground. just sucks cuz leupold was the best and their name was the gold standard. sorry to rAnt but that just sucks. so much for the good ol days huh.

 

[hunting1]

Things I learned on the internet, elk do not die to anything that does not have magnum after it, the 30-06 is no longer an adequate round and now I have to throw away all my Leupolds.

Good luck on your hunts and get the caliber that enables you to hit what you are shooting at. If you can handle the recoil the 300's are great and 338 even better, but if shooting price and recoil are an issue I say get a 30-06/7MM and one of those junk Leupolds.

 

[ToneafterBone]

Personally i do all my killing with a 7mm winchester cant beat it knocked everything i ever shot with in nothing more then two shots and have reached out over 1000 yards to say hello to an antelope. CANT BEAT IT JOIN IT...

 

[RATHERBEHUNTING]

>Things I learned on the internet,
>elk do not die to
>anything that does not have
>magnum after it, the 30-06
>is no longer an adequate
>round and now I have
>to throw away all my
>Leupolds.
>
> Good luck on your hunts
>and get the caliber that
>enables you to hit what
>you are shooting at. If
>you can handle the recoil
>the 300's are great and
>338 even better, but if
>shooting price and recoil are
>an issue I say get
>a 30-06/7MM and one of
>those junk Leupolds.

+1 Shot placement will always be more important than caliber. You can get a good used Remington 700 for under 500, and a decent optic for about that, and use the rest of the money for trigger time. Remember that you can always modify your rifle to shoot better with improved barrels and triggers,but a scope is very limited to what you can do to it after it's yours.

No proof exists that any elk were killed before the introduction of belted magnums

 

[NMHUNTER]

Howa makes some good rifles. we have 3 of them two 243s and a 270. they are tack drivers very well balaced, and for around 500 bucks brand new i dont know if you can beat them. a 270 or 308 topped with a crappy leupold and you will be set.

 

[sigboy66]

300 Win mag will work just fine on an oryx. Not a big fan of the 300 RUM. For some reason I just find the 300 RUM's recoil to be excessive and I shoot a 416 remington magnum with no troubles.

 

[rcutchen]

Shot my oryx with a 350 Remington Magnum. No one's ever heard of them. Big bullet,2650fps, big whomp!
However, agree with shot placement statements above.

 

[NMboltripper]

LAST EDITED ON May-07-12 AT 10:31AM (MST)[p]Tikka 300 win mag....perfect gun, perfect caliber for both!!!!

http://www.eurooptic.com/pdf/tikka-t3-lite-stainless-rifle.pdf

...all that for $678.00

 

[bowelk]

I have shot two Oryx with 300 RUM and it droped both in there tracks. I love my 300 RUM, its my go to rifle for sure. I am a firm believer in a well placed shot with quality ammo. The reason I like the 300 ultra mag so much is becuase its so damm flat. By the way I shoot a model 700 sps and the recoil is not bad at all. I have a friend that has a Tikka t-3 and I thought it was a P.O.S. when I first held it and then I shot it. That is the most impressed I have been with an out of the box rifle as far as accuracy goes. Back to the 300RUM, I have shot Antelope, Deer, Elk, and Oryx with it. I can load it with Barnes TrippleX from 130 to 180 grain. Very flat and versitile rifle in my opinion.

 

[NMHUNTER]

+1 on the barnes bullets, but they can foul your barrel pretty bad causing it to lose its accuracy. if you reload your own you can moly coat them which will help reduce the fouling.

 

[dang302]

300 win mag should be the only thing even mentioned for a "1 gun for everything out west" argument.

Is it more than you need. Yes, overkill?...No

I have shot 2 oryx with the 300 win mag and results were great. They don't fall until you hit them in the spine or they bleed out. They are commonly hit in the spine however because their spine is low in the shoulder area and most hunters under diress hit higher than they want to. (spine is about 1/3 down from withers)

Barbary can be pretty tough too, although no comparison to an oryx. They have small vitals though.

I watched my buddies wife shoot an oryx broadside at 200 yards with a 270, and dropped it in its tracks (spine shot). Will a 270 work?...of course. If I was taking my wife or a 12 year old hunting then I would have them carry my 270...great caliber, but the 300 is just better. Same ballistics with 50 more grains of bullet weight.

Final though. I Shot a large cow oryx with my 358 STA. (225 grain bullet going 3000 FPS) I shot her 3 times at 300 yards all shots were fatal (both lungs) from different angles. On the 3rd shot she finally fell...you guessed it. Spinal shot.

I think the 300 win mag is the new 30-06.

 

[dang302]

Oops!...correction, I have shot 3 oryx with the 300 win mag. Wow its getting bad when you can't even remember how many oryx you have shot with which caliber!

I did state that results were good...and they were, but I did shoot 2 of those a second time. (probably wasn't needed, but just the same). I keep shooting until its down. Just evidence why I think you need that much gun (or should use that much if its available)

Oh and I hate practicing with my 300 wim mag, cause it hurts to shoot, especially prone. Don't let anyone say they(any 300 mag) don't kick.

 

[delmag1942]

I have only shot one 40" cow, but with my .338RUM, she was dead before she hit the ground @ 475 yards.

 

[NMboltripper]

.338 Lapua Magnum...point, shoot, DROP!

Always!

 

[delmag1942]

SS....

Which of the reticles on the NF scopes are for hunting IYO? Looks like a lot of them are way to clutterd for me.

 

[IChaseCoues]

There's a lot of Long Range stuff flying around here, but I dont see where he even mentioned long range. I agree that especially in the LR game a great optic is important, but the guy might be best served by a scope that doesnt need to be dialed. We need more info before going on a rant that he needs a Nightforce and all Leupolds are junk.

I'd say go to a store and look at a Rem, Tikka, Winchester, Savage and maybe a Howa all in 300 Win. Mag and go from there. Once you pick the rifle you want, spend the rest of your budget on the best optics you can afford. Something around a 4-16x50 should be enough magnification for most hunts.

Then again If Stinky is right and you want to make hits consistantly past 700 yds you might want to spend the $1500 on a Nightforce and save up for a rifle like nmblotrippers!

 

[stinkystomper]

Looks like nmboltripper has a pic with an oryx and a gun with a nightforce scope on top. If that a 338 lapua someones in trouble. I found that the 250 grain scenar hollowpoint with the neck tension tightened up 3/1000 of an inch produces consistent 5 shot sub 1/4" MOA groups. my groups at 700 yards looks like your typical 100 yard group. To add to it the bc is .678 and the 250 grain bullet is traveling at 2995 fps in my sako trg 42.

Delmag, my trg 42 is topped with the nightforce mil dot reticle. I only use the reticle to estimate range on big stuff. The rest of the time i just dial in my target and shoot. I used about 300 rounds to build my range card one shot at a time in 25 yard increments all the way to 1200 yards. Its a pretty scary gun. Screw the can on to the front of it and the accuracy doubles for some reason. NNBOLTRIPPER hit the nail on the head when he said boom and it drops. I can push a 500 grain bullet at 2650 fps out of my 460 wby mag and animals don't drop as hard as they do when hit with my 338 lapua shooting those 250 grain scenar bullets. That rifle is simply bad arse. I've since sold my 338 rum, 300 rum, 338/378 wby, 460 steyr, 7mm mag and have only that and my blaser R8 with the 300 wby barrel and the 375 H&H barrel. and of course my wife has her tikka t3 lite in 300 wsm which smashes everything she shoots.