Bighorn tag, which gun

[Albany Mountain]

take the lightest, most accurate rifle of your choices.

 

[Clancy]

Just pick your favorite rifle (assuming it shoots well) and out some money in a more reliable optic.

 

[wboggs]

That 6.5 300 sounds like the ticket to me. The B.C. of the .264 bullet and the pop of a 300 mag. Whats there to argue about. The only elk I ever killed was with a .308 in a TC encore pistol. Only thing I could shoot at the time due to a car wreck. I would have felt better with one of my white trash weatherbys. Doug

Sorry, the 6.5-300 doesn't have the pop of a 300mag by any measure you can think of.

 

[Doug Casner]

I didnt mean muzzle energy . I meant the case under the bullet. Scuze my wording. Doug

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

You could get dressed in your expected hunting garb, wait til your wife is out of the house for awhile. Carry each rifle w sling around the house for a good bit. You will probably get it narrowed down pretty quick. Good shooting!

 

[Doug Casner]

My brothers got a 6.5 prc christensen. Hasnt shot anything with it just got it. Short and fat. Oughta shoot. Doug

 

[wboggs]

I didnt mean muzzle energy . I meant the case under the bullet. Scuze my wording. Doug

Sorry, I was't being serious. I've been on 15 sheep hunts and my favorite rifle was a med weight .300 mag of some version with a 200gr bullet at 2900-3000. Good long, short, timber, open country. Especially good if you saw a bear, elk, moose or goat.
Best wishes

 

[Doug Casner]

Ole Jack hunted them with a .270 . Killed a grand slam. Dont be sorry. Ive got 2 300 mags weatherby and win. they are mean. I s your first name Wade? Doug

 

[DogBuster]

Drew a Colorado bighorn tag in a rather nasty unit. Would compare to the Frank Church in Idaho. Must be partially insane, but looking forward to the trip. Thought about buying another gun as a reward but decided otherwise. Choices are as follows:
1. 25-06 in a Sendero with good 4-16 Vortex scope.
2. 6.5 Creedmoor in Kimber

The lightest one…the one you shoot the best

My Utah Desert Ram…Tikka 6.5x55 @ 190 yards

 

[long40shot]

25/06

 

[GotRDid]

Maybe try a different bullet in the 300wsm?
Rumor has it a 185gr juggernaut is devastating on game.

The Berger 185 Elite Hunters are equally effective!

 

[ISS]

Lightest weight. I packed an OM70 in 300H&H around the Frank Church a week on a sheep hunt. That sucker started out a 9.5lbs in camp and weighed 20lbs by Day Three, and I was in my late thirties and fit.

 

[1911nut]

Drew a Colorado bighorn tag in a rather nasty unit. Would compare to the Frank Church in Idaho. Must be partially insane, but looking forward to the trip. Thought about buying another gun as a reward but decided otherwise. Choices are as follows:
1. 25-06 in a Sendero with good 4-16 Vortex scope.
2. 6.5 Creedmoor in Kimber

Which unit is your tag for?

 

[Lefty2506]

Originally I hadn't given the Creedmoor any thought until I was visiting with the outfitter's wife. She said that she and their daughter had both used a Creedmoor on their own sheep hunts. My research tells me that the Creedmoor is good to 6-700 yards which is further than I want to shoot short of a pure long range shooting gun. I need to get some more trigger time behind several of those guns. Weight isn't everything but I'm not going to carry an extra 4 or 5 lbs if I have a lighter weight gun that will get the job done. Easiest solution is to get the 7PRC shooting well and call it good. I have some work to do before I say yes or no to several of these choices. The advice that I am getting from the outfitters that I have talked to is to take the one you are most confident in using.

There's nothing wrong with a 6.5 CM, but the only reason its so popular is because of the huge marketing campaign behind it. Is it better than a good 308? Kinda. Less recoil, a LITTLE bit better ballistics but doesn't hit as hard when it gets there. It's less recoil, and the cartridge specs are based on today's manufacturing capabilities and tolerances rather than what was possible to mass produce in the 1950s. The practical advantage of those benifits, however, is pretty minimal IMHO. Personally, I wouldn't take a 6.5 CM on a hunt where I wanted to be able to shoot big game past 300-400 yds. It's not that it can't do the job, its that there are so many better options including most of your list.

How good are you at judging distance between 300 and 500 yds? How good are you at judging wind at those same distances while in the mountains? Those answers would narrow my choices down cartridge wise. If you shoot in those conditions regularly with your 6.5CM, then you're probably fine taking it on the hunt but if 500yds is a possible requirement, I'd want something that shot flatter and bucked the wind more which would include options 3, 4, and 5. Which ever one of those rifles was the most comfortable to carry while still giving me really good first shot accuracy at 500 yds would be my choice. After that, I'd take the Leopold off, put spend a small fortune on a nightforce, mortgage my house for a couple hundreds rounds of ammo, and spend as much time shooting 300 to 500 yds in the wind as I could. Seriously though, if the 6.5 PRC is the choice, I wouldn't think twice about putting my own glass on it for the trip, and I'd absolutely get as much trigger time with it as I could before the trip. Figure out what loads are available that would work well out to 500yds, figure out which ones of those shoot well out of your rifle, then go shoot a bunch of it in field conditions.

 

[tstowater]

Talked to one of the tag holders from last year yesterday. He had a Gunwerks in a 7mm PRC. He said to hope for less, but be comfortable with a 500 yard shot and practice to 600. He drew Wyoming and Colorado in successive years. In Wyoming, he had the points to get him the tag, but Colorado was a random draw.