6.5x284 for pg

[Nuclear Worker]

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

 

[AZDAVE]

My personal feelings are 6.5's of any kind are a good deer and antelope round here in the states, in Africa a blesbok and smaller round. Will it get the job done if everything is perfect on sable and kudu yes but if you are off even a bit or the animal moves as you are pulling the trigger.

I have taken a 6.5 creed and grendel on a safari and the largest game shot was a impala.

I would speak with your PH in depth and get their opinion.

I like your wife's choice on PG rifle better.

 

[Bandera]

It seems most of the PH’s I have talked to do not like the 6.5 for anything other than small PG and small cats.
Most recommend a 30 Cal.
I used my 375 Ruger loaded with 300 grain Barnes TSX @2550 fps for Zebra, Black Wildebeest, Giraffe and Buffalo.
Put a 2-10 power scope on it like the Leupold VX5. I chose the model with CDS and Fire Dot. The CDS made dialing up to the yardage very easy.
@Philip Glass has a very good video on scopes.

 

[C.W. Richter]

It'll do. The 6.5-284 is one of the original 264 wildcat magnums (couple hundred fps less than the 6.5 WSM, RSAUM, etc. but a much better choice than the needmore.) I used mine to great effect on all PG but wildebeest, zebra, eland and giraffe (in which cases I upgraded to .338 or .375. I did take an orxy with it too, but it went a ways and after that I upgraded to .300 and .338 on future trips). I'd suggest (for Africa) a bullet with less emphasis on BC and more on terminal performance (like the 140 Nos PT Swift A-Frame or the 160 Woodleigh PSP.) Those have served me well in Africa. The 130 Scirocco didn't fare all that well, either (in 6.5 on PG. They're 130 gr-going faster with less bullet.) I'd suggest "upgrading" to Swift A-Frames in lieu of the Scirocco, and upping to 200+/- gr in '06 wouldn't be a bad idea at all! Many PHs use 220 gr slugs in 30-06 (precisely what they handed my son for a cull hunt in Namibia. Heavy-for-caliber results in best penetration and energy dump.) We were using 200 gr NPs in 300 WM. These animals are very toughly constructed to withstand predator attacks, and as mentioned above, they are NOT deer at home. Even a Springbok that weighs 1/2 that of a typical deer, is a tougher target, as you will soon find out...I smell a new book: "Let your Wife Shoot More Gun than You!" The 6.5 is lighter recoiling, flatter shooting, but has less energy at the muzzle than the 06 (and nearly same SD for penetration). GL!

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

 

[Art Lambart II]

I'd bring your 375 H&H and the wife's 30-06 and leave the 6.5x284 at home. My father has a love affair with the 6.5x55; it's his favorite hunting round. He shoots a 140-grain NP at 2730 FPS into 1/2" groups all day long. He has taken a 6.5x55 to Africa twice and only used it on PG 300 pounds or less, preferring a 35 Whelen for everything else, except Eland, for which he used his 404 J.

If you have your heart set on using your 6.5 in Africa, I would recommend using a bonded bullet and leave that soft ELDX for deer here in the US.

 

[Sailfish9453]

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

 

[Sailfish9453]

Went to SA in 2023 and my son used a 6.5PRC that he built.
He used Hammer 125gr. Bullets.
Shooting a Sable, Black Wildebeast etc.
Just use good Bullets (Hammer, Barnes TSX)and you'll have no problem.

 

[Muskox]

Good quality bullets hitting in the right spot kill game.

Rifle cartridges do not kill game, shot placement does.

Bullet engineers make their living on this exact standard.

Anyone who doesn't believe that is lying to themselves.

A problem we have in the military right now is the 5.56/223 rounds acting like an ice pick on ISIS members. Same problem we had in Vietnam.

When anything is shot in the correct spot with a good expanding bullet it will die.

The 6.5x284 is as much of an eland, zebra, kudu or oryx cartridge as it is a moose cartridge here in Europe.

Shot placement kills.

 

[Hogpatrol]

The zebra in my avatar fell to a 6.5-284 with 130 Berger VLD hunting bullet. IIRC it was 296 yards, one shot, no tracking. I lost track of how many PG culls I killed from 200 to 700 yards with that bullet in that cartridge,the 6.5-47 Lapua and a 26 Nosler. As @Muskox posted, shot placement kills.

 

[Jhsmith]

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

Your wife is a genius!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

@Nuclear Worker
For you 6.5-284 I would forget the ELDX.
I personally would go to a nice bonded 160grainer. Those ELDX at the velocity you will be getting I wouldn't trust, they are just to explosive in my book.
That just my opinion.
Bob

 

[Happy Myles]

As a whim, I took a 6.5x284 on my last safari to Tanzania a few years ago and took a dozen head of plains game with a dozen shots using it. Plus four Cape buffalo with four more rounds using my 416 Rigby. I am 87 years old and must confess if I was going again would go back to using my 300 Win Mag. I took Kudu and Sable on the large end of plains game with the 6.5. Kindest regards

 

[Nuclear Worker]

@Nuclear Worker
For you 6.5-284 I would forget the ELDX.
I personally would go to a nice bonded 160grainer. Those ELDX at the velocity you will be getting I wouldn't trust, they are just to explosive in my book.
That just my opinion.
Bob

Agreed I will be working up a load with a different bullet. I used the ELDX on my sheep hunt. Also used them for Elk. Took a bull at 100 and at 385 yards. Worked perfectly but still believe there’s a better choice. Will be working up a load with some bonded bullets. I have a Elk hunt coming up in Wyoming so I’ll have a chance to see the performance on game if the good lord is willing.

 

[Happy Myles]

Oh, I used Swift A Frame, 160s as I recall

 

[K-man]

I have that exact configuration in my r8 and it's an absolute tack driver. I killed a whitetail doe at 450 yards just to see how it performed. I wouldn't take it to Africa if any heavy plains game are on the menu, the .30-06 is a much better choice.

 

[Nuclear Worker]

Oh, I used Swift A Frame, 160s as I recall

That is one of the bullets I’m going to try.

 

[Nuclear Worker]

That is one of the bullets I’m going to try.

Did you load them or buy ready ammunition? If you loaded them can I have the recipe?

 

[Robmill70]

Hopefully going to Africa next year. Planning on using my 6.5x284 with 143ELDX for plains game. Kudu, Sable, Warthog etc. My wife will be using her 30.06 with 180 grain Scirocco ll. Planning on using my Ruger 375 for Buffalo. Your thoughts please.

I used my 6.5x55 on a bunch of PG's to include a sable..... no issues

 

[Csnakes03]

I'm heading back to South Africa at the beginning of May and am taking a rifle with me this time. My two choices were a 30/06 or 6.5PRC. My PH was all about me bringing the 6.5prc, and said I'd be fine on anything smaller than an eland. Most of what I want to try and hunt this time around will be smaller antelope apart from Red Hartebeest, so I'm sure his suggestion will be just fine. Hope his confidence helps with your decision making.

 

[shark_za]

Caliber is fine, bullet choice is not.
Load the A Frame or something tougher and there is no reason it wont take anything on your list with a good shot .