Mr. Neimann,

I'm from SD also, Rapid City specifically. If you ask 50 people this same question you'll get 50 different answers. Each person has their round of choice. Mine is a Remington 270 for deer.

It's difficult to find a round that will cover that wide a range of game animal. My first thought is 243. My buddy is a firearms dealer, amatuer gunsmith and lifelong hunter. He swares by the 25-06. Based on my friends recommendation I would research the ballistics and then try to find someone locally with a 25-06 and take it to the range for some test shots.

243, 25-06 & 257 are all good choices. They might tear the pelt a little bit on a coyote but with good ammo and a well place bullet will kill deer & antelope dead. I'm sure Mr Don Fischer has a few more choices too.

I use .270 Win for everything Antelope to Elk and have been plenty happy with it over the years.

If you're talking a gun for Deer, Coyotes, and Antelope I'd say a .25-06 is an excellent choice. If I only hunted deer and pronghorn my .25-06 would be my primary caliber. Since I hunt elk as well I decide to adopt the .270 Win a long time ago.

cniemann

The 25-06 is a great choice for what you are looking in another rifle. I have a 25wssm, which is on par with the 06 as far as ballistics go, that I now load with 117gr Sierra Gamekings HP/SP for deer. While I haven't shot a coyote with that round, it works great on deer. It may result in too much pelt damage for coyotes. I have loaded the 115gr Berger VLD bullets for deer hunting in the past, just not as satisfied with the results on deer. The only bullet I recovered did mushroom, but it didn't produce a decent entrance hole to create a blood trail. While I never lost a deer, the 115's didn't perform the same as the Gamekings. Where I hunt, it can be so thick you have to crawl to navigate your way through the thickets when tracking. So I like to have more blood to track if I didn't see the deer go down. You may like to load the Bergers b/c they didn't create much damage on the coyotes I shot with them. The Bergers zipped through the coyotes I shot in the chest, but the couple I either shot in the shoulder or straight on-the bullets never came out. Just my experiences.

Hunting in SD with wide open spaces, you would probably do well to load the Bergers. Both bullets performed out to 400 yds. Hope this helps.

25-06 or 7mm-08 are perfect for deer, goats or coyotes.

After reading the title of this thread I can honsestly tell anyone who's asking that there is no such thing as the "Best" when it comes to guns and calibers. What one hunter likes, another may not like. I believe that there is an appropriate range of calibers and cartridges that are effective on various types of game. But I would not go so far as to say that any particular one is the "best". Just my thoughts and experience.

25-06 or .270 sound like good choices for the kinf of hunting you want to do.

I would go with a 243, lower grain for coyotes so you don't destroy the pelts and the higher grain like the 90 or 100 for the deer and antelope. If you get into reloading you can soup up the round to 107 and 115 grains. There is a lot of pro's and con's out there from the guys that use a 223 to hunt deer, I don't agree with it but to each his own. That is a perfect round for coyotes and with a lot of practice/shot placement you could take deer and antelope with it as well.

The 25-06 is a great gun no doubts. But have you looked at the 257 weatherby. Fast flat shooting and powerful. In the accumark guns with a weatherby break on the end of the barrel it kicks like a 223. Just my 2 cents.

What he said, 25 cal of your choosing, though is your careful with bullet choice even a 30 will do what you like.