Ideal Wolf Hunting Rifle

i'm having my winny 70 (7WSM) rebarreled in 7SAUM for my long range hunting /precision rifle, but i also plan to keep this in the truck in case i get the urge to take a long shot....

The 6.5 or the 6.8 would be good choices....

Outlaw6.0 said:

Actually, I've been seeing somewhat opposite listings. Wolf makes cheap Grendel ammo, Hornady now offers ammo & brass, Lapua is offering Grendel brass & of course the Alexander Arms offerings. The Grendel is here to stay if I had to bet on it. 6.5mm bullets are everywhere, not so for the lighter 277's. IIRC Rem & SSA make SPC brass but cannot recall others...

Just food for thought.gun)I know a few of the Grendel items are very new & most probably don't know they are out there.

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I think both rounds are really starting to catch on. For 6.8 ammo- Barrett, BVAC, Corbon, Double Tap, Remington, Hornandy, RAM, SSA, Wilson Combat, Hunting Shack, and a few others are offering loaded rounds. Most of them are using Hornandy, Rem, and SSA brass. But the bullet selection from each is growing pretty quick.

I did some looking on the Grendel and was happy to see how many manufacturers are now making stuff for it, especially since I wanted to build a Grendel in the first place. About 10 times more stuff is around now than last time I looked. So much so that I'm going to rebarrel my last 5.56 AR in Grendel as soon as I can get a barrel and BCG. Tree mutts beware!

Hi fellow shooters, maybe a side point to some, but I have a hard time skinning and tanning multi-part wolves. They don't stretch too well either and our fur buyers only pay $500.00 to $1,000.00 for whole wolves, not holed wolves. Keep the terminal ballistics in mind and try to avoid complete penetration, ( read: no exit holes ) My picks here in Alaska are the .204 and .243 for close and long range...... just match your bullet and do your part, either of them is more than capable of quick clean kills. Enjoy the hunt, keep your powder dry.gun)

Chugiakbilly said:

Hi fellow shooters, maybe a side point to some, but I have a hard time skinning and tanning multi-part wolves. They don't stretch too well either and our fur buyers only pay $500.00 to $1,000.00 for whole wolves, not holed wolves. Keep the terminal ballistics in mind and try to avoid complete penetration, ( read: no exit holes ) My picks here in Alaska are the .204 and .243 for close and long range...... just match your bullet and do your part, either of them is more than capable of quick clean kills. Enjoy the hunt, keep your powder dry.gun)

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My thoughts exactly,I use a 6x45 AR as my main Yote rifle.I think with the right bullet,damage to a wolf would not be too severe.

guess I kinda went the other way with that..... currently working on a lighter weight 7 rum speecifically for a fall wolf hunt.

Wish alaska had a varmint classification....

That would be better for ALL the other critters comfisherman, management is a hard learned game of balance/counter balance. Someone has to take that 'first step' but boy the wait for that to happen can be a long one. We don't have the thinking men still at the helm here anymore and it seems like we are going around in circles when it comes to true game management. We can help on the local level and talk to the elders to get a grasp but times are changing. Have a good hunt. Billygun)

The first wolf I killed in Idaho I howled in to 80 yards and dropped it with my 22.250. Thats when wolves were laying around like ferrell dogs, alot has changed since then. In my part of the country the Feds have shot at them from helicopters, the government hunters have been using calls and traps for years now. What I'm seeing is the wolf is alot smarter animal than it was 4 years ago. I will only hunt with my custom Rem 7MM topped with a nightforce 5x 22- NXS. In Feb. I called a big Alfa male, the closet I could get was 620 yards, he was sitting in the sage facing me, the angle was extreme uphill. I shot and hit him, he bled alot at first and I ended up tracking him for 2 more days. I finally pulled off he was climbing straight uphill and not bleeding much anymore. 5 days later I was in the same drainage and cut a big set of wolf tracks I set up in the timber and called for about 35 minutes, I slowly turned my head and 20 yards behind me the wolf was standing there stairing at me. After about 30 seconds I slowly raised my 7mm and shot him in the chest. On inspection of the wolf he had a hole in his chest and a big hole in his left femor from my first shot. I hope not to miss the the first long shot next time because I will be using my new G7 range finder, and I really don't care how big the hole is in the hide I'm not hunting wolves to sell the hide. Long or short range I will be using my 7MM. Good luck and hunt hard.

243 wssm, bolt action
the AR-10 in the .308 platform will get the job done, AR-10 is also available in a 6.8 with plenty of punch, good 3-400yd round
you may also look at 6.5 x 47 lapua bolt action

I too want a wolf hide on my wall. They are a thin skinned animal like a mountain lion or leopard...when I shot those animals with a 7mm...it sure as hell killed them but truth is a 6mm especially with a high BC 115gr DTAC or Berger is more than enough.
For accuracy you have probably heard of Robert Whitley & 6mmAR in Precision Shooting Mag. I have his 20 Practical upper for coyotes...I will probably opt for the 6 Turbo for my
horseback wolf hunt. I am greedy also and try for multiples of coyotes coming in to the remote caller, so have gone to a shotgun in the lap and an AR on the bipod. The leads on crossing coyotes are long at just a few hundred yards...so I don't know how realistic multiples will be on wolves that hang up beyond a quarter mile for the first shot and then are going away fast. Every 20 yards he adds is another hold and it is happening fast...oh, but the stuff of dream. If you are successful let us see the pictures by writing a story for Len.
Here is the link for Robert Whitley> 6mmAR Turbo
It is amazing how big thick furred animals look until you skin them and see how small the kill zone really is.
Good luck from Texas,
CR

CRaTxn said:

I too want a wolf hide on my wall. They are a thin skinned animal like a mountain lion or leopard...when I shot those animals with a 7mm...it sure as hell killed them but truth is a 6mm especially with a high BC 115gr DTAC or Berger is more than enough.
For accuracy you have probably heard of Robert Whitley & 6mmAR in Precision Shooting Mag. I have his 20 Practical upper for coyotes...I will probably opt for the 6 Turbo for my
horseback wolf hunt. I am greedy also and try for multiples of coyotes coming in to the remote caller, so have gone to a shotgun in the lap and an AR on the bipod. The leads on crossing coyotes are long at just a few hundred yards...so I don't know how realistic multiples will be on wolves that hang up beyond a quarter mile for the first shot and then are going away fast. Every 20 yards he adds is another hold and it is happening fast...oh, but the stuff of dream. If you are successful let us see the pictures by writing a story for Len.
Here is the link for Robert Whitley> 6mmAR Turbo
It is amazing how big thick furred animals look until you skin them and see how small the kill zone really is.
Good luck from Texas,
CR

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me and this guy are on the same page. load the 105,115 berger hunting bullets is bad news for anything smaller than elk and you can have 15-25 at the touch of the trigger...priceless. you can also get them to make you one left hand!

My dedicated wolf rifle is a Tikka M695 chambered in .30-06. I use 168gr Berger VLD's with 61.6 gr of Hodgdon Superformance powder at approx 2745 fps muzzle vel. I tend to agree with those mentioning the lighter calibres and bullet weights (.243/6.5mm and 90-115gr etc) with regard to hide quality, if I was made of money I would likely buy and use a .25-06 for the job. Regardless our wolves here in Alberta are big and healthy - so I don't feel my choice is overkill.

243 win, and 6.5x284 with long range scopes, Wolves are getting smarter here in Idaho every year, long range will help fill the tags and help the numbers, too bad it wont hardly matter now---------------

For the guys who have put them on the ground, what does it take for a quick clean kill?

Haven't shot one yet, but have seen them from the boat and they are big, figuring they are a fair bit tougher than a coyote and sometimes those critters really need some hp to put them down.

My hunt will likely be different circumstances than the Idaho guys, as the animals I'm likely to hunt will probably never have been shot at.

Probably park a boat in a bay with a raft and hunt for a week or three. Whack as many as I can so taking everything from a 223wssm to a 375.

Seems like a fair bit of the interior guys are carrying 308's. Figure a 6mm would be ideal.