Home› Main Category› Hunting
JerryBobCo
Senior MemberPosts: 7,930 Senior Member
Using handloads for hunting dangerous game
JerryBobCo
Senior MemberPosts: 7,930 Senior Member
Byron Dalrymple is an author I used to read and enjoy. He wrote a number of hunting books, as well as articles and stories in periodicals such as Field and Stream. From what I could tell, he wrote primarily from experience, as much of his writing was based on his own hunts.
One of the comments I remember reading was that he never used handloads when hunting dangerous game. He didn't say why, just that he always used factory ammo.
Maybe if was spending thousands on a hunt of a lifetime, spending the extra bucks on premium factory ammo wouldn't seem like much. I have had one experience, though, in which a handload failed me. When I extracted a loaded cartridge from the chamber, the bullet pulled out and cost me a very makeable shot at an antelope. That's the only problem I've ever had with my own handloads while hunting, though. Now, before I head out, I cycle every round I will be taking from the magazine and through the chamber, and make sure it feeds and extracts cleanly.
I don't expect I'll ever hunt dangerous game, although any hunt in the rockies provides the possibility that one might encounter a bear, lion, moose or whatever that could be considered dangerous.
Anyway, what do you think about the notion of only using factory ammo if hunting dangerous game?
One of the comments I remember reading was that he never used handloads when hunting dangerous game. He didn't say why, just that he always used factory ammo.
Maybe if was spending thousands on a hunt of a lifetime, spending the extra bucks on premium factory ammo wouldn't seem like much. I have had one experience, though, in which a handload failed me. When I extracted a loaded cartridge from the chamber, the bullet pulled out and cost me a very makeable shot at an antelope. That's the only problem I've ever had with my own handloads while hunting, though. Now, before I head out, I cycle every round I will be taking from the magazine and through the chamber, and make sure it feeds and extracts cleanly.
I don't expect I'll ever hunt dangerous game, although any hunt in the rockies provides the possibility that one might encounter a bear, lion, moose or whatever that could be considered dangerous.
Anyway, what do you think about the notion of only using factory ammo if hunting dangerous game?
Jerry
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Replies
They'd be built meticulously, sealed, and function tested through the action.
I've had more factory ammo fail to chamber than I have my handloads that I carefully crafted for a particular rifle. Hornady had an entire run of 6.5 Grendel Brass (and ammo loaded with it) that was just a touch too long, but they figured it was close enough.... not in my rifle. They paid to get all 5 boxes back. and replaced them.
I do however believe a careful individual could equal or better most factory ammunition offered.
Kind ms of the icing on the cake.
I put special care into loading my hunting rounds, and test them quite a bit. So, I would stick with that for dangerous game, I think...if I had any desire to hunt dangerous game.
Darned old age.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Regardless of how much money I had, I get a bit of personal satisfaction from harvesting game with ammunition that I loaded and especially with bullets that I cast. It has nothing to do with money.
^THIS^
The actual shot is anti-climactic to me. I enjoy the preparation, the shot, and processing the meat as a wholly satisfying procedure. If I lived where spot and stalk was practical, I'm sure I would put more emphasis on the shooting part. But, the trick for me is to get them to walk into a kill zone that I'm allowed to hunt, where making the shot is basically a slam dunk. That's not to say I can't screw up an easy shot, but making a 100 yard shot on anything bigger than a squirrel, with a modern scoped rifle is not a major achievement. Finding the right place to set up is much more important.
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO
Once I had one that I seated the bullet out too far and the lands grabbed the bullet and extricated it from the case and spilled powder into the magazine and the bullet was stuck in the barrel, which caused a missed opportunity at a deer for a friend (I think he may still be pissed about that), but that was part of my learning curve. Now, I never seat a bullet that close to the lands and when I work up a load, I check it out well before I try to use it. I run a few the rounds I'll be hunting with through the chamber once.
Saturday I had a couple of 7 mag rounds that didn't go off, but I'm quite sure that is the rifle's problem. Either the firing pin spring is weak, or the inside of the bolt is crudded up with gunk. I haven't done so yet, but I will spray the bolt inside flooding the firing pin channel with Brake Cleaner and lubing it. If I have to I'll remove it and clean it well. I never had this happen before on that rifle, but I think that's because these loads have a CCI Primer which I believe is harder than the Winchester primers I was using. When I pulled the trigger and it didn't fire, I looked at the primer and the dent from the firing pin was not very deep at all. I tried these two again and they fired fine. I really believe the thing is just gunked up with dried oil and grease plus a little dirt. I'll see what a good cleaning and lubing will do.
But I have faith in my hand loads, more faith than any factory rounds. I'm surprised Wooters would say something like that.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
JAY
............and I am not 100% sure about death............
If I am going to hunt dangerous game, I would prefer to die by malfunction of my own ammo rather than have my death caused by a machine from a foreign country............
Much truth in this.
Which, is the reason I don't read gun magazines anymore.
Apart from that. . .I've seen factory ammo with backwards and sideways primers, backwards bullets, crushed cases, failure to drill flash holes, fired rounds with charges that were obviously light, etc..., so basically my attitude is generally this: I would rather get stomped, bitten, clawed, tusked, or gored for something stupid I did, than for something stupid that someone else did. If you KNOW that you're hunting a creature with that kind of potential for destruction, and you're NOT trying to beat Eley Tenex for quality control. . .well, that's something stupid you've done right there.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Frankly ALL I would care about, factory or handload, is that the ammo is reliable and functions flawlessly, and that means hundreds of that exact round you plan to use, fired in practice. 1-hole accuracy is nice but not needed, not at dangerous game ranges, but function can literally be the difference of life and death. Not just your life either, your guides, trackers, porters, game scouts, innocent locals who may be harmed by a wounded animal down the road.
I think Dalrymple wrote about football also. I think he wrote a novel about a UT player in the 50s or 60s. I guess he could have also written for Field and Stream. I know he was an outdoor writer. Hell I can't remember. All I remember is that book he wrote.
I remember Warren Page though. But Page wrote for Outdoor Life. He was a pioneer in Bench Rest Shooting. He and the guy that created the Models 721,722, 725, and finally the 700 Remington, Mike Walker, helped make Bench Rest shooting what it is.
Oops yep big time back in the day up until damn near when he died Byron Dalrymple wrote for Field and Stream. But I didn't read much of his stuff, because I wasn't a big outdoor reader at the time. I think I was into hot rods back then. I guess that was back in the day before Field and Stream got to be a libtard publication. Says he wrote a lot of books and articles besides Field and stream too. I did a search and he wrote like 5000 articles for Field and Stream alone plus he wrote 28 books. That dude was Busy!
But I remember John Wooters well. I met him at the 1990 Shot Show in Houston. I just can't believe he would say that about hand loads. I guess he didn't have much faith in his own work.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Putting all our bone headed political arguments aside, this is a BRILLIANT statement.
This about sums it up for me too. Well said Tuba, But don't get the big head, you're still wrong about Trump,
:roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2:
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
In a high stakes, high value hunt, you are a butt head if you don't have a dialed in load and have function tested every one in the chamber before heading out in the field. While someone can easily make inferior ammo compared to factory, they should be capable of making stuff that is superior as well.
What happens in the political forum stays in the political forum.:beer:
I have some time proven loads that are reasonably accurate ( Plenty accurate to get the job done with aplomb) and I know they will go bang every time the trigger is pulled. My old .270 load that I worked up right after I started loading and it was my favorite of the 3 or 4 loads I worked up for it I would trust my life with. Not that I'm going to use the .270 for dangerous game, but if that's what I had in hand when attacked by an animal I'd trust it to go bang and at least hit the attacking animal.
Now my 30-06 could well end up a dangerous game rifle and I have a load that I would definitely take to the bank for any game dangerous or not. That is with a 200 grain Sierra Game King over 56 grains of IMR 4831 or 58 grains of Hodgdon 4831 at 2600-2650 FPS. It's a HOSS!
Now for a real dangerous game rifle, my 9.3 x 62mm Mauser with a 270 grain Speer Hot Core Bullet over 59 grains of IMR 4895 at about 2500 FPS MV. I killed one deer with it that literally flattened it like somebody dropped a piano on top of it. Instant Death Ray. I trust all these with my life.
For any Dangerous game gun you're not looking for a load that will print .2 groups, you're looking for something that will group inside 3 inches and flatten what it hits putting it down before it can get to the shooter or hurting agranyone.
I've recently worked up a new load for my 8x57. I used to load a 150 grain bullet over 55 grains of BLC2, but I lost faith in it. I have since graduating up scale with a 175 grain Sierra Pro-Hunter over 54 grains RL-17. I've only shot it at the range so far, and am waiting for the opportunity to use it on game.
But I wouldn't be too worried if something got after me and all I had was that rifle with that bullet and load.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.