Handloaders quest for velocity
- Thread starter Talyn
- Start date
RangerBill
Operator
Great article. Just read that yesterday in the weekly digest.
Regards,
Bill
Regards,
Bill
For big game cartridges, I load for accuracy. For handguns, I load for fun shooting. How fast does a handgun bullet have to fly to punch holes in paper? When I'm carrying a handgun for self-defense, bipedal or mean critter, I'll use Fed HST LE ammo. One box will last a lifetime. If I knew that precise powder charge of Titegroup to get slides to cycle reliably, that's what I'd use. I don't nor do I want to spend a month trying to find it. So I go with minimum Titegroup loads. Minimum loads are less stress on guns and far more fun for kids to shoot. Even adolescents can do serious damage to an ammo can full of 200 grain .45 Auto hand loads if they're loaded for fun and not velocity.
Back to big game cartridges, my 2 .270 Win rifles and my 7MM Rem Mag seem to shoot most accurately when I close in on "max" loads. For instance, my .270 Win rifles will print very tiny groups with 60 grains of H-4831.
We gotta remember that our hunting forefathers did it all with the .45/70 Gov't, then the .30/40 Krag & 7x57, then the .303 British, then the King of North American big game cartridges: the '06, and finally the .308 Win which seems to have passed the '06 in popularity. The .308 Win will reliably and humanely kill all North American big game just as dead as any mega magnum. It's all about what a bullet destroys.
No big game animal is gonna know whether a bullet fired from a .308 Win or .338 Win Mag stopped its topside oxygenated blood flow. It won't know it's dead until it hits dirt. Then hunters can tie tags to 'em. Too many hunters will refuse to believe that a .243 Win will kill Rocky Mountain bull elk just as dead as a .300 Win Mag if bullets from either destroy an elk's oxygenating blood pumping apparatus.
I'll trade velocity for accuracy...within reason.
Back to big game cartridges, my 2 .270 Win rifles and my 7MM Rem Mag seem to shoot most accurately when I close in on "max" loads. For instance, my .270 Win rifles will print very tiny groups with 60 grains of H-4831.
We gotta remember that our hunting forefathers did it all with the .45/70 Gov't, then the .30/40 Krag & 7x57, then the .303 British, then the King of North American big game cartridges: the '06, and finally the .308 Win which seems to have passed the '06 in popularity. The .308 Win will reliably and humanely kill all North American big game just as dead as any mega magnum. It's all about what a bullet destroys.
No big game animal is gonna know whether a bullet fired from a .308 Win or .338 Win Mag stopped its topside oxygenated blood flow. It won't know it's dead until it hits dirt. Then hunters can tie tags to 'em. Too many hunters will refuse to believe that a .243 Win will kill Rocky Mountain bull elk just as dead as a .300 Win Mag if bullets from either destroy an elk's oxygenating blood pumping apparatus.
I'll trade velocity for accuracy...within reason.