roysclockgun
Handloader
- Dec 17, 2005
- 736
- 1
For a number of years, I have wondered if this year will be my last trek out to the great west to hunt critters. Since 1991 I have hunted with the same rancher/guide in N.W. Wyoming. The success ratio is 100%. Now, in my 70th year, I am going again. Why have I stuck with the same guide for 12 hunts? During the past 20 years, I have also gone on many hunts with other guides. Too many of them had terrible people skills and treated me as if I was ruining *THEIR* hunt. My guide in Wyoming is smart and knows that the primary thrust of his job is make certain that while I am hunting hard, I am also having a good time. Secondly, if I request him to drop me off for the day, he will do that. I am able to hunt, find game and take game, on my own. Most guides will not allow you out of their sight, and end up doing everything save for pulling the trigger. When they work that way the game is in reality, theirs and not mine.
I have used more than ten rifles for my western hunts. I do that, not because any rifle as failed me. To the contrary, every rifle that I used performed to perfection. I changed up rifles because I get bored with a rifle, once I have worked up the best load that I can create and have the rifle hitting precisely where I want it to hit anywhere from 25 yards to 400 yards. 400 yards being my personal limit for shots in the field.
During the past few seasons I was carrying a Browning B78 falling block action, in 7mmREmMag. The 140gr AccuBond bullet did great work on boar, white tail deer, mule deer and pronghorn. My longest shot being 404 yards on a mule deer. This year I am carrying a Browning Stainless Stalker in 280Rem. using the same 140gr. AccuBond bullet. I will report later this year on the bullet's performance in that rifle.
I began life as strictly a 30-06 guy, until I read enough of Jack O'Connor to *KNOW* that the premiere rifle cartridge was the 270Rem., which I used for many years. Never letting up on my studies, I was drawn more and more toward rifles launching the 7mm bullet and came to realize that in using bullets up to 175 gr. the 7mm is a superior flyer. I hunted with rifles chambered for 7x57mm Mauser, 7mmRemMag and now the 280Rem. Using today's premium bullets, the 175 gr. 7mm bullets will accomplish the same job for which we used to call upon 200 grain bullets. I believe this because of superior weight retention found in many of today's premium hunting bullets. So, while many hunter still chase the giant magnum cartridges and untold numbers of those guys develope serious flinch problems, due to excessive recoil, I would suggest to anyone who would ask, that a serious hunter should be able to get within 400 yards of his game before taking the shot, and at that range, the only time that I would use a bullet heavier than 175gr. would be in the case of taking large, dangerous bears under fire. The largest deer type animal to include elk and moose, are not bullet proof and a well placed shot with a 7mm, 175 gr. bullet, will yield all the penetration, trauma, large wound channel and bone busting capability that any hunter should ever need to cleanly, humanely kill his game.
http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ ... G_4906.jpg
Good hunting,
Steven in DeLand, FL
I have used more than ten rifles for my western hunts. I do that, not because any rifle as failed me. To the contrary, every rifle that I used performed to perfection. I changed up rifles because I get bored with a rifle, once I have worked up the best load that I can create and have the rifle hitting precisely where I want it to hit anywhere from 25 yards to 400 yards. 400 yards being my personal limit for shots in the field.
During the past few seasons I was carrying a Browning B78 falling block action, in 7mmREmMag. The 140gr AccuBond bullet did great work on boar, white tail deer, mule deer and pronghorn. My longest shot being 404 yards on a mule deer. This year I am carrying a Browning Stainless Stalker in 280Rem. using the same 140gr. AccuBond bullet. I will report later this year on the bullet's performance in that rifle.
I began life as strictly a 30-06 guy, until I read enough of Jack O'Connor to *KNOW* that the premiere rifle cartridge was the 270Rem., which I used for many years. Never letting up on my studies, I was drawn more and more toward rifles launching the 7mm bullet and came to realize that in using bullets up to 175 gr. the 7mm is a superior flyer. I hunted with rifles chambered for 7x57mm Mauser, 7mmRemMag and now the 280Rem. Using today's premium bullets, the 175 gr. 7mm bullets will accomplish the same job for which we used to call upon 200 grain bullets. I believe this because of superior weight retention found in many of today's premium hunting bullets. So, while many hunter still chase the giant magnum cartridges and untold numbers of those guys develope serious flinch problems, due to excessive recoil, I would suggest to anyone who would ask, that a serious hunter should be able to get within 400 yards of his game before taking the shot, and at that range, the only time that I would use a bullet heavier than 175gr. would be in the case of taking large, dangerous bears under fire. The largest deer type animal to include elk and moose, are not bullet proof and a well placed shot with a 7mm, 175 gr. bullet, will yield all the penetration, trauma, large wound channel and bone busting capability that any hunter should ever need to cleanly, humanely kill his game.
http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ ... G_4906.jpg
Good hunting,
Steven in DeLand, FL
