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Welcome aboard Allen we are more like family here than other forums and do respect each other. If you have a question or a problem that needs solving all you need to do is ask and some one will answer.

Welcome aboard Allen. You sound like me, never having much time to reload when the kids were at home. I am retired now and have plenty of time for reloading and shooting.

Glad to have you aboard, Allen. You will assuredly find a good group of people hanging out here. They are quite knowledgeable, and even some of us curmudgeons are able to contribute from time-to-time. Welcome aboard.

Thanks Guys. I have many questions, don't know where to start.

Welcome Allen. I to am from California as well. I have many memories of hunts while I lived there. Anyhow,fire away and post about anything ya want. Especially .270 stuff. The neiborhood needs a few more .270 users. Ha

Ask away, Allen. Someone with sufficient knowledge to give a practical answer will be along shortly to address your query.

Allen, I lived in California also, for 15 years and retired there.

Welcome aboard Allen. Glad to have you here. You won't find anyone here that doesn't wanna help in one way or another.

Well here goes.
Pushing 60 most of my best hunts are behind me now
Manage to shoot at the club at least once a week and 20 years ago bought
my .340 Wby and never looked back. Loaded for a lot of different rifles I still have
but again the .33s always got my attention. Met a lot of good friends over the years hope to meet a few here. Skidmark

Sixty? I should think you have quite a few hunts left! I may not be able to climb as fast or as high, but I can still climb. I may not walk as far in a day, but I think I see more than a couple of decades past. Again, welcome aboard. You will meet some fine people posting here. Not all are lurking around as I am today. I'm enjoying a rare day off, though I hope to get out this afternoon to harass the local whitetail population, and perhaps a moose as well.

Well....at least my wife is 20 years younger than me and it gives me some extra energy. LOL
She does get mad when I go hunting and come home empty handed and there are plenty of opportunities to take game however in my prime I have become selective. Another one of my deep thoughts. Skid.

Welcome aboard Skidmark! Glad to have you aboard.

Hey Folks,
Brand new to the forum and reloading in general and it was suggested I take a minute and do an introduction of myself to everyone. My name is Ben and I live on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. I'm getting into reloading pretty much because of the lack of availability of ammunition, which is compounded by the fact that I live in AK which has fewer options than most for retailers and that no one will ship live ammo here from the lower 48 due to federal regulations. I shoot mainly for hunting purposes, which is to say I don't go through 1,000 rounds a month at the range but like to at least shoot a box or two every month to stay in practice. I'm hoping that reloading will help me get even better performance out of my rifles, I shoot a .243 and .30-06 almost exclusively, and give me another indoors hobby for the long dark winters we're famous for. As far as hunting, I pretty much hunt anything that's in season from Spruce Grouse to Moose and will be putting in extra effort this winter for my first Wolf over a predator call. Otherwise I enjoy doing anything outdoors from fishing to snowmachining, (just picked up my new Tundra last week) and have been known to rebuild an engine or two in my day as well. Not sure what else really but I'm sure I'll be talking with quite a few of you over the coming months/years and am looking forward to this new hobby. It looks like I've got quite a bit to learn.

Thanks Everyone

Great reasons to get into hand loading, Ben. You're undoubtedly in some fine country for hunting and for fishing. Careful about letting people know where you live. Soon, they'll be knocking at your door wanting to visit. :mrgreen: I'll caution you to watch out for some individuals who have mastered the art of compelling the unwary to purchase rifles chambered in a variety of cartridges. I'm not naming any names, but the initials would spell Fotis, Scotty... well, that is a start. :lol: Your .30-06 should be an excellent rifle for Alaska.

Thanks DrMike. Yeah the '06 is about as tried and true as they get in my opinion. I've always been one more for shot placement than power, another reason to reload so I can personally QC everything that goes into my rifle. And anything living I've ever hit with it has never gone more than 20 yards before it was all over. Except that Blackie in my picture but that was just because it tumbled halfway down the mountain after the shot, which was nice since it made the pack through the alders that much shorter. I'm really interested in starting to use my .243 for more than just predators now though. I'm thinking with the right load it might become my go to for everything up to and including blackies and caribou. We'll have to see how she does though with the combinations I have in mind.

Welcome aboard Ben!

Yeah, the little .243 can be a giant killer with good bullets, and Nosler makes those bullets.

And the .30-06? Don't tell these guys that you kill moose with it, everybody knows that it takes a huge, belted magnum to kill a moose! :mrgreen: Well, maybe not. I suppose a .35 Whelen might do it, but a .30-06? Nah, those just bounce off moose don't they?

When you get to loading for the .30-06, I'd highly recommend you look hard at the 180 gr Nosler Partition. That bullet is a classic .30 cal hunting bullet and typically delivers very good performance on game as well as excellent accuracy. H4350 and Ramshot Hunter are both real good powders for it.

I think you'd best be careful and lock the door, or you may find a bunch of lower 48 riflemen napping in your living room, waiting for you to take us, ahem, I mean them, hunting... Many of us have visited Alaska, but few of us on this forum live there. Be particularly wary of the Canadians. I think they're secretly planning to steal Alaska... :grin:

Again, welcome aboard, Guy

Welcome aboard, Ben.

Guy,
Unfortunately my rifle has never liked the Partitions for some reason. I might be able to figure it out with a bit of work on the handloads, but she loves the factory loaded 180 AccuBond CT's Winchester puts out. When I can find them anywhere that is. I think I'll start with the AB's first and then go from there. I'm interested in trying a couple different 200 gr. through her as well, I've got a Brown Bear on my hit list this spring. So I'll be experimenting with that throughout the winter as well.

And this is one from last year, skunked this year unfortunately. But the '06 definitely didn't bounce off. Complete pass through at 246 yards, broadside. He went roughly 20 feet and toppled over backwards. Wanted the heart for the frying pan back at camp but alas there wasn't much left to it. Not a huge one by any means but definitely made me a believer in the Accubonds.

He's a fine looking bull. I'd guess he demanded some labour on your part, nevertheless. The AB does work quite well. I've used various iterations on bison, moose, elk, mule deer and whitetail. All managed to expire reasonably quickly when I did my part.

Fine looking Moose :wink: that will be some fine dining this winter.
Guy, I thought we owned Alaska :wink: we are just renting it to the US :mrgreen:

Blessings,
Dan