Gunner Quinn
(Continued from Part 2.)
Two .30 Caliber Big Game Hunting Loads
My bolt action rifles are in two separate groups, precision rifles, and hunting rifles. All of my 6.5mm rifles are precision rifles capable of extreme long-range shooting. They will be handled with care and not bumped around while hunting. They are too valuable because of what they can do. Of course, the ammunition they use can also be used on deer out to 300 yards, and elk in a pinch with well-placed shots inside of 200 yards, yet they are not suitable for bear and elk when the angle is not just right. If they pass into the field of fire inside our perimeter and they are within the 300-yard limit then deer and black bear could be taken if a broadside shot is available. The .30 caliber cartridge rifles are much better for hunting in general and for mixed bag hunts since they are reliably able to take most of the various North American game.
300 Savage: Considerations for An Antique Rifle
The rifle in the photo at left is an antique Mauser rifle re-barreled in ,300 Savage and represents this category well. What works in this rifle would also work and be safe to use in other .308 to .312 cartridges when load to no higher pressure than 46,000 CUP (51,000 psi). The softer bullets used are a good fit or of suitable construction for many antique rifles that can fire brass-case ammunition using smokeless powder. The super high ballistic coefficient bullets that they are more than good enough out to my self-imposed range limit of 300 yards. These can expand at velocities as low as 1,600 fps and are a good marriage for lower in velocities cartridges in general and can kill quickly, flatten trajectories and buck the wind well enough to extend their potential hunting range.
The aforementioned .300 Savage from Elk Creek Company is loaded with either the .30 caliber 180-grain Speer BTSP for black bear and elk at close range, or the Hornady 178-grain ELD for deer out to 300 yards as I expect it to anchor it immediately. Either bullet is excellent as muzzle velocities of 2,400 fps or less, a good choice for antique actions where muzzle velocity varies between 2,150 and 2,400 fps. It’ll be sighted to favor the ELD round. Because of the Savage 99’s action, 300 Savage 180 grain bullets need to be round nosed,. But as reloaders, we can greatly improve the performance simply by using a soft 180-grain spire point that works well at all ranges. This bullet makes the .300 Savage a versatile game-getter, nearly on par with .308 Winchester when using 180-grain bullets.
Whatever the hunt is, simply jacking a different round into the chamber means the rifle will be best capable for the game at hand. The point of impact is very close to the same, but I’ll trust the Speer BTSP to hold together better on heavy bone, and the ELD to expand violently well beyond 200 yards for quick and clean kills on 250-pound deer that I do not want to track. DRT (Dead Right There) is the best way to go. I would take no chances as I probably will not get another shot at it. If I am a lousy shot then I want to wound it real good so that not only leaves a blood trail but also bleeds out fast. That is why I will use certain bullets for longer ranges. The ELD bullet will expand violently and create a large wound channel that ensures rapid blood loss. Each bullet type has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so I’ll just use the right bullet for the job that it is best suited to perform. I’ll do my best not to leave any room for failure. The meat is too valuable.
Shot placement and then penetration are the most important attributes a bullet strike needs. Those are followed by bullet expansion. On a charging 400 to 600-pound Grizzly you gotta make sure to get everything right. Sure, a 10mm handgun will kill it eventually, but I want it DRT. We had a mother with cubs charge a neighbor last year who happened to be in their vehicle at the time. They walked their dogs daily on the same road. Soon after that incident, they moved back into town.
The same SOP that I described for the .300 Savage will be applied the Ought 6. I’ll use 200-grain bullets in the .30-06, the Speer Hotcor for elk and bear out to 300 yards, and the Remington 220 grain round nose Corelokts and 200-grain Nosler Partition in the woods for Close Encounters of the Grizzly Kind in the woods. The scope will be sighted in for the long-range loads that use the 200-grain Speer Hotcor bullet. It is a freight train when it hits. When the rifle is at home and by the door, it will have the Grizzly loads in the magazine. And I will always have a .30-06 in the vehicle, as loaded just the same.
Speer’s line of BTSP bullets are a well-hidden bargain so I might buy more with the savings. The .30 caliber 180 grain Speer SPBT is my favorite all-around bullet as it is inexpensive bullet and ideal for muzzle velocities under 2,400 fps and for long-range hunting. If I could afford to stock up on Nosler Partitions, then I would do that too. To review, these three bullets in all of their offered weights, Nosler Partitions, Speer SPBTs and Hornady Amax/ELD bullet are good choices for both lower pressure antique rifles or for long-range hunting in modern cartridges.
Dangerous Game and The Ought 6 (.30-06)
My dangerous game load is out a .30-06 uses either 200 grain Nosler Partition, 200 grain Speer Hotcor, or 220 grain Remington Corelokts for use in the bush as these babies punch through brush and are not deflected easily as are the other two examples. The 220-grain round nose is an extremely stable bullet in flight and its mass can bust through brush and penetrate deeply regardless of the bone that happens to in the way, intentionally or not. Because grizzlies have a remarkable ability to continue to attack even if their heart is shot, it is best to break one or both of the shoulders to immobilize it. A massive and tough bullet is good for this job, especially because if one runs into a Griz and it is attacking, it is because we have inadvertently surprised it and made it fear for its life. This would happen in close proximity and there’d be the need to stop it immediately.
Outside of the brush or dense woods, I want the 200-grain Nosler Partition because it will kill better than the 220-grain RN Corelokt. I am particular because I take Grizzly seriously. The Inland CONUS Griz is only half the weight of its massive Alaskan cousin, the Brown Bear. That is just a well-fed Grizzly, the inland variety is lean and meaner because it can not get enough to eat to grow to its full potential size. It therefore tends be always hungry and more aggressive, not because of genetic difference, but because of a learned behavior selected bears that are just plain meaner. Feed North American Grizzly well for a few generations and they’ll become like in size and more gentle like their Brown Bear cousins. Well, that is my hypothesis, but do appreciate that Inland Griz are much more dangerous than the Alaskan kind.
Anything else that might cross my path gets a 200-grain Nosler Partition, as well. It would be a slower killer of deer, but it does well enough, and is good medicine for both elk and black bear. We have so many bears in this area — both black bear and Grizzly — that they are seen often. The wildlife in this remote part of western Montana is represented by all the species of animals that once existed here 200 hundred years ago and in good numbers. Consequently, I have a lot of premium organic meat jarred up. The problem is where to store it all.
Selecting Hunting Bullet Weights
Deer-sized animals that weigh under 250 pounds and elk with heavier bullets are relatively easy to take with most rifles using standard cup-and-core soft point ammunition that is less expensive. Inexpensive soft point ammunition is all that is needed and typically uses light-for-caliber bullets that create less felt recoil, or we can use a mid-weight bullet to attempt to cover both lighter and heavier game. For example, typical deer ammunition for .308 Winchester would be a 150-grain soft point, but if you have bigger deer and possibly elk and black bear, a 165-grain bullet would split the difference between the 150-grain and the 180-grain bullet. My inclination is to hunt with the 180-grain bullet here in northwestern Montana. The 180-grain bullet may be slower to kill deer, but it will cleanly take elk and bear, and it is a better 300-yard hunting bullet because it will buck the wind much better. The heavy-for-caliber 180-grain .308 bullet is better for anchoring game. If killing is delayed then a shoulder shot should be used next time. The 180-grain bullet is best for mixed bag hunting.
Many manufacturers indicated on the box what kind of game is suitable for the ammunition inside. Some states prohibit the use of .223 or big game, and for good reason. It is just too light for deer and is a varmint round. Not only would we not want the animal to suffer, but we would not want the animal to be able to run away. Larger caliber rifles are much better at accomplishing this goal. Small bore, high velocity rifles such as .243 Winchester can take deer cleanly when using heavy for caliber bullets designed for the task. .243 Winchester trades weight relative to .30 caliber bullets, and uses high velocity to impart hydrostatic shock as a larger part of how that cartridge kills.
We do not want lose the game or have to track it, so be sure to use enough gun, the correct ammunition designed for the game, and most importantly, learn where the vitals are on the type of game to be hunted and make sure shot placement is correct given the angle that we must take the shot with. Shot placement on a deer will be different than on black bear, so learn about that too if there are bears in your area.
Bullet Construction
Bullet construction is not well understood and appreciated as a factor for a successful hunt. For the popular 6.5 cartridges and deer I would use a 140-grain weight for all these choices: Hornady SST, Serria Gameking, Speer BTSP, Remington Core-Lokt, or Nosler Partition and the Hornady ELD-x for out past 100 yards. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the bore, the lighter the bullet, and the greater the distance to the target, the more precise must be the shot, and the higher the velocity it should be. And a bullet that is constructed to work well at the impact velocity should be thoughtfully chosen. The 7mm/.270 is better than 6.5mm, yet .30 caliber cartridges are practical and the better all-around critter-gitters (tranlation: game getters) from .30-30 to .30-06. The.30-06, in my book, in this part of the country is still the king daddy of all hunting cartridges for North America. It is an extremely versatile cartridge that fewer and fewer hunters appreciate –yet it will not go away. No one sells a good horse, unless of course that person does not know what a good horse is.
At velocities below 2,200 fps, the effects of hydrostatic shock are negligible and at 500 yards most bullets are traveling below 1,900 fps and deliver nearer the minimum energy and less adequately large enough wound cavity to make a quick and clean kill. The lower the velocity, the larger and heavier the bullet needs to be. Bigger bullets make bigger holes, but more importantly, they can deliver more energy at lower velocities that cause either or both hydrostatic shock and bullet deformation along with adequate penetration that results in a larger wound channel and a faster kill. Bullet construction is most important and less so is sectional density. Sectional density is more significant if penetration is the design goal as it would be for a military application.
Hunting bullet construction is a necessary consideration and part of the equation, and becomes more important at extended ranges. We should be using a proven hunting bullet that typically does not have the very high B.C. of match bullets. Fortunately, the Hornady ELD-X and Speer SPBT line of cartridges are the exception to this rule and perhaps good choices on thin-skinned animals for shots past 200 yards. I will be using 6.5mm ELD and .308 cal ELD-X bullets. The ‘X’ denotes a slightly tougher ELD bullet as opposed to the ‘M’ type of ELD that is optimized and stands for ‘match’, yet both variations have the same B.C. The Hornady ELDs can also provide much-improved performance at low-impact velocities at extended ranges and flatter trajectories and less wind deflection for those who are reloading for lower-pressure antique actions. The same logic applies to the Speer BTSP that is equal in perfomance, yet 30 percent less in price.
Lost Knowledge about Round-Nosed Bullets
The heavy round-nosed bullet is a subsistence hunter’s good friend in the woods. Nowadays, very high ballistic coefficient bullets are the fashion, but those who have not forgotten how it got done on a daily basis in the real world of hunting to survive have forgotten about the advantages of the round-nosed bullet. It is a tool in my toolbox, for sure.
Round-nosed bullets are almost gone and forgotten. They are falling into disuse as they are considered to be obsolete, Yet I know why they have an important role that has lergely been forgotten by most hunters. They have a place in dense woods where short-barreled rifles are best suited and where lower velocities result on account of the short barrels. The heavy-for-caliber round-nosed bullet nearest to the heaviest bullet for that cartridge will expand reliably at lower velocities, but the most important thing they do is punch through brush without much deflection. The heaviest-for-caliber round-nosed bullets with very high sectional densities, such as the 6.5×55 160 grain round nose to .30 caliber 180 to 220 grain round nose, and larger bore flat and round nosed bullets at lower velocities are not easily deflected by the unexpected light branch or heavier brush that just happens to be in the way of an otherwise good shot that would deflect nany spire point bullets.
Big, heavy, and slow is the way to go in the brush or in dense woods. The heavier and larger the caliber at lower velocities, the better it will travel through brush and hit the target at where is was aimed. This fact makes these bullets a good choice for a variety of game in the woods. If one can avoid shooting through brush or light branches then they should. However if one is taking a shot in the deep woods, it is easy not to notice through the scope or iron sights that a light branch is in the way. Or, if it is the only shot at meat that you’ve got, the temptation to take the shot is too great. So it would be best to use these bullets in this environment. These can get you game and protect you from bears that are surprised by your presence in their berry patch. I did not feature .45-70 or .450 Marlin as these rifles are made specifically for this kind of hunting, but they are not as useful at long range, because they are not flat shooting. Deer when being hunted hard head for the deep woods to hide. That is where you will find them, so be suitably armed.
A ..30-06 using a 220-grain round-nose bullet is an excellent brush buster and this is why I would use this for Grizzly or anything else when out picking huckleberries. A .30-30 with a 170 grain round or flat nose may deal with light twigs, but if you can load it with a soft 180 grain RN at 1,900 fps, then it might be a better performer in those circumstances. I would load my very short 17-inch barreled 7×57 Spanish Mauser Carbine with 175 grain round nosed bullets for this job as it would have the stability and ability to bust brush just as well as a 200 to 210 grain .30 caliber round-nosed bullet. William Bell took elephants with a FMJ 7mm Mauser bullet of this weight by shooting the brain. It works because it can penetrate deeply.
The advertised velocity for most ammunition is for 24-inch barrels. These heavy projectiles are typically around 2,400 to 2,500 fps out of 24-inch barrels regardless of the cartridge. I would expect the velocity to be closer to 2,100 fps out of 18-inch barrels and that is plenty given the short range of less than 100 yards that it would be used at, and because the RN will expand reliably down to 1,600 fps. If I found suitable commercial ammunition that meets my criterion for this class of round-nosed bullet for the short list of cartridges reviewed in this article, then it is in this list.
(To be continued in Part 4.)
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