Tom, I have come to the same conclusions about hunting loads and what I did in the past some 40 years ago; it is nice to have the tools to measure bullet jump and shoulder bump when sizing our cases. I have also learned the value of annealing for casing life and bullet seating consistency. I was missing a lot back 40 years ago.
Likeways, 50 years ago when I started with my first rifle a .222 and i used 55 Nosler Partion for all my hunting, goat, pigs, even deer. Then Australia passed the law min .270 and min 130 gr bullets. So I stepped up to a .270 for deer. Hunting foxes professionally I used a Tikka .17, then swapped for a Anschuts .22 Hornet using 40 gr soft Speer bullet. How everything has changed. Now i use a .270 and a 7mm rem mag. Love both callibers. Have a .223 24" H barel on the way!
When you state the price per round. I hope that you have a stockpile of Primers, powder and brass. Bullets seem to be more readily available. If not, you're gonna be severely disappointed in the readily available supplies. I am a hunter and Long range shooter. I got caught with my trousers down, in the last scare....(Obama) I couldn't get powder or primers.....I made sure that would NEVER happen again. Great video and long live the Handloader.....!
Great video sir. I have been sitting on the fence with my reloads on whether I should measure the ogive using an OAL gauge, but I'm not sure if it is necessary for hunting accuracy. I have a comparator so that I can at least consistently seat at each reload, but I was wondering whether it's worth the extra tool for something that I might not use all that often. I also don't chronograph my reloads, rather I note down what I'm doing, what I've changed, then go and test shoot them at the range. Might be worth noting that Hornady do have a drill and tap kit for about $25. That would be a economic way of handling your initial setup for multiple calibers I would think. Anyway, a great watch. Thank you 😀
Sean, It probably is not for a guy with one rifle who just occasionally hunts with it - but he will buy ammo off the shelf anyways. Once you step up to reloading you open a door to a larger world, and you haven't quite seen it yet. SAAMI makes specs for cartridges so they fit in everybody's rifle, which means, no two chambers are alike. I am not making bullets back to SAAMI spec (I did that 40 years ago); I am custom making bullets for my hunting rifle with its unique chamber and bore. And yes, it is most definitely worth it for hunting too. The handloading books that you buy today are the same as they were 40+ years ago, and all of them teach you to load back to SAAMI specs. By applying some of what precision rifle shooter do in their reloading processes can make a rifle off the shelf shoot a whole lot better than most people think it will. Having said all that, each different bullet type you load will jam in the bore differently, so you will use it more than you are thinking. If you don't know where Jam is, and then set a jump, that comparator is not giving you a number that has any real meaning. Jump is a very import number to know; sure, it is probably going to land somewhere between .020 and .040 thousands, but if that rifle likes say, .028 or .031 thousands - that is the number you want to seat that bullet to every time. This is where the comparator comes in, but it starts by knowing where Jam is. You spent time and money at this point and are probably at where I was 40 years ago. Had I sat down with some of the bench rest shooters and asked questions about my reloading, I would have been ridiculed profusely about what I was doing. Being safe and cautious is important always, and today the information is out there on the internet if you weed through it with your growing knowledge and experience. I have never owned or used a chronograph, and never recall needing to go to a max load in a reloading data book to get where I needed to go with any rifle load for hunting. If I got a 'warmer load' in the shoulder than a factory load, I never saw any advantage to go there; they never shot any better, only hotter.
G'day mate, I would love hear some hunting stories of your 22 Hornet days. I hand load for the Hornet here in the UK, lots of rabbits and foxes here and little deer like the Muntjac. For bigger deer the legal calibre is .243 but this might change with the lead ban. I can get a 40 gn hornaday v-max to 3240 fps from my 20" barrel hornet using Remmington cases with 14.5 gn of Lil'gun powder. Please do a video about your experiences shooting the Hornet back in the day. Cheers.
Hi Tom, thank you for some useful information. I gather you once lived in Australia but you mentioned Salt Lake City and White Tail Deer so assume you moved the US at some point? Hope to see more from you in the future. Regards from Adelaide.
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
Rest in peace Tom you absolute legend.
Hey brother, very logical, practical presentation, your style is appreciated deep in the South of Tasmania, Australia mate. Do forward me
This is a very good video thank you
Great job explaining the technique..
Very commendable view of the hunt! I like that!
Tom,
I have come to the same conclusions about hunting loads and what I did in the past some 40 years ago; it is nice to have the tools to measure bullet jump and shoulder bump when sizing our cases. I have also learned the value of annealing for casing life and bullet seating consistency. I was missing a lot back 40 years ago.
Likeways, 50 years ago when I started with my first rifle a .222 and i used 55 Nosler Partion for all my hunting, goat, pigs, even deer. Then Australia passed the law min .270 and min 130 gr bullets. So I stepped up to a .270 for deer. Hunting foxes professionally I used a Tikka .17, then swapped for a Anschuts .22 Hornet using 40 gr soft Speer bullet. How everything has changed. Now i use a .270 and a 7mm rem mag. Love both callibers. Have a .223 24" H barel on the way!
When you state the price per round. I hope that you have a stockpile of Primers, powder and brass. Bullets seem to be more readily available. If not, you're gonna be severely disappointed in the readily available supplies. I am a hunter and Long range shooter. I got caught with my trousers down, in the last scare....(Obama) I couldn't get powder or primers.....I made sure that would NEVER happen again. Great video and long live the Handloader.....!
Great video sir. I have been sitting on the fence with my reloads on whether I should measure the ogive using an OAL gauge, but I'm not sure if it is necessary for hunting accuracy. I have a comparator so that I can at least consistently seat at each reload, but I was wondering whether it's worth the extra tool for something that I might not use all that often. I also don't chronograph my reloads, rather I note down what I'm doing, what I've changed, then go and test shoot them at the range.
Might be worth noting that Hornady do have a drill and tap kit for about $25. That would be a economic way of handling your initial setup for multiple calibers I would think.
Anyway, a great watch. Thank you 😀
Sean,
It probably is not for a guy with one rifle who just occasionally hunts with it - but he will buy ammo off the shelf anyways. Once you step up to reloading you open a door to a larger world, and you haven't quite seen it yet. SAAMI makes specs for cartridges so they fit in everybody's rifle, which means, no two chambers are alike. I am not making bullets back to SAAMI spec (I did that 40 years ago); I am custom making bullets for my hunting rifle with its unique chamber and bore. And yes, it is most definitely worth it for hunting too. The handloading books that you buy today are the same as they were 40+ years ago, and all of them teach you to load back to SAAMI specs. By applying some of what precision rifle shooter do in their reloading processes can make a rifle off the shelf shoot a whole lot better than most people think it will.
Having said all that, each different bullet type you load will jam in the bore differently, so you will use it more than you are thinking. If you don't know where Jam is, and then set a jump, that comparator is not giving you a number that has any real meaning. Jump is a very import number to know; sure, it is probably going to land somewhere between .020 and .040 thousands, but if that rifle likes say, .028 or .031 thousands - that is the number you want to seat that bullet to every time. This is where the comparator comes in, but it starts by knowing where Jam is.
You spent time and money at this point and are probably at where I was 40 years ago. Had I sat down with some of the bench rest shooters and asked questions about my reloading, I would have been ridiculed profusely about what I was doing. Being safe and cautious is important always, and today the information is out there on the internet if you weed through it with your growing knowledge and experience. I have never owned or used a chronograph, and never recall needing to go to a max load in a reloading data book to get where I needed to go with any rifle load for hunting. If I got a 'warmer load' in the shoulder than a factory load, I never saw any advantage to go there; they never shot any better, only hotter.
G'day mate, I would love hear some hunting stories of your 22 Hornet days. I hand load for the Hornet here in the UK, lots of rabbits and foxes here and little deer like the Muntjac. For bigger deer the legal calibre is .243 but this might change with the lead ban. I can get a 40 gn hornaday v-max to 3240 fps from my 20" barrel hornet using Remmington cases with 14.5 gn of Lil'gun powder. Please do a video about your experiences shooting the Hornet back in the day. Cheers.
OK, ill do a video on the hornet and skinning foxes in under 3 minutes!
I would love to get a pdf for the spread sheet to print out. Tnx for the videos.
Great video Tom. Makes me want to measure the ogive on my 6.5 Swede. 🤠👍
GREAT VIDEO!! Old Man!
Glad you enjoyed it
I'd like to have your data sheets thanks
Hi Tom, thank you for some useful information. I gather you once lived in Australia but you mentioned Salt Lake City and White Tail Deer so assume you moved the US at some point? Hope to see more from you in the future. Regards from Adelaide.
I hope to retun back soon and keep on hunting sambar, my favorite!
Very good information on seating to ogive. I would like to get a copy of your Excel sheet to use, Thanks