Once in a while the Boys over at Vice, do some good news Stories. This I think is one of them. Grumpy
Category: Gun Info for Rookies
Categories
Dry Fire
Man Killed By Armed PSU Officers Had Valid Concealed Carry Permit
Two of Washington’s colleagues and at least one witness say Washington, 45, was black.
Keyaira Smith, a witness who took video of the moments leading up to Washington’s death, told OPB that he was “trying to be a good Samaritan” by breaking up a fight.
Video footage shows what appears to be a black object attached to Washington’s right side as he’s seen pulling one man off another. Two PSU police officers can also be seen.
“The gun slipped out of the holster when he had fallen, and I think he may have tried to retrieve it,” Smith said. “Then they said ‘gun.’”
That’s when police fired, she said.
Sgt. Brent Laizure, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed that Washington had a valid concealed carry permit.
Washington was a Navy veteran and an employee with the United States Postal Service since 1998. He worked with the collections unit as a letter carrier at the main office in downtown Portland, where he also served as the union shop steward.
Washington was married with three kids and one grandchild.
“He loved those kids, he was crazy about them,” said David Norton, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 82. Norton knew Washington for seven years.
“He was a big personality. He always had a lot to say. He kind of had a larger-than-life personality. He was always very animated and exuberant. And if you ever worked with the guy or knew the guy, you would never forget him.”
Norton said Washington was with co-workers the day he was shot.
PSU officials are already preparing to defend the university against a lawsuit. Leaders convened a closed-to-the-public executive session Friday afternoon to discuss potential litigation. The session came even as leaders knew little about the victim, other than that he likely wasn’t a PSU student.
Multiple agencies, including the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the Portland Police Bureau Homicide Detail, are conducting an investigation into the incident. PSU and PPB have not officially identified Washington or provided many details about the incident.
University President Rahmat Shoureshi said he’s asked the university’s Campus Public Safety Chief to conduct an internal assessment and evaluation of the incident.
The Portland State University Student Union is calling on the University to disarm campus officers with a rally scheduled for Sunday — the three-year anniversary of when the university first armed Campus Public Safety Officers.The university’s board of trustees cast a controversial vote in 2014 to employ sworn armed police officers on campus.
“Everyone who has expressed dissent over the years to the armament of CPSO and creation of a police force knew that one day this decision would result in deadly violence, and we know that it will continue to happen so long as campus security remain a deputized and armed police force,” PSUSU wrote on its Facebook page. “There’s no way around it – this is how policing works.”
Rob Manning and Amelia Templeton contributed to this report
Some of my thoughts
1. When you are under arms, one must think Tactical at all times.
2. I was not there. But unless the fight is totally out of control. I.E Use of say a use of rock or knife. Or that somebody is completely out of the fighting skill league. It is best to let the Cops handle it.
3. A sad fact is that a lot of Cops today are very trigger happy.
4. While it was admirable & honorable to want to help. One has to remember to weight the cost & risks AT ALL TIMES!
Bottom line-I really feel bad for the family. But later on they can take pride in this incontestable fact. That they had a good man in their family. Who tried to do the right thing!
Grumpy
| May 13, 2011
From some men, learning how to properly and safely fire a rifle is a skill they picked up when they were just knee high to a grasshopper. These guys probably got a .22 for their 12th birthday and spent summers in the woods plinking tin cans and squirrels and autumns hunting deer with their dads and grandpas.
Me? I wasn’t one of those guys.
But lately I’ve been wanting to learn how to fire a variety of firearms. I’m sure there are other men out there who, like me, went their entire life not ever shooting a rifle, but now have the desire to learn. It might be because he wants to take up hunting. Maybe he’s interested in home protection. Or perhaps he’s just interested in marksmanship as a hobby in and of itself. Whatever your reasons are for wanting to learn how to fire a rifle, you need to know how to do it safely and correctly.
A few months ago we did a post on firing a handgun safely and correctly. This time we’ll focus on how to shoot a rifle. So I headed back over to the U.S. Shooting Academy here in Tulsa, OK to talk to Mike Seeklander, Director of Training at the Academy. He explained the very basics of firing a rifle and today I’ll share what I learned with you.
The Four Cardinal Safety Rules of Firing a Rifle
Just as he did when we talked about firing a handgun, the very first thing Mike brought up were four rules, that if followed strictly, will keep you and others safe so you can have a good time firing off a few rounds.
1. Always treat every firearm as if it were loaded. No ifs, ands, or buts. Even if you know the gun is unloaded, still handle it as if it were loaded.
2. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction, a direction where a negligent discharge would cause minimum property damage and zero physical injury. The safest direction to point a gun is always downrange (as long as there aren’t any people downrange!).
3. Always keep your trigger finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you have made a conscious decision to shoot.
4. Always be sure of your target, backstop, and beyond. You want to be aware of what’s in your line of fire. This isn’t usually a concern if you go to a professional gun range. They make sure that people and property stay out of the path of the guns firing downrange. Where this becomes a concern is when you go shoot with your buddy out on his property. This is especially important when firing high powered rifles as their bullets travel further than bullets fired from a handgun.
Listen to Mike: “Ask your friend what exactly is beyond the target and backstop you’re shooting at, especially when you’re shooting into a wooded area. Don’t just settle for, ‘Oh, don’t worry. There’s nothing back there.’ Ask specifically if there are any houses, property, etc beyond your backstop. Err on the side of being overly cautious.”
Types of Rifles
Rifles are high powered firearms typically used to hit targets at long distances. Rifles are designed to be fired from the shoulder. Grooves, called rifling (hence the name rifle), are cut into the barrel of a rifle. Rifling makes the bullet spin as it leaves the muzzle, making the bullet much more accurate and stable in flight.
There are a variety of rifles out on the market that serve different purposes. Here’s a quick rundown of the most common.
Bolt action rifles. Hunters often use a bolt action rifle like the Winchester Model 70 which requires the shooter to manually open and close the breech of the gun to eject a spent casing and load a new one.
Lever-action rifles. If you’re a fan of Westerns, you probably noticed the cowboys in the films firing lever-action rifles. Lever-action rifles use a lever located around the trigger guard area to load fresh cartridges into the chamber of the barrel when the lever is worked. The most famous lever-action rifle of the Wild West was undoubtedly the Winchester rifle, a favorite firearm of badasses like Bass Reeves.
Semi-automatic rifles. A semi-automatic rifle fires a single bullet each time the trigger is pulled, automatically ejects the spent cartridge, and automatically chambers a new cartridge from a magazine. Most modern semi-automatic rifles are made from lightweight synthetic materials that make them easy to hold and carry. The most popular semi-automatic rifle is the AR-15. Here in the United States, there are no federal restriction on civilians owning AR-15s, though some states, like California, do place restrictions on ownership. Other states, such as Texas, have no restrictions and even allow semi-automatic rifles for hunting. The rifle Mike used in our photos was a JP-15.
How to Stand When Firing a Rifle
There are two common stances when firing a rifle: bladed-off and a squared, “athletic stance.”
Bladed-off stance. A bladed stance is when your weak-side shoulder is facing the target. So if you’re right handed, your left shoulder is facing the target; if you’re left handed, your right shoulder faces the target. It sort of looks like how a baseball batter would stand in the batter’s box. Here’s Mike, showing a bladed stance:
Bladed-off Stance
Many first-time shooters stand in a bladed-off stance when firing a rifle. They probably saw their favorite cowboys or action heroes in movies take this stance, so they assume it’s the best way to stand. Mike says that while a bladed stance is good for competition shooters who need precision in their aim, it’s not a great stance for shooters in more tactical situations that require rapid shots with minimal muzzle rise.
Squared or athletic stance. Mike and the folks at the U.S. Shooting Academy teach their students to assume an athletic stance when firing a rifle. Square your shoulders up with the target. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart on a straight line. Stagger your strong side foot about six inches behind your weak side foot.
Place the buttstock of the rifle near the centerline of the body and high up on the chest. Keep your elbows down.
Here’s Mike now showing the athletic stance:
Athletic rifle stance
The biggest advantage of the athletic stance over the bladed stance is that it helps in reducing the effects of recoil when firing a rifle. Think about it. If you’re a lineman in football and you want to resist the other guy pushing you backwards, what stance would give you more balance? Being squared up with the other guy or standing sideways with just one of your shoulders towards him? Squared up, of course.
Another advantage the athletic stance has over the bladed stance is that the athletic stance allows you to track a moving target better. A bladed stance limits how much you can twist your body. An athletic stance allows you to swivel right or left much more easily.
Mike recommends an athletic rifle stance for most shooting situations.
How to Hold a Rifle
Trigger Hand Grip
Rifle with pistol grip. If your rifle has a pistol grip, like the AR-15 or JP-15, center the grip in the “V” at the junction of the thumb and index finger of your trigger hand. Grip the gun high on the back strap (the back strap is the back of the grip on the gun). Like so:
Rifle without a pistol grip. Most bolt action or lever action rifles don’t have a pistol grip like the AR-15. What they typically have instead is a crook between the stock and the trigger guard. Like so:
With these sorts of rifles, center the nook in the “V” at the junction of the thumb and index finger of your trigger hand. Grip the gun high on the nook.
Support Hand Grip
The support hand should grip the forestock (or handguards if you’re shooting an AR-15) of the rifle roughly midway down the length of the rifle. Here’s Mike demonstrating for us:
Putting your support hand further forward on the forestock will give you finer control over the muzzle when aiming, which you want when precision is key. The disadvantage of putting your support so far out on the forestock is that it’s a little less stable.
Bring the rifle to your head and press your cheek firmly into the stock. Keeping your head up, bring the rifle to your head. Place the buttstock of the rifle near the centerline of the body and high up on the chest. Press your cheek firmly to the side of the stock of the gun, like so:
Mike demonstrating proper cheek lock.
You’re now ready to aim and fire your rifle.
How to Aim a Rifle
Rifles can have different kinds of sighting systems depending on what you’re using your rifle for. What sighting system a rifle has also depends a lot on the preference of the shooter. Three common sighting systems you’ll see on a rifle are: open sights, aperture sights, and scope sights.
Aiming a Rifle with Open Sights
Open sights use a notch of some sort as the rear sight. They come standard with most rifles. We talked about how to aim with open sights in our post about firing a handgun. The same principles apply here. I won’t repeat what I wrote, so refer back to that post for tips on aiming a rifle with open sights.
Aiming a Rifle with Aperture Sights
Aperture sight
Aperture sight (or peep sight) rifles have a similar front sight to open sight rifles. The difference is the rear sight. Instead of an open notch, the rear sight is a small ring mounted close to the shooter’s eye. There are different kinds of aperture sights, the most common being the ghost ring sight.
Aperture sights allow you to acquire your aim more quickly and more accurately than when using open sights. One of the problems with open sights is that it forces the eye to focus on three objects at the same time: the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. This is impossible to do, so one of the points of focus will be blurry. Aiming an open sight gun requires the shooter to know which object needs to be blurry and which objects need to be in focus. Focusing on the correct points can take precious time.
Aperture sights speed-up getting a correct sight picture by removing one of the objects in the shooter’s line of sight, specifically the rear sight. Looking through the rear ring causes your eye to automatically center on the front sight at the muzzle of the gun, thus providing you with a more accurate aim, acquired more quickly compared to using an open sight.
To aim with an aperture sight, simply look through the rear ring sight, attempting to only focus on the front sight and the target. The ring will blur until it is almost invisible (hence the name, ghost ring sight).
The front sight should be centered in the rear ring. The greater the distance to the target, the more perfectly you need to center the front sight in the rear ring. A closer sight requires less sight precision. Aim your front sight right underneath the point you want the bullet to hit. Before firing, shift all your focus to the front sight.
How to Aim a Rifle With a Scope
Scopes provide the most accurate and easy sighting on a rifle. They allow the shooter to magnify their target for better target definition at long ranges. A scope’s most useful attribute is that everything in the shooter’s field of view is in the same optical plane. Translation: there’s no need for your eye to balance focusing on multiple objects like you do with open sights and aperture sights. You can keep both the crosshairs and the target in focus. Just aim your cross hairs at your target and shoot.
Well, I wish it were that easy. A novice shooter might notice that despite a steady hand, all their shots end up nowhere near the crosshairs of the scope. For maximum accuracy with a scope, you have to “zero” it. Zeroing a rifle is a somewhat technical process for a beginner shooter and warrants its own article explaining how to do it. I’ll do a follow-up article on how to zero a scope in the future.
Trigger Management (aka Pulling the Trigger)
To fire a gun, we often use the popular phrase “pull the trigger.” However, to fire a gun properly, you don’t actually want to pull the trigger, but rather press it in a controlled fashion so you don’t disrupt your sights. Managing the trigger on a rifle is similar to doing so on a handgun, so here’s a review of the basics we covered last time:
1. Press, don’t pull. Instead of pulling the trigger, press (or like my dad likes to say “squeeze”) the trigger straight to the rear. Apply constant, increasing reward pressure on the trigger until the weapon fires. Ensure that you’re only applying pressure to the front of the trigger and not the sides.
2. Take the slack out of the trigger. Squeeze the trigger to the point you start feeling resistance.
3. Surprise yourself. Keep pressing the trigger straight to the rear until the gun fires. Don’t anticipate when the gun will fire. You sort of want to surprise yourself as to when the gun actually discharges.
Have any other tips for the first time rifle shooter? Share them with us in the comments!
Editor’s note: This article is about how to fire a rifle safely and correctly. It is not a debate about gun rights or whether guns are stupid or awesome. Keep it on topic or be deleted.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Special thanks goes out to Mike and the crew at U.S. Shooting Academy for their help on this article. Mike along with the U.S. Shooting Academy Handgun Manual were the sources for this article. If you’re ever in the Tulsa area, stop by their facility. It’s top notch and the staff and trainers are friendly, knowledgeable, and super badass.
Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/05/pistol-shooting-drill-how-to-get-rid-of-your-flinch-video/#ixzz5FxQ5kVIB
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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Pistol Shooting Drill – How To Get Rid Of Your Flinch [VIDEO]
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Do you want to get rid of your flinch? You know, that one that makes you shoot low and left (if you are right-handed) consistently? Who wouldn’t?
I reached out to two of my good friends who are excellent pistol shooters and top-rated trainers, Steve “Yeti” Fisher of Sentinal Concepts and Chuck Pressburg of Presscheck Consulting. They both told me that I sucked and then gave me some great advice, shoot ball and dummy. A lot.
Disclaimer: There are a TON of types of flinches, not just one. This drill focuses on you noticing the flinch, not diagnosing what kind of flinch you are displaying.
As much as shooters poke fun at other shooters for having a flinch, many time it isn’t because the gun scared us, but instead has a lot to do with bad habits formed after thousands and thousands of rounds shot over several years without formal instruction. Maybe you are trying to mitigate the recoil of the pistol beforethe shot breaks like I was.
Before we go any further, you will need a couple of things to make this drill a ton easier on you:
Dummy rounds – I prefer the Glock brand ones since they are really cheap and I tend to lose one or two each time I do this drill. You can find them on Brownells for about $37 per 50 with an included box but they can go for about $15 cheaper if you happen to catch them on sale.
3″ Bullseyes or Target Pasters – I normally get mine from Amazon where a 25 sheet package with 9 targets per sheet will set you back $14.99 for the 3″ bulls or you can opt for the 1″ paper dots that run $10.00 for 1,000 little brown dots.
Cardboard Targets – You can also use scrap cardboard if you like but I prefer using IPSC/USPSA targets since I have several hundred of the Action Target brand ones tucked in the garage.
Something that I have struggled with for years as a handgun shooter is flinching just prior to the shot breaking. It wasn’t until Rob Letham showed me exactly what I was doing in a pretty unconventional way. He told me to take aim at the target and then proceeded to pull the trigger for me. The result? A nice tight group that I couldn’t have replicated if my life depended on it at that time in shooting career.
Now there are a ton of really old targets out there that will “diagnose” your flinch, but they are really centered around old style bullseye shooting.
When I asked Steve Fisher about the “diagnosis target” he simply replied with “Junk.” When I pressed him for more info he explained it in more detail saying “It’s a carryover from one-handed pistol shooting taught by the military around the same time that bullseye shooting was popular and has little bearing on the modern defensive and ‘gaming’ techniques taught today”
The Drill:
So I already told you that ball and dummy is the name of the drill. As you might guess it involves some ball ammunition and some dummy rounds. The idea is to have someone load your magazines with dummy rounds loaded randomly so that you have no idea where in the magazine they are.
The goal is to have no idea if the round you are pulling the trigger on is live or a dummy. Now if you are by yourself at the range like I often am, just take a ton of magazines and load them all at once randomly and mix them up so you have no idea what is in each mag.
Once you get all loaded up, head to the 3-yard line and start shooting at the 3″ bull or paster. As you come across a dummy round and you flinch, clear the gun and perform 10 dry fires, then reload the gun and continue. Make sure that every time you flinch on a dummy that you take that 10 dry fire penalty.
That is about all there is to the drill. It isn’t super hard but the benefits that I saw with my shooting was incredible after two full range days and 1,000 rounds of 9mm.
A few hundred bucks is well worth taking your shooting skill to a new level.
I want to thank Chuck and Steve for letting me bug them for advice. I strongly encourage you to look into both trainers and see if there is a class in your area, you won’t regret it.
About Patrick R.
Patrick is a firearms enthusiast that values the quest for not only the best possible gear setup, but also pragmatic ways to improve his shooting skills across a wide range of disciplines. He values truthful, honest information above all else and had committed to cutting through marketing fluff to deliver the truth. You can find the rest of his work on FirearmRack.com as well as on the YouTube channel Firearm Rack or Instagram at @thepatrickroberts.
Yeah I know that there is a lot of them. So maybe you want to pick & choose. I just feel that on something this important that one can NOT have too much information!
I wish all the best on your choice though and enjoy!
Grumpy
Attachments area
Sorry but a couple of these rounds are some that I never heard of before! (6.5-284 Norma or the .280 Ackley Improved?)
But he does have a few good ideas there.
Grumpy
America’s Top 10 Big Game Cartridges
by | September 19th, 20160
I hate to begin an article by apologizing. So I won’t. If you’re of sensitive nature and protective of your favorite cartridge, now may be the time to skip to the next article.
The following is a list of cartridges that have earned the right to inclusion by being very, very good at what they do. It’s not a list of my favorite cartridges: I admittedly have dubious practical taste. Rather, this is a list of big-game cartridges that have proven worthy on no uncertain terms.
I anticipate the most consternation will come from lovers of the .243 Winchester, the classic .30-30 Winchester, and the Wee-08…I mean .308 Winchester. Because, you see, when it comes to really, truly capable big-game cartridges, those don’t make the cut.
Let’s just get that out in the open. But, please, before you fire up the tar and gather the feathers, keep in mind that while I stand behind what I write, my tongue is planted firmly in cheek as I peck away at my keyboard.
Without further ado, here is a look at 10 cartridges I consider the most legitimately capable big-game rounds available today, spanning the spectrum from light deer and antelope cartridges up to an honest big bear stopper.
6.5-284 Norma
At the price of more recoil and a lot less barrel life, the 6.5-284 does everything the 6.5 Creedmoor does in the field and does it better. Handloaders wanting a high-performance 6.5mm rifle gain a solid 250 fps by stepping up to the 6.5-284, which is about the same jump gained by going from a .30-06 to a .300 Win. Mag.
This cartridge is included here for one reason: It has proven to be one of the most capable options for long-range hunting, which is the biggest trend on western America’s hunting scene. Whether you detest the practice of sniping big game at extended distances or you idolize the TV practitioners that promote such hunting methods matters not for the sake of this discussion.
The cartridge can get it done without breaking a sweat. Don’t believe cartridges sweat? Try and get your .308 to keep up with the fellow shooting one-MOA steel targets all the way to 1,200 yards with his 6.5-284.
I don’t have space here to crunch comparison numbers, but a few minutes spent on a good ballistic calculator will show that the 6.5-284 smokes most popular hunting cartridges in terms of retained weight and minimal wind drift at extreme distances.
Lots of hunters exercising their right to shoot game at distances that would bulge the eyes of our forefathers choose to do so with Berger VLD Hunting bullets—and with great success in most cases. Respectfully, I submit that projectiles engineered to provide predictable expansion and controlled weight loss are superior, particularly those long-range super-bullets such as Hornady’s new ELD-X and Nosler’s AccuBond Long Range.
As with the 6.5 Creedmoor, bullets in the 120- to 140-grain weight range work superbly on deer-size game. When stepping up to heavier game, a 140-grain projectile designed for controlled expansion and deep penetration is much better.
How far is too far? Assuming you’re rifleman enough to put your first shot into the vital zone every time, the cartridge has what it takes to kill cleanly at 1,000 yards and beyond. No offense, but most of y’all just aren’t. So even if you own and hunt with a super-accurate 6.5-284, exercise your ethics and keep it practical.
7mm Remington Magnum
I am a reluctant admirer of this cartridge. It couldn’t be excluded from this roundup even if I weren’t, since it’s one of the most popular big-game cartridges. I’ve come to respect it tremendously.
Oddly, with light-for-caliber bullets in the 140- and even 150-grain range,
it doesn’t offer eyebrow-raising performance increases over mundane cartridges, such as the .30-06 or .270, with similar-weight projectiles. However, when the bullets get heavy, the “Seven Mag” gets going. Judicious handloads can push 168-grain Bergers, 175-grain Nosler Partitions and Hornady ELD-Xs, and Berger 180-grain bullets at capable velocities, making it one of the finest everyman’s long-distance cartridges.
Until a few years ago, I was an all-American .30-caliber man, my gaggingly long Austrian name notwithstanding. While I still revere .308-diameter projectiles for their many outstanding characteristics, diligent application eventually revealed to me (I’m slow, but I get there) that 7mm (.284) diameter bullets are inherently more aerodynamic, at least in common weights, than their slightly fatter cousins.
I do think the magnum versions of those fatter cousins still hit harder, courtesy of a larger frontal diameter and increased bullet weight, but for the average guy—and even the accomplished rifleman—the 7mm Rem. Mag. is easier to shoot by virtue of less recoil.
Some old-timers have a sour taste over the 7mm Rem. Mag. In the early years it quickly developed a reputation for poor killing ability, which wasn’t a fault of the cartridge at all. Rather, it stemmed from ammo manufacturers loading soft, thin-jacketed hunting bullets designed for the much-slower 7×57 Mauser
cartridge into the 7mm Rem. Mag. On impact, they tended to blow to bits, resulting in huge craters and little penetration. Long blood trails and extensive meat loss did little to endear the cartridge to traditional American hunters.
Today, it’s much better understood, and when stoked with a long, sleek, high-BC bullet designed for high velocities, it’s probably the most practical long-range hunting cartridge available.
28 Nosler
While its much older, more established, smaller 7mm brother is arguably the most practical long-range hunting cartridge available, the 28 Nosler is arguably the best of the best—if you walk practicality off the metaphorical plank.
It pushes a 175-grain Nosler ABLR or Hornady ELD-X at 3,125 fps, and does so from a standard-length action. Yes, there are faster cartridges, such as the 7mm Remington Ultra Mag, but none offer quite the ideal balance of usability and performance that the 28 Nosler does.
The 28 Nosler isn’t a new concept. Gunwerks’s 7mm LRM is very similar, and like-performing wildcats abound. All Nosler did was perfect (arguably, of course) the non-belted, standard-length magnum 7mm.
Of all the cartridges on this list, the 28 Nosler is the only one not proven by at least a half-decade of use and is the only one too young to have earned the stamp of popular approval. So I’m going out on a limb a bit by including it. What I like about it is the refined design (I really do think it’s the best of the standard-length modern magnums), plus the fact that Nosler brass is typically very consistent, favoring accuracy. And, of course, it’s in my favorite far-shooting bullet diameter: 7mm.
With light 7mm bullets the 28 Nosler puts lasers to shame. With heavy Partitions and X-type bullets, it penetrates like a depth charge. But in light of what it’s really good at, one may as well just go with a heavy, aerodynamic hunting bullet and use it for everything. There’s not a hooved animal on the North American continent that it’s not prime for.
.300 Winchester Magnum
.300 Winchester Magnum
For the fella that can handle the recoil and doesn’t mind spending the extra money on ammo, the .300 Win. Mag. is arguably the best worldwide big-game cartridge there is. For such a hunter, it’s a better choice than the glorious .30-06, just because it carries more energy downrange and shoots a bit flatter. Plus, the .300 Win. Mag. excels with long, heavy, aerodynamic bullets that hold on to velocity and buck the wind beautifully, making it capable as far out as a good rifleman can keep his shots in the vitals.
For many decades, the 7mm Rem. Mag. held the spot as the most popular magnum cartridge available. A decade or so ago the gap closed, and according to many polls, the .300 Win. Mag. has now edged to the front. Were I pressed to guess why, I’d say that the bigger cartridge just kills a little faster, probably a product of the greater frontal diameter. I’ve shot a lot of game with my favorite .300, ranging from 40-pound steenbok to 1,200-pound moose and rarely do properly hit animals go farther than a step or two.
Another advantage the .300 Win. Mag. shares with the .30-06 and 7mm Rem. Mag. is the availability of ammunition worldwide. The last time I went to Africa, my baggage was lost for a couple of days. No problem: I borrowed a pocketful of the outfitter’s outstanding 200-grain Norma Oryx handloads and went hunting. A big blue wildebeest fell to that bullet before my baggage arrived.
Speaking of bullets, there’s little one can’t accomplish with a good 180-grain pill from a .30-caliber magnum, but don’t neglect the heavier projectiles. One of my favorites is the 200-grain Nosler AccuBond.
Another is the new 200-grain Hornady ELD-X. With it I dropped an old aoudad ram with one shot at 641 yards; it’s become my go-to long-distance bullet. (Note that for me a very long shot on game is 600 yards. I don’t promote extreme-range shooting at game.) As for factory loads, I’ve had incredibly good results using Federal’s 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip; it gave me 13 one-shot kills in Africa after my luggage arrived.
Much as I respect the .30-06 and the 7mm Rem. Mag., if I had to choose one big-game cartridge to hunt the world with for the rest of my life, I’d opt for the .300 Win. Mag.
.25-06 Remington
This is the cartridge the .243 Winchester always wished it could be. Offering outstanding velocities and just enough bullet weight to be really effective, at a very polite price in recoil, the .25-06 is one of the finest deer and pronghorn antelope cartridges ever devised.
With bullets in the 75- to 87- grain range, it’s also superb for predators. But I digress. Choose a sleek bullet in the 110- to 117-grain range, which will exit the muzzle of your favorite deer slayer somewhere between 3,000 and 3,100 fps, and never look back. You’ll be able to reach out to 400-plus yards—if you’re rifleman enough to do so ethically—with outstanding effect.
As for the bigger game, well, the .25-06 is not as good as the larger-diameter bullets flung by other cartridges on this list. But with a 115-grain Nosler Partition, it will do for caribou and elk as long as good shot presentations are taken.
.280 Ackley Improved
For the chap who pines for magnum performance but clings to the advantages of a standard-size cartridge (greater magazine capacity, less recoil, more efficient powder usage, less costly brass, longer barrel life), the .280 Ackley Improved is a wonder drug.
By blowing out the case walls to a straighter taper and the case shoulder to a much steeper angle, P.O. Ackley (who was the master of the improved cartridge case) turned the languishing .280 Remington into a fire-breathing dragon capable of 7mm Rem. Mag.-like performance.
Stoked with healthy charges of Reloder 19 or 22 under a 150-grain Barnes TTSX or 160-grain Nosler AccuBond, the .280 AI smokes big bull elk like a Sicilian crime lord smokes a Cuban cigar—there just shouldn’t be that much pure goodness in such a compact package. I dropped what was at the time my biggest bull with one well-placed shot at 519 yards with the 150-grain TTSX, which exits the muzzle of my custom rifle at 3,060 fps. For electrocuting whitetails in their tracks inside 400 yards, load a 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, Hornady SST, or Sierra GameKing at 3,150 fps.
Better yet, the .280 AI is a legitimate long-range performer. Hornady’s Joe Theilen shoots one in 1,000-yard benchrest competition with outstanding success. Loaded with a premium .284-diameter match projectile, such as Barnes Bullets’s 171-grain Match Burner or Hornady’s 162-grain A-Max, it comfortably gets the job done to 1,200 yards.
Want to take your match-shooting skills across No Man’s Land into the murky realm of long-range hunting? Load your .280 AI with Hornady’s new 162- or 175-grain ELD-X match-accurate hunting bullets and never look back.
Not versatile, you say? Au contraire! Courtesy of the genius of Ackley’s design, you can safely and effectively fire garden-variety .280 Remington ammo in your .280 AI rifle. In fact, that’s the least expensive way to produce appropriate brass for your improved chamber. That little characteristic has pulled more than one wandering adventurer molested by the unreliability of the airline out of a slump and put him back in the hunting game. Plus, Nosler loads factory .280 AI ammo for those who don’t handload.
.338 Winchester Magnum
Really, all you need to know about this great cartridge is that the late, great Elmer Keith loved it and living legend Dave Petzal loves it. I recently asked Craig Boddington, who is arguably the most experienced dangerous-game hunter/writer alive, if he considers the .338 Win. Mag. to be a legitimate big bear stopper. (Most cartridges will kill a bear; few will stop one bent on killing you before he bites your scalp off.)
Boddington replied with an emphatic yes and pointed out that although bore diameter (.338) is a significant 0.037-inch smaller than the .375 H&H Magnum, the .338 Win. Mag. drives a 250-grain projectile at 2,700 fps or better, which matches the velocity of 260-grain bullets out of the bigger magnum.
And with such bullets, it offers better sec-tional density (0.313 vs. 0.264). In fact, the 250-grain .338 projectile betters even 300-grain .375 bullets, which boast an already-impressive sectional density of 0.305. In English, that means that heavy .338 Win. Mag. bullets will penetrate like the proverbial runaway freight train.
Loaded with a heavy Nosler Partition, Barnes TSX, Hornady GMX, Swift A-Frame, or the like, the .338 Win. Mag. does indeed offer tremendous killing power, whether your target is a bull elk or a 1,400-pound brown bear. Plus, it’s more versatile than the .375 H&H for several reasons. It shoots flatter, courtesy of higher muzzle velocity, and is more suitable for shots stretching past 250 yards. Additionally, it can be loaded with lighter bullets in the 185- to 200-grain range at 3,000 to 3,200 fps, making it a flat-shooting deer rifle. Handloaders wishing to stretch their lethal distance have long-range bullets designed for the .338 Lapua at their disposal.
I’ve said that a good .300 Win. Mag. teamed with a reliable .375 H&H sets a hunter up to hunt any game around the world. But if you’re not a world traveler, there’s a better way. Pair a reliable .338 Win. Mag. with a fine, accurate deer rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5×284 Norma, or .280 Ackley Improved, and you’ll be well equipped to hunt anything that walks the North American continent.
.270 Winchester
Although there are younger, more modern cartridges that outpace the classic .270 Winchester at extreme ranges, I’ve long said that Jack O’Connor’s favorite is still one of the very best deer cartridges.
Some folks like to talk about shot placement and how with the right shot presentation even a .223 will kill a moose stone dead. Me, I like to be able to kill big, heavy-boned, densely muscled deer from any angle, should the need arise. That means shooting a cartridge that throws enough lead and throws it hard.
The .270 is one such cartridge. Loaded with a premium hunting bullet, such as a Nosler Partition, Barnes TTSX, Hornady GMX, or Swift Scirocco II, a savvy hunter can rake his bullet through the hip and into the vitals of a buck—even a big muley in the Rockies or a bulky whitetail in Alberta—and be confident that it’s got what it takes to kill cleanly.
You may argue that ethical hunters take only clean shot presentations. You’re right, of course. Thing is, shooting the right cartridge and bullet broadens the definition of clean, ethical presentations considerably, which can be heartening when the biggest buck you’ve ever seen is about to disappear into a thicket on the last evening of a hunt you’ve saved a decade for.
.30-06 Springfield
By and large, most game in America is shot inside of 200 yards, and no cartridge is more capable than the .30-06 for that use. This old warhorse is America’s most popular hunting cartridge—hard to believe considering that it’s well over 100 years old. It earned that title the hard way, and maintains it the same way, by proving year in and year out that for all-around use, it can’t be beat.
Past 200 yards the faster .30s begin to edge it out because they carry more energy, but in the hands of a skillful rifleman the old ’06 is ideal for deer, antelope, caribou, elk, and moose out to 300 yards or so. And, yes, many deer and elk are taken well in excess of that each year. I’m not saying that it can’t do it; it’s just that past 300 yards there are cartridges that do it better.
Many hunters opt to shoot the lighter 150- and 165-grain bullets in their .30-06s, and they work great on deer-size game. However, where the ’06 really shines is with 180-grain projectiles (and here’s where it really pulls away from the .308). Heavier bullets have far better aerodynamics and offer considerably higher sectional densities—which is a measure that, all other factors being equal, predicts the penetrating ability of a projectile. While heavy bullets start out a bit slower than their lighter siblings, they hold on to velocity better and soon overtake them, thus offering considerable more on-impact authority downrange courtesy of their heavier mass.
Handloading the .30-06 can boost performance. Most 180-grain factory loads produce about 2,700 fps; a good handload can add 50 to 100 fps to that. My favorite bullets for the .30-06 are Nosler’s 180-grain AccuBond, Swift’s 180-grain Scirocco II, Sierra’s 180-grain GameKing, Barnes’s 180-grain TTSX, and, last but not least, Federal’s 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip. That last one may be the best of them all, but it’s unfortunately available only in factory-loaded form.
6.5 Creedmoor
Originally designed as a 1,000-yard match cartridge, this super-efficient little round quickly caught on among savvy, precision-minded hunters that want good performance at low recoil. Designed by a national champion long-distance shooter (Dennis DeMille) and the Einstein of modern cartridge development (Dave Emary), the 6.5 Creedmoor nips at the heels of the superb 6.5-284 but is less finicky in the accuracy department and offers substantially greater barrel life.
Of all the cartridges discussed here, the 6.5 Creedmoor, in my opinion, is the most inherently accurate. I’ve never met one that wouldn’t shoot one-MOA groups, and many of them will halve that, even with factory ammunition.
While the 6.5 Creedmoor pushes the long, aerodynamic 140-grain projectiles so popular among its followers at around 2,720 fps—a full 220 fps slower than a .270 Winchester shoots the same weight—the sleek 6.5 bullets hang on to velocity much more efficiently.
As distances increase, the 6.5 gains on the .270 and eventually passes it. In other words, at long range the 140-grain 6.5 Creedmoor bullet is both going faster and has better sectional density than the 140-grain .270 bullet and will impact with more authority. Now, that’s a tunnel-vision comparison of two superb cartridges, but it serves to illustrate the effectiveness of this little short-action 6.5mm.
While many deer and more than a few elk fall each year to Hornady’s ultra-accurate 140-grain A-Max 6.5mm match bullet, hunters are better off with a bullet actually designed for terminal performance on big game. Choose a 120- to 143-grain version that your gun likes for use on deer and pronghorn-size game. Should you wish to push the 6.5’s boundaries and hunt elk-size game with it, opt for a tough 140-grain bullet designed for controlled expansion, such as a Nosler Partition or AccuBond or a Swift A-Frame, or a homogeneous Barnes 120-grain TTSX or Hornady 120-grain GMX.
Read more: http://www.petersenshunting.com/ammo/americas-top-10-big-game-cartridges/#ixzz4yLgpWgrT
