“Guy, while you’re here let me show you the new pistol I got for self defense!”

Oh goodness… When I know my friend isn’t a handgun shooter, but does sometimes hunt with either a shotgun, rifle or bow… Sometimes it all works out fine. But there’s an organized way to do this. Once you’re determined that you want a concealed carry or self-defense type handgun in your life:

1) Take a class. From a good instructor. Set aside the time and money and take a legit handgun class, preferably one focused on self defense. In many cases it’s okay to take the class without even owning a handgun! I’ve had quite a few folks who didn’t own a handgun come to my class where they got to sample a variety of semi-automatics and revolvers.

Taking a class will get you started correctly. You’ll learn gun safety - which is crucial! You should also learn about the laws regarding self defense, particularly in your state, county and city. You’ll get introduced to a variety of different handgun types.

A good self-defense handgun course will teach more than the basics. It will teach how and when to defend yourself, and very importantly when to back off and get out of the situation without even drawing your gun. You’ll learn to fight with your handgun, which is far beyond simply knowing how to shoot it. You’ll learn to move to cover, to shoot while only minimally exposing yourself to fire. You may learn to shoot by illuminating the threat with a flashlight. You’ll learn to load and reload your firearm rapidly and how to clear malfunctions.

2) Get a permit to carry. Go through whatever steps are required for you to legally carry a handgun concealed on your person. In some states it’s very easy, in other states it’s a time-consuming and expensive process. Either way, you don’t want to carry concealed illegally! That can land you in jail pretty quickly. Also learn which states recognize your state’s permit. It should all be reciprocal, but it’s not. Some states have “constitutional carry” meaning if you’re not a convicted felon or otherwise prohibited from owning a firearm, you can carry concealed.

3) Get your handgun and accessories. Select the firearm with care. It should be what works for you and your situation. Will you be carrying it concealed or just having it in your home or vehicle? Is it something you’re comfortable with? Is it too big or too small to properly grip? Is it too complicated to operate quickly and well? Is it too powerful to control? Is it a quality tool or some piece of junk? Yes, there are poorly made handguns on the market.

My handgun toting friends carry a wide variety of handguns from tiny 22 rimfires to large and powerful full size revolvers and semi autos. Time to time I swap one handgun for another as the situation dictates but I stick with guns I know well through many hours of practice.

Accessories? YES. Some are very important for your handgunning success.

cleaning kit - guns require maintenance. For peak performance the gun needs to be properly cleaned and lubricated.

holster - you should have some way to carry the handgun securely. That might mean simple pocket carry or it might mean an expensive custom made holster, or something in between.

extra magazines and a mag pouch for semi-automatics

speed-loader or speed strips for revolvers

ear and eye protection - a must. I often use both ear plugs and ear muffs to protect what’s left of my hearing. Indoor ranges and covered ranges can be particularly noisy.

4) Ammunition. I like to have three types:

carry ammunition - some kind of typically expensive, top of the line defensive ammo

range ammunition - less expensive, often full metal jacket ammo intended for target practice. Using this will save you a lot of money! You should buy a LOT of range ammo as gaining and maintaining good pistol handling skills can require a lot of shooting and frequent range sessions. Money spent on more ammunition and training is generally better than spending money on yet another gun, or on fancy gadgets for your self-defense gun.

snap caps - I’ve found these to be quite valuable for training purposes. Not just for “dry fire” but for safely training loading, unloading and malfunction-clearing skills. They’re inert with no powder or primer, so they simply can’t shoot. Keep them separate from your real ammunition so there’s no confusion.

5) Insurance/coverage/lawyer. If you are someday involved in a self-defense shooting, you’re going to need very good legal representation. Several firms offer coverage, sometimes including training with the membership. I was a police detective. My job was to find a suspect and gather enough evidence to convict that suspect. A confession was a very important part of those cases. Remember, you have the right to remain silent, it’s an important right and I urge you to use it. Talk to a competent lawyer first. Someone who knows criminal law. Often the insurance firm you’ve hired has a legal staff that can help you. That is well worth paying for. Do your research before buying the insurance. Make sure the firm is reputable and has a history of protecting people involved in self-defense shootings. Coverage for this is very important!

6) Practice often. Handgun skills can certainly deteriorate over time. Once proficiency is gained, it’s good to maintain that skill by repeated range sessions. Typically those don’t involve an instructor, but if you’re still new at shooting, or if it’s been a while, a session with a good instructor can help considerably. For me, I find that fairly short, 50 - 100 round sessions repeated frequently are better than an occasional long day at the range with 500 rounds or more expended. Typically I’ll visit a local range weekly and limit my training to one or two boxes of ammo. I’ll also have specific skills in mind that I wish to practice. Like shooting with my support hand instead of my primary hand. That might just be important someday.

7) Alternatives. Hopefully you’ll never need to protect yourself from an attacker, but it happens. Having alternative forms of self-defense available, instead of relying only on the gun, is worthwhile. Martial arts/hand-to-hand skills can be very useful, but can also take a long time to master. Pepper spray or the newer pepper-ball launchers can be effective and are simple. Knives are still lethal weapons and in the right circumstances can mean the difference between life and death. Consider a walking stick or cane… Well-handled such a stick can be brutally effective. TASER is a useful tool for some. I didn’t use it often in police work, but it sure did work well, most of the time.

There’s a lot more to this whole subject. Books have been written. Videos made. It is often hotly debated on the internet. Learn all you can and be serious about this, carrying a firearm for self defense is a very heavy commitment. Your life and the lives of others could ride on how well you handle that commitment.

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I’m a retired cop, detective, SWAT sniper and firearms instructor as well as a USMC veteran. Follow me here, on FB, Instagram and on Ultimate Reloader for more info on this and related topics. Carry discretely and shoot well if shooting is necessary!

Guy

I’ll keep this brief - loads and comments. I’ve hunted with each of these. If you handload, be sure to follow the old rule of dropping by 10% and working up carefully.

Let’s start heavy and work our way down:

200 grain Nosler Partition

This was loaded with 54 grains of H4350 and produced 2600 fps from my Remington 700’s 24” barrel. Accuracy was good, trajectory was flat enough for easy 300 yard shooting and recoil was surprisingly pleasant - partially due to the good recoil pad on my rifle. Other powders could have moved that 200 grain bullet to roughly 2700 fps, but I was satisfied with the load. All the shooting happened in a hurry when the grizzly showed at less than 50 yards, heading towards us. I shot all four of the cartridges in the magazine. One miss, two good hits and one poor hit. The two good hits each dropped him, but being a grizzly he got back up after the first drop. I finished him at about 15 yards when he was down on the ground, using the guide’s 338 Win Mag.

The recovered 200 grain Nosler Partition exhibited classic performance for that bullet penetrating deep after violent expansion. It weighed 144 grains. I’d highly recommend this bullet for heavy game such as elk, particularly in timber.

180 grain Berger Elite Hunter

The 180 grain weight is a classic choice for the 30-06, but this is a newer and somewhat unusual choice for a hunting bullet. I chose these 180 grain Berger Elite Hunter bullets for a Washington mule deer hunt in Okanogan county. A muzzle velocity of 2730 fps was achieved with 58 grains of Ramshot Hunter. That left quite a bit of room for increased charges if a higher velocity is desired. Hunter is a spherical powder and flows well through a powder measure. It’s also capable of producing excellent velocity from the 30-06 case. I was satisfied with the .8” - 1.0” three-shot 100 yard groups and zeroed the 6x scope at 200 yards.

The 3x3 muley at 350 yards fell to the 180 grain Berger bullet. This was my fourth mule deer with a Berger bullet. Typically the Berger bullets enter with a small, often hard-to-find pinprick of a bullet hole, penetrate several inches into the chest cavity then expand violently, even fragmenting. This has always produced an instant drop for me.

The Berger Elite Hunter has a high BC of .576 G1 or .295 G7. What’s that mean to the hunter? It means that the bullet does a fine job of slicing through crosswind with less deflection, flattens the trajectory a bit, and retains more velocity farther downrange. I view this load as a fine one for the 30-06 and medium game out to 400 yards or perhaps a fair bit beyond if the hunter and his equipment are up to the task.

Some folks just don’t like hunting with a Berger bullet - and the good news is that there are many other choices of 180ish grain bullets in .308” diameter.

178 grain Hornady ELD-X

This is the bullet I chose for an open-country central Oregon cow elk hunt. Ranges tend to be long out there, as it’s not the kind of country people normally imagine when they think of Oregon. The ELD-X excels at longish range. Again I used Ramshot Hunter, this time bumping up the charge just a bit to 58.5 grains for 2790 fps, still well short of the capabilities of this combination. Three shot groups at 100 yards averaged just under an inch, plenty good enough for an animal the size of elk. At Ultimate Reloader we’d tested the bullet in clear ballistics gel blocks at 20 yards and found that it held together, expanded and penetrated well.

The hunt required a fair bit of hiking and stalking, even crawling on hands and knees to close to 405 yards where we ran out of cover. The herd we were watching was milling about and I had to be patient waiting for one cow to stand still. There was a brisk wind blowing from left to right. After a quick conference with the guide (an experienced long range shooter and hunter) we agreed on how much I should compensate for range and wind. My shot was rewarded when the bullet smashed through her fore-leg shattering the bone, then penetrated through the heart:

Sadly even those two serious injuries didn’t prevent her from trying to rejoin the herd. We had to stalk closer for a finishing shot. It’s the real world, sometimes game needs to be shot more than once.

Looking at this photo it’s obvious that this is big, open country and can require some longish range shooting. Three of us de-boned the elk and packed the meat off the ridge. I give the Hornady ELD-X high marks for accuracy as well as having excellent performance at longer ranges. I’ve not yet taken game with it at close range, but the gel block test was promising.

165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip

For several years the 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip loaded to 2940 fps over a stiff charge of H4350 was my choice for an all-around 30-06 load, particularly in open country where shots might be longer. I’d seen what the classic 165 grain partition could do and wanted to see if the Ballistic Tip measured up, or if perhaps it might even be a bit better in some ways. I have taken pronghorn antelope, mule deer, black bear and cow elk with the 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip and in each case performance was excellent.

The gilding metal jacket has a thick base and heavy walls towards the abbreviated boat tail. The jacket tapers considerably near the tip of the bullet. The plastic tip, quite an innovation when it was introduced, provides a higher BC and protects the large hollow point lurking beneath. I’ve found that these bullets expand well up close and also out beyond 300 yards. The G1 BC of .475 isn’t particularly high, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either. H4350 easily drives it to 2940 fps with good accuracy and more speed is available with other powders.

I’ve used it to drop a large Washington cow elk at 340 yards, putting the bullet through both shoulder blades and trashing the lungs. The animal staggered about 20 yards downhill before collapsing. A black bear quickly succumbed when shot at about 325 yards. The bullet entered the right ribs, traversed forward and took out both lungs. The jacket was found in the off-side hide, but the core had separated and punched on through. That bear went ten yards at most.

That’s a well-deserved grin on a do-it-yourself public land elk hunt.

The only game animal that required more than one shot was a 4x5 Wyoming mule deer facing towards me at about 140 yards. The shot dropped him instantly but he required a finisher when we walked up on him. The first bullet was recovered from his flank, well expanded.

A 30-06 with most any bullet is more than is needed for pronghorn antelope, but this combo certainly worked well on the two bucks I took with it, each at about 250 yards. Instant drop in each case, as expected.

165 grain Hornady CX

A bullet I haven’t used much thoroughly impressed me as a deep-penetrator and I want to use it more. I took only one modest size black bear with a single shot at about 65 yards. Penetration was complete with an exit and the bear dropped within 20 yards. Accuracy was excellent as well.

Tight 100 yard three-shot zero-confirmation group before the successful bear hunt.

55.4 grains of H4350 produced 2863 fps with the 165 grain Hornady CX. This is a hard bullet and thrives on high velocity in addition to at least a .050” jump to the lands. The good folks at Hornady told me “You will get bullet exits.”

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I’m a lifelong hunter, USMC veteran, rifle competitor, and a retired law enforcement officer. Follow me on Instagram and also on Ultimate Reloader.

Hunt well!

“Are you going to eat that coyote?”

“My daddy taught me to not kill anything I wasn’t going to eat.”

Or something along those lines - all the while disparaging the hunter’s accomplishment.

50 years ago working on an Idaho ranch I learned that cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits and rockchucks were eating, destroying, up to about 25% of the alfalfa the rancher had planted. Alfalfa he needed to bale for feed for his cattle. The rancher was delighted that I was so enthusiastic about reducing his varmint infestation. Work on a ranch is never really done - but after the day’s work I’d wander out to some key areas on the ranch, overlooking an alfalfa field. The rancher had a couple of 22’s, rifle and pistol, and was deadly with them, but I’d brought along my then-new 6mm Remington and some hot 75 grain hollowpoint handloads… We vaporized varmints out to 300 yards and beyond with that little rifle! It was great fun for us and eliminated a lot of critters. I ended up picking up a few more boxes of ammo in town because I’d run out of my handloads and my press was 600 miles away. With the 22’s and the 6mm Remington we reduced the population of alfalfa-eaters considerably.

This fat rockchuck has been living well!

Another crop eater!

The rancher was happy that I took this coyote with my 25-06 deer rifle.

I still have and use that 1974 vintage 6mm Remington 700 BDL. It’s probably taken several hundred varmints and predators over the decades as well as a number of deer.

The Idaho rancher kept a tally of the number of chucks, rabbits and rattlesnakes he dispatched every year. There was a notable increase in slain critters the couple of times I worked there. The next couple of times I worked at the ranch I brought along a handgun. Of all things, Dad let me drag along his beautiful old Colt Bisley in 38 Special! I had no idea it was actually worth anything, but it shot my 158 grain semi-wadcutter handloads just fine and accounted for a lot of critters. The next trip I had my own Colt Trooper MkIII, also using 38 handloads. The 22’s killed just fine, but it was fun to hunt with the bigger handguns and of course the 6mm Remington rifle.

The old Colt Bisley 38 is in fine condition despite me running around the sagebrush and lava rock of southern Idaho with it stuck in my belt all those years ago. It did a fine job on rabbits and chucks alike with 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter handloads, the kind of 38 loads I still favor today.

For several years on a Wyoming cattle ranch I hunted for pronghorn antelope and mule deer - both of which I find delicious - I was also offered the opportunity to reduce the number of prairie dogs and also the coyote population. My 25-06 did a fine job on a coyote at almost a quarter mile and I destroyed some prairie dogs with the 204 Ruger. No, we didn’t eat any coyotes or prairie dogs.

I’d brought the 25-06 with handloaded 115 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for mule deer and pronghorn but it also did a fine job on this coyote.

Same thing with coyotes, mountain lions and even bears - ranchers and farmers suffer losses to their chickens, their calves and foals. One rancher I know finds lion scars on his horses time to time, but the grown horses are pretty good at taking care of themselves. Another rancher I know has a herd of longhorn cattle in the Cascade mountains of Washington. He told me that the longhorns don’t seem to have any problem dealing with big cats or bears. After looking at his longhorns I didn’t have any problem believing that! However, some ranchers have predator problems, which is probably why so many ranchers are dead set against the reintroduction of wolves into their area after a century of no wolves. These same ranchers are enthusiastic about lions, wolves and coyotes being hunted.

Studies have shown that black bear are extraordinarily effective at locating and killing the elk calves and deer fawns. Yes, bears are often hunted as not just a big game animal, but rather as a predator. The population of predators needs to be controlled for wildlife and livestock to flourish.

Mule deer fawns, also bear food…

Good sized Washington black bear I took years ago with the 375 H&H Ruger Number One. Large sized predator!

In 2023 and 2024 I hunted black bear in Idaho. There’s a two-bear limit in the area I hunted and the tags are inexpensive, even for a non-resident. Wolf and mountain lion tags are also quite affordable. Idaho is trying to reduce the number of predators so that their elk and deer populations grow.

I did my part to reduce the bear population! BTW, this one was eaten in camp, but I was just there for the hunt, I wanted to take another bear.

Years ago Dad shot a rabid skunk while we were pheasant hunting. It was near a farmhouse and absolutely needed to be shot. No, we didn’t eat the rabid skunk.

I’m told that often in Africa animals are “culled” - their populations deliberately reduced. This includes even elephant! Yes, in places there are too many elephant and they are destroying the environment. One answer is culling by government paid shooters - or letting more paying hunters come in and reduce that population while making a profit for Africans. That meat often does make it to market, but the intent is to reduce the population.

On a Brooks Range grizzly hunt I took a good sized bear and also a wolf. The state of Alaska was trying to help their caribou and moose herds recover and wanted to reduce the number of predators. Buying a grizzly tag also legally allowed me to take up to ten wolves! That’s a state working to reduce predator numbers. Neither the grizzly nor the wolf were eaten by humans, but I’m sure the carcasses fed other local wildlife.

Some daddies were just flat wrong. There are many reasons to kill an animal, other than filling the freezer with it. Perhaps it’s dangerous, or overpopulated, or for some other reason, it just needs to be shot.

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I’m a lifelong hunter, a Marine veteran and retired law enforcement officer. Am also a certified firearms instructor. Thanks for reading my Substack blog! Hunt well.

Guy

Muley buck taken at about 350 yards with the 180 grain Berger Elite Hunter from my 30-06.

We’re constantly bombarded with articles about this bullet, that cartridge for a particular type of hunting. Seems like every year there are newer, perhaps better, cartridges and bullets. We’ve been killing game with firearms for a solid 500 years… Some cartridges and bullets are indeed “better” for particular tasks than others.

Bottom line is that we’ve got to hit game where it counts.

We’re advised to hit game “in the vitals” - but where is that exactly? After decades of hunting here’s what I like to target:

1) Both lungs. Put a good expanding bullet through both lungs and you’ll collect your game quickly. There may well be a short death run, that’s just part of the deal. Taking both lungs is important. Hit in only one lung, some game animals can do an amazing job of covering ground in their escape attempt. This big cow elk took a 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip through both lungs, and broke both scapula, at about 340 yards. The handloaded 30-06 was about 2900 fps. She dropped very quickly, staggering downhill for perhaps 20 yards before collapsing.

2) Top of the heart. This is the blood pump, it’s also got the big arteries leading out if the hit is a little high. A hit there often includes the lungs which of course is excellent. A hit to the bottom of the heart may not be instantly fatal, as evidenced by a 200 yard followup on foot after I punched a 178 grain Hornady ELD-X through the heart of a cow elk at 405 yards with my 30-06. Even though the bullet shattered the foreleg and went through the heart, that elk kept trying to escape and covered 200 yards before I could finish her. The rifle did well, the bullet did well, but I put it a few inches too low and her escape effort taught me a lesson. Top of the heart, not lower in the heart. 30-06 and the handloaded 178 grain ELD-X at about 2790 fps muzzle velocity.

After shattering the fore leg, the 178 grain ELD-X penetrated through the lower part of the elk’s heart. A hit just a few inches higher would have ended things more quickly.

In contrast I hit a big bull elk atop the heart, and took out his lungs. He took only a few faltering steps then collapsed. 7mm Remington Magnum and a 175 grain Nosler Partition at about 2900 fps.

3) CNS shots - spine and brain - Be careful about these. If you can hit the brain, excellent! But it’s a small target. A miss may result in a severely wounded animal fleeing, never to be recovered. The spine however is sometimes hit by hunters trying for the “high shoulder shot” and getting too high. It often produces an instant drop, immobilizing the animal but may not kill the animal quickly. A finishing shot is often necessary.

My youngest son dropped this whitetail buck instantly with his old 30-06, but quickly chambered another round. Sure enough, he’d hit near the spine and stunned the buck. It got back up and he finished it with a lethal hit to the vitals.

Hits anywhere else often produce less than desirable results - such as a wounded animal escaping. Gut shots are not good hits - though perhaps they can include the liver, in which case death will come quicker.

But what to hit them with?

This is where it becomes a very personal choice. Rifle, cartridge, bullet are all furiously debated online. I recommend using the combo that works right for you. A rifle that feels comfortable, optics that perform, and ammo/bullet based largely on accuracy and also considers on-game performance. Heavy recoil doesn’t typically have to be part of the package for most hunting.

My guidance, based on what’s worked for me:

Deer and pronghorn antelope - For open country where the shots may be long I want an accurate bullet that expands very easily. I’ve had great success with Nosler Ballistic Tips, Hornady ELD-X, Hornady FTX for lever action rifles, and Bergers, both the VLD and the Elite Hunter line. Tremendous penetration is not necessary on deer. If you favor a mono-metal bullet, I’ve also had good success on deer with the Barnes TSX & TTSX. My favorite deer rifle is a 25-06, though the 6.5 Creedmoor is growing on me.

Elk - cow and mature bull elk are not the same - a mature bull elk is not only larger, it has much denser bones. For cow and young bulls a rapidly expanding bullet like the Nosler Ballistic Tip of the Hornady ELD-X works great. For big bull elk… strongly consider a controlled expansion, deep penetrating bullet, like the Barnes TSX, Hornady CX, Nosler Partition or Nosler Accubond. Those bullets hang tough, expand and penetrate. My elk have come to a 7mm Remington Magnum and also to the 30-06.

No matter what you shoot, a 30-30 lever action, a tricked-out PRS style 6.5 Creedmoor or PRC, a traditional 308 or 30-06… Whatever it is, get comfortable and competent with it. Learn to place your shots well and quickly. Shot opportunities can appear suddenly and vanish equally quickly. Be ready to take that shot very quickly and instantly get back on target with a freshly chambered cartridge. We all want to make those great one-shot kills, but when hunting things happen. Sometimes we need to make a quick, accurate follow-up shot. Practice from field positions, not just from the bench. Once I’ve got my load worked up and my rifle zeroed, I rarely shoot it from the bench, but I’ll shoot it a lot from prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, with and without a bipod or shooting sticks. Learn that rifle well and it’ll treat you well this coming season.

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I’m a lifelong hunter with 60 years afield, also a Marine Corps veteran and retired law enforcement officer with 12 years as a SWAT sniper team leader. Many years as a firearms instructor and handloader. I hope that all of you hunters enjoy tremendous success afield this year and in years to come.

Regards, Guy

This is really important for handloaders, but also important for many who use only factory ammunition. BTW, in recent decades the overall quality of factory ammunition seems to have soared, with some notable shortfalls of course.

What do I mean about putting the round peg in the round hole for success? Choose a component bullet and a velocity appropriate for the quarry and for the anticipated distance of the shot.

One of the worst mistakes a hunter can make is to use a particularly “soft” readily expanding bullet at close range on a sturdy, heavy big game animal. I do not know which bullet Bob Nosler was using on his trophy moose in the 1940’s - but it failed so spectacularly that he decided to start making his own big game bullets, which were of course the famous Nosler Partition. Those bullets featured a soft, rapidly expanding front end separated by a physical partition from the lead core in the rear section. The bullet has of course been modified, improved, over the decades and still remains an exceedingly effective big game bullet. I’ve been particularly impressed with the heavier Nosler Partitions in 30 caliber and 7mm diameter on elk and grizzly.

200 grain 30 caliber Nosler Partition recovered from a grizzly. Roughly a 30 yard shot. Excellent penetration!

.338” 225 grain Barnes TSX recovered from a grizzly shot at about 15 yards. Not intended for long-range use, it has a very important role as a modest range big game bullet.

For that same task other specialized bullet makers offer theirs. Some are bonded, some have mechanical locks keeping at least part of the core intact, some are solid copper or copper alloy with a hollow point for expansion. All of those “premium” bullets are intended to penetrate beyond what normal cup and core jacketed bullets can.

Is that needed? On deer sized game, I don’t think so. The fastest killing deer bullets I’ve used from various rifle cartridges tend to feature rapid expansion which is intended to take out the heart, lungs, and the major blood vessels atop the heart. Bullets like the Nosler Ballistic Tip (which is far tougher than many credit it with), the Sierra GameKing, the newer Hornady ELD-X and more. Those tend to be excellent bullets for deer sized game, often generating instant one-shot drops and deaths.

160 grain SPBT Sierra Gameking from a 7mm Rem Mag at about 3050 fps. Recovered from a young fat muley buck at about 150 yards. The well expanded bullet was just under the off-side hide. Buck dropped where he was hit, no tracking required. Excellent performance from a standard jacketed hunting bullet.

On game which may require a great deal of penetration - for instance on big bull elk… Mature bull elk have incredibly dense, tough bones. Not all bullets are capable of penetrating such bone, particularly with a high impact velocity. Instead they flatten out or shatter and fail to penetrate. This of course inflicts a nasty but non-fatal wound on the animal - and may well lead to some of those stories we hear from hunters who say something like “I hit that bull right on the shoulder with no effect!”

Other special requirements…

Let’s take the varmint shooter - the precision rifleman who is intent on reducing the number of burrowing varmints in farmland. Those sage rats and rock chucks can devour incredible quantities of alfalfa. The farmers can of course poison them. Many instead choose to allow shooters to thin the population! These guys tend to favor light, fast bullets that expand or even fragment very easily. Accuracy along with rapid expansion/fragmentation are desired. As much of this shooting is done in farm and ranch country, ricochets must be avoided! This is best done with light, fragile bullets moving fast. Look at bullets like the Hornady V-Max, Sierra’s Blitz King, Nosler’s Ballistic Tip Varmint, and the Barnes Varmint Grenade. Berger also makes a fine assortment of varmint bullets that I’ve happily relied upon. Even if a heavier bullet proves more accurate, it’s often prudent to choose the lighter, faster, more fragile bullet for this task.

204 Ruger rounds loaded with the 40 grain Hornady V-Max to3580 fps.

Subsonic rounds are growing more popular. Some of this is driven by the success that hog hunters are having using suppressed rifles, particularly at night. A basic rule of thumb is to start by choosing a heavy bullet. Heavy bullets by nature move slowly. Some are particularly good at being flung at subsonic velocity. Here are a few of my favorite recommendations for subsonic rifle & handgun:

45 ACP - 230 grain anything! It’s been subsonic from the beginning over 100 years ago. For expansion use a really soft hollow point like a soft-cast bullet or the Berry’s Hybrid plated hollowpoint. At standard or even +P velocity, it’s pretty much impossible to even get a 230 grain bullet up over 1100 fps…

9mm - if you’re going for subsonic, just start with the 147’s. That’s what they’re made for. The 124’s and 115’s may be better for self-defense in some situations given their velocity, but if you want subsonic, just grab the 147’s.

30-30 Win - start on the heavy side with Hornady’s 175 grain Sub-X bullet. Hodgdon has a plethora of loads for this that are under the speed of sound and the bullet is designed to expand at those low velocities. If expansion isn’t important, than any heavier bullet that will stabilize should work just fine.

With the 30-30, don’t start with the 150’s and lighter. They can be made to run that slow, but it can be a bit of a struggle with lots of disappointments along the way. Square peg in a round hole. The 150’s were designed to be the “high speed” bullet for that cartridge, not the slowpoke.

7.62x39 - has a smallish case capacity and can easily achieve subsonic velocities from 123 grains to the prodigiously heavy 255 grain Hornady Sub-X.

308 Win - Hodgdon publishes many loads for bullets from 168 grains to 220 grains including the 175 and 190 grain Sub-X Hornady bullets intended to be used for subsonic hunting applications. An accurate bolt action subsonic 308 is an impressive rifle!

38/357 lever actions - yes the 357 can be downloaded pretty easily to subsonic velocity however it’s awfully easy to just shoot 38’s from it if subsonic is desired.

44 lever actions - again it’s easy to load the 44 magnum down, but… 44 Specials are subsonic from the start. There’s an easy solution, just load the terrific 44 Special!

45-70 - a standard bullet weight for the 45-70 for something like 130 years is the 405 grain bullet. Manufacturers offer 400’s, 405’s and 410’s and even heavier. The lighter bullets, the 350’s and such, are intended for higher than normal velocity, not lower than normal velocity. Can they be downloaded to subsonic? Yes. But it’s so much easier to start with the appropriate bullet. Select a 400, 405 or Hornady’s great 410 grain Sub X bullet and create good subsonic loads if you’d like. Supersonic or Subsonic, there’s a lot to like about a 400ish grain bullet from the 45-70.

Long range… Many of today’s shooters worship at the altar of high BC long range bullets - and why not? Those bullets offer far less wind drift at long range. As a former long range high master I know that elevation adjustments are simple math, but estimating the wind drift… That’s rough. A high BC bullet slices through the wind much better and minimizes the wind drift. By all means, if long range is your game go with the high BC bullets, that’s exactly what they’re intended for.

There may well be other examples, but these are the high points that I often see unheeded. People trying to shoot big game with bullets intended for medium game or even varmints. People trying to create subsonic loads with light-for-caliber bullets when the heavy-for-caliber bullets are obviously the better choice. People shooting varmints with heavy for caliber bullets for their wind-cheating abilities and then wondering why they get so many ricochets from hard sun-baked ground…

Use the round peg for the round hole guys. Things work out better and easier.

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Load well, shoot well, hunt well. I’m a lifelong hunter and handloader. I’ve competed in long-range rifle and done well. I want shooters to be safe, have fun, and attain their goals. Am a USMC war veteran and a retired law enforcement officer with experience on SWAT, patrol, detectives, and as a firearms instructor for 17 years.

Regards, Guy

My youngest son and I were bear hunting along with a good friend in Washington. It was another spot and stalk hunt as baiting and hounds are both illegal there. Glassing an open area well below us we spotted a good size black bear feeding. We stalked closer, staying out of sight and eventually set up at around 325 yards, as close as we could get due to the lack of vegetation. Believe it or not, bears can see well enough to pick out threats headed their way.

Young John set his rifle up on the tall bipod he favors for sitting shots. He’d practiced extensively with the same setup at 300 yards and had taken game several times in the past while seated and using the tall bipod. His old sporterized 1917 30-06 rifle, 6x Leupold and 165 grain Noslers had worked well for him before. We were all confident. The bear drifted a bit closer and at about 300 yards I whispered for him to shoot whenever he was ready. John appeared rock steady and sent the 165 grain Nosler Partition at 2800 fps from the old 30-06 rifle. Instantly the bear dropped! John worked the bolt and the bear rolled rapidly downhill into a brushy ravine.

We headed downhill to see about finding the bear. As we got to the area it was obvious that the bear had entered the tangled brush. I couldn’t bring myself to send my teenage son into the brush after a wounded bear… I asked him instead to parallel me walking about 20 yards to my right in more open terrain and to keep scanning ahead of us for the bear while I went into the brush. I’d had a lot more experience with close range, with bears, and with dangerous situations in general. I was also carrying a 375 H&H rifle with handloaded 260 grain Nosler Accubond bullets traveling at about the same velocity as his handloaded 165 grain Nosler Partitions, but with nearly an additional 100 grains of bullet weight.

I briefly considered removing the scope and going to sights given the thick brush, but opted to keep the scope in place since I’d practiced with it at very close range. After making sure that the scope was dialed down to 1.5x, I moved slowly forward through the brush, looking at each little opening in the brush, looking for fur, looking for blood. I was also listening intently and paying attention, hoping to actually scent the bear as well. I’d move no more than a step or two then pause and look again. I could see my son right where he was supposed to be, off to my right about 20 yards, on the hillside above the ravine.

Within a few minutes I could hear the bear moving ahead of me! Slowing down more I kept moving forward and then I could hear the bear breathing. He was still unseen. I paused for a long time looking, looking… My eyes went to every opening in the leaves and branches. Finally at about fifteen feet there was brown fur! It took longer for my eyes and mind to resolve the general shape of the bear and I was able to place a shot through an opening in the brush right into his shoulder, then I reloaded rapidly and shot him again, just because he was a bear, at very close range.

Our friend Shane was along and he caught up to us about then. Together we hauled the quite dead bear out of the brush and looked him over. John’s shot with the 30-06 revealed that the bear must have moved right about the time he shot. He’d been aiming at the shoulder for a broadside shot, but the bullet had entered the shoulder-neck area and penetrated forward, lengthwise and parallel to the spine, exiting near the base of the skull. No wonder the bear had dropped instantly! However it wasn’t a fatal wound.

The 260 grain Nosler Accubond was recovered hanging in the off-side hide after going through both shoulders at about fifteen feet.

Adult male bears in that area average 250 - 300 pounds and this was the largest of the three we’d taken over the years, we estimated him at 325 - 350 pounds. He squared well over 6 ft.

John and I have often taken mule deer, bear and elk at 250 - 350 yards and I was comfortable with him taking that shot. I was far less comfortable with stalking a wounded bear in such thick brush but it had to be done. Years later that bear at about fifteen feet remains the closest range bear I’ve shot.

Many thanks to Shane for allowing us to hunt “his” hillside!

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I’m a lifelong hunter, a Marine Corps war veteran, and a retired law enforcement officer. These days I do some stories for Ultimate Reloader, both video and written articles.

Hunt well! Guy

Guy with a 9mm Beretta. Another old man practicing his skills. Photo by Ultimate Reloader.

An enjoyable part of my duty as firearms instructor for my agency was to conduct the LEOSA qualifications for retired officers, enabling them to carry concealed in all 50 states. Most of the guys were from our own department, but some from others. The Chief had invited a couple of guys he knew to come on out and shoot a qual course with me.

I was worried about one of them when he showed up. He was old, well into his 70’s I think. Small. A bit hunched over. Shook a bit with his movements. Said he hadn’t shot in quite a while. He was the Chief’s friend, and I knew it was important that he qualified.

The two retired officers loaded up range ammo for the qual. It’s not a tough course of fire. I watched the old guy closely. He handled his 9mm sidearm well and loaded the magazines competently. I relaxed a little, maybe the old guy would shoot fairly well.

I’d already set up the silhouette targets. We stepped up to the 15 yard line and I started with the range commands…

Suddenly the old guy stood up straight. He seemed to shed 20 years and gain 10 pounds of muscle in an instant. He stood there at the ready, 9mm holstered, waiting for the command… My eyebrows went up. In seconds he’d become a different man…

“Stand by, Go!”

His hand flashed down, the pistol came up. His left/support hand met his right and sealed the grip. The 9mm spoke, five shots in mere seconds, then he re-holstered. All five hits were clustered close together in the center of the “kill zone” of the silhouette target. He had completed that in about half the time allowed.

I had to watch the other shooter too - but he was much younger - a retired chief from another Washington police department. He was shooting a revolver and doing well. Not great, but well. He’d have no problem qualifying. My attention turned back to the old man.

Suspiciously he wasn’t shuffling anymore. He was standing straighter, his eyes were animated, he was feeling it. Feeling the range. Smelling the gunpowder. Loving the experience of being on the range again. Fair enough. I was encouraged. This was no longer an old man, a friend of my Chief to be babied through the qual course… No, he was a shooter.

We proceeded through the qual course. At each shooting line his hand sped down to the pistol, drew it from the holster and nailed the target in fine form. Fast and accurate.

I admit to being a bit bemused. This old man who had shuffled from his car to the range had just shot better than most of my fellow SWAT officers. Tight groups, and fast. I asked him about that.

“Guy, you don’t understand. I was on President Reagan’s protective detail for several years. I was Secret Service. We shot over 1,000 rounds of pistol ammo every week.”

Then he grinned and added “I guess that I remember how to shoot.”

He came out to qualify with me for several years after that then he stopped coming and I retired. I don’t know how he’s doing now, or if he’s even alive. But I know that wherever he went, all the good people were safely under his protection.

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I’m a Marine Corps veteran and a retired law enforcement officer with 12 years on the regional SWAT team and 17 years as a law enforcement firearms instructor. Follow my videos and articles on Ultimate Reloader.com.

Shoot well, even if you’re older. Regards, Guy

From the early 30-40 Krag to today’s 30 cal magnums, heavy bullets continue to excel. Left to right are the 308 Win, 30-06 Springfield and the 300 PRC, each with a 212 grain ELD-X and a 220 grain RNSP, all Hornady bullets. Photo by Ultimate Reloader.

More than 100 years ago the little 30-40 Krag received a 1:10 twist rate - a rate which is still standard for most 30 caliber cartridges today. That twist rate enables the 30’s to stabilize long, heavy bullets. For many years the blunt-nose 220 grain bullet was a standard offering and can still be found. In the 30-06 it’s usually loaded to about 2300-2400 fps and is credited with being quite effective at modest range. Though most 220’s are robust soft points meant to expand, 220 grain FMJ’s have been produced and were often used on large game.

Hemmingway with an African Cape Buffalo he took with his trusted 30-06 using heavy 220 grain bullets. Theodore Roosevelt reportedly used 220 grain bullets from his 30-06 to take rhino, a much larger beast!

I chose 200 grain Nosler Partition bullets for my Brooks Range grizzly hunt, and used my favorite 30-06 rifle for the task. The flat-base Nosler Partition is designed for excellent performance on game but still has a respectable .481 G1 BC allowing for good downrange performance. Photo by guide Joey Klutsch.

The recoil of my 200 grain 30-06 loads felt more like a “big push” rather than a harsh slap. I found no difficulty practicing with them or using them afield. They grouped well and the 24” Remington moved them at 2600 fps via a stout charge of H4350. I could have used H4831 for another 90-100 fps, but was short on that powder at the time. As I rarely shoot game beyond 300 yards I’ve given some thought to making that 200 grain/2600 fps a standard load for most of my hunting.

Today riflemen recognize the long-range ballistic superiority of long, heavy, bullets with high Ballistic Coefficients. One of my favorites for that purpose is the 212 grain Hornady ELD-X with an amazing BC of .663 G1 or .334 G7. Yes, it is stabilized in a standard 1:10 twist 30 caliber barrel! Hornady’s ELD-X is a hunting bullet also designed for excellent accuracy and for long-range shooting. At longer ranges the superiority of the high BC bullets shows up in: trajectory, wind drift, and retained velocity.

We tested the 212 ELD-X and the 220 grain RNSP Hornady bullets for expansion at reduced velocity, simulating downrange performance.

At a velocity of 1543 fps the 212 grain ELD-X had 23.5” of penetration, the bullet retained 193.7 grains (91%, 0.633” diameter). The 1543 fps approximates the velocity of the bullet at 700 yards when fired at 2400 fps from a .308 Winchester.

The 220 grain RNSP had 24.5” of penetration and retained 172.5 grains (78%, 0.692” diameter).The 1578 fps approximates the impact velocity of the bullet at 250 yards when fired at 2200 fps from a .308 Winchester.

My friend Gavin Gear took a mule deer buck at about 70 yards with a 212 grain ELD-X from his 300 PRC rifle, dropping it instantly as one would expect. At about 2900 fps muzzle velocity, the 300 PRC is roughly equal to the great 300 Winchester Magnum, but without the belt and optimized for long heavy bullets.

We’ve used these bullets and more. To me the best uses fall into two categories:

1. Large game at modest range, such as big bull elk in timber. Mature bull elk have extremely dense bones and are heavily muscled. Getting to the vitals, particularly with what Elmer Keith described as a “raking shot” requires the penetration that heavy bullets or modern monolithic bullets provide. They don’t always pose broadside like this Wyoming bull I stalked on foot with my camera:

Note the marks on his hide from battling with other bulls during the rut. This handsome bull is a fighter! He’s also the one with the harem of cows.

2. Longer range hunting of pretty much any North American big game such as elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep and more. This is where the high BC bullets, including Hornady’s ELD-X, really shine - slicing through the wind and retaining enough velocity for excellent on-game performance at great distance.

Here’s a link to the more detailed article I did on this subject for Ultimate Reloader, complete with charts, loads, and more: 308 -vs- 30-06 -vs- 300 PRC: Heavy .30 Caliber Hornady Bullets for Big Game – Ultimate Reloader

Many of us, including myself, tend to use medium bullet weights such as 150, 165 or 180 grains for 30 caliber rifles. If your hunt is for heavy game, or shots may occur at extended ranges, consider trying heavy bullets. The results can be impressive.

Hunt well!

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I’m a lifelong hunter, a “long range high master” shooter, Marine Corps veteran and a retired law enforcement officer including 12 years as a SWAT sniper team leader and time as a firearms instructor. This substack, along with my articles and videos on Ultimate Reloader allow me to share those experiences with others.

Thank you and Hunt Well. Guy

A modest charge of TiteGroup works great with the 148 grain hollow base wadcutter.

Handheld at a mere 7 yards from the K14.

Most revolver afficionados know that the standard 38 load uses a 158 grain bullet. Did you know that Speer specifically cautions against the use of jacketed 158 grain bullets for the 38 Special and the 38+P? From their Number 15 manual:

“The 38 Special was designed to fire 158 grain lead bullets. We do not recommend firing 158 grain jacketed bullets in the 38 Special cartridge as they may not clear the barrel.”

The same caution is repeated in their section covering the 38+P. This is because jacketed bullets produce more friction in the bore than does a properly lubricated lead bullet. Speer does endorse the use of 158 grain lead bullets for the 38 and 38+P.

Recently, using the same powder charge, I noticed a drop of more than 100 fps when switching from a lubricated lead 148 grain hollow base wadcutter to the same weight and design of copper plated bullet. That was from a 2” barreled revolver and my observed velocities dropped from 700+ fps with the lead bullets down to about 600 fps with the plated bullets. Accuracy remained excellent, but I wondered if I’d loaded them even lighter, might the plated bullets have gotten stuck in the bore of one of my 6” revolvers?

Commendably Speer produces several lighter weight jacketed bullets for the 38 Special, including 110, 125, and 135 grain bullets intended for both practice and for self-defense use.

Another caution in the Speer manual is:

“Never load less than the minimum charges shown in the loading data as the small charge of propellant may not be sufficient to push the bullet completely down the barrel.”

That practice can result in what’s known as a “squib load” wherein the bullet gets stuck in the bore! This is dangerous because the shooter may not be aware that this has happened and may fire one or even more full power loads which impact the stuck bullet - and can even burst the barrel! I’ve seen one Dan Wesson barrel that had at least four jacketed bullets stacked up in it before bursting. A squib load can also be the result of a round having only a primer and bullet, without a powder charge at all.

Revolver cases tend to be much larger than necessary to hold the powder charge, particularly when using small doses of fast-burning powder for accurate modest-recoiling target ammunition. Always double-check your powder charge to reduce the possibility of a double-charge which could damage the revolver, and be dangerous to the shooter and others.

Apply a good crimp! Many bullets intended for use in revolvers have a “crimp groove” or a cannelure which makes a perfect place to apply a roll crimp. Some loaders prefer to use a “factory crimp” or a taper crimp. All of those choices are fine if they grip the bullet sufficiently to prevent it from jumping forward and elongating the cartridge during recoil. I’ve seen bullets jump the crimp enough to prevent the revolver cylinder from turning. With revolvers I prefer to use either a good roll crimp or a factory crimp applied with Lee’s great factory crimp die. Typically I’ll seat the bullet to proper length, then crimp in a separate operation. With a properly adjusted seating die, the bullet can be seated and crimped in one step. A firm crimp is more necessary with harder recoiling revolvers such as heavy loads with the 357, 41 or 44 magnums.

This proved to be an excellent 44 magnum hunting load and I took a smallish hog with it at about 30 yards last fall. One shot, complete penetration. Lee factory crimp die into the cannelure as a separate step after seating the bullet. The Hornady XTP is noted for being a rather “hard” deep-penetrating bullet for a jacketed hollow point and is well respected for hunting. I used the 240 grain version at 1350 fps but it’s also available in a 300 grain version for deeper penetration.

Don’t push the bullet beyond it’s designed velocity capabilities. Soft swaged lead bullets should typically be kept under about 1,000 fps to prevent lead stripping off and fouling the bore. Hardcast or jacketed bullets are intended for higher velocities. Berry’s plated bullets have their “speed limit” printed on the box label and also on their website. Typically Berry’s plated revolver bullets are rated for up to 1250 fps but their thick-plate bullets may be rated for 1500 fps or more. That’s nice for a longer barreled magnum revolver or if the ammo is to be used in a lever action rifle.

Note the maximum velocity listing of 1850 fps for these Berry’s 240 grain target bullets. That’s 600 fps faster than their typical speed limit of 1250 fps for their standard plated handgun bullets.

Note that not all 38 Special revolvers are rated for +P ammunition. If the gun isn’t rated for the more powerful ammo, don’t use that ammunition, the standard power ammo is the proper choice for that firearm. I have a couple of very nice older revolvers that shoot great - and they only get fed standard power ammunition because they’re not rated for +P ammunition.

If you’re handloading for a revolver, keep these cautions in mind and read the load manual for your choice of cartridge and bullet. Revolvers are particularly satisfying for me. I enjoy the nostalgia, simplicity of operation, the handloading procedure, and the “manual of arms” for the revolvers.

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I’m a lifelong shooter, a hunter with 60 years experience, USMC veteran and a retired law enforcement officer. Revolvers are of special interest to me and I thoroughly enjoy my range sessions with one, or carrying one afield or even for self-defense purposes. For more of my writing and videos catch me on Ultimate Reloader. Load carefully and shoot well! Regards, Guy

Sporterized 30-06 Springfield with a vintage 2-7x Redfield.

Of course I mean the .473” rim diameter. Sometimes it boggles my mind how many cartridges rely on that particular case rim, or something very close. The .473” rim size was started by Paul Mauser who used it on the 8x57 in 1888. It’s been around a while.

Here are some of the incredible number of .473” rim diameter cartridges. Yes, I’ve most certainly left some out:

The 22’s

We’ve got the still popular 22-250, 220 Swift, and now the much newer 22 Creedmoor.

24’s to 30’s

243 Winchester, 6mm Remington, 6mm Creedmoor, 250 Savage, 257 Roberts, 25-06, 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Remington, 240 Weatherby magnum (yes), 270 Winchester, 7mm Mauser, 7mm-08, 284 Winchester, 280 Remington, 308 Win, 30-06 Springfield.

Larger than 30 caliber

338 Federal, 338-06, 358 Winchester, 35 Whelen, 375 Scoville, 400 Whelen

There’s some dispute about the rim diameter of the terrific 9.3x62 which has been doing a fine job on African big and dangerous game for a very long time now. It’s listed as .470” in several sources but some people simply convert a .30-06 to a 9.3x62 by rechambering and re-boring a 30-06, with no change to the bolt face.

No, they’re not quite as powerful as the belted magnums or the newer beltless magnums, but they’ve been proven capable for decades.

Pistol:

The 45 ACP cases I’ve measured show a .473” rim diameter even though it’s listed as .480” by some. The hot-rod 45 Super & 45 SMC and even the mighty 460 Rowland which produces 44 magnum power share the same rim dimensions as the 45 ACP! Glock came out with their 45 GAP and Lyman shows it as having a .470” rim. Mighty close to .473” diameter.

There’s also the 40 Cor-Bon which necks the .45 ACP down to 40 cal and makes power similar to a 10mm auto.

Just some thoughts from a session at the loading bench today. I put the RCBS #3 shellholder into the ram to load some 45 ACP, and started thinking about all the different cartridges I’ve loaded with that #3 shellholder over the years, decades… Then all the cartridges it fits, but that I don’t load or use. Seems to me that the .473 cases can do a fine job of covering most of our shooting and hunting needs.

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*I’m a law enforcement and NRA handgun and rifle instructor, a USMC veteran and a retired police officer with 12 years of SWAT experience. Catch my firearms and ammunition videos on Ultimate Reloader on Rumble and YouTube.

Shoot well, Guy Miner

My current ride, a 2009 Suzuki DL-650, a twin-cylinder general purpose bike that I’ve set up for “light touring.” Bought it new in 2010 and still very happy with it.

A change of subject matter here, just for the heck of it. Probably brought on by the warm weather descending upon us here on the lower great plains… Motorcycle riding… I’ve never thought of myself as a hard-core motorcycle nut, but I started riding in the 1970’s and here it is fifty years later and I’m still riding. Took a break from it for a while when my sons were young and I was needed at home. I was deploying a lot with the Marines in those days and there just wasn’t time for the motorcycle. Eventually when the lads were older, there was time for it again.

From the beginning my real love of motorcycling was heading out for a long day or even several days. That’s still what I love best. Short rides are fun, but relaxing into a long day of cruising through beautiful scenery, just letting it wash over me, that’s where it’s at for me. I can pick up the scent of the cedars, feel the cool air when I descend into a draw, feel the heat on the back of my riding jacket. My eyes are trying to take in everything. Particularly on twisty roads I can feel the pavement under me and love pitching the bike into the curves relying almost completely on engine braking to slow me for the turns only occasionally resorting to the brakes, then accelerating out towards the next curve. That is sublime!

It’s not so much about what I ride - I can be happy on most any sort of motorcycle, at least for a while. It’s how I experience the ride - and some bikes help a lot with that. I don’t like being limited by a tiny fuel tank or outrageous fuel consumption. I don’t like being limited by an uncomfortable perch or riding position. I’m not all that fond of thunderous noise from the motor - though I thoroughly enjoy riding behind a mellow sounding big V twin on a twisty road as the rider uses that big torquey motor.

Speed? Well it is a motorcycle after all, even a common one like my 650 Suzuki has plenty of get-up-and-go. Straight line speed doesn’t excite me. I do enjoy a good set of turns and have gone out of my way to ride particularly twisty sections of highway.

Riding Hwy 12 across the Idaho panhandle, adjacent to the beautiful Lochsa river. I get torn between riding, and stopping to fly fish on that route.

Highway? Oh, I don’t like being confined to pavement alone either. Why should I stop just because the pavement ends? So a bike that handles rough roads, dirt and gravel roads, that’s what I prefer. I don’t single track. My bike is too big and I’m not confident enough for it. It’s just not something I care for but I do ride a lot of old dirt logging roads, ranch roads, mining roads etc… Cool stuff is to be found out there. My two-wheel trips have taken me to most of the western states. Sometimes I rent a room or a cabin, often I sleep in my own small tent still. I enjoy that so very much even now.

Riding with good friends or family is terrific! My wife and I rode two-up for many years but she’s not so enthusiastic about riding anymore. My oldest son and I have ridden together many times. I’ve had some great riding buddies over the years and miss them all. Riding solo is just fine with me as well. Sometimes it’s the best.

I’m aging, almost 70 years old. Can’t run like I could. Can’t lift like I could. But I still ride well. Someday perhaps I won’t and that will be time to hang it up. I hope that I can always ride. There’s nothing like the experience of heading out on a bike for a long day, or several days of incredible riding.

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This old rider would love to hear about your favorite rides - the bikes and the routes.

Regards, Guy

Working with the Ultimate Reloader 357 magnum Henry All Weather rifle one mighty cold day.

If you haven’t yet tried a lever-action 357 magnum rifle or carbine, you’re missing out on something special. Light recoil, easy handling, traditional good looks, good accuracy and yes, 400 more fps over a 6” 357 magnum revolver!

Marlin, Henry, Winchester and more offer great lever action repeaters that handle 38 Special and 357 magnum ammunition. Depending on barrel/magazine length as many as ten cartridges can be on tap. The 357 magnum from a revolver is a powerful cartridge capable of handling many hunting chores as well as having a great reputation for self-defense against human predators. From the rifle, it’s even better.

From a short-barreled, lightweight revolver the recoil and muzzle blast are both formidable. From a 20” barreled lever action those factors are minimized. What’s maximized is velocity and practical accuracy. It’s easy to quickly score good hits on an IPSC target at 100 yards with the rifle, and slower, more difficult for most of us to manage that using a 357 magnum revolver.

Using Federal’s powerful 170 grain Hammer Down 357 magnum ammunition we saw this over the chronograph:

The Hammerdown ammo features a bonded hollow point bullet intended for hunting medium game and rated at 1610 fps by Federal.

I also handloaded some 38 Special and 357 magnum ammunition, both with the 158 grain Berry’s Flat Point thick-plated bullet which has a nice crimp groove and is rated for a muzzle velocity up to 1500 fps. That velocity is easy to exceed from the 20” rifle barrel:

Loads were 5.4 grains of CFE Pistol for the 38 Special and 15.5 grains of H110 for the 357 magnum ammunition. The 38 Special ammo had delightfully low recoil and very mild muzzle blast, it would be excellent for teaching a new shooter. Note that there isn’t much difference in velocity between the rifle and revolver with the 38 Special, but there’s a full 500 fps difference with the 357 magnum! The long barrel and lack of a barrel-cylinder gap really helps the magnum cartridge. With either a revolver or a lever action rifle using a traditional tubular magazine, it’s important to use a good crimp. I greatly prefer a nice roll crimp into a well defined crimping groove to help hold the bullet in place.

For best bullet performance on game, or for self-defense with the 357 magnum rifle, careful attention should be paid to bullet construction. If impact velocity is too high for a given bullet, expansion and even fragmentation of the bullet could occur, minimizing penetration. Choose bullets known to be tough, and to penetrate well.

The handy little rifle is easy to carry and a pleasure to shoot with either 38’s or 357’s. When I get around to getting my own 357 lever action carbine I’ll likely top it with Skinner Sights, or perhaps a red-dot sight of some sort. I’ll figure on it as a 100 yard rifle, perhaps a bit more, and capable of taking deer, hogs and perhaps black bear at reasonable ranges. I sure hit better with it than I do with a handgun at 75 - 100 yards!

All velocities were from either a 6” S&W 586 or a 20” Henry lever action rifle. Photos and charts courtesy of Ultimate Reloader.

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I’m a lifelong hunter and handloader as well as a USMC veteran and a retired law enforcement officer. Follow my stories here and on Ultimate Reloader. Shoot well!

Guy

One evening I engaged in seriously dangerous behavior… I was sipping brandy and browsing online for a Ruger Number One in any of several fast-stepping big game chamberings. Without adult supervision. Suddenly there it was! The Ruger 1-S, a favorite configuration with the 26” barrel with sights! The owner claimed he’d bought the 7mm Remington Magnum new about 20 years earlier, put part of a box of ammo through it, cleaned it and put it away. The photos showed a pristine Ruger 1-S. The price was a couple of hundred under the usual asking price… I hit the “buy now” button and trundled happily off to bed.

Ruger’s Number One falling block rifle has long been a favorite of mine. In the 1970’s I thought they were about the coolest rifle on the market - so different from everything else. Now 50+ years later, I still think they’re excellent hunting rifles. Slow to reload? Try a traditional muzzle loading rifle… The Ruger Number One is so much quicker to load!

The next morning I grinned as I thought “I bought a rifle last night!” Then I fired up the ol’ laptop and confirmed that I had indeed bought a Ruger Number One, a favorite rifle. Well okay then… Some communications with the seller and he assured me that it was a nearly new rifle, but twenty years old. A few days later it arrived at my favorite local dealer and we opened the box curiously. The rifle was as described, clean and apparently unused. Instantly the fine rifle was named “Brandy.” Not many of my rifles acquire names, but a few do and Brandy is one.

I’d sort of been hoping for a 257 Weatherby, but was quite familiar with both the 257 Weatherby and the 7mm Remington Magnum cartridges. In the past I’d re-formed 7mm Remington Magnum brass to produce 257 Weatherby brass in the past. Although no 7mm Rem Mag rifle had been in my safe for a few years, I had dies, new brass, fired cartridges, handloaded cartridges and quite a few suitable bullets ranging from 140 - 175 grains.

An unemployed 1970’s 3-9x Leupold, turning plum, was in my gun safe and fit on the rifle just fine. I was quickly able to take it to the range. I noticed that the lever was tight, the bore spotless, the walnut and blue were both un-scarred… At the range I quickly got a zero 100 yard zero and started thinking about an upcoming hunting trip to Wyoming for mule deer and pronghorn antelope. Soon I did some scope swapping and “Brandy” got herself a nice, newer 3.5-10x Leupold.

With high velocity big game rifles I tend to opt for premium bullets such as the Nosler Partition or Accubond, Barnes TSX/TTSX, Hornady CX or something else that won’t come apart at high impact velocity. My first thought was to go with a 160 grain Nosler Partition or Accubond, both have shot accurately and performed well on game for me, but I didn’t have many of those and had an abundance of 160 grain Sierra GameKing bullets on hand. I decided to try the Sierras to give me a general idea of their point of impact, trajectory, velocity and accuracy. I loaded them over some of my dwindling supply of Reloader 22. My long-proven load was 65 grains which is above max in some manuals. It normally provides good accuracy and velocity.

This load clocked a respectable 3050 fps and I was impressed at the accuracy at 100, 200 and 300 yards…

This was a typical 300 yard group, using the Ruger Number One in 7mm Remington Magnum with the 160 grain SPBT GameKing over 65 grains of Reloader 22.

When I saw that level of accuracy happening time and again at 100, 200 and 300 yards I decided that mule deer and pronghorn aren’t armor plated and that a standard 160 grain cup and core bullet would work just fine. Particularly with this kind of accuracy. I loaded up a few boxes of ammo, confirmed the zero and headed for eastern Wyoming to a favorite cattle ranch I’d hunted before with roughly 40,000 acres.

My hunting buddy and I were once again with a great guide, Ol’ Tony, who knew the ranch well. Things started slowly with very few mule deer seen. I blew one stalk on a pronghorn and missed what should have been an easy shot. Heck of a buck! Kind of like the fisherman’s “You should have seen the one that got away!” Ah well, an opportunity lost.

We spotted the reflection off a buck’s antlers and stalked him carefully. The antlers had looked good - but when we got there, we found a napping forked horn, a 2x2. We had a good laugh and moved on, leaving him to grow.

Finally at long range we saw a group of bucks heading towards a small pass in a low ridge dotted with sagebrush. We closed the distance and stalked forward. Tony and my hunting buddy were up high on the ridgeline and I was slowly working my way forward along the face of the ridge on a vague game trail. I was walking at first, then crawling, finally I saw a decent young 3x3 muley. The buck hadn’t noticed me yet. I leaned against the steep side of the ridge, half-kneeling/half sitting, and steadied the crosshairs for a shot at about 150 yards. I gently touched the trigger, the 7mm spoke and the buck stood for a moment, then collapsed in place. I reloaded the single shot rifle and moved forward towards the fallen buck.

My hunting partner joined me - he had passed on a chance at bigger bucks and was intent on finding a trophy muley. I’d hunted the same ranch several times and was quite satisfied with a 3x3 buck after several days of hunting. He snapped a photo of me with my buck and the single-shot rifle. Brandy had her first kill!

The hit was farther back than I wanted but dropped the buck quickly after a long stalk on foot, and even crawling.

After the buck was field dressed and hanging, I noticed a slight bulge under the off-side hide. I slit the hide with my pocket knife and found the spent bullet.

This is the recovered bullet adjacent to an unfired 160 grain Sierra Game King. The recovered bullet weighed 97 grains and looks quite similar to recovered bonded bullets! To me, this is one more instance of a standard jacketed, lead-core bullet taking game with a normal impact speed. Good penetration, a fine mushroom and quickly lethal.

A day or two after the muley buck I managed to get another shot at a pronghorn. This was a rather long shot and I messed up and hit the neck. When the soft nose bullet hit the spine.. Well it looked pretty bad, very bloody, and I have no photos of that particular pronghorn.

This buck was photographed in the same general area as the buck I took with Brandy the 7mm Rem Mag, but on a ranch where I had no permission to hunt. They are incredible game animals and the meat can be delicious!

Antelope tenderloin sizzling in the skillet. Wonderful “trophy” of the hunt.

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I ended up with excellent meat in the freezer and a nicely bleached but quite average skull. Am hoping to hunt antelope again.

I’m a lifelong hunter and handloader as well as a USMC veteran and a retired police officer. You can catch my videos and written articles on Ultimate Reloader - on either Rumble or YouTube.

Shoot well! Guy

Trimming rifle brass: When I was 18, this was something I didn’t know about. The 6mm Remington was a great varmint, coyote and deer rifle and I enjoyed handloading for it, first with a tiny little Lee Loader, and a bit later with a set of RCBS dies on Dad’s RCBS press. I loaded up a bunch of max level 75 grain hollow points for rockchucks and headed afield… Had to force the bolt closed - which had never been hard to do. What had happened was that the brass was stretching, mostly during resizing I suspect. This can lead to severe over-pressure when the case gets too long to fit in the chamber! The case mouth ends up getting jammed where it has no business going.

My 1974 Lee Loader, which I still have and use occasionally. It’s a simple setup, easy to use, no press required and doesn’t work the brass very much. Yes, it produces good ammunition. Photo by Ultimate Reloader.

CAVEMAN Reloading (No Press Required) – Ultimate Reloader

Me shooting the 1974 vintage 6mm Remington. It’s still great! Only a couple of years ago my youngest son took a muley buck with it and handloaded ammo using the 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip at well over 3,000 fps.

Solution - trim the cases! Check the loading manual for the proper case length and trim them. Some handloaders trim every time they shoot a case, heck some anneal the case every time. That may not be necessary, depending on your requirements. But trim ‘em!

I’d learned to handload from my father. In those days surplus military 30-06 ammo was readily available and inexpensive. He’d shoot that then reload it once or twice and toss it. Didn’t even own a trimmer and of course as a young man, I had no money for my own case trimmer or loading setup. Fixed that post haste with a Lyman trimmer and a set of calipers. There are many different case trimmers. Typically I use the Lyman trimmer, the RCBS trimmer or the Wilson trimmer. All work well.

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I started handloading in the 1960’s when Dad and Grandpa let me seat the bullets for their rifles: 30-06 and 257 Weatherby. Since the 1970’s I’ve reloaded many thousands of rounds for handgun and rifle. I’m a handloader, hunter, conservationist, a Marine Corps veteran and a retired cop. I still shoot once or twice a week. Articles and videos re various case trimmers can be found at UltimateReloader.com

Load smart and shoot well!

Guy

Black bears are numerous and can be aggressive. They’ve been known to stalk and kill humans for food… Of course the can also be dangerous when protecting their young. So far all of my bears have been taken by rifle, but I keep a good sidearm with me when in bear country. Just in case. It’s good to have a way to fight back.

Many experienced outdoorsmen consider the moose, bull or cow, to be potentially more dangerous than most bears. They’re certainly large, strong and can be aggressive.

This series of articles looked at using handguns of at least 40 caliber with bullets of at least 200 grains at around 1,000 fps as manageable yet powerful handguns. Handguns that inspire a certain confidence when in the backcountry with powerful animals that may prove less than friendly… Sufficient power, but mild enough to promote good shooting by taking it easier on the shooter than full power magnum loads do. Traditionally that’s meant a big bore revolver, something in 44 or 45 caliber with 200 - 300 grain bullets. In recent decades though there has been a strong shift to semi-automatic handguns, particularly in 10mm.

The reasons for this are practical, take the Glock 20, arguably the most popular 10mm handgun. It’s only moderately expensive, within reach of most. The Glock weighs but 28 ounces empty and 37 ounces loaded, considerably less than many traditional revolvers. Loaded, it’s almost the same weight as my favorite 1911’s. Loaded in this case doesn’t mean 5 or six or even 8 shots. Each magazine carries a full 15 rounds of powerful 10mm ammunition. Glocks have been around for decades now and are typically rugged, reliable and accurate. Glocks are also very easy to maintain.

The Glock Model 20 is absolutely a “manageable Big Bore Bruiser.”

As much as I love my big bore revolvers, I have to admit that I can place accurate shots faster with a semi-auto pistol and that the lessened recoil helps me stay on target better.

If you prefer some other 10mm platform, there are many from which to choose. 1911’s and even revolvers among them.

Handloads:

My 200 grain handloads performed very well, with far less felt recoil than a typical 44 magnum revolver. Accurate No 9 and Longshot are both excellent choices for high performance heavy bullet 10mm loads easily exceeding 1,100 fps.

There are many different 10mm bullets that are appropriate for defense against large aggressive animals. One that I tested is the 200 grain Hornady XTP:

In situations when a sturdy hollow point might be advantageous - say against typical black bear or something similar, the 200 grain Hornady XTP has earned a good reputation. Fired into Clear Ballistics Gel blocks, the XTP penetrated 20” and retained 197.5 grains of weight after expanding to .531” diameter. A solid non-expanding flat nose bullet will likely deform less, perhaps not at all, and penetrate considerably deeper.

A considerable variety of applicable 10mm bullets exist for handloaders, and

Commercial 10mm Ammo:

There is a growing list of commercially available 10mm ammunition that meets the criteria:

Lost River Ammunition makes a dandy 10mm 200 grain cast load at 1180 fps.

Buffalo Bore has several powerful 10mm choices ranging from 180 to 220 grains.

Federal offers a solid 200 grain 10mm load at 1200 fps.

Hornady has their fairly new “Backcountry Defense” 200 grain ammo at 1160 fps.

In addition to the 10mm auto, so far in this series I’ve loaded and fired 45’s and 44’s. All these articles are still available on my Substack:

A More Powerful 45 ACP - by Guy Miner - Guy’s Substack

230 gr bullet at 1016 fps

Manageable Big Bore Bruisers Two the 44’s - by Guy Miner

240 gr bullet at 1023 fps

Manageable Big Bore Bruisers One the 45 Colt - by Guy Miner

250 gr bullet at 875 fps

300 gr bullet at 1016 fps

The 10mm auto with the 200 grain bullet at 1100 - 1200 fps absolutely falls into the same category and in a package that offers a lot of other great advantages. We’re living in a time when there are many choices for backcountry protection via handgun.

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Shoot well! Guy

I’m a USMC veteran, a retired law enforcement officer and a life-long handloader, shooter and hunter. Follow my videos on Ultimate Reloader. Photos in this article are a combination of my own and those taken by Ultimate Reloader.

In an earlier post I discussed the very accurate 148 grain HBWC 38 Special ammunition from High Desert. When I asked owner Steve Shields which ammo he’d recommend for a high volume shooting session, such as at a training session or a match he recommended his 125 grain TMJ ammo. It’s advertised to provide a modest 820 fps, “to ensure less blast and a comfortable shooting experience.” Unlike the blunt nose wadcutter ammunition it worked very well using my HKS speedloader too.

The highly polished Starline brass looks great and feeds smoothly into the chambers. I suspect that the bullet is Berry’s 125 grain plated flat point which I’ve handloaded in the past.

Since I’d been shooting 148 and 150 grain ammunition I wasn’t sure where the point of impact for these lighter 125 grain bullets would be. Keeping things simple, I aimed right at the center of the X ring at 7 yards. My goodness, that’s right where the bullet went! You can see that I got a vertical string as my hold wasn’t as consistent as it should have been. Horizontal dispersion however was TIGHT. Between the wonderful old S&W revolver and this nice High Desert ammo, if I miss it’s absolutely my fault.

I measured a five shot string with my Athlon Rangecraft chronograph and was pleased to see an average velocity of 891 fps from the 6” S&W revolver. That’s about 70 fps faster than advertised, no doubt due to the longer barrel of my K14 revolver. The SD of 23 fps and the Extreme Spread of only 60 fps were confidence inspiring as well.

This Totally Metal Jacket ammunition is clean burning and easy shooting. At the end of my training session with it the old S&W K14 truly didn’t require cleaning. Just a quick wipe down with an oily rag before stowing the revolver in the gun safe was sufficient.

Typically I handload my training ammunition but this commercially available ammunition from High Desert deserves consideration if handloading isn’t desired for some reason.

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I’m a lifelong handloader, shooter and hunter in addition to being a firearms instructor for private citizens and police officers. Am a Marine Corps veteran and a retired law enforcement officer. You can find more of my articles and videos at Ultimate Reloader.

Shoot well!

Guy

This revolver is a pass-down from my grandfather to dad to me. It’s a S&W built in the USA and originally chambered in 455 Webley for the Canadians. After the Great War it was modified to accept 45 Colt ammunition then sold on the surplus market.

Grandpa served in the Army in WWI and sometime after that he bought this S&W revolver. He also served in the “Home Guard” during WWII while his sons were serving in the Pacific Theater. It’s been in my life, all of my life. Even as a kid I noticed that it looked pretty rough. Papa took good care of his guns, but this one had suffered some rust and pitting long ago, perhaps in the trench warfare of WWI with the Canadian forces?

Dad was a WWII veteran, and I don’t know if he ever shot this. I don’t remember seeing my grandfather shoot it either. That left it to me. I cleaned it up, lubed it, noted the absurdly hard double-action pull and loaded some 45 Colt ammo with the wonderful 255 grain Hornady lead bullet - which measure .454” diameter. Hodgdon Titegroup powder provided the push, 6.2 grains. This is a maximum load according to Hodgdon but only produces 13,000 CUP, a nice low-pressure load for the old 45 Colt Cartridge. A couple of years ago at Ultimate Reloader we shot this ammo for an article and video on the 45 Colt cartridge.

For this shooting session I set up at 7 yards at my local indoor range and perched the Athlon Rangecrafter chronograph on the shooting bench. The sights on this revolver are indicative of the era, and today they could be considered abysmal. There’s just a thin front sight and a tiny notch in the revolver frame to serve as a rear sight.

Given the stiff double-action pull I elected to cock the old revolver between each shot, shooting “single action". Recoil was surprisingly stout. The light-contour barrels of the old guns give them a muzzle-light balance and the big 255 grain lead bullet sent the muzzle up with each shot. Unlike modest weight 44 magnums, the recoil didn’t hurt in the least.

Here’s the fun part… Shot after shot landed in the X ring.

That’s six shots at 7 yards, during what may have been the first shooting session with this revolver in over 60 years. One landed out in the 10 ring, the other five hit in the X ring. With a 110 year old revolver that hasn’t been shot in decades.

I’ve long had the notion that these old revolvers are best suited for lead bullets. If you’re a bullet caster, you can make bullets specifically for the bore and chamber size of your revolver. If you’re not - these 255 grain Hornady lead bullets are likely worth considering. They sure shot well out of my old S&W. No, I’m not making any money from Ultimate Reloader or Hornady or anyone else for this article.

The old S&W revolver shown with my grandfather’s WWI Army manuals which I’ve safeguarded for decades.

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I’m sad that the finish on the old S&W is so compromised but it sure shoots just fine after 110 years or so. What do you think? Should I re-finish the old revolver, maybe even chop it to 5” or so, or leave it as is? Let me know your thoughts on that please.

Regards, Guy

A favorite of mine, the “Green Machine.” A 308 Winchester, it was my SWAT rifle for 12 years. I also used it to do well in several matches and hunted with it a bit. For me at least, it’s too heavy to be a very good general purpose rifle, but it excels at the intended role. Pictured here only because it has some similarities to the rifle discussed in this story.

A couple I know “won” a South African Plains Game hunt at one of the big-game shows some years ago. They were excited. I knew that he was a reasonably experienced mule deer hunter who used a bolt action 270 Winchester. She wasn’t very experienced with a rifle and had never been hunting. She knew that I had a lot more hunting experience than her husband so she asked me what sort of rifle I’d recommend, despite knowing that I’d never been to Africa. Instantly I recommended her husband’s trusty 270 with which he had hunted for decades. If they really wanted a new rifle for the trip I recommended considering a 7mm Magnum or a 30-06 with something like a 2.5-8x or 3-9x scope. Each of those cartridges is a little more powerful than the 270 Winchester, without adding a lot of recoil. Additionally, I recommended considering ammunition with premium bullets such as the Barnes TSX/TTSX or Nosler Partition for deep penetration. She looked at me like I was crazy and went rifle shopping…

A few weeks later she met me at the range to show off her new “African Safari Rifle” and get some pointers on shooting it well…

Remington 700 Sendero, a 26” varmint contour 300 Remington Ultra Magnum with a 6.5-20x Leupold scope… Okay then, the rifle’s bare weight is about 9 pounds and muzzle heavy. She’d added a bipod and the big Leupold scope which of course added more weight, perhaps 12 pounds all up. I forget which Remington ammo she was using. All that 300 Ultra Mag ammo was extremely powerful. No muzzle brake. This was before suppressors were nearly as common as they are today. Her eyes lit up as she was telling me that the seller said it was accurate at even 1,000 yards!

I actually like the varmint-barreled 700’s and have a couple. They never struck me as a very good “general purpose” hunting rifle. Please remember, I’m talking about a reasonably fit middle aged woman who had never shot a rifle more powerful than a 223 AR-15.

So, I gave her some pointers and coached her shooting. I’d promised. I was quite accustomed to shooting heavy scoped rifles at that point in my life. She shot fairly well, but only from the bench or prone, always from the bipod, and only at 100 yards. The rifle did function flawlessly and it was certainly capable of good accuracy with the Remington ammunition she’d purchased. Just watching her lug it around the range though, was painful. It was simply too much rifle for the shooter and the looming plains game hunt.

Weeks later they had returned from the African hunt! I was regaled with photos and stories. He hadn’t taken his good old 270, they just had the 300 RUM Sendero. She did most of the shooting and they had eventually bagged a couple of good specimens of South African big game. Nothing wrong with that!

Then she started telling me things like “I couldn’t carry it while stalking.” And “I couldn’t get the rifle in position to shoot fast enough.” And “Even with the scope at 6.5x I couldn’t see very much. Our game was all taken at 150 yards and less.” She told me that they’d chosen the wrong rifle and scope and conceded that something lighter, handier and with a lower magnification scope would have served them better. She mentioned being very frustrated at not being able to get the crosshairs on game that she could clearly see with her eyes, but couldn’t find with the rifle scope. I just listened and nodded a lot. She’d learned a lot of lessons in one hunting trip! I didn’t even mention her husband’s very ordinary and very capable 270 Winchester which had stayed home.

Does this make the 700 Sendero a poor rifle? Oh gosh no! It’s very good for the intended purpose - hunting from a blind, perhaps looking over a path or “sendero” cut in the brush - and placing a precision shot at several hundred yards. It’s essentially a sniper rifle for hunting. I had one in 7mm Remington Magnum for a few years, and it shot great but it wasn’t particularly enjoyable to carry in the hills all day.

It’s also similar to my much-appreciated old SWAT rifle, a Remington 700 with a varmint contour Krieger barrel, chambered in 308 Winchester and bedded into a McMillan stock. That rifle is still a favorite of mine, but not particularly easy to hike with or bring into action quickly at modest range.

Did they have a good time on the hunt? Yes. Did they bring home some really nice trophies? Yes. I applaud them for taking the trip, hunting, experiencing South Africa and enjoying. Was taking game far more difficult than it should have been, because of their choice of rifle? Yes, absolutely.

When choosing a rifle - consider the task and consider the shooter. The ability to get on target quickly and place a bullet or several into the vitals is vastly more important than how powerful the cartridge is or how accurate the rifle may be at 1,000 yards…

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I’m a lifelong hunter, a firearms instructor, a USMC veteran and a retired SWAT cop. Shoot well!

Regards, Guy

148 grain HBWC advertised at 725 fps

125 grain TMJ advertised at 820 fps

Owner Steve Shields advised me that his 148 grain wadcutter ammo was very accurate, mild shooting and can penetrate quite deeply. When I asked which of his several types of 38 ammo he’d recommend for a high volume training event like the Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Roundup he unhesitatingly recommended his 125 grain TMJ ammo. As a seasoned revolver fan I knew that was because the wadcutter ammo in general doesn’t feed quickly into the cylinder from a speedloader. The blunt tips get hung up instead of gliding on it. The TMJ ammo on the other hand has a sleek profile and it does indeed feed flawlessly from my HKS speedloaders into the cylinder for a rapid reload.

Three revolvers accompanied me to the range in addition to my small Athlon Rangecrafter chronograph: a 6” K14, a 3” 357 Model 60 and a 2” Model 36.

I’m particularly fond of the 6” K14, built in 1960 by S&W for use as a target revolver. Quite a few of them ended up being used by uniformed police officers as well. It’s a very easy revolver to shoot well.

The much newer 3” Model 60 357 magnum is my most-often carried revolver, for self defense purposes in both urban and rural settings. Normally I carry some old 125 grain JHP Federal +P ammo I got a rather long time ago. In “bear country” I’m inclined to carry heavy cast bullet 357’s though they’re not much fun to practice with.

An old friend of mine, the 2” Model 36 served for several years as my backup gun when I was a police officer. I recently dressed it up a bit with some walnut grips from Tyler Gun Works in Texas.

At the range the results were interesting:

I was surprised that the velocity of the High Desert 148 grain HBWC ammunition didn’t vary much between the 2” 3” and 6” revolvers. The ammo is pleasant to shoot, even from the diminutive 2” Model 36. From the heavier 3” and 6” revolvers it’s very easy to shoot with low recoil.

I do love the clean cut full diameter holes left in the target by wadcutter and semi-wadcutter bullets. The K14 is just a treasure… Such an easy revolver to shoot well.

There is a school of thought that for defensive purposes the 38 wadcutter ammo is a good choice because of two key points - it’s mild enough to shoot very well and since it’s unlikely to generate much velocity, it’s a good idea to focus on penetration, which the wadcutter bullet does very well. I didn’t ask Steve which bullet he used for this application, but externally it appears the same as the Berry’s manufacturing 148 grain hollow base wadcutter I’ve been happily handloading. It’s certainly accurate, particularly from my 6” K14 revolver. Several specialized ammunition makers such as High Desert, Lost River and Buffalo Bore offer similar 38 wadcutter ammo suitable for defensive purposes.

I have to admit that I’ve never shot this particular revolver very well. For me it’s a 10 to 15 yard revolver at max. I suspect that a good action job would help tremendously.

After checking the 148 grain High Desert Cartridge Company 38 ammo I thought to try five shots of the defensive 38+P Federal ammunition I typically carry in my Model 60 and Model 36 revolvers. It was much faster, averaging 890 fps from the 3” barrel, also with a nice tight SD and a very nicely centered group of 1.5” - I don’t feel bad at all about this choice of ammo, but I don’t think Federal makes this particular type any more.

In conclusion the 38 revolver remains a good choice for self defense or small-game hunting. The High Desert Cartridge Company is loading this great version of the classic 38 wadcutter match ammo and I can clearly recommend it. I’ll be taking a detailed look at the High Desert 125 grain 38 ammo as well.

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Regards, Guy

Photo is from about 1970, opening day of pheasant season on Ryer Island in the Sacramento River Delta. I’m the kid on the upper right with my 20 gauge double, Dad is kneeling on the lower right. I remember some of the guys, most of them are gone now including my lifelong friend Tom who’s in the front with the striped shirt and glasses.

Opening day on Ryer Island was awesome. Dad and I would drive there in his Ford pickup. We’d meet the other hunters and hang out in the steel shed waiting for the fog to lift. Generally we’d be hunting by 8:00 or so. The best days had gorgeous sunny weather and crisp fall temps. We’d often have a dozen or so hunters, all friends, family and some business associates. Mostly we hunted the milo fields which had been harvested - leaving stalks just high enough to bruise the heck out of shins - but also providing great cover for the pheasants! These were wild birds, and usually there were so many of them. The limit was two birds and we’d hunt until everyone had two birds.

Rarely did we have a dog. We’d line up abreast and walk the fields. Breaks had been mowed in the fields every couple of hundred yards and we’d station a few guys there as holders - usually the older gents. Dad and I loved to walk. The line would start moving forward, everyone spaced a few yards apart. Not many birds would flush mid-field, some held tight and erupted into flight with the loud cackling and wingbeats only a few feet in front, or sometimes behind the walkers. As my friend Tom and I grew into our teens we turned into the quickest shooters, each of us with double barrel 20 gauge Ithaca shotguns made by SKB. I remember once a bird got up behind us. Tom and I were in the middle of the line. We each heard the bird come up behind us, saw that it was a rooster and fired. It dropped - then we looked at each other in amazement as we’d fired at exactly the same time and didn’t know the other had shot.

When the line approached the break, where the holders were stationed, the birds running ahead of us would start running back and forth, to the break, then back towards the walkers. It got really intense the last 20 or 30 yards… Then they’d start flushing. Sometimes in ones and twos, sometimes a flurry of wingbeats and a dozen or more birds would spring into the air accompanied by calls of “hen” or “rooster” from the hunters. We were pretty good at only shooting roosters.

About noon or so we’d head back to the metal “barn” for lunch. It was glorious! Hot French bread with just a slab of steak - seasoned with a lot of garlic and black pepper… Steak sandwiches, so simple and so good. There’d also be a huge salad and then dessert - homemade cookies from my mother! She made great cookies. Tom and I as the youngest were quite fond of the steak sandwiches… Protein for strong and growing teenagers.

My Marine Corps service interfered with pheasant hunting, but when I could I’d make it home for either opening day or Thanksgiving and hunt with Dad. My attendance became more sporadic as I spent time overseas or on the east coast. Sometimes I’d visit my folks and Dad would host me at Hastings Island which had become his pheasant club. Usually we’d hunt with a friend of his who would bring a dog. This was when I got introduced to hunting with a good dog, a dog bred and trained for upland bird hunting. Bob loved hunting with his vizsla dog “Ace” - and Ace was a wonderful hunter. Well trained, Ace would bring the fallen bird back to Bob every time, no matter which of us shot it. Dad had a variety of shotguns at his home and I’d just pick one of them for the hunt. We did well there.

Time passed… After the Marines I found myself in Washington State in a law enforcement career. Trips to hunt with Dad became less frequent. Dad hunted into his 80’s and in time gave up his beloved role of walking at Ryer Island and became a holder. That was good for the group because he was an excellent wing shot and dropped many pheasants. My friend Tom grew up to manage the farming on Ryer Island and he added to the faltering wild population of pheasants by releasing raised birds into the milo fields a day or two before the hunt.

Dad on the left and his friend Don hunting pheasants on Ryer in their 70’s or early 80’s. Both were superb shooters.

In Washington I’d hunt public land for pheasant and also became a member of the Cooke Canyon hunt club - where I introduced my youngest son to pheasant hunting. He used the same 20 gauge Ithaca/SKB double I’d first used in the 1970’s. That well built gun is still in excellent condition. In due time I ended up with my father’s guns. He gave me his Beretta A390, which turned out to be one heck of a pheasant gun. I shoot it better than any other shotgun, and it was light enough to carry into the hills for chukar too. Then I hunted with the 12 gauge Browning Citori - entirely too fancy for my tastes, and heavy, but it shot well. Later I took up hunting with a 90 year old Remington 32 using the skeet barrels and Bismuth shot. My son latched onto a 28 gauge CZ double which is so very light and easy handling. Yes, the 28 gauge is absolutely enough for pheasants, something I’d learned nearly 60 years ago.

We had two dogs during those Washington years, both German Wirehaired Pointers. The first was ours only to provide him a retirement home. Clark had been a national champion and early in life he’d undergone hunt training. The first time I took him afield he pointed hard and then looked at me as if to ask “Is this what we’re doing?” That dog taught me so much about hunting for pheasant, chukar, quail and even grouse.

Thanking Clark for yet another great retrieve. That dog was so focused on his hunt, so intense!

When he passed, as they always do, Maverick found us. He’s a rescue dog, his first family gave up on him when he was young. He just needed some time, patience and love then took to hunting naturally. Eventually I enlisted help from Cooke Canyon to train him for bird hunting and his skills improved. He’s become a very good, incredibly strong, hunting dog.

Young Maverick with his first rooster. The first of many!

Thanking Maverick for a terrific hunt with my son John, who also took the photo.

I started hunting pheasants nearly 60 years ago and it’s still my favorite. For me, nothing beats the rush of a pheasant flushing. I just need to find some places here in Oklahoma or perhaps in states just north of here to hunt those wonderful birds again.

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I’m a lifelong hunter, a law enforcement and NRA handgun and rifle instructor, a USMC veteran and a retired police officer with 12 years of SWAT experience. Catch my firearms and ammunition videos on Ultimate Reloader on Rumble and YouTube. Photos in this article are a combination of mine and those taken by Ultimate Reloader.

Shoot well, Guy Miner