Just got back from deer hunting (warning - dead deer pics)

[Claven2]

Reloading is DEFINITELY where it's at... I can't remember the last time I carried non-reloads in the field. I get more fps, more impact energy and better bullet performance form my reloads than I ever did from factory ammo

Heck, if I had hit this brute with, say, factory .30-06 round, I would not have had the confidence that the bullet would have made it completely past the shoulder ball joint (I hit it directly on the ball & socket joint, the thickest bone on a deer's front end) and on into the lungs where the real show-stopping took place.

Hitting the ball joint was a bit of an accident, I usually prefer to hit slightly higher to clip the heart and also hit lungs, but shooting free-hand under pressure, you sometimes move off mark by an inch or two... but when reloading you plan for the worst

[Maple_Leaf_Eh]

The only time I deer hunted with my father, I spotted something loping towards us. My first thought was, oh that's the farmer's Shepherd dog. No, it was a young legal buck. Since it was late in the day and the weather wasn't on our side for the next week, I took the shot. Down he went. Truthfully, I prefer the taste of the young ones and does that aren't all bulked up for the rut and taste like testosterone.

And Claven, why did you have to use such an overpowered, odd ball, back of the ammo locker, gunstore salvage cartridge? Is it because all your buddies have one?

[gunner]

Hi Claven,
wich kind of bullet do you use? I`ll try the Hornady Interlock, Lapua Mega and some of the Brenneke`s ( TOG, TIG....).

Regards

Gunner

[Claven2]

And Claven, why did you have to use such an overpowered, odd ball, back of the ammo locker, gunstore salvage cartridge? Is it because all your buddies have one?

LOL, I'd be surprised if there were more than 10 guns in all of Canada chambered in 8x63 Swedish, and probably 7 of them are browning machine guns I have a fetish for difficult to source, odd-ball cartrides that are interesting And yes, 200gr 8mm bullets at 3000fps are perhaps more overpowered than necessary, but I'd rather overkill than underkill!

A couple years ago I had a custom run of 8x63S dies made and Andy (see thread above) sold off the sets that he and I didn't take, so there are some dies floating around, probably all in Canada. Personally, I have a couple thousand milsurp berdan empties that I clean up in small batches, anneal, and reload using RWS berdan primers (I have a small stash, maybe 1000 primers). This latest batch, I just used normal 200gr Speer 8mm bullets.

I also have a couple thousand rounds of ball, but don't tend to run that much through my nice bolt gun!

There's a lot to be said for expressing yourself fire-power wise through the use of unique rounds

[Claven2]

Hi Claven,
wich kind of bullet do you use? I`ll try the Hornady Interlock, Lapua Mega and some of the Brenneke`s ( TOG, TIG....).

Regards

Gunner

I'm a HUGE fan of Nosler partitions, but Nosler 8mm bullets are hard to find, so I often just use normal Speer soft spire points. For the .280 Ross, I also use speer because Nosler's don't swage up in size very well due to the copper web partway up the projectile.

[gunner]

Claven,

thanks for the reply. The Mega from Lapua is a good bullet wich is twice as big as before, when it hits the body. Normally the deers dont move after a hit by this bullet.

Regards

Gunner

[Bill Hollinger]

Out here in Kaliforniev condor country we have to use lead free bullets. The Barnes X and such types are about all that work. It is amazing that there has never been a case of a condor dyeing or even getting sick from ingested lead but that was the reason for the lead ban. We spend 13 million per on a prehistoric bird that wants to die. Fish & Game is just now realizing that they are losing revenue because of it.

The bullets won't sight in the same so one needs to sight in for lead free and also when hunting out of state sight in for lead. Oh, and the lead free bullets don't kill as well because of the lack of expansion so the wounded animal issue has cropped up too. I guess that is one way to feed the condors!

[gunner]

Bill,

it seems that you have the same green idiots as we have. In Thüringen you also have to use the lead free bullets for the same reason and at all lakes where you can hunt ducks and goose you have to use steel shot. We made a study that the lead is getting a "white cover " (some kind of corrosion )that will cover the lead in a way that makes it impossible to get out of the white cover. But the green`s have a good lobby here.

Regards

Gunner

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Gunner,

You didn't tell me Deutschland had become as bad as Kalifornia!
Maybe you should just move to Texas! There are lots of German towns such as Münster, TX and many other towns are still mostly German. You can hunt with about anything here and milsurps are easy to find!

Of course BMW's cost a lot more over here.

Bis später,
~ Harlan

[jon_norstog]

Out here in Kaliforniev condor country we have to use lead free bullets. The Barnes X and such types are about all that work....... Oh, and the lead free bullets don't kill as well because of the lack of expansion so the wounded animal issue has cropped up too....

Bill, list:

A couple years ago I shot a moose with a 220 grain X-bullet from an 8x57 mauser. Behind 47 gr of 4895. This is a load that splays the primer out of the pocket a bit, and that is somewhat hotter than max 220 gr. loads in the '06.

I shot him head-on in the brisket. he jumped and took off. It was at the top of a drainage - I followed the blood, then searched the whole drainage looking for him. Didn't find him so I went back up to where I shot him. I found him about 25 yards away, he doubled back and I missed him in the brush, first time.

I dressed him out on the spot, found the bullet under the hide, right side, about the last rib. It had expanded to about 1/2" is all. I could have hammered the point back together and used it again.

I never did find that animal's heart. It was a clean kill.

I used the X-bullets because my brother gave me 20 of them. Idaho, you can use lead for big game. I used copper because I had some.

I'm not certain if the bullet was at fault. At first I thought it maybe was designed for use in the 8mm Rem mag. I realized later that I had primed those shells with some of the large rifle magnum primers I bought during the **last** primer panic, when Bill Clinton was prez. I gotta get a chronograph.

Anyway, Bill, list, copper bullets are probably OK. they will definitely stay together going thru a shoulder, even on an elk or a big bear. As far as expansion goes, that's another matter. This year I used jacketed lead bullets in my 7 mag and my 30-40.

Bill, moderators - I'm glad you're cutting the hunters some slack on this site. Hunting with milsurps is an american trAdition. Back when a Model 70 was $100, you could buy a Krag for $10 and take an elk just fine. Milsurps are the people's hunting rifles.

jn