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Light hunting loads

JEFFPPC said:
Great advice Ken.
Click to expand...
Yeah, well I learned that lesson the hard way too....:rolleyes:

When my daughter expressed that she wanted to go hunting with me I got her a Weatherby Vangard in 243 Win.
I should have started her out on a 22LR.
She's still recoil shy with rifles.

I built her a custom Mauser in 7X57 Mauser. Purple Boyds AT-One stock. ( I know there's a special place in the afterlife for putting a purple stock on a Mauser :eek:)
Some fairly soft loads using 120gr Ballistic Tips.

Pistols is another story!!
Hand her a 44 Mag and she'll run you dry on ammo!:oops:
 
You can load up some light bullets for the 358, with light loads, just remember the 358 is a 358 and not 357 like most pistol bullets are. So for accuracy you will need the rifle diameter bullets to get any accuracy. In teaching, you always want the student to be successful in order to encourage them.
 
std7mag said:
Yeah, well I learned that lesson the hard way too....:rolleyes:

When my daughter expressed that she wanted to go hunting with me I got her a Weatherby Vangard in 243 Win.
I should have started her out on a 22LR.
She's still recoil shy with rifles.

I built her a custom Mauser in 7X57 Mauser. Purple Boyds AT-One stock. ( I know there's a special place in the afterlife for putting a purple stock on a Mauser :eek:)
Some fairly soft loads using 120gr Ballistic Tips.

Pistols is another story!!
Hand her a 44 Mag and she'll run you dry on ammo!:oops:
Click to expand...
Actually Ken, at the length their making many rifle stocks today when you consider a northern male hunter in winter clothes.....The gun is to long for them. That's why they have difficulty picking up game in their scope when hunting. I guess it's a male/macho thing no one wants to make the rifle fit them if it involves saying.....it needs to be shorter.
 
JEFFPPC said:
Actually Ken, at the length their making many rifle stocks today when you consider a northern male hunter in winter clothes.....The gun is to long for them. That's why they have difficulty picking up game in their scope when hunting. I guess it's a male/macho thing no one wants to make the rifle fit them if it involves saying.....it needs to be shorter.
Click to expand...
Very true!

But my daughter is 6'3" with a 31" draw length. :oops:

For her it's more about the droop and cant of the stock.
Having the adjustable butt & comb is a huge game changer for her!

The butt pad is down, to the left, and slightly twisted from a straight stock.
 
I should have mentioned....I do have 22lrs, ARs, pistols etc for her to shoot. Just when it comes to deer hunting, all my rifles are 280, 300sav and bigger.

The 358win and 450 bushmaster are nice light rigs and without measuring, I'd guess the LOP is shorter than most rifles these days. That's why a reduced load and lighter bullets meant to do the job at lower velocities crossed my mind.


Maybe I'll get her to the range this week or next and let her shoot and see where she stands.



There is a back story. Her dad, brother and a years ago boyfriend tried getting her to shoot and she did have bad experiences. Not so much with recoil but with poor teachers and not being comfortable.....and 2 bad events. One was a gun of some sort blew up best I can figure. Not sure if a round got mixed up or what. The other....her ex got her a pistol and didn't teach her anything. He told her how to break it down to clean without showing her. Long story short, a round went off in the house.


So, 5 1/2 years, I haven't shown her anything yet. She wasn't comfortable at ALL with being around guns. But has started expressing interest in learning to shoot properly and hunting. So....I will absolutely do it right for her and the best option probably is to buy her her own rifle. But I wanna get her shooting to make sure we can even get past that part. And I wanna get her above a 22lr so she can tell me she can and she wants to move on with it.
 
Light rifles may be handy to carry weight wise, but something a little heavier helps with recoil. Though in a hunting scenario, I still stand by my first post of higher energy hunting rounds.

However, you take her and all the rifles you have to the range and let her go through all of them, you’ll find out a few things. She may tolerate recoil fine, as different rifles transfer the recoil differently. And also, she may find one she really likes and can shoot accurately. There is a risk…. you might lose a rifle to her.

I was teaching a small woman years ago to shoot pistols. Started with .22, went to .380, then 9mm, and ultimately to .45. After shooting.45 she had little interest in any of the others. She was just over 5 foot, probably 100-105 lbs.
 
Mauser06 said:
I should have mentioned....I do have 22lrs, ARs, pistols etc for her to shoot. Just when it comes to deer hunting, all my rifles are 280, 300sav and bigger.

The 358win and 450 bushmaster are nice light rigs and without measuring, I'd guess the LOP is shorter than most rifles these days. That's why a reduced load and lighter bullets meant to do the job at lower velocities crossed my mind.


Maybe I'll get her to the range this week or next and let her shoot and see where she stands.



There is a back story. Her dad, brother and a years ago boyfriend tried getting her to shoot and she did have bad experiences. Not so much with recoil but with poor teachers and not being comfortable.....and 2 bad events. One was a gun of some sort blew up best I can figure. Not sure if a round got mixed up or what. The other....her ex got her a pistol and didn't teach her anything. He told her how to break it down to clean without showing her. Long story short, a round went off in the house.


So, 5 1/2 years, I haven't shown her anything yet. She wasn't comfortable at ALL with being around guns. But has started expressing interest in learning to shoot properly and hunting. So....I will absolutely do it right for her and the best option probably is to buy her her own rifle. But I wanna get her shooting to make sure we can even get past that part. And I wanna get her above a 22lr so she can tell me she can and she wants to move on with it.
Click to expand...
If she thinks she wants to try it all again then your AR (.223?) will do fine at those distances you plan on shooting with the right ammo if your state allows it. If you want to make it a lot better, buy the least expensive 6.5 Grendel complete upper in 20" (Bear Creek) and a 5 or 10 rd. magazine add some ammo, sight it in then go hunt. Very smooth light recoiling setup with serious deer killing power. She will have no problem with the 6.5 Grendel in the AR platform.
Another option would be a 20 gauge shotgun with slugs.
 
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Mauser06 said:
My girlfriend is talking about maybe hunting.


I don't really wanna buy her a rifle till I know she's going to actually hunt.


I have a Kimber Montana in 358win


I have a "custom" m700 I "built" in 450 Bushmaster.

Both rifles are LIGHT. The bushmaster is heaviest at 6.25lbs loaded.


I've never loaded anything but full power loads. And I actually shoots Barnes and Hammer coppers...so I know I can't reduce velocity from a performance standpoint.


This would be deer hunting timber. My average shot is maybe 40yds. 15-75yd type stuff.


Any recommendations on loads for either or both?? I'd like to load up both and see what one SHE likes.

I believe I can run 357mag bullets or 45 colt type hunting bullets? No idea where to start. She's not a shooter so I don't wanna pound her with my full throttle loads in lightweight rigs.


Thanx!
Click to expand...
Let her use the Bushmaster. Don't know what you mean by reducing velocity reduces performance. Speed and accuracy shouldn't be an issue at close range. The main thing is not to panick and aim carefully and sqeeze the trigger. You might buy her a rifle and she doesn't like to hunt or kill an animal. She might not be your girl friend a year from now.
 
Webster said:
Let her use the Bushmaster. Don't know what you mean by reducing velocity reduces performance. Speed and accuracy shouldn't be an issue at close range. The main thing is not to panick and aim carefully and sqeeze the trigger. You might buy her a rifle and she doesn't like to hunt or kill an animal. She might not be your girl friend a year from now.
Click to expand...
My bushmaster is 6.25lbs and I'm pushing 250gr TTSX over 2350fps. It's all the more I wanna get whacked with let alone a an inexperienced shooter.

TTSX like speed from my experience. I could slow if down a little. But I don't think I can slow it down enough to not be a handful for her. Most published load data looks like it's probably still a bit too much in the recoil department.
 
Mauser06 said:
My girlfriend is talking about maybe hunting.


I don't really wanna buy her a rifle till I know she's going to actually hunt.


I have a Kimber Montana in 358win


I have a "custom" m700 I "built" in 450 Bushmaster.

Both rifles are LIGHT. The bushmaster is heaviest at 6.25lbs loaded.


I've never loaded anything but full power loads. And I actually shoots Barnes and Hammer coppers...so I know I can't reduce velocity from a performance standpoint.


This would be deer hunting timber. My average shot is maybe 40yds. 15-75yd type stuff.


Any recommendations on loads for either or both?? I'd like to load up both and see what one SHE likes.

I believe I can run 357mag bullets or 45 colt type hunting bullets? No idea where to start. She's not a shooter so I don't wanna pound her with my full throttle loads in lightweight rigs.


Thanx!
Click to expand...
Lighter bullets less recoil.
 
Honestly, I’d look to match the case capacity of your gun to an old low pressure round and use the loading data for it.

I loaded reduced loads for a number of cartridges and it was fun - kinda like having two different rifles.
 
JUst remember---you can contact Hodgdon for H4895 and AA5744 loads, if they have them, they will usually give them to you. I know Western Powders had a bunch of unpublished loads for my 450-400, before the Hornady book came out, Western even had 5744 for cast & jacketed loads.
 
I’ve been working with 180 grain copper bullets for a 35 Remington over the last year. At 2250 fps, the recoil is extremely mild, but my rifle is about 8.5 lbs. It might be a little sharper in your Kimber. But for close range, 2000 fps is probably enough.

They say the Maker “Yeti Rex” will expand at 1600 fps. The Barnes 180gr TSX flat base is supposedly designed specifically for 35 rem velocity too. I haven’t shot an animal yet with either bullet but I’ll be surprised if they don’t both work well at 100 yards.
 
@Mauser06 ,

Dude, you live in NW, PA.
I'm in Altoona.

If you'd like to get together sometime, we can make that happen!
Have a 22LR Browning Takedown semi auto (my daughter's.)
Have a 22Mag bolt rifle.
And my wife's Savage 110FP in 223 Rem. 24" heavy barrel.
I can always swap the stock with the Choate. 14lbs in a 223 = pussycat!
 
You can load 45 pistol bullets in your 450B. 200gr at 1400fps will have little recoil and still kill deer. Maybe a 300gr sub sonic cast bullet? Should be really easy to down load.
 
I think std7mag has the right idea. See if you can borrow a more appropriate rifle she can use. And to keep it simple just use some factory ammo.
 
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