Thread: Reloading 22 Hornet (The Original) – Optimal Canada Goose Load

Originally Posted by Oldbloke

Yep, some blokes wear out barrels trying achieve a level of accuracy that just isn't required.
The costs just don't justify it.
Trave l to range
Pay range fee
Bullets
Powder
Primers
Your time

Maybe. Depends what sort of kick you get out of reloading and spending time on the range. Also whether you are already successful in the field or not. If you only get to go hunting say a total of 7 to 10 days a year range time might be quite appealing. Maybe not so much chasing the last % of accuracy but certainly chasing knowledge of yourself and your firearm.

A bit of a story for you. I have a mate shooting a 7mm08. He goes with someone else, very experienced, deer hunting a couple of times a year. Usually comes back with venison. He had never taken goat and wanted to try some for the table. Took him out, mature pine forest, put him out front on a ridge, came upon a pod of 15 goats the same time they saw him. Obviously well hunted they were on the move right smart. By the time he got prone, at around 30m, and emptied his mag, he had one itty-bitty kid to show for it. I was some 80m back down the heavily ridge with a good side view of the goats as they ran down a spur. Off the shoulder with my 7x57mm I took 2 on the run. One shoulder shot, one kidneys as it was disappearing behind some timber. 86m shots. He saw me take the shots. After the dust settled and we had bagged some meat he told me he had never shot from the shoulder, always prone, and had no idea how to or confidence to try.

The short story is I got him to the range, starting with my Rossi Puma 357 and cheap 38sp , doing drills on 50m gongs from the shoulder. I got him to stand in his hunting ready position, either chamber loaded, safety on, bolt open or how he would normally be prepared to take a shot momentarily. I'd then call 'Ready, Standby, One, Two, Three, Four, Five". The scenario is an animal is about to walk into view, unaware of him and he has to go from his ready condition to firing condition and hit the gong before the five count. The count cadence is one second apart with 4 sec to hit the gong from the count of One.

At the start at 50m he was shooting at around the count of Three and regularly missing more than he hit. A lot more. So rushing. After around 50 shots he was nailing it with ease around the Four count to just before the Five count.. then we moved to 100m. Then swapped the Rossi for his 7mm08. He was shooting factory ammo and at 100m by the end of a pkt and a half he was confidently nailing the gong dead centre.

He took the remainder on his next hunt and came back with a couple of deer shot from the shoulder, around 80m and 120m. Chuffed as. Now of course he is keen on more range time, and reloading.

There are lots of drills to do on the range. Yes you can go thru some ammo. But if you go hunting half a doz times a year, have some hunts where you don't fire a shot even, and others where one or two shots put meat on table or trophy on wall, you would hardly be building familiarity with your rifle. Range time is not hunting but it gives the confidence and knowledge to not have to think to much about what you need to do when the shot opportunity comes. And potentially saves you from wondering how the heck you could have missed. If I only had 100 rds of ammo I'd be prepared to use 90 of them on the range to maximise the chance of getting 10 killing shots in the field.

Anyway, if range time is not your thing and you don't need it fair enough. A few of us do. It is a slippery slope tho. From hitting an 8" gong at 200m to a 4" at 600m is kinda like stepping on a steep Dunedin street coated with black ice. I've managed to avoid it so far...