Does one really need to shoot the hottest load that can be stuffed into a cartridge case to cleanly harvest a game animal?

[rudyglove27]

No!

[rudyglove27]

No!

[DakotaMan]

Definitely not. You can take a deer just fine in most timber hunting conditions with a slow moving hunk of lead in something like a 30-30 or .35 Remington. That being said, I am a speed seeker. I like my varmint hunting bullets (not deer bullets) to be as FAST as I can very accurately shoot. My first love was a .220 Swift. It wasn't a testosterone urge... it was the fact that I could aim at a prairie dog's chest and hit it out to 300 yards with no trouble. The fast flat shooting bullet took most of the guesswork out of the wind and trajectory caluclations. I would have been lucky to hit one out of 10 at 300 yards with a 30-30. I now shoot a 25-06 and find that it shoots at its highest accuracy level near maximum load speed. I use the high velocity to give me an edge on varmints and long range deer. I still slow them down on timber deer to avoid blowing up meat and getting too much deflection on brush. I will never knock a fellow hunter for carrying a 30-30 in the timber and I won't knock a fellow varminter that seeks to break the 5000fps barrier on his project rifle.

[idduckhntr]

Beekeeper I aplaude you sir on being a true gentleman.

[Beekeeper]

Clay,

Being a true southern gentleman, I have but one response to you Sir, one which my Grandfather and Father took great pains to instill an understanding of early on. "One does not get into a braying match with a J A C K A S S !

Also, my breathing is fine and my face is it's normal healthy color. Thank you for the concern...

[idahooutdoors]

Only if you want to wear out your rifle and possibly damage it and yourself. I do have a friend who only owns the fastest calibers possible, (300 ultra mag, 220 swift, 204 ruger, etc..) and his opinion is "if you owned a Ferrari would you drive it in 1st?" Maybe he has a point.....

[bonnier-admin_2]

breath..... man...... BREATH YOUR TURNING BLUE IN THE FACE!

[bonnier-admin_2]

O' this is just to funny!

[bonnier-admin_2]

PS
I never wounded a big game animal in my life, but a many times I have handed my rifle to the ones that did!

Go figure!

[bonnier-admin_2]

Beekeeper

Tell me my Brother, why should I lower my ability to yours, when in fact you should be asking not just why but how I do what I do!

Should I shoot between the targets and be penalized as a miss and not win the Regional Championship or shoot the ground at 6 feet out and say I missed my game. Where not playing golf here so why should I handicap myself just to please you!

And as far as Dangerous Game, I tweak and fine tune my loads for maximum performance and never had a load or case failure in competition or hunting big game!

Hunting critters, I’ll reload the casings to the very last safe reloadable use!

Beekeeper, you crack me up

Go have a "Glass of Ice Tea" on me!

Don't like beer unless I'm in the mood for it and if so only one will do!

[Jim in Mo]

In no way does it need to. I've found best accuracy comes about 3/4 to near max of loading manuals suggested loads, then fine tuning in 1/2 grains. They all fall dead. I've never bought into the Roy Weatherby camp that speed alone kills. And this man didat one point say that.

[idduckhntr]

hjohn429 there is nothing wrong with the bottom load in the book if your gun shoots it well, I have a 788 REM in 243 that shoots like a dream as long as I dont take it to the top load.

[Big O]

NO of course, My 06 liked middle of the row.
My .308 a little higher than center.
.300 Win. I push "book" high but she like's it and I've got the B.O.S.S on it.

[hjohn429]

No, but you should never use the minimum load either.

[buck hunter 17]

i dont think so but i guss that some people think that they have to to harvest a game animal.