Hunting Load vs. Range Load

Greg Blackburn said:

I've only shot and hunted with my CVA Bobcat and I'd load up a Hornady Great Plains Bullet the night before, but that was just too hard to load in the field for follow-up shots so I'd then load a patched round ball.

Could you try swabbing in the field after that first shot?

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No issue, just swab. My gun rods are all threaded for 10-32
I carry a jag and a small bottle (2oz) of windex. Dampen a patch, wipe, load.
On one deer hunting trip when no deer were found, I did take 4 rabbits (but took all 6 of my ball board loads), I took the time to wipe between shots. If you are close enough and can take head shots the 54 is a pretty efficient rabbit gun...

FWIW when doing ‘load development’, like shooting from 50 to > 100-grn charges, in 5-grain increments, I’ll typically see both a ‘light’ & ‘heavy’ load that shoots or groups the best; both indicative of shooting at the best ‘node‘ from the barrel & charge.

Yeah, I may need to apply some KY-windage to the light load whilst sighted in with the heavier load for hunting, but at least I know I’m shooting THE most inherently accurate loads from that combination. FWIW, I have seen some groups at some in-between charges have a 4-5X or more group dispersion!

Ya’ gotta try this ... if you never have, as it is truly eye opening.

I almost always find that to be the case Flint62Smoothie, and depending on what the gun is for I may go with the lighter of the two loads, ie squirrel hunting. As a matter of fact the best loads in my .36 squirrel rifle are neatly a 25g and 50g load so I know a double charge is my accurate long range varmint load.

With very few exceptions I shoot only one load in a rifle. If a small game load is needed then a small caliber rifle is used. Regardless of caliber I load tight prb. For example, I normally load a .45 with either a .440" or .445" ball and a .023" canvas patch. Since I have no use for a load that can't be seated with the wood, underbarrel rod, I made a slight, but important, modification of the rifle crowns. Using just thumb and sandpaper the crowns were smoothed so that the ends of the lands were a gentle 1/8" slope going into the muzzle with no abrupt edges. A short starter is still required, but once started the prb seats easily enough for the wood rod to be used exclusively. I only use the wood rod in the bush and 80% of the time at the range. This "relief crowning" of the muzzle prevents the patch from tearing when started. Mink oil is used exclusively in the deer woods. Hoppes #9 BP Lube makes seating even easier but isn't the best choice if the gun is to remain loaded for more than a couple of days.
The two photos shows just how little smoothing it takes. The plus is that this allows virtually all day shooting without swabbing. I don't swab until I pack up to go home.
Rifle muzzle before "crowning".

Same muzzle after smoothing.

Hanshi, that is a super tight sounding combo. How’s your palm doing? Or are you saying you can seat that load without need of a short starter due to your modification?

What grit sandpaper did you use on your muzzle?

I intend to work up accurate loads in my muzzleloaders and then stick with those for hunting. I'd prefer some "meat targets" like Paul Harrell of Youtube fame does and then see what penetration and expansion my bullets have at those loadings but I don't think that's necessary. After all, a 285 grain and up all-lead hollowpoint is probably fairly deadly on anything where I live.

hanshi said:

Using just thumb and sandpaper the crowns were smoothed so that the ends of the lands were a gentle 1/8" slope going into the muzzle with no abrupt edges.

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I take the ‘thumb and sandpaper’ on bore crowns a little further, just for the sake of consistency, at least in my opinion.

I use a series of ball bearings, from about one and half times the bore diameter, to right around bore diameter, and use sandpaper of different grits from 120/180 up to 320 or finer (I take it up to 1000 grit for a mirror finish). A couple of turns of muzzle over each ball bearing with progressively finer sandpaper over them gives a smooth barrel crown to bore transition

Basic idea is to hold the sandpaper over the ball bearing (you can place ball on the floor and hold paper with your feet, maybe on a pad or thin carpet) and rotate the barrel bore on the bearing with the paper on it. Easy to keep barrel square with the floor. I’ll start with the larger diameter bearing and roughest grit paper and end with a smaller ball bearing near bore diameter, repeating with progressively finer grit sandpaper. I stop when I have a slight chamfer on bore and rifling lands that is highly polished.

I use Dykem (or a Sharpie) to mark the inside the bore so I can easily see when I starting to clean up everything without going too far.
Just note with either method. If your barrel is already finished, you are going to remove finish from the face of the bore if you don’t protect it. I’ve used ‘masking’ tape with a hole punched through it (use a wad punch), but only on other people’s gun’s, not worrying about it on mine.

The 1st shot out of a clean barrel may be different from the rest. Here's what my rifles do 1st higher (some like to foul the barrel to avoid this)

Everyone thinks they need more power to hunt, no one thinks they should get closer to their quarry.
Hunt like a traditional bow hunter, the closer the better.

Same first shot/load to the last.
I only have .530 balls, and whatever thickness the pre-lubed T/C pillow ticking patches I have are.

Loading effort is either the same, or "close enough" that I don't notice any difference.

A pie pan or a dinner plate sized group will put deer in the freezer. Realistically I would say a four inch group should be the minimum you aim for( pun intended)
That won’t get you a ribbon at a shoot.
I think that a divide tween paper punchers and hunters.
Mind you both will have meat in the freezer.
Its all what you think is fun. I proud if I get an x or a clover leaf, but I’m happy with in the black.

All shooting either target or hunting is the same loads same loading procedure, I am a hunter sometimes I will shoot at targets if I keep them in a 3 inch group out to 75 yards I am happy. If I get ousted at a shoot bye a fellow shooter with a set of dividers and a ruler I shake his hand, and invite him to the house for a deer steak dinner with the all the trimmings of course.

appalichian hunter said:

All shooting either target or hunting is the same loads same loading procedure, I am a hunter sometimes I will shoot at targets if I keep them in a 3 inch group out to 75 yards I am happy. If I get ousted at a shoot bye a fellow shooter with a set of dividers and a ruler I shake his hand, and invite him to the house for a deer steak dinner with the all the trimmings of course.

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I was really proud of myself today when I had 4 holes touching at 100 yards with my .54 flinter.
The 30 some odd other holes in the paper were just flyers I guess.....

I will use the same loads for target and hunting, and do not load for maximum load/velocity, preferring easy loading without swabbing. Over the years I have found that shot placement trumps speed at my typical deer hunting range of 25-75 yards, and have seen little difference in killing effect with well placed shots. I’m happy to keep my shots in a softball sized area in hunting conditions, but every so often during the controlled conditions at the range I find that my rifles are usually more capable then I am.

Art, you see and shoot way better than I am able to do.

Art Caputo said:

It depends on how the particular rifle shoots. When I go deer hunting I’m always loaded with a clean barrel. With a few of my rifles, I find that I need to use a thicker patch(.018”vs .015”) get achieve the same POI with the first shot compared to multiple shots, whether swabbed or in-swabbed. A couple of other rifles did not require this adjustment. Need to test for this.

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I definitely need to do some more testing, thanks for the tip on the patch thicknesses!

SDSmlf, I like your method; maybe even better than mine. I need to look into finding ball bearings somewhere and give that a try.

Admittedly, while I can no longer shoot as well as I once did, I'm now satisfied with keeping all my shots in the black at 50 yards. With only a couple of exceptions I shoot only one load in a rifle whether in the bush or at the range. If I want to use a rifle for small game I have a .32 and don't bother working up a different load for small game using a deer rifle.