I ran into a friend who shot a doe with spitzer type muzzleloader bullet. The deer ran hundreds of yards before dropping. And he recovered the bullet, which never mushroomed to deliver killing energy.

I advocate for semi-spitzers with rounded nose, round/flat nose or hollow point bullets for muzzleloaders that deliver sufficient energy to open/ mushroom the bullet. 

Do your homework and read up.

Avoid spitzer styles that are difficult to open and mushroom.

Most shots are taken at 40 to 60 yards and do not need sharply pointed bullets. 

You will be glad you changed bullets. I like a 300 grain semi-spitzer/hollow point for my 50 cal.  and at least 100 grains of pyrodex. 

Some examples of better mushrooming bullets.

Now is the time to shop!

I avoid sharp sleek pointed bullets that are not designed to readily expand. 

Good Shooting!

Not finding your favorite powder for sale?  This chart can help find powders closest to yours. I did that with my alternative to Reloader 22 and found Viht N560 and it worked great. Nosler listed it in their manual. 

Reloading safety is of prime importance thus you must begin a new powder at starting loads and work up. The internet should give some start load data sources if you search your caliber and alternative powders.

All reloading manuals list alternative powders but there are some older reloading manuals that are not current in new state-of-the-art powders. 

IMR published a burn rate chart PDF below and includes many brands.

Check it out.

https://imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/burnratecolor.pdf

Removing the two mounting bolts, you can pop out the barrel and action with some finagling and prying. It is a tight fit. 

Here is the Timney Trigger below.

Below there are 2 pins that hold the trigger in the half moon cutouts in the barrel. Use a 1/16 punch to remove the two pins and the trigger will come off. 

The part I did not expect is that the Timney did not just drop in. The forward slot was too narrow to fit in the half moon cutout. I had to grind off a few thousandths from the trigger housing to widen the slot with a Dremel tool. 

Below you can see my Dremel tool that I used to grind the forward pin housing a bit. Took me 20 minutes to grind and fit it. Not overly hard with the right tool. Some triggers drop in to those slots in videos. 

Below is the Timney trigger installed. The whole process took me about an hour or less.

I put my Lyman Trigger test gauge on the Timney and as expected it measured 3 pounds almost. Two pounds fifteen point nine ounces. I tested again at 3 pounds exact. Test the safety slide to be sure it works. Mounting bolts need torque to 35 inch-lbs.

Below is a video that helped me.

Good Shooting.

©Copyright 2023 

Decades ago, I started out by shooting a few boxes of .270 Winchester ammo and kept the brass. This once fired ammo case is a great start to reload. But you need dies to reform brass, add a primer, powder and press the bullet.

For me, reloading is the ultimate satisfaction of doing-it-yourself like DIY.

Like chipping a broadhead from a piece of stone and killing game by your own hand as our ancestors did is the ultimate in satisfaction. 

The component of a cartridge requires a brass case to hold the powder, primer and bullet.

The brass needs to be “resized” in reloading dies, spent primer removed and replaced (left die) and a bullet seating die (right).

 But new brass can be purchased too. See image below.

A reloading press and dies are essential. There are several companies who cater to reloaders.

A basic bottle-neck die set consists of two dies, one to resize the case and another to press the bullet into the case. See Photo above.

Every cartridge caliber needs its own die set. Die set costs to load for hunting typically cost less than $70.00 for a set.

Reloading for long distance hunting and shooting can be more exacting and cost much more. Like this Redding Die Set with micrometer bullet seating.

I had my first Savage .270 Winchester and loaded it with an RCBS Press and dies 40 years ago.  I use it to this day and saved untold dollars and Did-It-Myself…to my great satisfaction. I hunted Africa with my custom loads.

The key to good reloading technique is to read reloading manuals and guides, watch reloading video’s on you-tube. Listen and pay attention to areas of safety. Inspect your brass and spent primers for gas leaks, case damage of older brass. RCBS offers a free downloadable reloading guide.

https://www.rcbs.com/rcbs-downloadable-guide.html

Companies like Nosler, Hornady, Speer, Lyman, and several others sell reloading manuals. My two favorite manuals are Nosler and Hornady. Don’t forget all the videos on the web. 

Check-it-Out

Recently, I hand-loaded some Alliant Reloader Powder I had in my lower cool dry garage cupboard.

It was for my 7mm Rem Mag rifle and discovered the powder lost some of its potency. It was an opened can and had about a half pound left. All of the loaded ammo fired fine but lost a couple hundred feet-per-second from published data. This powder had very little solvent smell and looked fine.

I was looking for a near max load.

I loaded rounds later in steps to see what I could wring out and did so just fine.

I would buy a new pound of Alliant Powder as soon as it is available and consider quickly using the older powder. 

I also loaded some rounds with a new can of IMR powder which had a potent solvent smell. These rounds followed published data very well. 

New powders often have a solvent Acetone like smell and over time the opened can will lose the solvent smell. Over longer periods, it will degrade to an acidic off smell.  When powder has that off smell it is time to dispose of the powder. Below is what Alliant says about storage and handling of modern powder.

https://www.alliantpowder.com/getting_started/safety/storage_handling.aspx

Another article I liked below.

https://www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/how-to-determine-gunpowder-shelf-life/83922

Good Shooting!

First, I like my new Browning X-Bolt rifle, but some of you know I had difficulty cleaning the red sealant out of the adjustment screw Allen wrench hole a few weeks back. Thinking my 2mm wrench stripped the hole. But I revisited the adjustment with a tool that I can put pressure on to get deeper in the Allen socket hole.

And it worked. The screw turned.

Thinking, now I can adjust it down to 3 pounds, but the adjustment screw did not lower the trigger to 3 pounds in fact just an ounce below 4 pounds, no matter what I did. And I am pretty good with tools!

Accordingly, frustrated I reassembled the trigger base and shot some snap caps for how the trigger felt. Nope, not much change. They say you can buy an adjustment spring and replace the existing trigger spring but it is not an easy job.

For me, I will test a Timney trigger when it arrives. It will adjust 1.5 to 4 lbs. Mine will be set at the factory to 3 pounds.

The only downside is that it costs around $200.00 and you have to take the stock off, remove and replace the trigger and proof the safety latch works. The Timney will no longer lock the bolt however. Many shooters see this as a minor loss.

https://timneytriggers.com/browning-x-bolt/

More Soon!

Shooting a semi-auto .308 or 6.5 Creedmoor AR for hunting can be done and done well. An AR example below. I prefer a bolt action but hey…this works. A great wild boar rifle too, where southern and western farmers are overrun with them.

The semi-auto AR 10 platform for hunting is a do-it-all rifle for protection, hunting game, and predators.

I personally prefer a bolt action rifle but in the right hands, this rifle works. In brown bear country, this reliable rifle gives comfort to folks living off-grid as does a 44 mag pistol as a side arm.

Ranchers use this tool like they use a hammer. If you have a nail, then the hammer is the right tool. If you have a brown bear sniffing in your direction, having a large clip of .308 cartridges at the ready can be comforting. Or live in Texas or Florida where they are overrun with pigs.

I am no expert on AR Rifles for hunting big game but I did find a great article on the web by Outdoor Life.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/guns/rifles/centerfire/2011/11/20-best-semi-automatic-rifles-big-game-hunting/ 

Check it out, they are fun to shoot.