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Why choose 7mm Rem. Mag. for Moose?

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I can shoot my heavy recoiling 375 Ruger very well, so why choose a 7mm Remington Magnum instead? First and foremost the 7mm RM, in my new Browning X-Bolt, is lighter, even with a 26 inch barrel, and has almost 50% less recoil than the 375 (40 ft-lb for 375 Ruger). And the 7mm RM has less recoil than the 300 Win Mag or 300 PRC. 

X-Bolt Speed

The 7mm RM can maintain superior moose killing energy at long ranges out to 500 and even 600 yards. Shooting Nosler’s 168g AccuBond Long Range, it has almost 1900 ft-lbs and over 2200 fps at 600 yards. Bullet speed allows mushrooming, and the energy translates to penetration. Below is Nosler image of an AccuBond mushroom at 1350 fps. Most bullets require 1800 to 2000 fps to open like this.

1350 fps

Lesser potent cartridges have killed many moose but have energy limitations at long range. And most local sporting retailers carry 7mm Rem Mag ammo. 

Cost of a moose hunt in Newfoundland isn’t cheap so I got a rifle caliber that can reach further for maximum opportunity. 

My 375 Ruger’s energy quickly poops out around 400 yards or so. Shot distances in Newfoundland tundra and bogs can easily exceed 400 yards. 

Rifle and shooter accuracy is of vital importance, perhaps more-so than delivered energy.  That said, less felt recoil translates to improved accuracy. I use a very sturdy Bog Death Grip tripod for those long range shots. 

Practice out to 600 yards becomes essential, and I have a local range that can do that. I just loaded up some 175g Nosler ABLR’s and soon will load some Nosler 168g ABLR. I will shoot some in my next article.

More soon!

© Copyright 2023

 

 

Bullet Stability/Barrel Twist – Browning X-Bolt 7mm Remington Magnum – UPDATED

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I purchased a Browning X-Bolt for Christmas. Hurray! But bullets are a bit harder to find. I did find a 175grain Nosler ABLR bullet that I liked and purchased it but later calculated the bullets stability to be 1.37, just below the 1.5 military stability criteria in my 1 in 9.5 twist rate barrel. Bullet length included the polymer tip in overall length. Without the polymer tip as part of the bullet length, the formula now says the bullet is very stable. 

Experts argue about including polymer tips or not.  I will load some in a week or so.  

Lets take a look at this imperfect science…

It is known that barrel twist rate and a given bullets size, length, BC and velocity effects bullet stability. As a general rule bullets that are exiting the barrel have some yaw or as some say “yaw spiral” or gyroscopic effect.

It is the bullets “yaw” that can affect the grouping of a bullet, but yaw diminishes as it travels down range making groups tighter..

Calculators

You will need the length of the bullet below to enter this in the stability formula. Some folks subtract the polymer tip from bullet length. The JBM formula below takes the polymer tip into account. Measure the bullets overall length and measure the polymer tip length. 

https://www.jbmballistics.com/ballistics/lengths/lengths.shtml

https://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi

At typical 100 yard ranges your bullet may exhibit some yaw thus grouping may be somewhat larger than expected. I ran into this with the .243 Winchester and my former 338 Win Mag where yaw was pronounced with heavy, longer bullets. 

The good news is, this minor yaw will disappear at longer distances and stability and grouping improves, 

The only way to know how stable your bullet is, is to shoot some at temperatures and distances your going to hunt in.

Accordingly, I would fire them at 100 and 150 yards and then shoot out to my max hunting distance of say 500 to 600 yards for group. 

UPDATE

I had some Nosler 140g E-Tips and 7mm brass in my cupboard and eagerly loaded and shot them at 100 yards with 62g IMR 4831 powder clocking an estimated 2900 ± fps at the muzzle. Yes, that is a bit slow, but Nosler recommends working up loads with gilding copper E-Tips.

Below is the very first 100 yard 3 shot bench rest group. It measured 3/4 inch. Sub-MOA! Luckily there was no measurable wind and I used a COL of 3.24 inches where my bullets had at least 0.05 inches off the lands.

 

Can’t wait for my heavier bullets to arrive. 

Good Shooting!

 

Browning X-Bolt Speed Rifle under the Christmas Tree

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X-Bolt Speed

Browning X-Bolt Speed in 7mm Rem Mag

My readers are aware that I am hunting moose in Newfoundland again. My last moose fell to a single shot from my .375 Ruger, but because of recoil, I took precious seconds to chamber a second round. By the time I had a round in the chamber, the moose fell.

I did not practice this chambering of a second round. I suppose if I were hunting Cape Buffalo, my practice would have been quite different …as if my life depended on it. 

As many have said, “Moose often do not fall quickly to a single shot.” And they can move quickly into cover making a second shot more difficult.

The shooter must be prepared to quickly, eject the spent case, rechambering a new round and  follow-up with a second or even third shot. There is plenty of video evidence of this follow-up on the internet. 

With larger traditional heavy recoiling rifle calibers like.  a 300 Win Mag or heavier, the shooter takes more time due to recoil. He lifts the Mauser like bolt high at 90 degrees, pulls back hard to empty the chamber and closes the bolt with a second round. 

The Browning X-Bolt “Speed” in 7mm Remington Magnum above has one of the fastest bolt throws on the market today. The “speed” refers to the short bolt throw 60 degrees to eject and smoothly chamber a second round.

Bolt throw Speed was key to my purchase and I tested many bolts first hand as I shopped. 

I purchased this rifle with a 26 inch fluted barrel in 7mm Remington Magnum with a removable muzzle brake. I installed my Leupold VX-6 3-18 just like in the image above. Love that scope!!

Since I reload, I found some new reloading dies for it.

Trigger pull is adjustable down to 3 pound but came set to 4 pounds.  The caliber choice 7mm Remington Magnum works for both short or long range shots out to 500 yards with Nosler’s 175g ABLR.  On  paper, ballistic data says the ABLR leaves the muzzle at around 3000 fps with max load RL 22 powder. We will see what I get for accuracy as some rifle barrel twist rates have stability issues for the bullet.

 My ballistics chart says, at 500 yds at sea level and 40ºF the 175g ABLR will clock 2332 fps and have  2113 ft-lbs of delivered energy.

More soon!!

© Copyright 2022

 

 

Game Meat from Freezer to Hot Canning to Tenderize and for Longevity. Updated

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My wife Susan and I have been vacuum freezing game meat for years. In October 2019 we put 300 pounds of Moose and 150 pounds of wild boar in the freezer. In 2021 we learned the hot-canning method used by many hunting families for stews and such in glass Ball Jars. 

If you enjoy eating the game you hunt and like to preserve and tenderize your meat, read on.

We processed and vacuum sealed all the meat at home. 

In 2019, we expected large summer 2020 BBQ gatherings, so we made burger patties and put large numbers of patties in vac bags.

And as we all know, COVID changes our lives forever. We still had lots of frozen moose burger and stew meat. What to do?

 

Part of my reason to continue to hot can was that my stew meat came out-of-the-jar so tender that I could cut it with a fork. And it cuts down mealtime prep. to minutes.   Wow!

For stews, I then cooked/steamed or quickly pressure cooked fresh carrots, potato, onion, celery etc., then added the hot canned stew meat. I used the juices to make a flour gravy adding herbs, salt and pepper. Sooo Delicious! Yes you can “can” your veggies too. 

This month, October 2022, I booked another Newfoundland Moose hunt as part of my bucket list. What to do with another 300 pounds of moose meat?  I still had 20 or so pounds of that frozen moose burger I wrote about at the beginning of this article?

I decided to hot-can the frozen game burger too, like all those patties we froze plus all the burger intended for pasta sauces. The frozen burger would have be ok for longer freezer storage but the meat became so buried in the freezer making it very hard to find.

Accordingly, I gathered all the frozen moose burger, about 20 pounds and hot canned it for use in my delicious pasta sauces, “shepherds pie”, chili recipes, biscuits and gravy, meat pies, meat tacos, mince meat pie, and so much more. Hungry yet? I sure am! 

I used a T-fal Pressure Canner below with Pressure Control,  22 Quart volume. But you can use any large canner.  You will need Ball jars and lids. 

There are other brands and styles, but I like this one because it is so easy to use.

T-fal Pressure Canner

 

I  thawed the moose in large pots meat of cold water. Here is a basic recipe video.

I highly recommend purchasing a canning book like this one below, to become educated for safety and have delicious recipes.

The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning: Everything You Need to Know to Can Meats, Vegetables, Meals in a Jar, and More

In the past year 2021, I successfully hot canned venison, wild boar, chicken breast, moose and now moose burger. 

 

After canning, you can label like this above with Avery labels.

Enjoy!

 

Take your Flintlock Out for a Walk

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Just like my Labrador retriever, my rifles and especially my 1776 50 cal. Pennsylvania flintlock, needs exercise.

So I took it out for a fun walk at the range recently to ensure all was clean and in working order.

The lock mechanism also needs to be regularly lubed and inspected for rust.

And the barrel needs to be periodically cleaned even if not used. The sulfur residue from black powder is hard to totally remove, and can cause weak sulfuric acid to form, resulting in rust in sufficient quantity to lose accuracy. Unfortunately, many of us learn that cleaning lesson the hard way, including me. I cleaned and swabbed my swamp barrel several times over a year leaving a coating of oil in the barrel. Thus far, I have put a pound of black powder through it, so the barrel, like a frying pan is cured.

Off to the range I went, .and bench rested two shots at 50 yards at 3/4 inch, below.

 

My Pennsylvania Flintlock amazes me every time. Several years ago, I created this rifle from a very high end Chambers Kit in honor of Jacob Dickert who was the the most prolific Lancaster, PA master rifle maker of the American Revolution.

Below a boar I took with this rifle a few years back.

 

Good Shooting!

 

 

 

Sporting Dollars Going to China?

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In January of this year, New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine sent letters to Bass Pro headquarters and Dick’s Sporting Goods Headquarters urging them to seek alternatives to selling billions of dollars of China made goods.

It is now August and we have never heard back! See my article below.

China Sporting Goods Dollars Sold in USA – Is China an Adversary? Yes! Updated

As a concerned American sportsman I know  purchases are helping our adversary, China. It is time to stop feeding money to this Marxist regime.

What can you do? Call your legislators and write to businesses to seek alternatives.

Seek out American made products wherever possible.

 

 

Big Game – Max Point Blank Range

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Ethics are essential. I stick to my cartridges max point-blank range (MPBR), or often much less. What does that mean?

Accordingly, MPBR is the furthest distance your bullet can go without dropping out of your game animals kill zone and still have sufficient energy for a clean harvest. Example: Your game, a whitetail deer has a kill zone of say six to eight inches or so. If your bullet falls to the bottom of that kill zone at longer distances, then you are at your maximum range without adjusting your scope (MPBR).

In my case, using ballistic software, my MPBR often falls in the 250-to-300-yard range. Really, I have never had to shoot at game beyond 300 yards. 

It takes long-range practice with the cartridge and bullet you hunt with and know the effect of wind on your bullet. Hunting ethics are essential!

A book that I have in my hunting library below. 

If you are like me, experimentation is fun.

 

Good Hunting!

Outdoor Camping: New Rockwood Mini-Lite – Made In The USA

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My wife and I took the plunge and purchased a new USA Made 2022 RV, the Rockwood Mini-Lite Model 2104S for camping. We tented when we were young but now we will camp and travel in comfort and style.

https://www.rvusa.com/rv-guide/2020-forest-river-rockwood-mini-lite-travel-trailer-floorplan-2104s-tr45035

2022 Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2104 S in Wilmington, NC

2021 Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2104S in Raleigh, NC

 

My  2021 Toyota Tacoma 4×4 tow capability is up to 6800 lbs. and set the stage for RV size. This RV dry weight is 4841 lbs. and can have a payload of up to 1933 lbs. We figure our load will be 600 lbs. or less for most travel. Our murphy bed is a short queen size and can be stowed to increase room. The U-Dinette converts to a long bed and is nearly a queen in width. We have a gas stove, microwave, fridge/freezer, TV, sink, bathroom and lots of storage. And outdoor mountable grill.

We will be in training for it next week and take it on our first New Hampshire camping trip soon, up in the NH lakes region. 

More soon…

USA Made or China Made?

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Some folks, like myself, are trying to avoid purchasing from adversary countries, aka China, and prefer to buy USA goods. Sometimes you can’t.

Looking for USA made Outdoor products can be a daunting task when the majority of outdoor goods are made in Asia/China. If you are concerned and want to buy American then you are in luck for some gear.

Coleman makes some US made goods but majority appears to still be  Asia made.

When searching for goods, look to find where it is made.

The truth is USA businesses are still importing from China and you may not be able to avoid buying Asian/China goods. But stay at it. I found some alternatives. You can too.

In your Internet search bar use words like “USA made” does help some.

On Amazon you can read “answered questions” on a product and can give you a “where made”. I was able to sometimes find alternative goods but we are still forced to buy some China goods. 

Some US businesses are getting the message to seek other non adversarial manufacturers.  Example: I believe it is not “If”China invades Taiwan but “when”. And then we will be forces into change.

Start Now! You can do this!

Good Searching!