a buddy of mine at work is a hunter. his arsenal consists of a 30-06 and a 300 RUM. he buys factory bullets and actually hunts. myself, i have a 338 RUM, 30-06 savage, savage FP10 rebarreled to a 300 WSM, NEF 7mm-08, several AR15's, shotguns, pistols and numerous C&R's. i get more enjoyment going to the range and working up a load for my rifles than actually going out and hunting. what's your take?reload to go to the range and shootreload to go hunting50-50

Hmmmm. I see 113 people have looked at this post, but only 22 have voted! What's with the other 91???

I am a gun guy, but I love hunting. I have a hard time hunting with a rifle I don't like. But I won't forsake hunting if I am someplace where I have to borrow a rifle to hunt. I won't enjoy the hunt as much, but I will still hunt.

I voted 50/50 but now that deer and other big game is on I have not been to the range for a while.

When that season ends in late Dec. and only small game and varmints are left I am 2/3 to the range.

I'm voting for 50/50 because most of my reloading is for varmint shooting but a lot of my big gun shooting is for range time.

I checked 50/50 although I probably fire 1000 rds at paper for every one I shoot at game.

quote:

Originally posted by Ol` Joe:
I checked 50/50 although I probably fire 1000 rds at paper for every one I shoot at game.

roger

I load to hunt but since I got a chronagraph I shoot a lot more at the range working up loads.

50-50

95% of my hunting is for WOODCHUCKS!

Great topic!

I am a hunter and an avid silhouette shooter.

I find that among my friends there is actually a large split. I am among just a few that actively do both. Most of my hunting friends care little about target shooting of any sort.
Most of my silhouette competition buddies do not hunt!

My dad is a prime example! He is 76 years old and hunts like a man obsessed. He hunts all the time! He kills over 100 coyotes every year and some years over 200! He comes to watch me shoot silhouettes, but will not even try it. He loves to shoot, but only at animals! (Sure, he tests loads and such, but wants to get out there and hunt something.)

Odd, but that is the way it works out. My silhouette buddies love to enjoy the rewards of my hunts such as venison, elk, wild hog, etc. but they care little about shooting such things themselves.

I checked 50/50 but I do more range time than anything else and most of my hunting is for tree rats with a rimfire.

quote:

Originally posted by El Deguello:
Hmmmm. I see 113 people have looked at this post, but only 22 have voted! What's with the other 91???

Well I wanted a choice 60/40, but I don't know which way.
JL.

I reload for accuracy in my hunting rifles and handguns.
The way I look at it is that the more accurate I am with my gun the more humanely I can dispatch what ever is in the crosshairs.
This is the excuse that I will continue to use and I am sticking to it.
Loading is relaxing and shooting is a "blast."
And let us not forget that wether it be a mouse with a .22 or a tree rat with a .22wlm or a 'chuck with a .223 or a dog with .22-250 or a coyote with the .243 or a whitetail with the .25-06 or a target with a .338 or.......... you all get the point. It is all about "squeezing" the trigger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smedley

I reload for my hunting rifles and go to the range to proof those loads. I then use those loads that are developed to hunt. So it is not a 50-50 thing, but a matter of 100% of both answers. I enjoy the challenge of developing the loads and the challenge of the hunt. Kudude

I tried to vote but got a "cant find server" error message. I love to shoot and hunt though, so Id probably vote the 50/50 choice. It doesnt take a sub MOA group to kill a deer but they sure are fun to get from a favorite gun

My wife might disagree, but I picked 50/50.

My hunting buddy loves to deer hunt, but I have a heck of a time convincing him to spend any time sighting in his 30-30. "Hey, it has worked for seven years why mess with it?"

He also makes fun of me for using a scoped rifle that I have obesevly worked up the hand load for. But then if I didn't have that rifle, we would not have got his deer this year!

quote:

Originally posted by kudude:
I reload for my hunting rifles and go to the range to proof those loads. I then use those loads that are developed to hunt. So it is not a 50-50 thing, but a matter of 100% of both answers. I enjoy the challenge of developing the loads and the challenge of the hunt. Kudude

I Reload to go Hunting. And it is nice to "occasionally" win a BBQ Supper. But I must admit that Kudude has made an excellent point.

Like Kudude and Hot Core I am a hunter of game that reloads to perfect those hunting loads. I shoot 3000 plus rounds per year with my rifles and those of my buddies who will not take the time to do it right. Now that is punching a lot of paper, and those are all hunting rounds with some mighty good bullets being fired. Between the Deer and Elk hunting I do each year with Alaskan, Canadian and African speciality hunts thrown in occasionaly, I am shooting very few rounds at game each year. However I enjoy each and every round shot at the bench to enable me the best chance for that trophy of a lifetime when that time comes. I voted for the hunting segment, but feel like I could have said both, or whatever Kudude said. You know, it is one of those clear as mud things. Good shooting

Well - I voted 50/50. Really spend more time reloading and shooting at range than hunting. But...except for a couple of competitions per year most of my reloading and range time is focused on developing the best deer load each rifle will shoot. Also spend a lot of range time getting the trajectories down pat for each rifle. So far all this prep has paid off - Never need a second shot and never mised on first! (knock-on-wood)

I'm in the reloading -for -the -range category. Hunting is great, but for each round fired at game I send 2,000 down-range each year.

I voted 50/50. I still like to hunt but get just as much enjoyment out of strolling with a rifle, shooting/bullshitting with bubbas, building a custom rifle, handloading, swapping guns, etc.

I keep shooting and load work-up diaries. I enjoy just sitting down and reading my old notes sometimes. Sometimes they're actually useful.

I reload to go hunting, but I love time spent at the range.

I had a wonderful time this summer tweaking and learning to shoot my new rifle, then working up a load after the factory "premium" ammo was less than desireable. All of the preparation, both reloading and range time, made my antelope hunt with my son in MT a success.

I voted 50-50, because I first started off at age six hunting with my grandfather, while my father was fighting in WWII! We only had a single barrel shotgun, and a single shot .22 lr, so there wasn't a lot to be proud of in that department. These guns were used to feed five families that moved onto my grandfather's ranch, while the men were in the war. The ammo was scarce, and componants for hand loading were not available at all.
With the battery we had, one had to learn to "HUNT" if he was to bring meat home. With meat being rationed, the hunting was far more important than the shooting up of ammo that was dear, and one needed to make every shot count as food.
In the late 40s times were a bit better, and we began to buy better rifles, and shotguns, and I started handloading. At first this was to save money, then it was to have more accurate ammo, as I learned. And finally it was to feed double rifles that factory ammo was not avaliable for. The natural transition was to very large game hunting, because of the rifles I was interested in. Double rifles are usually used for dangerous game, and the two double rifle/dangerous game became my central interest.
I do enjoy long range cross canyon hunting of Muledeer, and elk, so I also have several rifles that are capable of sub-MOA work, and I do a lot more shooting of those on the range, than in the field. The doubles are used for hunting in most cases, and are so expensive to load for, that I simply don't throw many rounds at paper that cost $11 per shot, understandably.
Today I'm 69 yrs old, ans seldom shoot a round unless I'm looking over the sights at game animals, or birds! SOooooooooo< I guess you could say I have come full circle, back to primarily hunting, but with far better rifles, and shotguns, and hand loading has become a necessity, rather than a hobby!

I do more range time than hunting time.
I like to work up different loads for a wide variety of rifles,pistols and revolvers.
I did a little groundhog 'shooting at' last month.The distance was a bit much for 1 shot/1 kill.
A friend has a camp and near it is an overlook.Below and across the river is a very large field.
On the edges of the field,'hawgs were eating everything in site.It was great fun watching them jump up into the air when a near miss blew the ground up beside of them.They didn't spook to bad because of distance.
I'll try to get a pic of the field from the overlook and post it.

Shoot in order to empty the brass so it can be reloaded again.

Too lazy to use a bullet puller.

I am a shooter that also hunts. I go hunting with a buddy that is a hunter that also shoots. What I am saying is that I can shoot small groups at the range, but can't see game worth a damn in the field. My buddy can see a twitch of an ear at 500 yrds, but his group size at the range is minute of elephant. He finds them, I shoot them.

I also have to agree with Hammer in that it is the quickest way I know of to unload a case so that it can be reloaded. I put at least 10,000 rounds down range every year in practice and compitition and I like to spend my spare time working the reloading press.


Beware the man with only one gun, because he surely knows how to use it.

I think kudude summed it up prety well. I voted 50/50 but like kudude, HotCore and others, my time at the range, which over the spring, summer and early fall is far more than I get to spend hunting, is spent developing loads specifically for hunting.

In my book, every game animal Ive taken with one of my own handloads is a trophy!

firstshot
----------------------------
Make your first shot count!

95+% of my shooting is at paper, maybe 3-5 rounds at game, except pasture poodles and gophers, then a lot of ammo is expended.goody goody more reloading.

I imagine most viewers are like me, they went to vote and it required sign-in. IF I had not planned to sign in to post a msg, I would not bother to sign in just to vote!

All that and I goofed, shoulda voted 50-50.

50 / 50 ...
Reload, to shoot so often as needed - not only so as to find the best reloaded ammo for hunting but also to acquiere the needed skills

I voted for the range. I love to hunt and I do, but I spend most of my time at the range. I guess it just do happens that when I do pull the trigger with an animal in my sights that it just so happens that everything goes well. Go figure.

I voted hunting. There are no hunting seasons here in NZ, we can hunt 365 days per year. That doesn't leave much time to go to the range.

This is only if you don't mind being wet cold and misurable.

I voted "hunter". I certainly love shooting but my first passion is wildlife and being out in the woods or on the prairie. For me, a day hunting and not firing a shot or seeing any game is far more rewarding than a day at the range. Luckily hunting allows me to combine my passions: my kids-wildlife and shooting

Plus killing sh*% is cool.

IV

I load a lot of shotshells to burn at the sporting clays range. During the bird seasons I shoot a lot of shells because we have lots of quail, some pheasant, lots of chukar, and lots of ducks. The first day of dove season I go through a lot of shells.

I load pistol rounds by the thousands because it is hard to stay in trim. If I don't shoot a few hundred rounds a month I lose all my speed and most of my accuracy. I think it really takes 250 pistol rounds a week to maintain any sort of proficiency. I usually load 5,000 each of 9mm and 45 ACP once a year in a big run. All those ammo cans full of shiny cartridges makes me feel rich.

I load a lot of varmint and long range ammunition. Again, once a year for .223 and .308 in big runs. All that pays off during deer and elk season. I don't "super tune" my hunting loads. Find a good one, and load up a whole bunch. They don't go bad, and I never have to fiddle with the sights. Also, I don't feel bad taking a hunting rifle out to trash ground squirrels or especially, Jack Rabbits. I like to load in the winter during those long dark evenings.

I used to do some shooting teaching. That really burns through the ammunition.

I do some loading for ballistics projects to pick up some money on the side. I don't enjoy that, but it surely has helped my technique because I have to keep such careful records, and measure EVERYTHING. Nothing like turning a hobby into work to kill the joy.

So, 50/50, considering 1,000 rounds of practice for every real round. Except for pistols. I hope it is 100,000 rounds against zero for real.

LD