would you keep your small bore?

27 May 2004, 11:38

fredj338

The .260 vs 7-08 got me thinking. If you were restricted to a FMJ of any configuration (let's pretend the Dems. have taken over & want to make hunting more humane?), would you still hunt w/ your .243 to .270 or would you want a bigger hole?

27 May 2004, 12:01

ricciardelli

If the Dems take over, they will outlaw the FMJ bullets...they are "military bullets" and designed for "assault weapons".

In addition the will outlaw all hollow point bullets because they "explode" on contact.

Finally they will outlaw softpoint bullets because they cause trauma and horrible wounds.

Think I'm kidding?

27 May 2004, 12:12

Bill Mc

and then since you had no bullets, they would say, no need for guns and take them.

But the keep the deer under control, they would import wolves and grizzlies.

27 May 2004, 12:27

Skinner

A more likely scenario in the near future is that bullets containing any lead are banned for hunting. This could happen as a result of certain endangered species injesting lead fragments from gutpiles or lost game. And a resulting court order that we do so. It's already a proposal in the California condor range due to a few birds suffering from lead poisoning.

X-bullets and some where the lead is contained are the encouraged big game projectiles in those areas now. And there is bit of data suggesting that raptors injest lead from the carcasses of varmints shot and left, like ground squirrels and coyotes. So rest assurred that this will be an issue.

But I think we're not too far from humane killing becoming an issue in hunting. It's the current focus of attack by the antis at the International Whaling Commission, with the claim being there's no "humane" way to kill a whale. And we who are trappers have been dealing with the "humane" issue for decades.

And humane killing has been an issue in some European hunting where they've studied the effectiveness of calibers and projectiles on some species. Moose in Scandanavia being one of them.

27 May 2004, 13:02

fredj338

Sorry guys, the political thing was tounge-in-cheek, my point was small bores require a very good bullet to do their work. Would everyone be as happy w/ their 1/4something bore for deer / antelope if they couldn't use a good bullet to give them the expansion needed for a clean kill. Holes all the way through are good, bigger holes all the way through are better.

27 May 2004, 14:51

Quarter Round

No. I want to kill it not wound it.

28 May 2004, 03:16

Hot Core

Quote:

... If you were restricted to a FMJ of any configuration ..., would you still hunt w/ your .243 ...or would you want a bigger hole?

Hey Fred, I like the larger diameter bullets myself, but have killed a lot of Deer with a 243Win.

Your "FMJ of any configuration" depends on how well we can skew the definition of FMJ. If you mean a regular old military FMJ which is a Spire Point with an exposed Lead core at the rear, it would really depend on a few things.

Obviously the Game Laws would need to be re-written, so we can skip over that.

And the "Accuracy" would have to be much better for FMJs than I'm typically used to. No doubt they can be made accurate if that was a serious requirement.

Then shots would need to be restricted to head shots or spine shots for "me". I can see where my favorite shoulder-to-shoulder shot "might" end up with a lot more Tracking Experience than Hunting Experience.

That being the situation, I'd opt for the "smaller" calibers with the 243Win being one I would consider, but probably go with a 223Rem. HUGE scope, very light trigger and of course accurate which generally means a Remington of some sort.

...

Now, if we have the option of skewing FMJ to include "any bullet shape that has no exposed Lead", then we have an entirely different situation. That tosses three Remington "PLHP" bullets in, the Speer Gold Dots and the BarnesX variations. All of them can be used in typical hunting situations and we can even expect them to expand.

I used to shoot with a Winchester Rep who used nothing but the 80gr Rem PLHPs in his 6mmRem to do all his Deer Hunting including Mule Deer. He told me they always gave him one-shot kills and were seriously accurate in his rifle.

The Gold Dots in a 44Mag are quite awsome and of course BarnesX bullets normally work great when they open. It seems like Barnes is almost totally past the point where the current generation of bullets fails to expand.

...

And I REALLY don't want to think about the DEMs being in charge again!!!