Reloading for Dad's Hunt

The rifle Dad used on his hunt is a custom Browning A-bolt 7mm-300 Weatherby Magnum. Because this is not an off the shelf cartridge, I needed to handload the rounds for practice and hunting. The cartridge is extremely fast shooting, pushing a 140 grain bullet around 3450 feet per second. Here is a comparison of several common cartridges.

The first one is a 30-06, a Remington 7mm Magnum, a Winchester 300 Magnum, and the 7mm- 300 Weatherby. It shoots the same diameter bullet as #2, but holds more powder than #3. Now, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, so as the bullet leaves out the front, the rifle moves backwards. Fortunately, by diverting the gases from the burned powder to the sides instead of out the muzzle, the recoil or "kick" is greatly reduced. This is the muzzle brake.

Unfortunately with the gas comes noise, and when Dad shot I was directly to the side and my ears were ringing for the next hour or so. But it makes the rifle very pleasant to shoot.

When we found out that Dad had received a tag, I immediately started researching what kind of gun powder and which bullets would work best in this rifle. Because the odds of winning a tag for a mature bull elk are very high against, I knew we probably wouldn't draw out for many years. I wanted to make sure I constructed a load that would deliver enough energy at long range, so that Dad would have a margin of error built in, in case we couldn't get close. Firearms and other projectiles are really "energy delivery devices." When the bullet is fired or arrow shot the kinetic energy of the projectile, along with the shape and construction, are what do the damage to to tissue. So I wanted high energy along with a bullet that was tough enough to penetrate through the vitals of the bull.

I looked first at Barnes Bullets which are made in Lindon, Utah (next I-15). These are made with solid copper and expand very reliably. Next point about bullet construction, they not only have to be tough enough to transect the animal, they need to expand enough to make a large wound channel. In my experience Barnes bullets do both very well. I once shot a mule deer buck at 300 yards +, which was witnessed, and the Barnes bullet went entirely through the vitals and out the other side. The buck went 20 yards and died. I knew at the high speeds this cartridge produced, the Barnes was my first choice. This brings me to the third point, the bullet needs to be accurate. Accuracy= consistency, and for whatever reason, I couldn't get the Barnes bullets to shoot in a group smaller than 3-4" at 100 yards. If I double that for each 100 yards, 2 shots at 300 yards could be 16" inches apart from a sand bag. Dad would not have a sand bag, so that accuracy was not good enough.

I tried Nosler Accubond next. These met the first three points well, plus they gave us a high ballistic coefficient. The ballistic coefficient of a bullet is a number that tells how well that bullet shape and weight retains its energy as it flies through air and over distance. All objects fall at the same speed. The higher the B.C. number, the farther it will fly before it hits the ground at a given speed. The Nosler bullets seemed to have it all, and they produced groups closer to 1-2" at 100 yards. This was what I was looking for.

In the end the bullets did well, even when we were able to stalk within 50 yards of the bull. The bullets held up even at those high speeds.