Utility loads for your go to hunting rifle.
 

Have any of you tried to make any utility load for your rifles? by this I mean a non expensive load for your go to hunting rifle that you can use on small game with less bang and no recoil with some trail boss powder or something similar. would be nice to be able to have some flexibility instead if having to buy a pack rifle. I have heard of some guys having some success with soft lead balls loaded in standard 30-06 for finishing shots or chickens but im a bit skeptical that anything other than a 30' streak of feathers and grouse hamburger would remain if I tried trail boss and 100gr bullets out of my 25-06.

Google "Barking" a squirrel. Works for Grouse as well. Theory is use your regular hunting load and if the the Grouse is with 4-5 inches of a tree, shoot the tree and the spraying bark will kill the squirrel/grouse. You can also use dirt and shoot 6-8 inches in front of the Grouse and kill him dead with the dirt spray without any meat damage. A lot fast than unloading and then loading a squib load.

Perhaps one of these ... http://www3.telus.net/gamegetter/

I haven’t seen the game getter before neat idea but for the 60$ I don’t know if it’s worth it. I’ve got a lot of components laying around from previous builds that I could use up.

I've pondered this and ended up getting into cast bullets, now my favorite rounds are 45-70 and 45 Colt. I've still got a few high volicty rifles of course but the fun of a freight train is addicting, less noise, less meat damage, but a heavy cast bullet still punches through everything...
That said a 25-06 is really not designed to function with a slow bullet but it can be done, I've got some 160gr cast bullets for my 6.5x55 that might work for you depending on your twist rate. Light low velocity loads are possible, accuracy can be a challenge.
I'm genuinely interested to hear more of your adventure, I like your starting point.

I made 165gr hard cast bullets with trail boss in my 30-30 for the heck of it but because they shoot so much lower I don’t think I would ever use them on anything without sightings in specifically for them.

x2 ... i often shoot my 222 a couple of inches under a gopher which just gives a shrapnel spray and lifst the gopher a foot or so up

Shoot the grouse in the head,,, not the shoulder :thinking-006:

Of coarse a shoulder shot IS safer for grouse !

You's don'ts wants to get mauled by a wounded grouse :sHa_sarcasticlol:

25-06
buckshot #3 1/2 (.26 dia.) or #3 (.25 dia.) with a crimp
4 grains of titegroup

Plinking load

Chiappa little badger. Take the bottom pic rail off and it folds right down touching the bottom of the wire stock. 7" i believe. You can tie the folded action to your belt and it fits in a cargo pants pocket. I ziptied a savage 22lr single stack 10 round mag to the side of my action and the rounds are right there ready to feed. The trigger is actually surprisingly crisp and the ghost ring sight is adjystable and accurate. Consistant 1 inch groups off hand at 20 meters.

I made 130gr cast bullet loads for a couple of 7mm hunting guns. Just have to know their trajectory as to where you have to sight. Shoot a few at various yardages inside of 25yds, you can figure it out. Worked on chickens, gophers and yotes.

A lot of really good ideas here but the old gun safe is looking pretty full and the wife won't let me buy the pack rifle with the full fishing set up so I'm going to give making a light load a try with standard 25 cal bullets. Ive had a lot of success with a varmint load in my 25 that whips out at 3600 fps and absolutely craters gofers. This just won't do for a grouse or anything that might end up in the old back country frying pan, so I did a little research on the trail boss website and have found that I can load the 70gr blitskings following there instructions starting at 14.4gr (70%of max) and I should be somewhere in the happy low speed cheap round no recoil bracket and just work the load for accuracy until I find something that works. ill Let you guys know how it turns out.

And im going to try barking the next gofer I see thats happening for sure.

My uncle one hunting trip passed me a couple rounds that were cast bullets for my 308.
We were hunting moose and he explained "use these on grouse". But he warned me that don't under estimate their power just because they are soft recoil and extremely quite.
Years later and now reloading my own casts I completely under what he gave me and was trying to explain.
Cast bullets can be loaded subsonic. Which means below the speed of sound. At these speeds there isn't a crack BOOM. Just a light bang lighter than a 22.
When he warned about their power he ment.....
Unlike a jacketed round at high speed that expands upon impact.
A cast at subsonic speed would not expand at all and just keep on going thought what ever was shot. Moose, grouse or what ever.
I personally use 10 grains of Unique and 180gr cast
bullets for grouse while hunting. With the same rifle then load high power rounds for Moose, elk etc...

Squib Loads
 

I bought a bunch of gallery loads for my 6.5x55. They shoot a little copper cup and I have used them on Grouse a few times. Quieter than a .22 rimfire and very accurate.

I loaded down some single round ball for my .45/70 and these worked pretty well out of my Guide Gun. I tried making some # 7 shot loads with those plastic capsules that Speer makes, but with the rifling it spreads out a little much to be reliable for game birds.

Just a thought.... but once i start shooting grouse with the BG rifle, i do not shoot any BG after that in the area???... so i started not shooting the grouse and my % of BG went up???

I seem to always grab a different rifle for hunting. The only rifle I successfully made “squib” loads for was my Marlin in .30-30. I never end up bringing that rifle out and I am seldom tempted to even shoot a grouse when I’m big game hunting. I’m either big game hunting or I am upland hunting. Never both for the most part.

Well, I for one agree with you. I have made Grouse loads for my 308, my brothers 300 Win and my buddies 338 mag. We tried the Gamegetters. They work and are very accurate but a little fiddly to use. Much easier to neck size a case, put in 3-6 grains of TB, depending on Caliber, and seat a round ball. You can carry a bunch loose rounds in one pocket and swap them out to shot small game. Load them down till they are quiet, under 1,000 ft ps.

We have been using these sub loads for years. They work great.

Five shots at 20 yards from the 308. Sub loads hit 1.0" low directly below point of aim, which was the a. The other three holes, slightly lower and a little right where 1/2 grain lighter load. As you can see, plenty accurate enough, quieter than a 22 short and the round ball runs out of steam really fast so don't carry anywhere near as far as a 22 bullet.

https://i.imgur.com/7CtAHrGl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/592EEgAl.jpg

I've often wondered about the real effect rifle shots make on big game in the area.
Hunting mostly in parkland on farm lands, I hear shots all day long and the game doesn't seem to react to it. If I see a Grouse midday, I have no trouble taking it with a centerfire. In fact one of my best Moose was taken right after I shot a Grouse. Unknown to me a bull was bedded down for the day in some thick spruce, and let me sneak past him. We stopped for a sandwich and a coffee, saw a bird and took it. This made the Moose stand up.

I have fired off these low sound rounds when I have had deer, bear and moose around that I did not want to take. You could tell they heard the noise but most of them wen back to eating of just mossied off a ways and went back to what they were doing

I agree with you. Not saying I haven’t ever while big game hunting, I just tend to not for the most part. When I do though, sometime heads will roll....:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...pslnlh4uov.jpg

A warning for Sask hunters you are not allowed to use a centerfire rifle to take birds even with a rimfire gamegetter its still a centerfire rifle.

As for gunshots scaring game I've seen a few animals come out to see what the noise was.

the results are in for now
 

I was able to develop a tight little group that shoots about 1/2 @ 100M and there moving at 2000fps. The load uses 14.4 gr of trail boss and im sure at standard grouse distance it should be quite effective. how ever I didn't see the posts about developing it at sub sonic speeds to cut noise so that will be the next experiment for me to try.