For some unknown reason cartridge selection is usually the most agonizing decision in the gun buyers process. Ballistic programs/charts are read over, reloading manuals are worn out, friends are consulted, Dad interjects his opinion, and gun counter jockey’s walk around with bent ears.
How hard will it kick compared to “Old Betsy” (usually a 30-06 or 308)? How “flat” does it shoot? Can I hold dead on anywhere this side of the moon? Will it knock the 400 class bull Elk I’ll likely shoot this fall right into the back of my truck? Is it bigger than my buddies (that’s a little personal)? You get the idea. It’s reality if for no other reason than most of us have done it.
My first rifle was a Savage 99 C given to me by my father for Christmas when I turned 13. My younger brother received a Swedish Mauser chambered for the 6.5X55 that nearly cost Dad the use of his hand trying to wrap in a carpet tube that same year. My gift was chosen for two reasons. One, my dad knew the quality of the Savage 99 and the other was to accommodate my left hand handicap.
That Savage accounted for my first deer nearly two years later. I managed to shoot some poor little whitetail right through the lungs as he made a hasty retreat to a tree line off a meadow I happened to be watching. Dad was watching too and believed I’d missed (I don’t blame him) but I’d seen the buck break stride and watched his head drop slightly at the shot. We went to look and the fresh snow was covered in bright red frothy blood and he was just inside the tree line. Dead as a mackerel and looking for all the world a B&C trophy. The smallest B&C trophy of all time mind you.
For the next several years that .308 accounted for many deer, both Whitetail and Mule Deer, and the handloaded 125 grain Ballistic tips I shot through it seemed to lay waste to anything in their path. I did notice extensive entrance wound damage in a few instances, but who cared really as the results were quite predictable and the antlers were piling high in the barn.
The only time the 99 C caused me any grief was on a good 145 class Whitetail. I’d seen the old boy chasing does on a small clearing through a screen of aspens. Without looking down, I slowly cycled a shell into the chamber careful to keep my eye on the buck while winding my way slowly into shooting position. I finally got a clear shooting lane and at 50 or so yds pulled the trigger. All that I heard was heart dropping click as the firing pin struck nothing violent. Quickly I dropped opened the action looked into the magazine well. Behold there instead of shiny cartridges were the tops of my boots! I had no magazine! Apparently my gloved hand had tripped the release and somewhere, when shifting the rifle, it had fallen out. The deer where now in the next county and a half mile backtrack in the fresh snow had the loaded magazine back in my rifle.
Dad has always subscribed to Outdoor Life and being a farm lad with little knowledge of the outside world I assumed that this was the only hunting/shooting publication in the universe. I devoured its pages over and over and grew especially fond of the writing of Jim Carmichel. Mr. Carmichel was the shooting editor of Outdoor Life and looking back on things a pretty good mentor to learn a few firearms related tricks from. One important thing I did learn was that the 280 Remington was the best cartridge going and one would be foolish to use anything else. So, a couple of months after my 21st birthday I bought the only left handed offering so chambered, a Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker.
If accuracy is your thing that Browning had it in spades. In addition, it handled well, the short bolt throw was an easy transition for someone coming from a lever action and the stainless steel and synthetic makeup was easy to care for. I continued to use the Nosler Ballistic Tip (the 140 grain .284 version) and the game kept tipping over. However I did have a few instances of bullets blowing up and giving poor penetration on certain shot angles.
A defining moment in my gun owning career came a hunting season later. On a Whitetail hunt when pulling the trigger on the Browning, the pot metal shoe broke clean in two just below the stock line. I was mortified. Another ruined opportunity at a decent whitetail and my one and only rifle was now essentially useless. Eventually Browning replaced the trigger, but I was sour and my search for a better mousetrap had already begun.
Being left handed has limitations in life and this is especially true with firearms industry. If and when a manufacturer offers a bolt action rifle for the southpaws, cartridge selection is usually a short line-up of the same boring suspects. You can choose between the 270, 30-06, 7MM Remington Magnum, or 300 Winchester Magnum from one manufacturer or the 7MM Remington Magnum, 300 Winchester Magnum, 30-06, or 270 from another. Selection is limited, and short actions are an even rarer bird.
Through a bit of research I discovered that both the Remington 700 and Winchester Model 70 had earned a great reputation among hunters. As an added bonus both Manufacturers offered these models in a left hand version. In time I purchased a stainless steel version of the Model 70 chambered for the 300 Winchester Magnum and soon discovered all was not well. Cartridges would not feed properly from the magazine. Alas, I’d wanted a 338 Winchester Magnum anyway (read Jim Carmichaels fault) so procures a Gaillard barrel and sent the rifle off to be fixed by someone who surely knew more about rifles than the over paid assembly line worker that put it together in the first place. Boy was I wrong and the rifle came back feeding no better and quite possible worse than before.
Back to the drawing board I went and ended up giving D’Arcy Echols a call. Anyone that knows of D’Arcy knows that he is world renown. I didn’t quite appreciate the fact when I first spoke with him but I visited his shop in Millville Utah and came to understand what true rifle building and craftsmanship were all about. He is a graduate from the Colorado school of trades and an apprentice under the hands of Jerry Fisher, Jack Belk, and Tom Burgess. Those who know these names know that these men represent some of the finest and most talented stock maker and metal smiths in the entire world. Unfortunately such a resume puts rifles built by Echols out of my financial reach.
Meeting D’Arcy ramped up that bit of a gun building/assembling/cobbling frenzy and it has lasted for the better part of a decade. Most rifles I’ve put together have been based on the Remington 700 or Winchester Model 70 and have had various stocks, barrels, bottom metal, scope mounts etc. etc. Some have received extensive modification including altering actions for custom scope mounts, custom magazine boxes, custom triggers……….. again etc. etc. Some very nice rifles came out of all this and one was even featured on a web site of a manufacturer of well known firearms accessories. Over that time I’ve formed some very strong opinions about things including barrel’s and their contour, stocks, receivers, triggers, scope mounts, scopes, barrel length and the list goes on.
Cartridge selection is always part of the building process and throughout that time I’ve had multiples and singles of the 223’s, 22-250’s, 243’s, 260’s. 7MM-08’s, .308’s, 270’s, 280’s, 280 AI’s, 30-06’s, 300’s, 338’s, and 375’s. In the process of all this I’ve become mildly adept at tweaking feeding issues, triggers, and performing bedding jobs. In addition to those cartridges mentioned I’ve worked with friends and family on more of the above and the WSM family of cartridges as well.
I’ve taken what I can surmise is dozens of head of various game animals with these cartridges using various bullets (I’m a bit of a bullet junkie) and as such have come to some very definitive conclusion. I have never ever wanted more gun in my hands, it is tough to tell what one is shooting given game reaction to a hit, and I’d wager the farm that any bystander witnessing the taking of said game couldn’t tell what cartridge did the dirty work. Game reaction to being struck by a bullet is so diverse that the more I see, the less I know.
Anymore I build rifles that will perform and function flawlessly with form following function though never ignored. Stuff whatever cartridge will fit and given a current inventory of powder and bullets what will make the most economical sense. Bullet selection also weighs heavily into the decision. Cartridges based on the grand old 30-06 seem to be easy on the shoulder, work well in the feeding department, and don’t seem to fussy to load for. If you prefer a short action then look hard at the .308 family of cases. Give me something that will launch a good bullet in excess of 2700 fps and the odds tip strongly in my favour.
I’ve come to discover that bullet drop is negated by known distance. On a calm day with a rangfinder and know trajectory with all day and no pressure even the newest of shooters can hit pay dirt. Quite likely out past 500 yds. When the wind is present all bets are off. In hunting situations where one shot is all you can get it does not matter if one bullet drifts less than another. Under read the wind and you miss left. Over read it and you miss right. Or vice a versa. A bullet that drifts less may help when wind is stronger than suspected and one subject to more drift may fluke a hit if a lighter breeze than figured is encountered. For most of us it’s palm reading at best.
So the next time that gun Jocky hands you the newest and greatest magnum across the counter tell him thank you very much. Or, tell him to stick it in his bent ear and hand you something that will hurt you less. It won’t much matter on just about any hunting situation under any hunting circumstance on this continent.
