Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Velocity!!! How important is it?

Opinions seem to be all over the place. There are those that will Stoke a 240 Weatherby to max velocity while on the other hand another hunter will be loading down there 243 a tad because it is destroying to much meat.

Myself, I tend to hand load my ammo on the softer side and while I'm not implying that I think it kills with more authority It seems to work well for me.

What been working for you?



Trystan

What some would consider ridiculously light loads have been my mainstay for decades. Machoistic (masochistic?) ideals run deep in the American gunner's psyche.

It is your barrel and your bloodshot meat. Personally, I am getting over the velocity craze. I like to keep loads fairly close to the caliber's potential, but I don't have to be maxed out, either.

My loads are usually at least .5-1 grain below max charge.

Much depends on the country I am hunting.. Woods and eastern stuff.. High velocity is not imp. But in the west or open country, the less hold over I have to deal with the better. Or a situation, where getting the exact range is impossible.. Happens pretty often in hunting big game..

Depends on the use.

I pick and choose as needed. Velocity and BC help with wind drift issues. Drop is now taken care of by rangefinders.

Meat damage is always more the higher the MV IMHO, which is why for fast rounds I run Barnes without a doubt.

I never try to get the most out of any round anymore. If I feel the need for more speed I'll grab a larger round.

Speed wise vs kills. As a whole the faster the impact the less they run, but I"ve seen fast rounds and deer still run a long ways. I"ve seen very slow rounds and they not make 20-30 steps.

I think both have uses. In fact if hunting out ofa blind I often carry my 300/221 suppressed, and either a 308 which I"m comfortable with to about 700 yards, or a 257 wtby which I"m easily comfortable with to 400 yards, just have not had the chance to push it further on paper enough to be confident.

In the end these days if I have to just grab something and go and its not a trophy type hunt, I'll grab my 308 every time running 185 bergers.

If its trophy I'll grab my 300 wtby running 180ttsx.

OTOH the very last deer I shot last year was with a civil war musket turned 19 ga smoothbore, running a patched round ball with either 50 or 60 grains of Du Point 2F. Deer ran maybe 50 yards.

I try to get sufficient velocity for a flat trajectory over the ranges I expect to shoot and to ensure expansion and hopefully enough penetration for two holes, while producing good enough accuracy for precision shot placement. With all the bullets we have to choose from, all that can be accomplished without too much trouble, especially in the calibers from 6.5 up. I generally keep my .270 and .30 cal loads solidly in the middle range and have gotten excellent results so far, and hopefully am taking it easy on my barrels. Because of its smaller diameter and lighter bullets, I push my .243 a bit harder.

If you look back a bit, the original loads for the .30/06, 7x57, and the various other rounds that originated 100 years or so ago did very well, even with the simple bullets available, at 2200-2700 fps. No reason why we can't do the same now.

Obviously, those who shoot way out there need all the speed they can get to achieve the same results.

I shoot a lot and I hunt so i like cartridges that are mild both in recoil and powder usage...however i also like versatility.

I tend to like cartridges in the 25-2900 fps range...7/08, 7x57, 308 etc. They shoot plenty flat for 300+hunting and are plenty of medicine for anything in America and non dangerous game abroad. I shoot steel with them up to 600m as well

With the advances in good and affordable rangefinders my need for super fast cartridges has evaporated.

Bullets are so damn good anymore...it just doesn't matter like it once did

A 525gr Postell out of a .45-70 BPCR @ 1,200 fps will reach "way out there" and get the job done, too.

A man's just gotta know his limitations.

Ed

While the speed component of velocity can vary a great deal and the round still be effective, the margin for error on the directional component is very small.

You need to know the drops for range whatever speed combined with bc that you end up shooting. I've ended up with mid range loads that are accurate and dependable, so I just go with it.

I ran after speed, feeding a 257 Roberts H100V under a 115 bt. After shooting almost a full pound of that powder along side the load I normally use, 43.5 RL19/115BT, I found the RL19 to be so much more consistent, that I stuck with the original slower load.

Even my 25-20 eats mid range mild loads.

I strive for accuracy. If I want speed, I get cartridges that are known for such and let them do what they're capable of.

If it's not present the bullet fails to exit the barrel.

Yep ! Still are.


Jerry

I hate it when that happens!

I like comfortable loads that group well, matching velocity with the design performance window of a specific bullet.

I like to move mono's fast, more expansive bullets at more moderate speeds.

I don't like to hot rod. For more speed, I step up to a bigger round.

So, IMO, velocity is very important for optimal accuracy and terminal performance.

DF

If you were shooting a cartridge whereby the bullet took five minutes to get to 200 yards......speed would be very important!!

Bottom line right there.

Of course velocity is important. Without it there's no point in having rifles.



Decent accuracy is not the sole purview of pedestrian velocity. You can have some speed and accuracy, too.....even from light sporter rifles.


7mm Mashburn Super;162 Amax at 3200 fps,a couple of hours ago.

Just like superman it needs to be faster than a speeding locomotive.

And the bullet. Totally different answers for a monometal vs. a typical long-range spitzer with a thin jacket.

I tend to load heavy for caliber bullets at whatever charge gives me the best accuracy within 100 fps or so of max. In most of my hunting calibers, that gets me in the 2700-2900 fps range.

So for the .25-06 Rem I use 115 or 120 grain bullets, .270 Win gets the 150 grainers, the 7mm Rem Mag 175s, the .30-'06 180s, etc...

I'm not a fan of big game hunting with light for caliber bullets screaming out of a barrel at 3,100+ fps.

Now varmints, that's a different story.....