Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reduced recoil

Thank you, Hunterapp. May you have a safe and productive hunting season. If I do get the opportunity to use the reduced velocity loads, I'll let you'll know how it works out.

Been kinda off w RA the last week/ weekend.
My .35 rem 760 bopped me harder than usual.
Got a 308 Ruger #1


Am wondering if I can reload it down a little.
Just a deer rifle, sub 200.yd stuff

I’d load the 308 with 125s at 2700 if you want a lighter kicking 200yd rifle. 7mm-08 120gr loads from 2600-2800 were great killlers for us. 257Rob levels of punch.

30gr IMR 4198 is perfect for your needs

It has been forty years, and I do not know if Speer has changed the construction of the 30 cal 130 gr Hp since then. With that caveat, we used to load a bunch of them in the 30-30 for mule deer.

Loaded to 30-30 speeds in the 308, they should still kill a deer if they are not built to be more frangible today. Midway has them in stock for a decent price.


Speer #10....308 win...130 gr HP or flat nose....27 gr IMR 4227 (max load) ......2260 fps

Finding 4227? yeah, can't help there.

Used the same bullet for kids, in even 30/06 and 300 Win mags, but loaded to 30/30 speeds...

SR 4759, or Blue Dot, or 4198 in an '06.....

or 22 grains of Unique in a 300 Win mag... 2100 fps/MV

Will work on any blacktail that ever wondered the Oregon Landscape...

Had more than several of Boy Scouts brought home venison with those loads over a couple of decades.
with a couple of large blacktails in that record.

Hookeye,

on my reload bench, with dad being there, I've let boys load 125, 130, 150 grain 30 cal bullets
with charges of 4198, down to even 25 or even 20 grains of it... and any of those bullets above.

out of cast bullet manuals, we've even let them use Unique, down to cast bullet speeds...with those bullets.

I've had a few handicapped Boy Scouts, that we loaded down to 10 grains of Unique, in 30/30 cases, 308 cases, and 30/06 cases, with a 110 grain SP, or RN/SP bullets. Sitting with grandpa on the front porch, they've bagged deer out to 100 yds or a little over.. one shot, and bang / flop results.


To make it simpler.. if you take any of the bullets listed above and gave them enough velocity ( to 2250 fps MV)....
and zero them 3.5 inches high at 100 yds, they will be 3.5 inches high at 100 yds and zeroed spot on at 200 yds, and 3.5 inches low at 240 yds, give or take 5 yds.

This works with any caliber with a spitzer bullet from low grain to middle weight grain, in the weight range offered for the caliber. Doesn't matter what the caliber is as long as it is 22 centerfire or above.

if your quarry is deer, if you take an antelope that is full grown.. regards of its size or weight, the skeletal frame is 14 inches from backbone to breast bone. A deer is like 2 inches more at 16 inches.
Cut that 14 inches in half and your target area is 7 inches.

3.5 inches high to 3.5 inches low, means at that MV of 2250 fps, that fits into your window of opportunity.
If you can hold your rifle still ( which is easier since most calibers used in deer hunting, your recoil is reduced 50% or more)
Aim at the vitals anything out to 240 yds, you'll hit your window of opportunity in the vitals area.

Heck that is so easy, I've seen people with no experience being able to hit that, from 10 yr old kids, to adult women, and even elderly adult women... hell, rumor has it that even Schtick could pull it off, even when he's drunk... Hutch emailed me that as a matter of fact...

So if anyone out of that example group can do it, it should be a piece of cake for you Hookeye.

Good luck my friend... there should be something right in here to make your hunt successful.

Best of luck out there this season!

cheers
seafire.