Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Multi-use rifle loads for one rifle

IS anyone actively working up two or even three different loads for their hunting rifles, not to fulfill the same purpose, but multiple uses from one rifle, with one scope setting?

I've always been of the school to use one rifle for a single load. Drives me nuts to see someone trying to sight their deer rifle in with four different boxes of factory ammo. Figure out which bullet you want to shoot then figure out the platform you want to launch it from. Done.

But what I find is in any given hunt I may be hunting blacktails at close range in the morning, then shooting across a canyon at a big bear in the afternoon. Then there's the times you spy a grouse or a rabbit while bear hunting and you're carrying your 300 magnum.

Ever think, what if I lived in the Alaskan bush and could only have one rifle, how would I make it do everything well? I know someone could shoot grouse, deer, and grizzly all with a 338 Winchester magnum, but you see the logic of what I'm asking?

So far I've done this to a degree with the 358 Winchester and 22-250. The idea being to carry a handful of ammo in your pocket for different opportunities.

It's a new-to-me concept that I'm really enjoying exploring. I've had perfect success so far with the two I've tried.

One reason the 06 and its variants are so popular, you get accuracy, power, plus a ton and a half of good bullets, from the 25s to 35s using ostensibly the same case, same action, same bolt face.

More than one way to skin a cat. I think a better approach is to develop that ONE load in your rifle that is effective for all the game you might encounter.

For example, Mule Deer has promoted using the 200gr Partition in 30-06 for such a purpose ..... you want a bullet that opens up on light game yet holds together and penetrates on larger game.

I hunt the early deer season in a wilderness area of a black bear overpopulation. I use a relatively light 160 gr copper, mid velocity deer load while hunting...and at night in spike camp, the 8x57 carbine is stoked to the gills with 200 gr partitions. I never even bothered to check zero on the bear load...if it's needed, it will be less than 20 yards.

When I went on a successful AK brown bear hunt, I knew I primarily would be hunting wolves if I scored, after I scored, on a bear, likely at longer ranges. I brought a .375 Wby sighted in 1” high at 100 yards with 300gr NPs with a MV of 2,750 fps. IIRC, the 260gr ABs (2,975 fps MV) were hitting one inch higher and a half inch to the left at 100 yds. After I got the bear, I loaded the ABs and adjusted the scope 4 clicks down and 2 clicks to the right. But I didn’t see a wolf that trip.

That’s the only time I’ve done something like that.

Next time, I just brought a 340 Wby throwing 225gr TTSXs at 3,140 fps for all things—near or far.

The ammunition industry during the early 20th century used to produce such rounds. Almost every loading had a FMJ load for fur hunters, and many had a factory loaded extremely light load for small game. These loads were either called a gallery load or a miniature. As an example, a 30-30 miniature round would be loaded with a 100-grain soft lead bullet and @5 grains of fast burning powder for a velocity of @1,000 fps. There were also devises called chamber adaptors that allowed a small handgun round to be fired out of a larger rifle chamber as long as both had same bullet diameter. These are still produced today. I carry a chamber adaptor while hunting with either a 308 Win or 30/06 that uses 32 ACP ammo. Accuracy at 25 yards is quite acceptable for small game and sight adjustments can be made. My guns hit 1" low and 1 1/2" to the right of my hunting round in my guns. When a grouse or rabbit is to be collected a slight off center hold is all that is needed. Extremely quiet and the velocities obtained in the longer barrel is @1200 fps when cronographed. I use the to finish off big game as well. Used it 3 times this year. Two finishing shots on mule deer and one antelope.

No sir! With the exception of cast bullets, which I don’t shoot nearly enough of……. one rifle, one bullet, one load, one zero for all of my hunting. This has worked for many years from the occasional coyote to deer, elk, moose, bear, and antelope.

The only change happening since 1992 has been……as Barnes developed new improved bullets, I would develop a load for it!


I knew a guy that was new to our area, and he made 3 different loads to hunt (his first and maybe his last ) elk hunt. Three different bullets, three different loads, three different zero’s. He found an elk…..iit very quickly turned into a “Mongolian CF”. Needed help to track and eventually kill the crippled elk a couple miles away. The only positive from this debacle was…..he didn’t give up the wounded elk! memtb

The likelihood of three different loads using the same scope setting is abysmally low. As others have stated you're better off using one bullet, one load. You'd be better off changing your zero distance.

For example a 200 gr NPT at 2550 fps zeroed at 25 yards will head shoot "grouse and rabbits" of opportunity. It'll also roughly be zeroed at 200 yards being about 1/2" high at that range. That'll have a MPBR of about 300+ yards on a 10" diameter target. If you want more range than that you'll have to dial or use holdover with a reticle of your choice.

The .358 uses a hunting load of 51 grains of TAC and a 180 Barnes ttsx sighted in at 100 yards. I worked up a small game load for 30 yard shooting that uses a 124 gr 9mm HP bullet and 7 grains of 2400.

Townsend Whelen was rather well known for developing a good hunting load for his rifles and then working up a small game load that would shoot to the same zero.
Whelen'a small game load for the .30-06 was said to give better accuracy at 50 yards than the average .22lr of the day.

I do load some of the Speer Plinkers for the wifes 30-30. Mostly for her to practice shooting with minimal recoil and blast.




I can see it being better for the firearms industry to sell new guns rather than make existing guns fill multiple niches. As must of us are handloaders, I was wondering if others still make this old practice work in the field.

Years ago I hunted exclusively with a 338 mag. mostly elk/deer in grizzly country. I acquired a Lee 230 gr mold , cast bullets with wheel weight alloy loaded Unique in various charges until it was dead on at 25 yds. Ended up at 8 grains and 800 fps. It was my grouse load when elk hunting

Not necessary but a fun exercise was developing these two loads for the problematic 22 Savage High Power with it's oddball .228 bullet diameter. I like the idea of a combo rifle for simultaneously deer and grouse hunting, but you give up alot with this approach. Like it's a friggen single shot, and it's a heavy gun, and your shotgun is scoped or your rifle is iron sighted. But, you have two guns, albeit a light cartridge for deer.






Someone here was selling unknown maker 60 and 70 grain .228 bullets so I bought a bunch of them for plinking, what with .228's being somewhat hard to find. I got a good load for 75 yard coyote call-ins and what not. Then I read somewhere that .224 bullets may work just fine in the High Power so I loaded some 55 grain Barnes ttsx bullets in it and finally got a load that shoots to the same poi as the hollow points. Now I have a good mono for deer and a good coyote load, and a 12 gauge shotgun for grouse, which in itself is very versatile, all in one.

Best I've been able to do was have a 150 NBT, 150NAB, and 150 E-Tip shoot to pretty much the same POI with the same load in one rifle. Allows practice with the cheaper NBT.

The one's I've tried had abysmal accuracy. The worst was 250-3000 adapter to 25 acp I think it was. The 250 used a standard .257 bullet and the acp used a .251. Not to mention the jump through the adapter before it even finds the rifle barrel. Yours is the first I've heard that anyone thought they were adequate accuracy-wise.

Handloaders can do much better with the full length case and proper bullets.

Did you find it useful or more a novelty? We don't have a ton of grouse here but you might see one every other day.

Yeah, that's not what I'm thinking and I can see that turning into a rodeo real quick.

You can't turn a 30-30 into a 300 magnum, but you can turn a 300 magnum into a 30-30, or 3-08, with some creative downloading. People complain about magnum recoil, magnum bloodshot and meat loss, magnum noise. So load it down for 90% of your hunting. Presumably if it's a long range shot where the magnum round is needed, you'll have a good chance to have the time to switch out the ammo.

My next project is to build three loads for a new 338 RPM. I hope to duplicate 338 Federal loads for most of my hunting but have a heavy load for longer shots, plus a small game load. Usually this approach has the caveat of magnum cartridges coming in heavy rifles so shooting 30-30 or 308 power loads loses the advantage of light rifles that are easy to carry.

Weatherby built the backcountry Ti to weigh 5 pounds so shooting 338 Federal level loads makes alot of sense rather than using magnum power loads all the time. Just gotta do the work and get them to shoot to the same poi, or one that makes sense anyway. With a light rifle hunting 338 Federal power loads for most everything but having the ability to jack it if needed it seems like a great solution.

That is a 19 year olds logic, or logic someone would have if they were ignorant. Find one load that will work very well for everything and go with it. It's really not hard to do.

Exactly, he made 3 high performance rounds, each with a different bullet for different circumstances. A genuine recipe for disaster! memtb

Looking back it was more of a novelty, I think I bagged one grouse with it and it worked well, then grouse numbers declined and I started hunting with a 308 Norma mag....