Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How many shoot one load, one bullet?

I find a load that works for a rifle load a bunch shoot them off (sometimes this takes years) and get the urge to try something new. Great way to learn a lot and have some fun. Thanks GRF

Mostly.....yes.

I do use one load in a lot of rifles, but have to experiment too much with bullets to do it in all of them.

Often I'll find a powder charge that shoots to the same point of impact with one bullet weight in a certain rifle, then use it with different makes of bullets. My Serengeti 7x57, for instance, shoots just about any 156-162 gtain bullet very well with 46 grains of H4350, and close enough to the same place that they're interchangeable. So far I've taken big game with the 156 Norma Oryx, 160 Sierra GameKing, 160 Nosler Partition and 160 North Fork, and maybe one or two I've forgotten, and never had to change the scope settings.

I have a good load for my '06 Mountain Rifle that I've used on elk for the last 10 years and a few other regular loads for other rifles but for all the rest?......No effin' way. As a certified "Looney" I have too much fun testing new bullets, powders, etc. to see if I can find something "better". It makes for a lot of shooting which ain't bad.

Upon returning to the states after a paid vacation in SE Asia, I bought a post 64, 300 WM. A very accurate load of H-4350 and the 180 grain Nosler Partition was developed. I have hunted Caribou, Blacktail and Mule Deer, Black Bear and of course Elk for all of those years with that "exact" same load developed in the spring of 70.

For the most part yes, once I find a load and a bullet that a rifle likes I tend to shoot it a lot. It's not that I don't like mucking about, rather I lack the time to indulge my curiosity fully - maybe when I'm retired.

Right now for my 338wm it's 71 grains of H4831sc under a 250 grn interlock. I shoot it lots so that when I am out hunting I know just where it's going to go.

39grs 4895 165 NP 300 Savage
62grs 4895 280 Swift 358 Norma Magnum
70grs 4895 350 Woodleigh 425 Express
62grs 4350 165 Hornady SPT 30 Gibbs

These loads have served us well for a very long time!

Hum that is a rut, were some have found them selve stuck. I tend to span those things and move on.

One load per gun make life much simplier!

One load per gun is simpler but of little interest to me as an end in itself.

For most of my rifles I've worked up at least two hunting loads and sometimes more. The reasons are many but I find it practical.

This year, for example, I intended to hunt elk with my .300WM and 180g North Forks. Unfortunately I was laid off in late September and was running low on North Fork loads. Rather than spend money to buy more I simply used some 180g Barnes MRX bullets I had loaded some years before.

For my favorite rifle, a .257 Roberts, I have 110g TTSX and 110g AccuBond loads for antelope. When carrying during combined deer/elk season it gets 120g A-Frames.

.30-06? 165g North Fork and 168g TTSX.
7mm RM? 160g North Fork and 140g TTSX.
6.5-06AI? 130g Scirocco II and 140g AccuBond.
.45-70? 19 different loads, all good for hunting something, from head-shooting bunnies to T-Rex.


Then, of course, there are the practice loads - mostly built with A-MAX, Ballistic Tip and SST.

I only shoot 200 NPs in my 300 win mag. Not interested in endless experimenting. This load works too good. And not that I expect to have the opportunity, but I think it would probably work for almost anything on the planet.

These days I just launch 150 gr 7mm Bullets out of my 7mm RM. My current rifle likes 150 gr bullets so much so that it dose not matter if its Federal Blue Box or Fusions or Any of the premium loads they all shoot close enough together that I can inter change with out much thought. Right now my favorite has been the Federal Fusion loads. Plenty for the deer I shoot, if anything a little to much. But I like the rifle so that is what I shoot. One of these days I will get a 7 x 57 or a 243 barrel for it and call it a day. It would be nice if Federal made a reduced recoil loads in the fusion line. A 150 gr @ around 2400 to 2600 would be perfect for my current white tail hunting but they don't and I am not bothering with the time and effort to cook up my own. I just to lazy for it in my old age.

If I have more than one rifle in the same caliber I'll stick with one load for each. I have 3 30-06s. For those that I have only one I sometimes have more than one load (weight bullet) set up for it. Of course sighting in is required for them. There are others that I have been happy with so left well enough alone. I am however always thinking of trying something new so everything I said can be thrown out the window.

one load for 270 win - imr4350 and 150gr partition
one load for 30-06 - imr4350 and 180gr partition

i might buy a few boxes of factory stuff to shoot as the season approaches, but when i go hunting for deer/elk/or hogs, i always use the above hand loads.

For ten years I've shoot 200 grain Partitions in my .300 H&H.

I usually stick to one load for each rifle. Sometimes I'll vary that if I am using a rifle as back-up to my primary choice in order to suit the quarry.

Yep............unless I get less than stellar results when I've done my part. That's why I discontinued use and long since sold all of the AB's I had on hand for both the 25-06 and 270 WSM. I've run with the TTSX's since early on and so far, so very good.

I have 2 identical 300 WSM's that shoot the 180gr. TSX load extremely well. It's nice that it worked out that way. As many know, an extremely accurate load in one particular rifle doesn't automatically ensure that same level of accuracy in another, no matter how identical the rifles used.

I don't expect needing to change any of my loads at this point in time. After 4 decades of hunting, I know what I want in a bullet/load........and I'm quite particular. Doing my part leaves me with a very real sense of confidence. In the end, that's what it's all about...........IMHO.

Well maybe, but it's fun to experiment until you find that "one load, one bullet".... .

Generally it looks like this:

223 (for varmints): 53 gr. Hornady V-max
308 win: 150 gr. Hornady sp interlock
270 win: 130 gr. Nosler partition
7 mm rem mag: 162 A-max
30-06: 165gr. sp interlock
300 WSM: 165 Hornady btsp interlock
300 win mag: 200 gr. Nosler partition
338 win mag: 250 gr. Sierra Game King BTSP
9.3x62mm: 286 gr. Nosler partition
375 H&H: 260 gr. Nosler partition (that may change to something else down the road).....

Yep, I think with every rifle of ours I load for(11)I'm down to a single load/bullet. All except for one do very well with the TTSX, so I then leave them alone at that point...simple simple, also the scope doesn't get messed with either. Just go shooting, and go hunting.

I have gone back and forth on this one over the years. At first, I fell in love with a Remington Mountain Rifle chambered for 7mm/08. I loaded 42.0 grains of BL-C2 under a Nosler 140 grain Ballistic Tip and commenced killing deer like they were wired to a light switch for several years. I loaned that rifle to a couple of friends and they used my ammo to do the same thing.

Then a strange thing happened. I wanted to experiment with other bullets. I found that particular rifle would shoot 130 grain Speer HotCors and BTSP's just as well as the Ballistic Tips. I killed a few with those too.

Then I tried 154 Grain Hornady RN's. Killed one with that bullet, and it worked too.

Lo, these many years later, with a different 7mm/08, this one a Ruger 77mkII, I have stumbled on another bullet that I think my switch me back to a "one bullet/load" hunter.

So far, I have done limited shooting with a new 140 grain Sierra BTHP Gameking bullet, and it shows real promise out of this rifle. Oddly, the charge weight is the same as my old standby load, but I have substituted Varget for BL-C2. Preliminarily, I like what I see as far as accuracy. I have friends who have used the .277" equivalent of this bullet for years with very good results on game, so although I realize I am comparing golden delicious to red delicious, at least it is an apples to apples comparison for now.

Looking forward to shooting more of these through the summer.