Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Different loads for same hunt

I've experienced two different loads having the same POI at 100 yards while testing. Has anyone carried two different loads in your rifle on the same hunt?

For example, if I were to find an elk up close have a 150TTSX in the tube ready to go - but if I came out of the woodline and found an elk 500 yards out, take the TTSX out and have a 162AMAX next in line.

Wouldn't have to worry about construction, penetration or retention up close, but could easily switch - given plenty of time - to something that slips through the air better and at range don't need to worry about it flying apart, like at close range.

Anyone ever try it? See anything wrong with it other than not paying attention to which one you have in the tube?

You can't kill an elk if you don't have lead in the air. Quit screwing with the bullets and shoot the dang thing. There are plenty of bullets that will kill cleanly from 20 yds out to 500.

I am a "KISS" fan myself. No need to over complicate things.

I do have several rifles that will put loads for, say, prairie dogs to the identical POI as, say, deer loads and I've brought those out west when prairie dogs & coyotes were on the docket in one place and big game in another.

On the other hand, if hunting big game in an area with many targets of opportunity like varmints I'll shoot all critters w/ big game loads rather than risk becoming confused in the field and/or end up fartin around when I should be shooting.

I'm for "KISS" too.

Not the same sit, but I've carried different ammo with same POI on trips. Sometimes I want to hunt the bottoms, sometimes if the weathers bad I'll sit the edge of a pasture up under a pine to stay dry.

I've done it several times, and have gotten away from a two load approach. It is essential that the two loads shoot to the same POI!!!!

I took two loads along one time years ago with plans to switch them to fit close cover or ridge to ridge shooting. I never changed ammo in the rifle. It was a small mental distraction that degraded my efficiency slightly, and not worth any possible advantage -- to me.

In serious grizzly country I have hunted caribou, moose and sheep at the same time when any any could present a short notice shot. (Popped up on a previously unseen ram at 125 yards during a sneak on a caribou.) On one such hunt I kept a 180 grain Swift A-frame first in line in my 30-06, with 165 Hornady Interbonds following. I shot one caribou with a 180 and a 165. After a day or two, I dropped that two bullet approach.

Nowadays I tend to load my preference for the biggest baddest critter present and shoot everything down to mice with it. Shot a dinky fork horn blacktail at 20 feet with 180 Swift A-frame.

Yet I like the 165 bullet for deer in 30-06 so have hunted whitetails in grizz country in recent years loaded only with the 165 Hornady-- and had a grizzly come to where I was gutting a buck and circle around me.

Long personal story to agree that simple one load is preferred for most of us. Your call for you.

I don't even like to switch loads from one hunt to the next.

I bring two different loads for two reasons. Sometimes I'll use two bullets of the same weight which shoot to the same (generally enough) POI. When moose hunting, I often put two bullets into the same animal just to minimize "Murphy Issues". The second bullet often ends up being a 'test' which has allowed me to see what more bullets do.

The second scenario involves hunting in bear country. I have, at times, carried bear loads which don't need to do anything more than be 'close enough' at 50 yards. I might be shooting 150 or 165 grain bullets - or whatever- sighted dead just where I want them and use them for the hunt. If I happen to need to spend time in the alder tangles, or at night and while in camp, the bear loads go in the rifle. I very rarely carry two different loads for the same quarry otherwise since Murphy knows what an invitation is.

I have carried 130 TTSX in my 308 Win up the mountain while goat hunting, and switch to 180 Partitions for the hike down with meat on my back. But never carried two types of ammo for the same game.

It's silly to worry about it now, and just because 2 loads hit close to each other at 100 yds doesn't mean anything at 500.

What you're setting yourself up for is failure due to overthinking it all

Taco280AI:

I kinda sorta do that, but not really. I shoot a 30-06 and use two loads that produce the same trajectory.

When I'm hunting elk in Colorado or something else in Alaska, I use 180 grain Nosler Partitions with high energy powder (62 grains RL22, 2,820 fps). When I'm hunting deer or pronghorns I use 150 grain Sierra Game Kings (51 grains IMR4320, 2,850 fps). The lighter bullet has less mass so it starts out faster but slows down sooner. The result is a trajectory that has the same POI from 100 yards to 300 yards.

I do most of my practice at 200 yards but also shoot at 100 and 300. The POI is the same at all ranges.

I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. theory so I've never considered trying to switch loads in the middle of a hunt.

KC

Not generally a good idea, IMO.

However, I have carried two different loads (and probably will again) on the same hunt for the same animal -moose.

Junk Load #1 is some 250 gr Sierra GK .338Mag loads just thrown together without workup which proved out at about .5 MOA. By the time I got done messing around, I had 4 rounds left.. Used one since unnecessarily as it turned out at 140 yards. But I did write that load down! I've carried the other 3 several times since in case I get a shot in excess of 300 yards.

Besides that, I'm currently using Junk Load #2, also thrown together without any work-up at all. 250 gr. Hornady RN. MOA, but drops like a rock at range.... I have a life-time supply of those- about 30 rounds left. Wrote that one down too.

The Hornadys are 2 inches high at 100, the Sierras about 5....

Of the 22 moose I've killed, only two have been over 100 yards, the farthest 160.

I got 'er covered!

That's exactly what I do with all my rifles, and it works wonderfully. I carry with TTSX in the mag, and if a long shot is required where I have plenty of time to get set up, I swap the TTSX out for some A-Max or similar.

Loading different bullets in the magazine is an entirely different matter than switching them when in the presence of game.

For Cape Buffalo in Africa, it is common to load one or two soft points for the first shot(s) and then solids. The theory is that you don't want to exit on the first shot because you might hit another buffalo in the herd. But later shots are usually lengthwise at a buffalo running directly away from you--or directly toward you.

I have never carried both at the same time.
I did have a 338-06 that shot 200gr Hornady's and 200gr NP'S to the same POI.

Hornady's for deer and NP'S for elk.

I do it but there's no strategic logic to it and I don't pick one for up close and one for "way out there". I use both interchangeably..... sometimes. They do the same things and there isn't any hunting task that I'd try with a BBC that I wouldn't do with the same weight Partition.

Most any of my rifles will shoot to the same POI with Nosler Partitions, or Bitterroots from 100-500 yards.Obviously I've long since confirmed this from years of shooting both.

Present examples are my 270 with 130 NP's and BBC's; 7 Rem Mags with 140 NP's and 140 BBC's. My Mashburn tosses 160 NP's and 160 BBC's the same place to 400 yards from the same sight setting.

Actually that rifle throws the 160 Partition 1/2" higher at 100 yards than the 162 Amax,both started at roughly the same velocity.By the time they get to 300 through 600 yards the higher sight setting of the Partition makes up for the higher BC of the Amax,and I could kill a buck with either one out to 600 yards, where they group together.

On hunts I'll sometimes take 30 Partitions and 10 BBC's. I didn't over think any of this...it just worked out this way.

It's just a question of shooting to confirm all this and you can't stop at 100 yards.Has to be done to longest distance you will shoot to see how your rifle behaves.

I carry two separate loads in gun sometimes. Never more than two. I can't say there are good reasons for it. Just a Looney thing. I've got several loads in 30-06 that impact within 3/4" at 100, and a few that match closely enough to 400, all with bullets 180-185 grains. The only load I shoot beyond 400 is a Berger 185. I don't want to fart around with any unnecessary variables beyond 400.

Usually the idea is that if I end up with a 40 yd shot at an elk, I'll have something more stout than a Berger, such as an Interbond or more recently a Partition, in the chamber. I've seen that this doesn't matter, as I've not seen any problems with Bergers on close stuff, included quartering away. But it doesn't have to make sense. After reading Klik's post about bullet testing, I think that may actually be one of the reasons for the two loads in the gun that I don't consciously think about. I'm always trying to test something to see what it will do, but I also don't want to risk an animal. I've not ever lost anything I hit, and I won't start now.

I edited to add that more often than not, when I'm hunting, deer AND elk are the quarry. Usually hunting for elk, and will take a buck if the elk have left the the county/state/nation/continent, and Muley presents himself in a giftlike fashion.

I only have one rifle that I carry 2 loads for.....a ruger stainless 30-06, wearing a leupold FX-3 6X, with the long range duplex reticle. With 165 gr accubonds, I sight in +2.5" @ 100 yds for a 250 yd zero. I happened to run some 220 gr federal hot cores through it, and damn if they weren't dead on at 100 yds. When I'm in open country, the 165's are in it....when still hunting the timber, I feed it the 220's. Oh yeah, both loads group well under an inch. Truly an amazing little rifle, and a whitetail's worse nightmare. Andy 3

easier for me to just learn the hold over for the heavy bullet at longer range than worry about switching bullets. My load of choice is the same for all ranges.

The only season I got tags for cow elk and pronghorn I chose the 160gr Partition for the 7mm RM. I realized that despite not having the same seasons and environment I rather be "overbulleted" for the smaller than having to rely on 2 different bullets, despite similar trajectories.

They partition did a clean double lunger DRT kill at close range for antelope (~80yds). I did not get a chance at elk, but it would have worked just the same probably.

Don't understand this 2 bullets on the same hunt thing at all (no offense towards anybody). Fiddle farting around with which bullet I want in the chamber is the last thing I want on my mind when hunting.

Bingo.

One load. One drop chart.

I have which load in what pocket??

Oops, just dropped my rounds in a snowbank, hey, there goes the elk over the hill....

I agree. Fiddling with a pair that are really different is not a hot idea. Generally i avoid it.

But three decades of killing stuff with my two has proved.....it really doesn't matter which one ends up in the chamber. Most times I don't even look at which one is going in. Some days I load the magazine with BBC's and others with Partitions. I'm not "messing" around with anything. I know them both stone cold.

I certainly wouldn't do it if there was the slightest difference....but in my rifles, there isn't.If there was i wouldn't do it.

One load for a hunt in my book. If I'm going elk/deer hunting I take the elk load. If you may be taking a longer-dtsance shot, then know your ballistics.

It seems that Liar-lee24 advocate for different calibers on a hunt.

When I'm hunting at the Ranch with my Remington Model 700 Classic in .264 Win. mag., I carry two different loads in my pocket, that both just happen to shoot to the exact same point of aim.
One load is the 125 grain Partitions for deer and hogs, and the other load is the 120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips, for Coyotes.

Out of all my various hunting rifles, that particular .264 Win. mag is the only one that will shoot two different loads with two different bullets to the exact same point of aim.

Thought that was Travis? 22-250 in a 7mm-08?

Heard it's uber!!!

I keep it simple. Sometimes i'll hunt an elk and mule deer in the same season. I just load up an elk load, and if I shoot a muley I knock it for a loop with the elk load.

Allow me to explain.....sitting on clearcuts (first light and last light), with shots out to 500+, I have the 165's in the rifle. Mid-day, still hunting the black timber, I have the 220's in. Where I hunt whitetails, here in Idaho, there is not much "in between" country, and I only swap ammo once I'm set up to glass the clearcuts. Never had the problem of having the wrong ammo in at the wrong time....and like I said, I only do this with the one rifle, because of the POI of the two loads, in relation to each other. I do have other dedicated long range rifles and timber guns, that I use too. The '06 allows me to do the same with one rifle with the 2 loads. Andy 3

You have a plan that works for you.

I use a different plan, but both plans work for us.

Life is good.

If that's what you imagine it looks like, then I can see where the 'You're doing it wrong' attitude comes from. I assure you, if it looked like that, I would be doing it wrong. Fortunately, I have several billion brain cells and can operate at a higher functional rate than what you describe. I also understand planning, keeping it simple.

I don't recommend very many of the ways I do things to others. Why would I? I do describe the way I do things and let others decide what will work for them, given what they want to experience. My shared ideas may invite them to something that more closely matches what they want, as others here have done for me in the last 8-9 years.

I advocate as much simplicity as can be discovered for those to whom I give advice regarding guns and hunting. I'll personally never be the guy that shoots one load per rifle, and has a dozen rifles for all his varied pursuits.