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

I don’t generally shoot anything but big game when hunting big game. Yes I have shot a grouse or ptarmigan for camp meat in the past but generally I do not. Locally we don’t have anything like that and if I’m hunting somewhere that does I’m generally on a fly in or at least out of state hunt and not interested in shooting small game when a moose, bear, or elk could be right over the next rise.

That said. All of my normally used hunting rifles will shoot multiple loads plenty close together as far as POI is concerned to just grab a handful of ammo and go hunt. If I decide I want to hunt with a specific brand or style of bullet in a given season I will generally zero with that load and stick with it but I don’t stress over it. I like to try out different bullets and rarely rezero if a quick check on a target shows they land within an inch or two.

My 30/06s get fed 165s as a rule and the two featherweights I use most often will put 165s from Hornady, Sierra, or Nosler in 2” groups if all mixed together. Same with the 270s and 130s and even the 270 Weatherby will shoot 130 Noslers and 150 Hornadys close enough together to not be worth bothering with. My Whelen will put any 250 I’ve ever tried into a pretty close cluster, though 180 Speers have a radically different point of impact which is okay since I don’t have a use for 180s in that cartridge. I would bet I’ve killed game with over 20 different makes, styles, and weights of bullets in my 223 without ever changing sight settings. Same for my 222 Mag but probably only 10 or 12 varieties of projectiles.

At the ranges I shoot game I’ve never been in a situation where an inch or two deviation between loads would make a difference.

When I lived in an area with long winters and difficult access to game, working up loads at the range and pontificating about them was fun. Living now in a place with no off season and routinely shooting 75-100 animals a year I’d rather hunt and test loads on critters than load ammo and punch paper.

My 458 mag with fixed express sights is dead on at 50 yds with a 500 gr load and 2" high with a 400 gr load

No. I start out with a few different bullets I am interested in using and try them. The winner goes hunting. One load per rifle. Plus we don’t have the variety of game here in SC. If a bullet works on deer it will work on everything else. Turkeys are off limits for rifles.

GreggH

.375 H&H, 300 grain A-Frame @ 2,460 fps / 350 grain Weldcore @ 2,300 for the big boys, and 250 grain A-Frame @ 2,700 fps for plains game.

Just know your dope and adjust accordingly.

Yea I have a 250 Savage to 25 ACP, and you are entirely correct about this particular adapter. Worthless is a compliment. I have collected adaptors for many years now and have tested quite a few. The 30 calibers to 32 ACP have @1 1/2" groups at 25 yards. Plenty of accuracy for small game at those ranges. Just got a 45/70 by 45 ACP and when warmer weather arrives, I will try it out along with a 35 Remington to 380 ACP recently acquired. I also have them for shotshells. From gauge to gauge. Patterned a 20-gauge shell from a 12-gauge adapter and got full pattern at 20 yards. Same results with 410 in a 20 gauge. Lane Short built some smooth bore adapters from shotgun to handgun calibers and the results were keyholing at 25 yards. Now he is producing rifles adaptors for shotguns gauges that are capable of 5" groups at 25 yards, but I have yet to give them a real trial, so results will vary. Years ago, I acquired a 12 gauge by 22 lr rifled adaptor made of aluminum. Surprising accurary and point of aim at 25 yards.

A thought I have had over the years regarding the poor performance of the 250 Savage adapter is to have some custom adapters made for 25 caliber big game cartridges, like the 250 Savage, 25/06, 257 Weatherby etc. is to have the adapters chamber to 25/20. Now there would be a perfect bore comparison. I will gladly start making these if someone will give me the winning lottery numbers.

I've been doing this exact thing for many years. In most of my hunting rifles I have a short-range bone-buster load that shoots a Barnes of some flavour, a LR load that shoots a Horn AM or ELD or a Berger, and in some rifles I also have a load with Blue Dot powder and light bullets for close-range grouse and small game. With a bit of load development, I can generally make this system work very well. I zero the scope as precisely as possible at 100 m with the LR load, then check POI of the Barnes and BD loads. The Barnes load is often horizontally centered and has a higher POI than the LR load, which is fine since its purpose is to serve as a PBR load. The POI of the BD load is usually within 1-2 MOA of the LR load, and I just make note of this and compensate when using it at <50 m on grouse, rabbit, etc.

I was checking bullets for accuracy a few years ago on a recently built 270 WSM.

I had 130 Nosler Bt;, 130 Swift Scorocco and 130 Swift A-Frames. With the same powder, same powder charge, brass and primer I shot 1 group with 3 of each and it was sub 1"

It is nice to have the option of differing bullet construction shoot to the same POA without having to adjust a scope.

I didn't intend to try to make them to shoot to same POA it just happened.

Who, exactly, is ignorant in this conversation?

Thanks, Brother Balls.

An old article, but an idea the founder of Kifaru was fond. I never got around to trying it though.

https://kifaru.net/blogs/journal/hand-loading-for-all-purpose-use-of-big-game-rifles-written-in-2000

A little of a twist but informative. Thanks for posting!

Has anyone here tried the Hammond Game Getter auxiliary cartridges?

I have several of the Marble's auxiliary cartridges, but have only found that the .30 caliber adapters for the .32 S&W in the 303 SAV, #153, and 30-40 KRAG, #155, worked very well. None of the other Marble's adapters that I've tried have worked nearly as well.

The best small game adapters that I have tried were called ALEX CAPS and, I have been told, were made by a man in Bozeman, MT, by the name of Neil Jermunson. The ALEX CAPS were soft lead pellets that were made in different diameters and weights to match different bore diameters and used a .22 LR cartridge as a power source. They were a good idea and very well executed, but probably came at a time when auxiliary cartridge don't have much market demand.

Loads that zero to the same POI can diverge when the barreled action is removed and replaced from the stock. It’s tempting to check zero for the primary load and call it good but in my experience the secondary may be off.

I do have different loads for the same rifle but it’s for different trips/outings and I only ever carry one type of ammo

Last year, I took a bunch of .257 Roberts rounds to the range. They were mixed test loads, 4 powders and bullets from 75-120grs., different velocities. I shot sitting at 50yds. Six shots went were all in a 3/4" group. I was surprised.

Me, but all with factory ammo. High powered, high BC ammo for bean field hunting, and low recoil ammo for hunting in the timber.

If I go deer hunting I'll probably take either my 25-06 with 117gr bullet, 260 Rem with 129gr bullet or maybe my 6.5x55 with 140gr bullet. Those are the only bullet's I load in those rifles! If I go for antelope it'll probably be with the 25-06 but same 117 gr bullet. Elk? Well I've killed three with both my 6.5x06 and 140gr bullet and three with my 30-06 and 180gr bullet. One killed as well as the other when I did my part! if I was to take my 30-06 deer hunting, I'd use the same 180gr bullet, why? I know exactly how the gun shoots with that bullet and can pick a 180gr load out of a pile of my 30-06 stuff blindfolded, 180gr loads is all I have for it! Same goes for every rifle I have. One rifle and one load. If I want a different load for what ever reason I take a different rifle! One exception I made to that was up in Alaska when I carried my 308 in on a fishing trip. I have never shot anything with a 308 with other than a 165hr spitzer. But in this instance the 308 was all I had with me and I was looking for bear protection. Worked up a 200gr load that gave me 2" groups at 50 yds. Never had to use it! If I had I'm sure that if I did my job that 200r bullet would have done it's! At this point in my life I simply cannot imagine having a few different loads around for any rifle! Of course I also believe that any bullet that will kill a rabbit will also kill a bear and any bullet that will kill the bear has a good chance of killing the rabbit it's just that prudence being to better part of valor, I'd choose with the target animal in mind! I'm quite certain if I took my 260 with the 129gr bullet bear hunting it would work If I did my part. I'm also certain my 30-06 with a 180gr bullet would give me far better shots to shoot! I would not take a 300 mag if I had one because, I shoot my 30-06 better than any magnum! Think, well placed shot!

Most of my rifles are zeroed with one load each. What I have as my criteria for each rifle and the load it uses are #1 a bullet made well enough to preform the task it is called on to do without failures being common and #2 shoot a good enough group to satisfy the real-world mission of that rifle. Once I have the rifle doing the job I want to do with it, it gets that load and that one only. I have a very few exceptions to this rule, but only 2 as of this writing and even in those rifles I have only 2 loads I'd use.

So as examples, 2 of my 270s are set up with 150 gr Nosler Partitions and shoot under MOA. These rifles can be used for all game from killing a coyote or skunk all the way up to killing elk.

My 300 Magnum is zeroed with 200 gr Nosler Partitions and can be used on game from antelope to elk or moose.

My Remington M81 in 300 Savage has stock iron sights and the round groove and big bead on the front will not allow me to shoot targets any smaller then about 3" at 100 yards with my old eyes, so I only demand 3 MOA from this rifle and load because if it did shoot a smaller group I'd never know, and I only use that rifle for shots at 150 yards and closer.

My SAKO 222 is my prairie dog gun so I demand 1/2" and smaller groups from it, and it gives me that degree of accuracy with 52 grain match Hollow Points

My 62 cal flintlock shoots very well and I know what it can do because I have owned it for many years, going back to the days I had outstanding vision. But these days I expect to hit only 3 inch targets at 100 yards because I can't see anything better than that now. But a round ball is not a good long range bullet so I do not fire at game past the range I know I can kill with this rifle.
And the list goes one and on.


When I was a young man and had only 2 rifles I used to load different loads and bullets to do different tasks. But now that I am old and have more rifles I simply take the one I feel like using and each one is zeroed for what I use that gun for.

Good post!!!!!

I load hunting loads for 308’s with 150 grain GameKings, 170 partition bullets made for a 30-30 for suppressor loads and shooting pigs I’ve trapped. The popcorn loads are a lot of fun to shoot.