Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 243 Win. Using Sierra 85 gr H/P #1530 On Antelope/Deer?

Count yourself lucky on that count anyway. I just walked through Sportsman's in Fairbanks tonight and they had one pound, yeah, one pound of powder....STEEL, on their shelves. A few months ago I was wondering why I had several pounds of Lil' Gun when I normally only shoot it about 13 grains at a time. Now I thank my lucky stars. (I also imagine if things keep going the way they are, that I'll figure out a way to use the pound of Tite Wad I have....in a handgun load.)

I just hope the control freaks don't realize how they can control guns, shooting etc. They really have us by the curlies simply by threatening the supply. Then again, if even a small rimfire maker invested in equipment that could make 100,000 rounds of 22 LR in a day, they'd be well set to pay the investment off quickly. Sadly, it wouldn't even take high quality to do it.

Ohhh, we have powder out the yang-yang. Just no bullets or rimfire stuff.

Palidun: Your turtle reference reminds me of an instance some years ago in eastern Montana that befell me.
A kind of "cantankerous" wealthy ranch owner had allowed me to Hunt Prairie Dogs on his ranch for several years.
I show up at his place after driving right at 1,000 miles to get there and the rancher greets me with a "favor" he "needed" done!
Seems the turtles had moved in to his little lake and they were "eating" his fish making it hard for his grandsons to catch anything there.
He wanted me to shoot the turtles.
I tried to beg off.
He insisted!
He made it clear turtles first THEN I could shoot Prairie Dogs.
I conceded.
I sat up on a cliff overlooking his lake and sure enough there were turtles everywhere - do turtles even eat fish?
Anyway one of my "Prairie Dog" rifles was a Remington 40X in 243 Winchester shooting the exact bullets we are talking about here.
I take aim at a "layer" of turtles on a sandstone rock bank - I swear they were 3 deep on top of each other in places and shoulder to shoulder. I touch my first shot off and I am NOT exagerating, there were 10 turtles flying in various directions from that one shot.
I know I shot 100 turtles that day - and I felt bad about that.
But the rancher came by and saw me doing my duty and smiled and waved.
I seldom see reference to turtle shooting.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Vic_in_Va: I was at my local sport shop today and they indeed had a LOT of powder (including CFE 223 and IMR 4350!).
I went to check their supply of Sierra 24 calibers bullets - there was not one box of Sierra 20 caliber, 24 caliber or 25 caliber bullets on their shelves.
And VERY few 22 caliber Sierras.
I am thankful to have such a big stash of Sierra 85 grainers on hand!
Dittoes on the scarcity of rimfire hollow-points around here.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

As I was purchasing a 22 RF rifle today, I asked if they held back any ammo to sell with new rifle sales. The guy told me they do, but then informed me that they had no more left in reserve. He told me the weekly truck was due within the hour. So I left with the rifle, deposited it safely outside the store, and returned to wait for a bit of ammo. Upon my return, there were all of a sudden a whole bunch of guys standing around looking, but not looking at merchandise. It really looked rather like a seagull convention. Finally after waiting for awhile, all of a sudden the flock had moved toward a cart that had been wheeled out and arms were reaching in and 'harvesting' the allotted maximums. It wasn't until people were leaving the area that they even looked at what they had taken. Then they stood in line at the registers wondering what it was going to cost them. ($0.09/round was the price.) And what's up with these ammo makers catering specifically to the hoarding masses? At least that's what I took from the packaging that Federal had done, 325 round cans of 22 LR sealed in cans purged with nitrogen. Most of the fellows I talked to had no plans to keep it around. The counter guys said they saw many of the same faces every Tuesday when the truck came in however. Hmmm?

Klikitarik: Your "seagull convention" scenario at that store is indeed a sad thing - I have only been in on a couple of those in the last 14 months.
I live in a remote place far from the "big chain stores" that so often have these shipment day conventions of "seagull" types.
Its 105 miles (each way) for me to the nearest big chain type sporting goods store (Sportsmens Warehouse) and its way further to the nearest Cabelas.
I do travel a lot though mostly chasing gunshows and in my travels I stop in at all the chain stores (Wal-Marts, Bob Wards etc) that sell 22 ammo. My drop in visits seldom happen on "delivery days".
Those nitrogen filled 325 round cans has my now somewhat paranoid mind in high gear - I was planning on doing a bit of long term storage of a hussein obama proof pistol and ammo.
I assume thats what the nitrogen filled pack is all about?
Better times are ahead - but I fear its way ahead, I mean like 5 or 8 years in the future.
Make do.
By the way I have become aware of more and more stores that "hide" 22 ammo "in the back" so's they can at least sell one batch of ammo to their 22 rimfire gun buyers!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Down south turtles can be a real pain if you run trotlines, and commercially raising catfish or any kind of fish for stocking. The biggest problem is with the Painted turtle but snapping turtles are also an issue. I got out of the business years ago but during that time I must have trapped or shot 20,000 turtles. The shooting can be pretty sporting just taking head shots. Nowadays with the Asian fish market being so strong I would think that trapping and selling them would be very profitable (turtles not Asians).

VarmintGuy,

I've used this bullet out of both 243 Win. & 6mm Rem. on Blacktail Deer, Antelope & feral/wild hogs and never had a bad problem.
Just make sure you are at a range & angle you can place your shots well and they will work fine.

They wouldn't be my first choice as an all around bullet these days with all the choices in bullets (if you can get them ), but if I had a large supply of them I would darn sure use them up.

Good luck,
-Ted

The manufacturers still claim to be operating at 100%+ capacity on powders, bullets, brass, primers etc.....and even temporarily shutting off their production of slower moving bullets to keep up with demand of their faster moving products...

too many people are stock piling all of this stuff, like it will be the currency when they predict the collapse of the US economy, under Obama and the Democrats...

Doomesday shows like the Walking Dead being popular, along with any movie of that type...

as far as 22LR, I haven't bought any in a couple of years, and have hardly shot any either....

with these hoarders, we live in a nation of morons anymore...

Hating the hoarders is like shooting the messenger. The Obama administration is the problem that pushed so many to "hoarding". Preparing for chaos and calling it hoarding, a word taken to heart by the Obam admin is like suffering from the stockholm syndrome.

i have only shot one groundhog with the 85 sierra hollowpoint but it encouraged me for a deer application, as it was a 60 yard shot at a max load and entered, expanded, and exited leaving a 1/2" hole. i would have expected it to fragment in that scenario but it penetrated 8" of groundhog and kept going.

i know it's not the same and it's only a sample of one but it had an opportunity to fail and it didn't.