January 05, 2009
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August 2006 Barnes Bullet-n
Pronghorn season is just around the corner, which makes a lot of hunters very happy. For many of us, this is the first big-game hunt of the year.
While pronghorn are found in only a handful of western states, it’s an animal every sportsman (or sportswoman) should hunt at least once. I promise you’ll be back to try it again—and again!
In addition to being first on the fall hunting calendar, pronghorn have a lot to offer. Hunting conditions are ideal for everyone in the family. The weather is mild, animals are plentiful and the terrain is relatively flat. What’s more, you don’t need a hard-kicking magnum to bring a trophy down.
Instead of sleeping in a drafty tent, you’ll probably spend your nights in the comfort of a motel, and eat restaurant meals. Hunts are relatively cheap. It’s possible to hunt free on public land, but guides can boost success. Guide fees are usually reasonable, particularly when several hunters share the same guide.
Hunting pronghorn is a great way for youths to gain stalking skills. When they were old enough to legally hunt, my two daughters learned how to sneak up on sharp-eyed antelope in rolling desert country. Instead of shooting at long distance, they duck-walked and crawled until they were within sure shooting range. Pronghorn rely on telescopic vision to keep them safe. You have to plan your stalk to keep out of sight. No amount of instruction or reading magazines can provide the kind of valuable experience you—and your children—can learn on a pronghorn hunt.
If you spook a herd of antelope or fluff a shot, it’s no big deal. Look around, and you’ll soon find another band to hunt. You can tailor the challenge to your tastes and physical condition. For the ultimate pronghorn hunt, take your rifle, pack, binocular and plenty of water, and set out across the prairie. This kind of walking and stalking is highly gratifying, and can produce great results! Once hunting season begins, antelope like to congregate in country remote from the nearest roads. A few miles of walking could find you the trophy you’re looking for.
The most common hunting tactic is to do your initial scouting from a truck, viewing the animals from afar with a binocular or spotting scope. Then plan a route that will keep you hidden, and begin your long stalk. It’s both unethical and a hunting violation to shoot from the truck.
Suitable pronghorn rifles range from the .243 Winchester up to any of the .300 magnums.
The .300 Weatherby is a favorite of hunters who like challenging their marksmanship skills by shooting at extreme range. However, the .243 is perfectly adequate in most hunting situations, and offers the bonus of very low recoil. Many choose something in the .270 Winchester or .280 Remington class. Light, well-constructed bullets at high velocities are preferred to heavier, slow-moving projectiles.
While most pronghorn hunters apply for permits right after the first of the year, there’s more good news! Some hunting areas often have leftover tags that can be purchased just before the hunt. Barnes is hosting a September pronghorn hunt for a few employees, and took advantage of leftover tags to allow latecomers to participate.
If you’ve never hunted pronghorn before, take my advice: Try it! You’ll like it!
Good hunting,
Randy Brooks
This month I would like to talk about the importance of dads.
My dad, “daddy” as I still call him today, was my friend from the time I was very little.
He always had time for me, and taught me things about life without really being aware that’s what he was doing.
I remember sitting on the front porch in the evenings just to get out of the hot house, and watching the cars drive by. We’d have a contest to see who could guess how many cars of a particular make or model would go by. There weren’t a whole lot of different cars to choose from those days, and most were easily recognizable. We would cap off the night with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk before going to bed.
When I was sick, on many occasions he would bring home a little game I could play, or some treat. He would always sit down and play games with me. He was adamant that I learn my times tables, along with the capitals of each state. He also tested me on my spelling—as a result, I think I’m a pretty good speller today. I’m also still pretty good on my times tables and capitals.
He usually fixed whatever was broken around the house. When he did, he had me by his side watching and handing him the tools to fix whatever he was repairing. This has helped me throughout my life, because it seems there is always something to fix or put together. Thanks to daddy, I’m not at all squeamish in trying to figure out how to get whatever is broken working again.
Our family did a lot of camping and fishing. Daddy played a very important role in seeing that I loved the outdoors and wanted to do outdoor things. I remember that outdoor experiences with him were always positive ones. When we went fishing, he always made sure I had a rod properly baited with just the right bait to catch the most fish—and on many occasions, I did just that! My dad wasn’t a great hunter, but made a once-a-year deer hunting trip and a once-a-year pheasant hunt. I was usually by his side for these exciting events.
I had a great time just being with my dad, whether it was going to visit his friends, going to the barbershop, driving to the junkyard or driving to school.
My dad is now 90 and looks and acts like a 70-year-old. I stop by and visit him several times a week. I’m very proud of him. He wasn’t a scholar, businessman or someone famous in other people’s eyes, but he sure was and is to me!
Ferrin Bennett & Coni Brooks
All the experiences I had with dad have helped me not only in my personal life, but in my business life, as well. I am very thankful he taught me precious lessons that just seemed to come naturally to him. I also need to mention that he’s been a really great grandpa to my two girls, as well.
If you are a dad or a grandpa, I urge you to spend quality time with your children and grandchildren. They will remember it forever and cherish the memories. Just showing them you care about them goes a long ways, and the lessons you teach them without really trying can be the most important lessons they learn.
I dedicate this article to my dad, and hope he is with me for a long time to come.
-Coni Brooks
Preparing for the upcoming hunting season? Now is the time to begin! Grab your rifle—you need to start getting ready. I know how important the coming months are. Hunting season is one of the best times of the year. It’s a time you, your spouse and your children have undoubtedly come to love. It’s the time of year when memories are made—to be cherished later on. So let’s get busy.
First, you need to decide which rifles to use for your hunts. This can be quite a dilemma. Some of the more common questions are: Do I have enough rifle for the game I’m after? Am I using heavy enough bullets? Will the rifle my youngest son or daughter uses generate too much recoil? Will he or she be able to shoot it well? I know you want them to have the best affordable equipment and the best possible chance for success. These are the serious questions I’ll address today.
First, let’s look at the game most commonly hunted in North America. Let’s break this game into three basic categories. First, small game includes prairie dogs, coyotes, rabbits and anything else weighing less than 50 pounds. Second, medium-size game like antelope, deer, small hogs and small black bear (to 300 pounds). Finally, the large game family includes elk, moose, large hogs, large black bear (over 300 pounds) and the infamous grizzly.
For small game, most folks use fast, explosive bullets in the smaller calibers—usually in .224- and .243-caliber rifles. The most common .224-caliber cartridges are the .223 Remington, .22-250 Remington and the .220 Swift. The most popular .243-caliber cartridges are the .243 Winchester, .243 Winchester Super Short and the 6mm Remington. You really can’t go wrong with any of these cartridges for hunting varmints, although recoil generated by.243-caliber rifles eventually becomes bothersome if you fire several hundred rounds at prairie dogs. A wide variety of varmint bullets are available for these cartridges. They include polymer-tipped bullets, lead-tipped bullets and hollow point bullets. All three are very explosive and leave large exit holes. The key to varmint hunting success is accuracy. Try several loads to make sure your rifle is accurate enough to hit small varmints at long distance. Your rifle should be capable of shooting at least a one-inch three-round group at 100 yards. If you plan to shoot prairie dogs at two or three times that distance, you’ll need all the accuracy you can get.
When it comes to medium-size game, deer hunting ranks at the top of the popularity list. Hog hunting is also becoming increasingly popular. Game this size allows the use of small to medium-size cartridges with good quality bullets like the highly popular Triple Shock X-Bullet, or the Barnes XPB pistol bullet in your favorite handgun. Folks sensitive to recoil should consider rifles in the .243 Winchester through .25-06 range. These moderately powerful cartridges are very effective when combined with a good bullet. I often recommend smaller-statured first-time hunters use an 85-grain Triple Shock in a .243 Winchester rifle. We don’t want recoil to scare them away from our great sport or make range time painful instead of a confidence builder. I get several calls about how effective this combination is on medium-sized game. Using 100-grain Triple Shocks in .257-caliber rifles also produces excellent results.
For those less sensitive to recoil, the .260 Remington, .270 Win, .270 WSM, 7mm-08 Remington, 308 Winchester, 30-06, or one on the many 300 Magnums are all excellent choices. With a well-placed shot, these cartridge will put deer-sized game down with authority. These cartridges also allow more experienced shooters to take tough long shots with confidence.
Several bullet choices are available, ranging from polymer tipped, jacketed lead core, bonded-core, and of course all-copper X- and Triple-Shock X-Bullets. Most are widely accepted as good hunting bullets for broadside shots at deer. I suggest you consider the worst-case scenario, when the animal doesn’t always drop in its tracks. If a follow-up shot is needed to anchor wounded game, you may have to shoot at an animal running directly away from you. That’s why I recommend a bullet capable of penetrating the full length of an animal. I’m convinced a Triple-Shock X-Bullet is the hands-down first choice for this.
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Here are my recommendations for choosing the right bullet weight. For any given cartridge, Triple-Shock X-Bullets of medium weight will provide more than enough penetration, even in worst-case scenarios. In fact, lighter Triple-Shock X-Bullets will also provide all the penetration you need. I suggest stepping down one weight class than you normally select when using conventional lead-core bullets. The 100-grain TSX does wonders in .257 rifles. When using .270 Winchester or .270 WSM rifles, I like the 130-grain or even 110-gtrain TSX. Seven millimeter cartridges do well with either 120- or 140-grain Triple Shocks. In .308-caiber rifles, I recommend 150-grain TSX for non-magnums and 165- or 168-grain Triple-Shocks for any .300 magnum. These lighter- weight X-Bullets produce a flatter trajectory and create tremendous hydrostatic shock that puts more game on the ground more often. And reduced recoil will allow you a faster follow-up shot, if that proves necessary.
Large game isn’t as common. Moose, bear and elk may be the object of a once-in-a- lifetime hunt. This means you try to make no mistakes and take no chances. When you hunt trophy game, bigger is better! Rifles in .300 magnum (or larger) chambering are recommended for the really big stuff.. In some cases, smaller calibers used with heavier bullets of the best quality only will do the job. A .270 Winchester or 7mm Remington Magnum will have plenty of punch for non-dangerous large game animals.
All large animals require bullets offering complete penetration—even through tough, heavy bone—for sure results. Again, I like to take the worst-case scenario and build my load to suit this purpose. None of us want to shoot at a big game animal that’s running. When possible, poor angles are also avoided. But you may sometimes be forced to take such shots, so be prepared for that possibility.
For hunting truly dangerous game, I’d suggest using the largest caliber and heaviest bullets you can accurately shoot. You may be defending your life and this is not the time for anything but the best!
This year try a box of Triple-Shock X-Bullets in your favorite caliber. They will give you the penetration you are looking for and offer superb accuracy. Next time you go hunting, you’ll be prepared for anything.
We Aim to please. Reloading is a great hobby. Enjoy it!
Bryan Martin
The .375 caliber 270-grain TSX Barnes Bullets I received from you at the 2005 SCI Convention have treated me well this year. I took three animals during a 10-day hunt in Northern British Columbia during late September/early October 2005. I used a pre-64 model 70 .375 H&H with an aftermarket McMillan stock and a Leupold 1.5-5 VX III scope.
My Reloder-15 handload chronographs at just over 2710 fps, and will consistently shoot one inch, or smaller, three-shot group at 100 yards. The smallest group measured 0.62 inch.
The moose and grizzly were each shot offhand at 150 yards. Before I could get close to the caribou, he started pushing his cows over a big mountain and almost got away. The only shot I had was at 435+ yards while the bull was walking uphill, going away. I hit him squarely with the first shot and he went down. None of the animals took more than two shots, and none made it more than 10 or 15 yards from where they were hit. The penetration, shock power and accuracy of the TSX Bullets were tremendous. The only other bullet I’ve used that came close to this kind of performance is the Swift A-Frame—but its ballistic coefficient is considerably less than that of the TSX.
Earlier in the year, I took a nice Dall ram in the Northwest Territories with Gana River Outfitters. I used a 130-grain TSX from my 6.5-06. At a chronographed 3,260 fps, it has pretty good punch for a small rifle. At 445 yards, both bullets I fired exited the animal, making a quick kill.
I used this same load on a 2005 Australian hunt for Rusa, Axis and Fallow deer. The performance was super. I made numerous one-shot kills between 500 and 775 yards with this bullet. I never recovered any of these bullets. Compared to the 120-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips in my 6.5 and the 140-grain Nosler Accubonds in my .270 Weatherby, the 130-grain TSX had superior penetration and killing power. Accuracy was also excellent. I used a Swarovski scope, a Leica 1200 laser rangefinder and a Night Force/Exbal ballistic program to help me make these long shots.
While I don’t like to shoot trophy animals at these ranges, this Australian trip gave me the opportunity to put all the shooting practice I’d done to work. The results were even better than I’d expected. Your TSX bullets get much of the credit. At these long ranges, I’ve also had good luck with the Lost River Ballistic J-36 Bullets—but for the average shooter, your TSX is an excellent and very affordable alternative. Keep up the great work.
I’m looking forward to trying your new poly-tipped, tungsten-cored bullets in the near future. If they shoot and penetrate as well as I think they will, then the Swift Scirroco and the Nosler Accubond are about to get some serious and very threatening competition.
Keep up the great work. It was a pleasure meeting you at the 2005 SCI show and hope 2006 treats you and your company even better.—Good hunting,
Bryan Martin
Interesting Facts
- The caribou is the only North American deer species that has established year-round populations north of the tree-line.
- There are well over a million caribou in the Northwest Territory. More than 20 times the number of people.
- The earliest fossil evidence of caribou comes from Germany and has been dated to about 440,000 years ago.
- Mosquitoes and parasitic flies plague caribou each summer; up to 2,000 warble flies have been found on a single caribou.
- Both male and female caribou have antlers.
- Some caribou in the Northwest Territory and Nunavut likely travel 2000 - 4000 km (1250 - 2500 miles) or more in a year.
- Clothing made from caribou hides is extremely warm. The reason is because of the hair. Each caribou hair has a network of large, honeycomb-like cells that trap air, acting as an excellent insulator. Air is also trapped between the densely-packed hairs. Their hollow hair helps them to tolerate extreme cold.
- After calving, the caribou mass into groups of up to 30,000 caribou. Those dense clumps are believed to provide some relief from blood-sucking mosquitoes.
David Banfield took this caribou with a 50 Caliber 250-gr Barnes Expander Muzzleloader bullet
Dove Tetrazzini
1 1/2 cups boned doves
3 tbsp. butter or margarine
3 tbsp. onion, chopped
1/3 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cups dove broth
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups thin spaghetti
1 cup shredded cheese
Melt butter in saucepan; cook onions and mushrooms over low heat until tender. Add dove broth and cornstarch and stir until thickened. Add dove and spaghetti. Heat mixture until bubbling, stirring frequently. Turn into baking dish and top with cheese. Place under broiler until cheese melts.
Question: I want to reload .38-55 caliber 255-grain FN Barnes original bullets for my new Winchester Model 1895 High-wall with .368" caliber lands and .376" grooves. Can I safely shoot this bullet in my rifle?
Sam
Answer: Hi Sam, Thanks for the great question. Barnes offers two bullets for the .38-55 Winchester. Both are the Original Lead Core design, and both weigh in at 255 grains. One bullet, product code 38/5510, is sized at .375" caliber. This bullet is typically used in rifles measuring .375" to .376" in groove diameter. The 38/5510 will obturate and fill the bore on the .376" caliber rifles. For barrels with .377" caliber up to .380" caliber groove diameter, we recommend product code 38/5520 which is a .377" diameter bullet. If you’re not sure of your barrel’s groove diameter, I suggest you contact the rifle manufacturer. Or you can have a competent gunsmith slug the bore.
Question: Hello,
My friend and I are going to New Mexico this December for a buffalo hunt. We both shoot Weatherby Accumark .338-378 rifles. I have loaded them with 250-grain XFB bullets, which took two elk last year in Oregon, delivering awesome performance.
My question is, would it be better to use your solids for these beasts?
By the way, I followed your advice on the XFBs–thanks. The shots were taken at 337 and 383 yards, confirmed by Leica. One shot each did the trick.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Phillip Sevadjian
Answer: Hi Phillip,
I suggest the use of X Bullets on buffalo, as do many PHs. Solids give good penetration, but won’t create large wound channels like the X-style bullets do. The XFB will give both good penetration and large wound channels for more one-shot kills, which means less tracking.
Wishing you the best. Get some good photos and send them in.
Barnes News
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including American Hunter, Safari Times, Black Powder Hunting,
Predator Extreme, Shooting Times, Handloader, Rifle, and Shooting
Illustrated, to name just a few.
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Club-X Prize Winner:
Congratulations Steve Trowbridge!
 Steve Trowbridge from Salinas, Kansas is the winner for the month of July.
He won the Sheffield® Mountaineer Multi-Tool.
I began hunting and fishing around Salina, Kansas with family friends when I was about 10 years old. In 1958 I joined the high school rifle club. I was club champion in 1959, and again in 1960, my senior year. I started reloading for the first time in the 1980s when I was doing a lot of silhouette shooting, then quit entirely for 15 years. I began reloading again in 2002. For Christmas last year, my loving wife gave me some new powders. I chose the Barnes 140-grain TSX to develop a fall deer load for my 7 x 57 Mauser. I do most of my practice shooting at the Outback Park Public Range south of McPherson, Kansas. |
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Prize for August Match-Grade Gun Maintenance Center
Cleaning and maintaining firearms can be a pain if you don’t have a permanent cleaning station set up, including a good, mar-free vise to hold guns steady while you work on them. It’s also great to have everything you need right at hand—cleaning rods, solvents, patches, small screwdrivers and other necessary paraphernalia. Halting work while you look for something you need is a frustrating waste of time. Gunslick’s new Match-Grade Gun Maintenance Center solves the problem. Made of heavy-duty plastic, the maintenance center has a pair of slide-out drawers for storing screwdrivers, cleaning rod tips and a variety of other tools and supplies. Indented areas in the base keep containers of solvents, gun oil and other chemicals from falling off. Integral “quick-close” vises hold rifles, pistols or shotguns firmly, simplifying cleaning and maintenance. These vises are also a valuable aid for mounting and bore-sighting scopes. “We wanted a product that would meet every storage need a hunter or shooter may have when cleaning their gun,” said David Nau, general manager of Onalaska Operations. “With the Match-Grade Gun Maintenance Center, you have direct access to your chemicals and accessories to ensure a thorough cleaning and less mess at the end of the day.” Bolt handle and bore guide slots double as storage areas for screwdrivers, wrenches and other tools. Three molded-in cups have rounded bottoms for easy access to scope-mounting screws and other small hardware. These same cups can be used to contain solvent for wetting cleaning patches. MSRP of the Match-Grade Gun Maintenance Center is $79.95. For more information about this or other gun care products, contact Gunslick Onalaska Operations, Dept. RI, N5549 County Trunk Z, Onalaska WI 54650; telephone toll-free: 1-800-635-7656 or visit online at: www.gunslick.com.
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