Tip 1.
When handloading for hunting, the most critical step is selecting the right bullet for the job. If you fail to select the appropriate bullet for the game animal you intend to hunt, your chance for a clean kill is diminished considerably.
Before I select a bullet to handload, I research the animal I’m going to hunt and gather as much information as possible as to what bullets other hunters have used to successfully down that game animal, for the caliber I’m shooting.
As a general rule, animals with thick tough skin, dense, heavy bones and lots of muscle mass require a bullet with excellent penetrating abilities to reach the vital organs and remain intact, without breaking apart. The famous Nosler Partition, Barnes-X, Winchester Fail-Safe design fit this category.
However, if hunting thin skinned game animals like deer, goats, etc, you’d be better off handloading a bullet that expends most of its energy inside the animal, mushrooming rapidly. Bullets that perform like that drop such game animals on the spot, provided you do your part and aim for the vitals.
TIP 2.
Forget about using 3 or 4 different loads for shooting a variety of game species on the one hunting trip. For example, lets say the area you are hunting in has rabbits, foxes and larger game like hogs roaming about. Using a different hunting load for each species listed above may get you into trouble – I know, I’ve been there before!
Its easy during the excitement of the moment to accidentally chamber one of the rabbit loads when the hog load is required!
Stick with the one load. Don’t mess around with multiple hunting loads.
If you really need to shoot a rabbit to eat, use that one load, even if it is too powerful. You can still head shoot the rabbit and avoid excessive meat damage.
TIP 3.
Any hunting load that fires a bullet at high velocity but has poor accuracy, excessive recoil, high and erratic pressures, sticky extractions is not worth using. A load for hunting should never develop excessive pressures such that cases are hard to extract.
A stuck case could mean a lost trophy, or worse, the hunter could be killed by dangerous game. Think about this the next time you do some reloading for your hunting trip.
