Do you need a magnum rifle?

[billt]

There is zero excuse to go hunting without the proper amount of ammunition. I don't care if you shoot a .30-30 or a .338 Norma. That is like going fishing without enough bait. A .243 wouldn't have saved him from poor preparedness.  Bill T.

[fightingquaker13]

'Nuther consideration about magnumitis...you gotta have ammo.

Wife called from work about a month ago asking if I knew where one of her coworkers could get 300 Ultramag ammo in Flagstaff.
He hadn't planned very well and had 3 rounds to hunt elk with....the next day. (dumb!) Theoretically, that should be plenty, but he wanted a box to be sure he had enough.

Just about everyplace that sells ammo will have 30-30, 308 and '06. They may not have the means though to stock every new round that hits the marketplace.  



 

Its because I'm a hunter and still young enough to pile in the truck and drive 500 miles to hunt, more than paranoia, that makes me say if I can't buy ammo at Wally World (or Circle K in Texas , the only place I've ever routinely seen things like .243 and 7mm mag at a covience store ), I don't want to own the gun. If you buy one of the usual suspects, you'll always find ammo. Maybe not what you want, but something. Its a big plus in my book. There's always room for the oddball, but cheap and easily found ammo are my first criteria for buying a gun. By no means are they the only one's, and I will buy unusual calibers, or chamberings (I had a 2 1/2 inch Webley and Sons for about ten minutes ), but I am conservative by nature. If I can't make it go bang, I've wasted money.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

We don't call it "Sport" up here, we call it getting dinner.  

[kmitch200]

There is zero excuse to go hunting without the proper amount of ammunition. I don't care if you shoot a .30-30 or a .338 Norma. That is like going fishing without enough bait. A .243 wouldn't have saved him from poor preparedness.  Bill T.

Yeah, the guy wasn't prepared, (he was in Phx), but if you have ever flown to a hunt, it's EASY to not get there with ammo or even the guns.
(Or your scivvies.) BTDT.

[TAB]

There is zero excuse to go hunting without the proper amount of ammunition. I don't care if you shoot a .30-30 or a .338 Norma. That is like going fishing without enough bait. A .243 wouldn't have saved him from poor preparedness.  Bill T.

there is no reason not to bring atleast a wallet full( 10 rounds)  That way you can check and reset your zero and still have enough ammo for a hunt.


BTW, you only need 1 round to check your zero and at most 2 more to reset it( assuming you are on the paper and do your part shooting.)


Here is how you do it. 

lets say you zeroed your rifle at 1" under at 100 yds.   Fire a shot at 100 yds, using a stable shooting platform.  if you are still 1" under at 100 you are good to go.  If you are not, reaim the rifle with the cross hairs at the same point of aim( should be the center of the target).  keep the rifle still, adjust the scope so its aiming at the bullet hole.  if you still want to be 1" under, adjust out X number of clicks to get you there.  Refire the weapon.  If you did every thing well, you should be back on zero.     

[Sponsor]

[billt]

Call me paranoid but I've always been a freak about ammo. Let's face facts, a gun without ammo is like a car without gasoline in the tank. In short worthless. I've always stockpiled more ammo for my weapons than I'll ever need for any given purpose, be it hunting, target shooting, informal plinking, or just plain blasting in the desert. You can't stockpile gas, but you can ammo quite easily. In the big Super Magnums you can keep enough in a small closet to burn out a barrel. And properly stored the stuff will outlast it's owner.

There is just no excuse, even cost. Some of the highest priced ammunition on the market is for the big Weatherby Magnums and some of the European Express Cartridges like the .416 Rigby. They can cost upward of well over $100.00 for a box of 20. The beauty is you can accumulate it one box at a time. Or else you can buy the brass and dies and handload it yourself. The big Magnums are one of the few cartridges where it actually pays to build them from scratch rather than to save up a bunch of once fired factory brass. Once you do have the brass, they are relatively cheap to shoot. Powder, primers, and bullets are the same, except if you load premium hunting bullets, but again they always cost more regardless of caliber.

Like most people it bothers me to run out and dump a small fortune on ammo. I'll grab as much as possible if a really good deal comes along, but for the most part I'll "average buy", much like a cheap stock that no one wants. 9 MM FMJ is a perfect example of this. We hit Wal-Mart on the average of twice a week. Sometimes more if I'm going to change the oil in the cars, or pick up some weed or bug killer. Every time I do I try to pick up a few boxes of 9 MM as well. You don't notice it so much when you buy it that way, and at the same time you'll be surprised at how much of it you can accumulate over time. I probably have over 10,000 rounds of Federal FMJ from Wal-Mart this way.

I don't know what the future is going to bring price wise when it comes to ammunition cost, but I'm willing to bet it isn't going to be good with inflation hovering over us like a dark cloud. If 9 MM takes a big jump like .22 rimfire and .45 ACP has in recent years, I'll be covered. And in the meantime if I die in a flaming car wreck, the stuff is easy enough to sell off if Melanie chose to do so. Through the years I've heard all of the "I'm out of ammo" stories much like everyone else. I have never run a car, truck, or motorcycle out of gas in over 42 years of driving. I certainly won't ever run a gun out of ammo. It is just too easy not to.  Bill T.

[fightingquaker13]

I'm going to give Bill an "atta boy". I don't have his wallet and I don't reload. Still, I can't imagine starting a deer hunt without ten rounds, or a bird hunt without two boxes, giving me 50. I know I'll never fire all those (at least if I'm sober), but still, Its better to have and not need than......, well, that other thing. . I just always want extra rounds. If the situation is serious enough that I'm outside with a loaded gun (hunting, targets or SD) I sure as hell don't want to run out of ammo. Skimping on that makes about as mch sense as buying a nice stereo and pimp lights for your car and not getting the oil changed.
FQ13 who might lose a gunfight, but it won't be because I ran out of bullets.

[wtr100]

Unless range is an issue a good rule of thumb is any one carry more than a 30/06 (It does have a cult following though it can't do anything a 308 won't do ) Is the Fudd version of a mall ninja. More concerned with impressing every one with some gun writers latest and greatest than with making a clean kill. Those are usually also the ones who can't shoot for crap but always have an excuse.

HIERATIC - BURN HIM!

wait - the carbon footprint of that 

[tombogan03884]

HIERATIC - BURN HIM!

wait - the carbon footprint of that  

I was hoping someone would go there.
The whole purpose of the 308 was to duplicate the performance of the 30/06 out to about 500 yards in a shorter cartridge.
Since they use the same bullet there is no difference between them unless range is a factor.

[wtr100]

I was hoping someone would go there.
The whole purpose of the 308 was to duplicate the performance of the 30/06 out to about 500 yards in a shorter cartridge.
Since they use the same bullet there is no difference between them unless range is a factor.

A pox on ewe 

of course you're absolutely correct - consider if the BAR and the M1 Garand had been .308 vs 30-06