Poll - Have you ever checked your rifle ammo for deer legality?

Have you checked factory ammo to see if it is deer legal?


  • Total voters
    0

stratts

Well-Known Member
Have you ever chrono'd your factory ammo to check that it is deer legal?

If so tell us how it was in your rifle compared to the factory bumf. It'll be interesting to hear of any that were not legal,

Stratts
 
Both my deer rifles 30-06 & 6.5 cm with 24" + barrrels have no problem being deer legal as not running those ubber short barrels.:D
 
Both my deer rifles 30-06 & 6.5 cm with 24" + barrrels have no problem being deer legal as not running those ubber short barrels.:D
Most deer legal calibres will have no problem with homeloads reaching legal requirements. It is generally the lower end which struggle such a those attempting to stoke-up 6mm or .22 Hornet to try and make them deer legal where the problems arise! Also at the other end of the scale where people try and get some kind of massive black powder propelled mortar round to go fast enough!
An area often overlooked though is other rules that may be broken! For instance, a military gallery range has a muzzle velocity restriction of 3275 fps. Trying to get a small bullet to go fast enough to become deer legal may actually put you over the limit for your local zeroing facility!;)
MS
 
Most deer legal calibres will have no problem with homeloads reaching legal requirements. It is generally the lower end which struggle such a those attempting to stoke-up 6mm or .22 Hornet to try and make them deer legal where the problems arise! Also at the other end of the scale where people try and get some kind of massive black powder propelled mortar round to go fast enough!
An area often overlooked though is other rules that may be broken! For instance, a military gallery range has a muzzle velocity restriction of 3275 fps. Trying to get a small bullet to go fast enough to become deer legal may actually put you over the limit for your local zeroing facility!;)
MS
3281 fps/ 1000mps and 4500joules limit, some are 7000joules limit but you need to do hme zeroing before use.

​Pete
 
I've only ever taken deer (red) in Scotland.
The slowest factory stuff I've used is GECO 170gr .308 through a 22" barrel - mv about 2500fps. They worked fine.
RWS 140gr DK in 6.5x55 20ish" barrel made 2550fps, and also worked fine.
RWS 127gr SP in the same rifle averaged 2540fps, but I've not used them as the rifle didn't shoot them very well.

The RWS figures were disappointing cf manufacturer's data, until I noticed that the manufacturer uses a 29" barrel when testing - a thing seldom found on a sporting rifle.
 
Privis - 6.5x55 - 139g through a 20inch barrel. Some were below 2350fps. By the time I'd checked them I'd already shot a fair number of Reds without incident.
 
Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands of red deer were shot with 6.5x 54 Mannlicher, 303, 30-30 and others that are not deer legal given min velocity requirements before they brought in the rules. For that matter many loadings in 9.3x62, 479 nitro, 404, 458etc are not deer legal either.
 
I think the point is that it matters not what was used historically, or that there were no problems. The law is unequivocal. You either comply or don't...no grey area.

ATB
 
I think the point is that it matters not what was used historically, or that there were no problems. The law is unequivocal. You either comply or don't...no grey area.

ATB
That sums it up very well.
Picking up on Monkey Spanker's comments, I recall one of our members, whose name escapes me, who was trying to work up a .22K Hornet load to be deer legal for the smaller species (50grain bullet/1000ft lbs muzzle energy) which I thought unlikely to be achievable. It would be interesting to hear how he got on.
 
never tested but then I live on the sensible side of the border (for now at least)
That and my calibre choice has never been marginal so testing is negated

red - .270/.300WM
roe - .222/.243
 
That sums it up very well.
Picking up on Monkey Spanker's comments, I recall one of our members, whose name escapes me, who was trying to work up a .22K Hornet load to be deer legal for the smaller species (50grain bullet/1000ft lbs muzzle energy) which I thought unlikely to be achievable. It would be interesting to hear how he got on.


Quite a stretch even for the K hornet, gotta break 3000fps!
 
Should we be doing this on an open forum?

I thought the same at first Howa but then wondered how many have taken the trouble to actually find out. For myself I normally play safe and use calibres and bullet weights that would be regarded of the high side but I did test my 8x57irs prior to a Scotland trip just to reasure myself that my loads met the minimum velocity requirements. I had absolutely no doubts regarding muzzle energy. I compared these to some factory loads I had in my 20" barreled rifle.

A friend using a .243w first highlighted this to us some years ago when he tested his reloads over the chronograph and found that velocity was a fair bit short of what his reloading data claimed (books and computer programme). He was shooting a Sako 75 with standard length barrel. He then went to factory ammo and found that too didn't achieve the claimed velocity in his rifle, though it did just achieve the required legal minimum velocity/muzzle energy but only barely by a small margin. As a consequence he actually considdered moving up to a 6.5x55 but in the end percevered with the .243w but being a very law abiding sort of guy or just plain wary altered his loads by careful bullet and powder selection to stay deer legal.
 
Last edited:
I have chronographed some loads but never converted the velocity to foot pounds of energy and as my stalking was usually with larger calibres, 6.5mm being the smallest of mine that I have used on deer, this has not really been an issue. I did find that the 180 Grn Sierra Pro hunter through my ZKK 601 produced velocities quite down on what was predicted so switched to the 165 grain weight and problem solved.

Using 6.5x55, .270 Win, 7x57, 308 Win, 303, normally meant that this was not an issue.
 
Quite a stretch even for the K hornet, gotta break 3000fps!

Exactly. 3000 fps is achievable with lighter bullets but I would have thought out of reach with a 50 grain bullet. However it would be interesting to know what was achieved and what was learned along the way.
 
Exactly. 3000 fps is achievable with lighter bullets but I would have thought out of reach with a 50 grain bullet. However it would be interesting to know what was achieved and what was learned along the way.

found this:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-522568.html
May 12, 2010, 01:10 PM​

"i have killed deer at 280y with Hornady 50gr SX 12.0gr of IMR4227 @ 2950FPS...aim 4" over it's back and turn vitals to jelly!!!

don't under estimate what the 22 Hornet will do with the right loads...26 years and 100's of kills under my belt.... "

(966fps at: Altitude: Sea Level (0 ft) ,Barometric Pressure: 29.92 Hg , Temperature: 59° F Relative Humidity: 50%)

imagine that with a longer barrel, higher temp, higher altitude, lower pressure............
 
I've checked my homeloads out of interest more than checking legality.

.308 with 150gn bullet, 45gn N140 = 2,600ftps
 
Back
Top