Hunting bullets for target use

[Donkey Basher]

Standby caller - I think this is what I read

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That post is from 2009 when expanding ammunition was prohibited except for the fact the numpties forgot the Deer Act required use of expanding ammo so they had to condition its use for quarry shooting on the FACs of people who had quarry shooting as good reason.

That all got sorted out a few years back so no longer an issue.

As long as range standing orders don’t prohibit it there’s nothing to prevent its use.

 

[Jagare]

If you mainly shoot at BSRC, with a max range of 100m, then from a performance perspective, you will see absolutely no difference. Good BC bullets only come into their own when aerodynamics are critical - i.e. long ranges.

I'd keep it simple - just use one type of bullet. Only reason to not would be if the bullet you like is expensive, and you want a cheaper bullet for training at the range.

Only thing to be mindful of are range rules regarding HME and copper bullets - no restrictions on the use of expanding ammo.

Hope that helps

When I lived in England I shot at Bisley about once a month on the Short Siberia and sometimes on the BSRC range. Because we were'nt shooting a large amount of rounds I used my home loaded stalking ammo. Here If your shooting the electronic scored targets like on the running moose you must use FMJ ammo. The same when at the shooting cinema. If I was practiceing longer range shooting tthen I would be using my hunting ammo.

 

[Bowland blades]

Laws on expanding and target bullets has changed as regards the law as the expanding is no more on section 5 . However some rapidly expanding cause issues for the guys in the Butts so most clubs do not allow them
As regards hybrid bullets ??? Not sure ask the club in question i guess

 

[308tikka]

As others have said - depends on the range orders. Not really sure why there is such a fuss about different types of bullets on ranges but probably stems from days when ranges were under control of military and target ammo was military ball and soft point ammo was dastardly stuff in breach of Geneva conventions what.

But for target shooting FMJ target type bullets are substantially cheaper to run than good quality bullets. There are bullets designed to mimic the trajectory of a hunting bullet but without the costly structure of a hunting bullet. In the non - toxic world the likes of Peregrine make VLR4 as an expanding hunting bullet and the VLR5 as a target and training bullet that shoots to same point of impact and trajectory.

If you are shooting targets then chances are that you using a scope with turrets. Easy enough to zero for hunting and then record changes required for target bullets or vice versa.

Its to do with the testing and template, designed for mil ball, mainly ricochet risk. There is a lot of extra work to redraw templates. Then there is the issue of penetration into the stop butt. Some types of bullets and calibres are close to the surface and therefore pose another ricochet hazard, even though in reality the probability is low.

No such issues arise on non-stop butt ranges eg warminster - they go straight into a danger area, which is why it is one of a handful of MOD ranges where non lead ammn can be shot

 

[Kalahari]

I am fairly sure that some of the electronic type markers don't like expanding bullets. This could be a reason not to use them. Anyway if the range says only FMJ, their range their rules.

David.

 

[Rutland lad]

That post is from 2009 when expanding ammunition was prohibited except for the fact the numpties forgot the Deer Act required use of expanding ammo so they had to condition its use for quarry shooting on the FACs of people who had quarry shooting as good reason.

That all got sorted out a few years back so no longer an issue.

As long as range standing orders don’t prohibit it there’s nothing to prevent its use.

Thanks for updating me. I just recall seeing it somewhere.

 

[25 Sharps]

Depends. My understanding is that, purely from a ballistics point, target bullets will be optimised for BC, having weight distribution and shape to wring the most out of the velocity and minimise effects of wind.
Hunting bullets will focus design to have optimum effect on the target. This means a potential compromise of BC, weight distribution and thus predictability will drop off at longer ranges, particularly when the hunting bullet goes transonic (earlier than target bullet, all things being equal(weight, starting velocity)) and slower.

Accubond long range is the best of both worlds, just a little expensive for hundreds down range