What do you do with spare rounds?

tikka_madras

Well-Known Member
Just thinking about the logistics of shooting driven boar (or anything else driven really), and it occurred to me I don’t know what people do with spare rounds to have them ready to load quickly. Do you put them in a pocket, or a belt like you would with shotgun?
 
I guess it depends what you're shooting with. I've not done much driven rifle-shooting, but I used a bolt-action with a 5-round magazine, and had an open box of cartridges lying beside me on the seat of the stand. To be honest, I didn't anticipate getting through 5 rounds fast and then needing more in a hurry - and indeed I didn't. Might have done though, I suppose...

My rifle doesn't have a removable magazine.

If I were to treat the matter like shotgun shooting (as one would have to if using a double, I guess) I'd have a handful of cartridges in a handy fluff and crud-free pocket. IMO a cartridge-belt is for carrying cartridges which are used to top-up the reserve in the pocket, rather than as a rapid-access store to reload from directly.

As i say, though, that's just extrapolated from what I do with a shotgun. I'd be interested to know what more-exoperienced driven rifle-shooters would suggest!
:)
 
Refilling a magazine is time consuming and there's always the fear of not being ready when a suitable target happens along. I haven't ever done any driven shooting with a rifle, but I think I'd try starting off with a fully loaded rifle and then simply pop a round in one at a time. Assuming it's a non-detachable magazine or I haven't got more mags.

Maybe the thing to do is to get a double rifle. :thumb:
 
When using my Maral I have a 10 round mag in the Gun and 4 round magazine ready to hand (never needed 10 but a neighbour did once and got 8, ran out as the keiler arrived so I obliged), with my double express I have spare rounds in my pocket, never in a case as it takes too long to extract and reload.
 
For driven, I always carry a minimum of two mag's, or R8 trigger mags, and have spares in my pocket, plus easily accessible extras in my bag. If I shoot, even one, the mag is reloaded, or swapped, so the rifle is always fully loaded.

Most of the time, you're lucky if you shoot 1-2 shots on a drive, but I've had occasions where I've emptied both mag's, and been scrambling to reload a magazine.

Better to have too many, than run out part way through !

For a double, I found the easiest, quickest way for me, was to have one of the stock type ammunition holders (took 10 rounds), but fitted to my left arm (right handed) with the bullets spaced in pairs, gap between, plus extras in my pocket, to keep the arm holder full.

No faffing, no having to turn a round the right way around.

Some people wear an ammunition belt, just need to find what works for you.
 
Using double rifles on the couple of occasions that I've shot driven boar I had a stock mounted ammunition slide with rounds in pairs separated by a gap as Lateral describes, plus four spare cartridges in my pocket. I also had spare rounds in an ammunition carrier on my belt but that was more for convenience of carrying as to reload from the belt would probably be much slower.
Taking my .308win wasn't an option at the time but if I had used it top loading would have been sufficient to replace any rounds shot but a spare magazine for convenience would I suppose be slightly quicker, though the use of rifles with drop floorplates is quite common and doesn't seem to cause any problems.

To be absolutely honest I went initially with totally the wrong impression of driven boar hunting. I assumed it would be the same as in the Wild Boar Fever videos with herds of boar charging you much like the Zulus at Rorke's Drift and the need for twenty or more rounds immediately to hand on each stand. :oops: I would love to be in that sort of situation but in actual fact as Lateral says you rarely shoot more than 1 or 2 rounds.
 
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My driven boar in Croatia was just the same - perhaps three or four shots per drive max - but I’d hate to one day be faced with that Wild Boar Fever scenario only to find I had just a slack handful of cartridges!
 
I’ve actually just bought a Heym double - do people just have a pocketful of cartridges?

Besides stock mounted elasticated ammunition slides (very cheap), you can get other ammunition holders that either fit on your cuff/wrist or Velcro and elastic holders that retain two rounds for a quick reload either on the forearm of the rifle or on the scope.
 
I shoot a double, and probably have averaged 2-3 engagements per drive, so around 5 rounds fired. But my best ever drive was 11 rounds (and 3 boar). Where I shooting in France, the “miradors” (raised pulpit-like stands) have nowhere to put anything, and you need to be able to turn around rapidly to engage an animal.

So I have tried a variety of options for this:

- 2 rounds in each external pocket of my jacket: that gives me 10 rounds for the drive (includes the 2 loaded), and they don’t rattle much. But more than 2 rounds loose in each pocket and you WILL make a noise, and the boar WILL hear you!

- the Norma black round carriers. Slower to reload from, but you can carry 5 rounds in each pocket quietly. I usually have the rounds inserted but not fully engaged in the “detent”.

- A 9-round elasticated Tourbon canvas ammo carrier on my belt. I mount the wallet so that the “hinge” is down, and hence it opens outwards, and gives me easy access to the rounds. This is my current setup, and works really well: open the rifle, spent cases eject, right hand down to pick two new rounds, load, close rifle.

I tried the stock-mounted carriers, and found them significantly slower, since they involved (for me) twisting the rifle and moving it away from my body before I could get the new rounds and then load them. Wrist-mounted carriers look a good solution, but all these things need practice (preferably on the range): its a very expensive waste of a real drive if you discover that the ergonomics don’t work for you.
 
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2-3, 3-4 shots per drive on average ! THAT, would be a top hunt ! Even Wild Boar Fever is cut, and edited, and we just get to see the best, let alone just how good the hunters are !

A really good hunt, say 100 boar, over 4 days, 12 hunters = 25 /day, roughly 2 boar per gun, but that's a GOOD hunt.

Most will be maybe 30-50 boar, 3 days, 12 guns, taking 40 as the average, works out at a tad over 1 boar a day.

So however you look at it, 2-4 shots a drive, is bloody good, unless you're a trigger happy Rambo wanabe ;)

Worst drives, never hear, or see a boar, best drive (€125.00 Monteria) 9 boar for 14 shots, and two of those were follow ups, for humane dispatch, where my placement was poor.
 
Depends on the rifle, and also how much you want to invest in kit for occasional driven boar trips.

Spare magazine is one option, having a rifle sling or belt which holds additional rounds is another. When I went a couple of years back I just loaded one up the spout, three in the mag and then had a pocket full of loose rounds. Once I'd pinged off 2-3 shots I'd pop the mag out and refill it.

Since then I've bought a Marlin 1895 GBL in .45-70 which I would absolutely take next time. It has a side loading tube magazine which holds 6 so you can just feed more in really easily. I would absolutely get a belt which held ammo as well so the ammo was easily to hand.
 
From my experience in Germany its no way like Wild Boar fever but I love the whole experience and the hospitality from German friends the most. Shooting is the bonus bit.
A German friend of mine had the 'stand' of the two days and shot 5 boar from it.
I would put 1 up the spout and load the mag.
So 5+1 or whatever configuration you have. Spare mag is an option too.
 
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