Big Game 
Cartridges 
Discussing Rifle 
Ammunition 
By 
BYRON E. COTTRELL 
rifle cartridges have been im- 
proved within the past year or 
two, and there has been a few fine new 
cartridges added to the list. I am go- 
ing to give here some of these improve- 
ments and their advantages or disad- 
vantages for different kinds of big 
game hunting. 
Some of our highest velocity bullets 
have shown a decided tendency to open 
up too quickly when hitting big game, 
not giving the desired penetration— 
especially if the game shot was a little 
too large for the cartridge anyway. 
This has had two effects. First: It 
has caused many of our leading rifle- 
men and best hunters to denounce as 
unreliable the modern high velocity bul- 
let for large game, and to design effi- 
cient heavy bullet cartridges for such 
game. Second: It has brought about 
a great improvement in the high speed 
bullets. The result is we have some 
mighty fine cartridges in both classes 
to choose from. Some loads are better 
adapted to certain conditions than oth- 
ers, and vice-versa. 
The average big game hunter who is 
no rifle crank will need to take extra 
precaution to get the ammunition best 
suited to his needs. If he uses any of 
the new loadings—and he is almost 
sure to do so whether he knows it or 
not, as there is not much else on the 
market—he should shoot not less than 
a box to verify the sighting of his rifle, 
and if he has the time and place he 
had better shoot a hundred at different 
P rite carts all our popular 
distances so as to become perfectly fa- 
miliar with the trajectory of these new 
loads. Most of them shoot entirely dif- 
ferent from what the old ones did. 
Some few rifles will shoot the new load- 
ings to the same point blank sight ad- 
Page 653 

A band of Yellowstone elk 
justment as did the old standard loads, 
but most of them will not. Just the 
other day I picked up a .30-.30 carbine 
sighted to shoot where held at 75 yards 
with the old loading (.170 gr. bullet at 
2,000 f. s. vel.), but when used with 
the 150 gr. bullet at over 2,300 f. s. vel. 
it shot nearly one and a half feet high 
at this distance—enough to miss the 
largest game that should be shot with 
this rifle. Last fall I saw a fine Sauer 
Mauser .30-’06 shoot nearly two feet 
high at 50 yards when loaded with 
150 gr. bullets, but when using the 220 
gr. it shot where it was held. An old 
.303 Savage that had always been used 
with the old style cartridge loaded with 
nitro-glycerin powder, and had always 
done fine work shot not less than two 
feet low at one hundred yards when 
used with new ammunition loaded with 
a progressive nitro-cellulose powder. 
The owner didn’t know what was the 
trouble and was “cussing” the ammuni- 
tion up one side and down the other. 
OU will find it a wise plan to try 
out the sighting of your rifle be- 
fore taking it hunting, and use the 
same lot of ammunition that you will 
use for hunting. You may think that 
it shot all right last year and that it 
will do the same this—maybe it will— 
and maybe it will not. 
The new loadings may be divided 
into two general classes: first the high 
speed loads, those with lighter bullets, 
at greatly increased velocities, and sec- 
ond, what we will call high power loads, 
or those with regular weight bullets 
driven at an increased velocity. This 
increase is generally about 200 f. s. 
The high speed loads for the .25-.35, 
.30-.30, .32 Spl., and .85 Rem. give ve- 
locities from 2,350 f. s. up to 2,700 f. s. 
At these velocities the bullets mush- 
room much quicker and larger when 
they hit game, and make a larger hole 
than the old loading, this naturally 
uses up the energy quicker and they do 
not penetrate as deep. They very sel- 
dom glance and are therefore the saf- 
est loads to use in settled districts for 
shooting ’chucks, etc. 
“THEY should be shot so that they 
will hit the ground within two or 
three hundred yards, as when they get 
up too much they will glance. For the 
size of game for which these cartridges 
are adapted they are very deadly, as a 
rule killing quicker than the old load— 
especially on broad side shots. They 
are not adapted to any larger game 
than were the original loads. The tra- 
jectories for the first two or three hun- 
dred yards are very low, and they have 
a considerably longer useful hunting 
range. They are fine for open country 
where shots are often taken at long 
range, by long range I mean two or 
three hundred yards. 
For shooting through thick brush the 
high-speed bullet is not as good as the 
heavier bullet, it would naturally mush- 
room and turn from its course much 
easier. We read a lot lately about bul- 
lets shooting through the brush—or not 
shooting through it. I hold that this 
is not of as much importance as is 
generally claimed. As a rule when 
shooting at deer, or other big game, 
through heavy brush the failure to hit 
is not so much because of deflected bul- 
lets as it is because of the impossibility 
to see the game plainly enough to get 
a good bead on it. It sounds good to 
tell the other fellow that you held right 
but the brush turned your bullet. I 
(Continued on page 688) 
