Re: A-Max bullets for hunting
Pete,
I enjoy and respect your contribution to this site - really great that you share your good fortune of being able to do so much hunting. We are different over here, we hunt under much more stringent quotas even tho game is very plentiful. Except on privately raised herds our game animals are owned by the people of the state, province or country. We do not shoot for resale, although much of our game is donated to family, friends or welfare agencies.
I happen to completely agree with your assesment of the 'puter hunts. I expect that most of the folks here would feel the same - personal mobility issues are very significant to hunters and I have been fortunate to meet some hunters who - with wonderful help from buddies - enjoy hunting and shooting despite almost complete paralysis. In Vegas they offer paintball hunts for near naked young women - takes all kinds and the word "hunt" should not be used in connection with either activity in my opinion. Same goes for pen hunts, we call them "Shooting Zoo's" in Sask. and believe me, we have lots of them. Don't care if they are labeled Estate Hunts or whatever, high fences elliminate the use of the word HUNTING in my mind.
We stay clear of ethics because you have yours, I have mine and we have seen way too much space wasted argueing ethics instead of sharing long range hunting info. There are sites that will argue ethics and about anything that anyone says, this is not such a place. Len and Dave invited me to be a moderator and we are pretty determined to keep the site focused on long range shooting and hunting - period. Not that we cannot share close-range hunts or tips on doing any kind of shooting and hunting better, but we are Long Range Hunting and that is it (we also are fortunate to share news of birthdays, new toys, new off-spring and other personal events - even Dave King's trials and tribulations with his favoritist mother in law!)
As for match bullets - I honestly believe if Sierra touted Matchkings as being superb hunting bullets they would lose sales of their GameKings - an dthey do not want that to happen. Truth is that they do quiet well selling both - two separate product lines. Do Matchkings, Competition Supremes, A-Max, Bergers, etc. function well as hunting bullets. At longer range - our experience has been, yes. Matter of fact I have had excellent performance at closer ranges, including inside 50 yards. My friends and I have killed about the number of game critters that you did last year, actually a bunch more ungulates but who's counting. We used a wide variety of bullets, including AMax, Matchkings, J-4 (now Competition Supremes from Nosler) and Speer match. We also used Barnes Triple Shocks, Nosler Accubond and Ballistic Tips and Hornady Interbonds. Mostly handloads but I shot some Winchester Accubonds CT's and Ballistic Silvertips in the .300 WSM on about fifteen kills.
Bottom line. They all performed well and we did not lose any critters on all the long shooting done. Although we did take animals as we could, the deer were so spooked we did most of the shooting from 500 out past 750. Every 90 degree side shot went through, including the longest shots. We recovered a few bullets from angled shots, not many since most of them also penetrated very well. Exits were usually about 1.5-2 inches. Not huge but not caliber size either.
I would suggest that you try A-Max's, there is only one way to find out how well they perform. As for suitable "hunting bullets" - sorry situation when "suits" (beaurocrats - no idea how to spell that friggin word...) get to tell hunters what they can and can't shoot at animals. There are very few bullets that drill straight though tissue and bone - I am sure you have seen how nasty the venerable .303 British FMJ could become after it hit something hard. Matter of fact I can think of a few and they are purely hunting bullets (Speer African solids for instance). You have concerns and are entitled to them, but I would sure like you to try a few "match bullets" and let us know your results. You have an extraordinary opportunity to test bullets - not everyone can hunt as much as you are so fortunate to do.
This topic could have got volatile and it isn't - when guys like Dave King, Brent, Wyo and Bounty say that Matchkings perform well, I would stuff my rifle with those controvercial HPBT's anyday. (Not sure if Len has ever killed any critters, seems he is mostly into non-consumptive hunting with those big Nikon lenses /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif and raising hell when guys post in the wrong slot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
