Hunt Preparation Starts Now!

Cabelas Canada just got their order of Hodgdon powder in if any Canucks are looking.

If any Canadians are short on primers for an upcoming hunt I may be able to help you out. I still have lots from the last shortage and will be more than happy to send some your way if I have your brand.

I went a little overboard during the last shortage and now have enough to last me a lifetime.

I might be able to help someone out if anyone is looking for Retumbo or Reloader 25 powder as well. I have quite a bit of that as well.

Johnny7604 said:

If any Canadians are short on primers for an upcoming hunt I may be able to help you out. I still have lots from the last shortage and will be more than happy to send some your way if I have your brand.

I went a little overboard during the last shortage and now have enough to last me a lifetime.

I might be able to help someone out if anyone is looking for Retumbo or Reloader 25 powder as well. I have quite a bit of that as well.

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Thanks for the offer.

BRICKBURN said:

Thanks for the offer.

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and the heads up too. I wonder if any will make it 3 weeks till my next days off?

Been trying to find Reloader 22 for a while. I have over 120 lbs of powder, but no Re22!

No problem. The offer stands. Not trying to sell any of it. I will gladly give it away if someone is in need.

I am also keeping a very close eye on a few distributors I know. There is a big shipment coming into Canada right now. I will post here when I see any of them receive their orders.

Diamondhitch if you let me know what you looking for I'll keep an eye out for it.

Johnny7604 said:

No problem. The offer stands. Not trying to sell any of it. I will gladly give it away if someone is in need.
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Quit being so damn Canadian.

BRICKBURN said:

Quit being so damn Canadian.

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Just trying to reinforce the stereotype.

P.S. Bashaw Sports has Hodgdon powder if anyone is within driving distance. They don't ship which helps them keep some around. Unfortunately no 4831sc though. Also no RL-22 I just checked...sorry Tarbe.

Johnny7604 said:

Just trying to reinforce the stereotype.

P.S. Bashaw Sports has Hodgdon powder if anyone is within driving distance. They don't ship which helps them keep some around. Unfortunately no 4831sc though. Also no RL-22 I just checked...sorry Tarbe.

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Bashaw sports is awesome, for such a small store they are my go to store for hard to get stuff. Way better than no sale sports.

The wife is going into the city Saturday. I will get her to stop at Cabelas for me but thanks for the offer,

You're the man, Johnny!

GREAT to see the comaradarie here!

I know I'm in the US, but I do have a whole bunch of .375 bullets - lots of Speer Seconds I bought an AGE ago. If you can figure out how to import them, I'm happy to ship them for the cause.

Update on the load development for the geeks among us....

I have been working with the Barnes 180gr TTSX lately. I am having better luck getting it to shoot well vs the 220gr Partition, and I have confidence in the TTSX based on admittedly limited personal experience on game, but widespread rave reviews from many other hunters with much greater experience than I.

My latest testing was conducted this past Friday, at 50-55F temps (should be similar to what I will have in the EC during the second half of May).

Due to the long throat on this rifle, my loads are not acceptable for a standard 300 H&H, so rather than risk someone reading the powder charge and blindly trying it, I'll just say I am about a grain shy of 100% loading density with IMR 7828, when the OAL is at 3.86".

Three groups were: 0.72", 0.93" and 1.24" (must have been me?). Average instrumental velocity at 15 feet was exactly 3,100 fps from a 26" barrel. If the chronograph did not have a counter, I would have thought it was broken....I had three rounds in a row with the same velocity and the fourth was 3 fps off from the previous three! In 36 years of using this chronograph I have never had that happen! Something about a case full of slow burning powder? Of course, every charge was trickled up to weight.

I prepped 50 new Hornady cases and loaded them with a fireform load of 64 grains of IMR 4831 and am in the process of shooting them up. These fireformed cases will get the royal treatment, and then get loaded up for our adventure with the same load of 7828 and 180 TTSX mentioned above.

With the controlled testing mostly done, shooting will henceforth be conducted primarily off the Trigger Stix. I hope to put at least 200 more rounds down range with this 30 Super between now and wheels-up.

No excuses. If a shot gets muffed, it is going to be all on me!

Got a little taste of humble pie today at the range.

Sticks at 200 yards in a strong (for Houston) breeze of 20mph.

12 of 20 are on the paster (there is one at 6 o'clock that I cut off in the pic). 8 more wandered off the paster, from 1 to 3 inches out onto the backing board (don't you hate it when they do that?).

Most of the shots that were more than 3 inches from center I knew it when the shot went off. A couple that I thought were good, weren't!

I kinda knew 200 yards on sticks would be pressing my luck, and at my current state of practice, I would have to be either feeling really good or shooting at a large target to feel good about 200.

Got some work to do....



I think I am going to stick with shooting off the sticks at 200 for the most part though. Right now, I don't want to be shooting at 200 if I can get closer.

3 more months to practice at 200 on the sticks.

If you can get someone to go to the range with you have they hold your elbow to steady you. The PH can certainly do that and it will certainly help your confidence now. You know it is all about confidence. And that wind blowing your body sure didn't help either!

I don't think there is anything wrong with that shooting!

That target doesn't look too bad for off of sticks and 200 yards.

I have 3 months to go also and I have never shot off of sticks or even a tripod and with my snow conditions at my rifle range I'll need to wait until next month to get out and start shooting. Right now I am passing my time reloading rounds for my .340 Weatherby to take on my hunt.

Cowtown guy said:

I have 37 days until my trip. I was practicing on home made sticks the other day at the silhouette range. For the life of me I couldn't hit the 200 meter chickens with my No1 in 375 H&H. I did however knock down 2 pigs out of 3 at 300 meters. My sticks were bamboo and very flimsy. I have since made some from hemlock that seem very stable. Unfortunately I have no more ammo to shoot due to the shortages up here finding bullets and powder. I'm going to continue to shoot smaller rifles that I do have ammo for with the same power scope.
You fellas in the US have no idea the issues we have finding components. I buy primers by at least 1000 at a time and typically am out before I actually see them again. Powder??? Ya right. Bullets are worse.

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Question to the Canadian hunters posts. I am not familiar with Canadian gun laws. What is the deal about acquiring reloading components? Why such a problem?

At 200 yards you are cutting meat real well with those shots. Looking good to me!

sierraone said:

Question to the Canadian hunters posts. I am not familiar with Canadian gun laws. What is the deal about acquiring reloading components? Why such a problem?

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We have a huge powder shortage. I have not seen a lb of Retumbo or Vit N570 for 2 years now. Until recently even more common powders were nearly impossible to get, lately some small shipments of common powders have been getting through but it is still spotty.

Other components were not really affected.

sierraone said:

Question to the Canadian hunters posts. I am not familiar with Canadian gun laws. What is the deal about acquiring reloading components? Why such a problem?

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Because 85-90% of the shooting/reloading population of North America resides in the US. Supply and demand. The US shooting community gets their fill first. We get what's left. Couple that with the fact that folks down south start hoarding whenever a Democrat says anything about gun control and we get the shaft up here.
It is a pretty decent community of shooters here though. Lots of guys are good about letting others know when powder shipments come in and are diligent about sharing the information. The only problem with that is a store may get in 400 pounds of various powders and it is gone in 3 days here in Calgary. And that's after they put a 2lb restriction in most places.
Worse yet are Federal primers. I buy them 1000 at a time whether I need them or not. If I don't need them I will know of someone who does. 215M are almost impossible in Calgary to find.

Derek if you need Retumbo I may have a line on some. I'm not using it anymore and I think Glenn that you met at the show lets me know when he gets powder in before anyone else gets their mitts on it. Keep me in the loop and I'll let him know what you are after.