Thread: I love my Rossi .357 levergun, but I don't shoot well with it.

I loaded subsonics for .308. I found they were accurate enough, but of course nothing I tried expanded even slightly. Then I got sick of toting around a rifle with a big ugly suppressor and a scope. So now I'm happy to just shoot the slower cartridge in a naked rifle that looks and handles like a real old-fashioned rifle. I wear ear plugs or muffs if I have time to put them on, but if I don't then so be it. I might get another suppressor for a subsonic centrefire rig, but I'm not in a hurry. I generally don't shoot more meat than I can use, so having to wear earplugs occasionally isn't a big hassle. Plus if I need to be really quiet I have a .22 with a moderator.

While bullet expansion is a good thing, plenty of game has been shot with bullets that don't expand. I'm thinking in particular of all the military mk vii .303 ammo that my family and friends used for many years. I consider my .357 projectiles to be 'pre-expanded'... and a .44 or .45 caliber is even better. A head or spine shot is very decisive whether or not the bullet involved expands. I seldom go for head shots nowadays, unless the range is comparatively short. I've shot a good number of pigs and goats with a .22 (and I realise I am likely to attract a lot of advice about this, but that is just how we did it in the particular circumstances we had). I quickly realised that head shots should really be thought of as 'brain shots' and that brains are relatively small. By comparison, lungs are quite big and I found that a .22 bullet placed frontally into the chest, or from behind a front leg worked very well. And although I never want to experience it directly, it seems that a lung shot is sometimes a more peaceful death for some game... they often just take a few steps then lay down. Dang, I don't always get this graphic... I hope I don't offend anyone. I suppose a man could splash out and buy some of the fancy expanding subsonic projectiles that seem to be getting a lot of attention nowadays.

Homekill does really require a head shot though.