For those who might be interested, here is a good link on military bullet wound patterns. Check out the M193 5.56mm round. Fackler is the foremost wound ballistics person in the world today.

http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Zielwirkung/military_bullet_wound_patterns.html

Been hunting for a while and no matter how good the shot, they still manage to run off. Sometimes they go on for what seems like forever.

When I harvest game, I always want get the clean shot -if possible -under ideal conditions. But this is not always the case. So I always load up the second shot as soon as possible if a second shot is needed. That is how I practise and it works for me. The idea of taking the time to get that wet patch out of a baggy and swabbing down the bore and then using a dry patch to get out the moisture and then loading the bore would be nice if the game would cooperate.

I don't want to sound harsh, just practible. Under ideal conditions I would love to swab the bore between shots. I just don't think this is a realistic idea or practise.

But this being said, it is all IMHO!

Sight in and fire atleast 2 shots without swabbing. You need to know how that barrel will react without the swabbing. You can use the biggest bullet you can find, but if its not placed right and you need a quick follow up shot, you need to know where that 2nd bullet will go with a dirty bore. Always prepair for the worse and ready yourself incase you ever get caught up in that situation.

After i take the first shot, im reloading ASAP. I always hear my brother saying, hes down! You dont need to reload! I prefer to be on the safe side and know that if i need another shot, its ready and know where it will shoot with a dirty barrel.

I agree with the last couple of posts that also want to know how the second and maybe third shot will react without a swab between. I hunt elk not deer. Elk do not go "boom flop"; or at least the last three I shot did not. I also hunt alone and do not want the big animals to wander to the bottom of the next ravine to die. I try to hit them at least twice with hopes of stopping them within 100 yards or less. The last one with two good hits and both lungs, and a partial liver hitwent at least a quarter mile and I had to head shoot her at that time to drop the animal. Sometimes they do not know they are dead. I am working on getting a White to shoot heavy conicals. I finally found one and am working on the second one just because I can't stop buying nice rifles. The White seems to be the elk answer. My Omega shoots 300gr. bullets but they are not heavy enough for me based on the last couple of results.

If the only way you can get consistent accuracy from a rifle is by swabbing between shots, I think when hunting I would still swab. Granted, there are rifles out there that shoot on a clean barrel and even on a fowled barrel close enough that it makes little or no difference. But if your rifle is not one of them, like my Knight Disc... you have a problem. I would take that few minutes of time to swab it. Give yourself time to calm down, think out your last shot and what happened, decide on your new direction of travel, note landmarks, etc as you swab and reload. For now you know the second shotshould be as accurate as the first was. As for damp patches, a simple zip lock bag with them in, is easy to carry. Snap a rubber band in the middle, one side damp, one side dry. After all it is not like you need to carry a hundred of them.

Here is my outlook on this. Let us say you shoot and do not score what might be considered a great hit. The deer/elk/woodchuck/ what ever runs off. Most hunters I grew up with used to tell me, do not chase right after them. Give them time to react to the hit. But in your case, you shove another bullet down the barrel knowing there is a chance for that load not to be as accurate as your first. So your going after a wounded animal that will be in flight mode and probably be watching for danger, your shot might be a moving shot at the animal, maybe even some distance to it. And you're not sure of your rifle's accuracy, all because you would not take a few minutes to calm down and swab the barrel? I guess I disagree.

Now if you can work up a load that shoots as well shot to shot, then by all means reload ASAP. But if your rifle is one of them that is not of that breed, you have to consider your options.

jt 6

Reading thoughtcayugad's last entry I do not know if you can get any straigter answer than he is giving you.

This statement applies to most of my guns but I still damp patch the barrel after each shot. I can tell and most good hunters can tell what kind of shot they got on an animal and when I am confident there really is no hurry - I also know if I needed to load a quick second shot without patching - I know I could and it would be very close to sight in...

Perfect statement....

Believe this one.... the only time I take a rapid quick second shot is when I may have wounded the animal and it is right there on the ground struggling - then I will quick load and finish the dispatch.

Another reason I damp patch after a shot is (and this is a no-no to a lot of people) I do not pull or shoot out a load at the end of the day. I am using T7 and it is the least corrosive of all the synthetics that I might use - so I do leave loads in from day-to-day or even a week. Another no-no - I do not strip clean the gun until the end of the season in most circumstances, unless I have subjected it to so really bad weather and even then I am not in to big of a hurry because i do have a very very light coat of gun oil in the bore to protect it from rusting either from condensation or moisture from outside.

So my general rule is I always shoot a relatively clean barrel 99% of the time just as it is when I sight it in...

just my thoughts...

As posted on another thread, my Optima likes a dirty bore. My first shot out of clean bore can go anywhere. If I don't swab for 3 or 4 shots, they are almost all touching. How fouled does a bore get by shooting off a couple primers? Does this produce any residue?

Primers produce a little fowling, but with the new primers, I doubt very much. On my rifles that like to be fowled, I load up a powder charge, then slide a couple of wads on top of that and fire it off. Then swab and load the barrel. In your case, just load the barrel.

Powerbelt booklet says to foul a barrel properly, dump 20 grains of your powder into the bore and then prime and fire it without a bullet. Then load up with your normal load and bullet and its ready.

Thanks guys...I'll give it a try. Cayugad, in getting the scoped dialed in, would you still dial it in with a clean bore?