Childs Play Outdoors Podcast

Hunting season has always been one of my favorite times of year, and for me the preparation is a huge part of the enjoyment. Every fall I go through the same ritual: open the safe, decide which rifles are going to make this year's rotation, choose the bullets and loads for each one, build the ammunition, confirm zeros, and make sure every rifle is completely trustworthy before I ever take it hunting.

In this episode, I talk through this year's rifle battery and some of the reasons behind the choices, but the conversation eventually becomes about something bigger. Hunting has changed for me as I've gotten older. The kill itself isn't what drives me the way it once did. These days, the journey—the preparation, the rifles, time outdoors, camaraderie, watching wildlife, and simply being part of the season—means more to me than the destination.

And after all the rifles are loaded, checked, and ready, I get to one of my favorite moments of the entire year: opening the safe before a hunt, looking at those rifles, and asking, "Which one of you wants to come with me today?"

When someone asks what cartridge they need for deer, elk, moose, or another big-game animal, the conversation usually starts with horsepower. I think that starts the decision in the wrong place.

For me, the cartridge is the delivery system. The bullet is what actually does the work.

In this episode, I work through the way I choose a hunting cartridge from the bullet backward. I talk about the wound cavity I want, penetration, bullet construction, impact velocity, ballistic coefficient, maximum realistic shooting distance, and why I generally prefer the smallest cartridge that will still deliver the bullet at the velocity I need.

I also get into why recoil matters beyond comfort, why seeing your own impact is so valuable, what competition shooting has taught me about staying in the scope, and why modern bullets have changed the amount of cartridge we really need for many hunting situations.

This is one of my voice-note episodes, so I'm thinking through the subject in real time. Some of the specific numbers are intentionally left loose here; when this becomes a written article, I'll go back and lock down the technical details. Pasted markdown

• Why I start with the bullet instead of the cartridge
• Wound cavity and penetration
• Bullet construction and terminal performance
• Impact velocity as a cartridge-selection tool
• How maximum hunting distance changes the answer
• Why I prefer lower-recoiling cartridges
• Spotting impacts and making fast follow-up shots
• Hunting with cartridges such as the .223, 6 ARC, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6.5 PRC
• What five elk taken with a 130-grain AccuBond from a 6.5 Creedmoor taught me
• Why modern bullets have changed the old "more horsepower is better" calculation Pasted markdown

What actually matters when you're reloading precision rifle ammunition—and how do you know?

In the first episode of the Child's Play Outdoors podcast, I work through how my reloading process has changed over the years and why I've stopped assuming that every measurable improvement produces a meaningful result.

We get into case sizing, neck tension, annealing, concentricity and runout, powder charges, seating depth, expensive dies, sample sizes, and quite a few things I've done simply because I thought they mattered. Some survived testing. Some didn't. And there are still others I'm not convinced about either way.

This isn't a list of steps you should copy. It's a look at how I try to separate what actually matters from what we only think matters—and why I'm perfectly willing to change my mind when the evidence says I should.

Read more from Child's Play Outdoors at https://childsplayoutdoors.com

Question everything. Understand why.