Customer Reviews

The Hunter's Guide to Ballistics: Practical Advice on How to Choose Guns and Loads, and Use them Effectively

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A good general text on the use of rifles with a couple of short chapters on the shotgun. It really does not address the use of handguns. Mr. van Zwoll is a good writer and an experienced shooter.

He does not provide specific formulae for doing your own ballastics calculations, but he does provide useful guidelines for choosing guns appropriate to various tasks. I respect van Zwoll's advice because it has been borne out in my own experience. He is not a rabid fan of magnum cartridges, but he does appreciate what they can do. He is realistic in his assessment of the needs of real hunters who (like me) are not professionals and cannot spent weeks every year practicing 500 yard shots.

Unfortunately this text was written just as the new "short magnums" were coming on the market. So only the first of the new high powered short catridges are delt with here. But all of the old favorites are. There is also a good history of firearms and their ballistic capabilities going all the way back to the era of the bow and arrow. Overall, this is another contribution to good gun literature. Much of what this book contains will be familiar to anyone who has read other gun books. But van Zwoll does it better than most.

The Hunter's Guide to Ballistics: Practical Advice on How to Choose Guns and Loads, and Use them Effectively Each size group of popular cartridges is covered in a separate chapter, and the pros and cons of most popular cartridges in each category is discussed. A good buyer's and user's guide. Different writers have different viewpoints, and may make different choices based on their viewpoint, but if you read this book you will make a good choice for you, and you won't go wrong.

This was a pretty technical review of ballistics. If you're interested in a quick read with immediate results, this one's not for you. It was definately written with the long range shooter in mind.

Of all the hunting books I've collected this is one of my favorites and a great read. There is history, but also what to use for what game. I even bought my first chronograph after reading this book so I could test my bullet speed. If you are a hunter the section on zeroing in your gun (i.e. how far you want the bullet to fall if you shoot further than your zero point where the gun is right on) is important. Overall a knowledge of ballistics will help not only your hunting skills, but your enjoyment of hunting. Check out The ABC's of Reloading too.