Is your ammunition still good?

A friend of mine, an avid hunter who packs his own shells, warned me to make sure to use fresh ammunition when hunting big game. I didn't think bullets could go bad, so I never paid attention to his rambling. Bullets are tightly packed and made with precision and quality control, after all.

When you go out hunting for whitetail deer, you make sure you are prepared mentally. You check your gear to make sure you don't forget anything. You make sure all you clothes are clean and you dress in layers. You map out where you will be hunting and you tell someone where you will be hunting, in case you get lost. You are prepared, right?

How old is your ammunition? How many times have you taken these bullets out in and out of the cold? Where do you store your bullets? What brand of ammunition are you buying?

Ask this question to ten hunters and you will get eleven opinions, including yours. I know some hunters that bought the bullets they use for whitetail hunting ten and fifteen years ago. They may shoot one or two bullets a year if they get lucky and shoot a game animal. Not one of my hunting buddies ever got a dud bullet.

It happens, period. I was hunting the last Saturday of the season. I was sick as a dog with the flu and shouldn't have been there anyway. It was raining and dark was approaching. I had seen some whitetail bucks that did not offer me a shot so far this season.

So here comes mister spike horn buck stopping to stare in my direction at 40 yards. I was on the ground behind some fur trees. I raised the gun, last chance for venison at this point of the hunt, aimed and squeezed the hair trigger. Click?@#? what the @?#@. I thought I forgot to load the chamber, pulled the lever back, ejected the bad shell which fell in my lap, put another round in the chamber. Good thing it didn't blow up at that point. Mister spike horn still looking at the commotion probably waiting for another click. Yup, another dud, I couldn't believe it. I quickly reloaded aimed and fired in what seemed to be an eternity.

If this whitetail deer had been the trophy buck I had been chasing all season, I would have asked my bullet packing buddy to kick me in the what you see when a wise buck waves goodbye. Fortunately, mister spike horn became the only venison of the bucks only season of 1998.

This was my first dud bullet in twenty years of whitetail hunting. I managed to cull some nice 8 and 9 point bucks from the whitetail herd over the past ten years without the worry of duding! I use new shells every year because I use up the bullets from the last year for target practice before the season starts every year.

You can read the post on my hunting website for my version of "How to set your rifle sights". You must do this before you test your shooting skills.

Shop here for a rifle stand. Get the job done right the first time!