Got some direct experience with .264 Hammer Hunters:
124's going 3030 out of my Creedmoor (20" 1:8")
131's going 3250-ish out of my buddy's PRC (24" 1:7")
Both have performed admirably and taken lots of deer and antelope in their short tenure. Mostly DRT. Anticipate lead-like terminal...
Same here. Running a light bivy as a groundsheet inside a floorless shelter and I'll crawl into it when conditions become excessively buggy, dusty, or cold.
Additional benefits are that it enables you to spike out or pitch a faster camp on multi-day pack-ins/outs.
Awesome tool but I’d generally recommend avoiding freezing until you’re cut & wrapped.
I’ve heard freezing meat on bone within a day or two of harvest can create “freezer rigor” and j know for a fact that thawing & re-freezing can do enough damage on a cellular level to change texture and...
I use pork back fat for most applications. It’s flavor-neutral, and lends a good texture. Maybe 20% of the time I’ll do a batch with really good beef suet that makes for really great burger - specifically hamburgers. It’s unctuous and extra beefy.
For either I shoot for about 15% fat by weight...
I definitely agree that rinsing meat is problematic, but one thing I’ve noticed is that contaminants can be removed a whole lot more easily when the muscle is whole - exposed end-grain seems to wick liquids into the tissue and absorb off flavors / increase water content and odds of spoilage...
I’ve been incorporating some of the ATG system into most of my days and really enjoy the results.
For the skeptics, this is really just about going back and introducing healthy ROM before applying weight/additional stress - particularly to parts of the body that traditional training neglects...
I was also going to mention badlands bullets, but forest beat me to the punch. I’m currently waiting for some time to load them up and my understanding is that they pressure up a bit sooner and that the terminal ballistics will be more similar to Barnes, but the BC’s are wild, and quite frankly...