Wild Sustenance at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch
View of the Rocky Mountain Front from the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. PC: Boone & Crockett Club
Nestled along Dupuyer Creek on the East Front of the Rocky Mountains lies the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, owned and operated by the Boone and Crockett Club. The mission of the ranch, known as the TRM Ranch, is research, teaching, and demonstration of integrated livestock/wildlife conservation that is integral to the economic viability of private and adjacent public lands. Additionally, the Boone and Crockett Club conducts habitat research and demonstrates innovative land management practices, as well as conservation education programs.
This was the site of Outreach Coordinator, Hannah’s recent shooting demonstration for the University of Montana’s Wild Sustenance course. Wild Sustenance focuses on inclusivity, reaching out to students from a wide diversity of university majors. Modules will remove barriers for new hunters by featuring guest lectures from prominent conservationists and scholars, video clips and other content. Topics featured in modules will include the basics of hunting, hunter ethics, hunting’s role in conservation, firearms safety, processing and cooking game, and motivations and fears related to hunting and hunting regulations.
Students learn how to shoot various firearms including rifles and shotguns.
Hannah was invited to present to the class of 2022 as both an alumni of this program as well as a professional in this space. Most of the students are extremely new to hunting and the different issues and topics within it. So, Hannah started the demonstration with a brief presentation to the course participants in the Ranch lodge.
After giving the participants the background information on ammunition, its impacts on wildlife, and what Sporting Lead-Free does, it was time to hit the range and see bullet performance first-hand.
The students traveled down a bumpy dirt road, adjacent to other ranches, passing by mule deer and across cattle guards to reach the shooting range. At the range, Hannah went through general firearms safety and explained how the demonstration would work. First, a participant would shoot a lead bullet into the water barrel, and then they would shoot a lead-free copper bullet into the second water barrel.
Dan, a field instructor for this course, was eager to see how his hand loaded 6.5 PRC 143 grain Hornady ELD-X bullets (a lead bullet) would perform, claiming they wouldn’t fragment. He fired that bullet into the first water barrel and then loaded a 6.5 Creedmoor 120 grain Barnes TTSX (a copper bullet) and took aim at the second barrel.
Once the firing line was declared clear and safe, the participants walked out to the barrels to see how each bullet fragmented (or not). To Dan’s demise, his lead bullet had in fact fragmented. Participants observed the hundreds of lead fragments in the first barrel and then were amazed to only find a whole copper bullet, beautifully mushroomed in the second barrel. Hannah walked through the explanation of how lead bullets fragment upon impact and how these small fragments are so lethal to scavenging birds. Hannah took the spent bullets from each water tank and weighed them to see how much mass was lost. The 143 grain lead bullet weighed in at 66.72 grains (a loss of 76.28 grains, or about 53% of its weight). The 120 grain copper bullet weighed in at 117.44 grains (a loss of 2.56 grains, or about 2% of its weight).
Spent lead bullet. Original bullet weight 143gr.
Spent copper bullet. Original bullet weight 120gr.
Next, it was time to shoot the ballistic gels.
Dan again took to the bench, curious to see what the 6.5 PRC bullet would do in the gel. One gel was shot with the 6.5 PRC lead bullet and the next with the 6.5 Creedmoor copper bullet.
The 18” gel caught the entire 6.5 PRC bullet (no exit) and showed how the bullet fragmented all along the wound channel path. The 6.5 Creedmoor copper bullet went all the way through the 18” gel and was eventually stopped by the second water jug that was set up behind it. Both of the gels gave the participants a better understanding of ballistics and how bullets travel through animals and why choosing lead-free is so important.
Ballistic gel shot with 6.5 PRC lead bullet.
Ballistic gel shot with 6.5 Creedmoor copper bullet