Game Loads and Practical Ballistics for the American Hunter
By Joseph D'Alessandro Editor | RealGuns.Com

I tend to not buy newly published firearm and hunting related books after scanning their pages and being familiar with author's prior work. Many of the ideas and concepts expanded into a couple of hundred pages are rehashes of everything that came before and do little to advance either of the noted subjects. In other cases, work is reduced to thinly disguised promotional product pieces and the scenarios are so mechanical that reading them is like sitting in front of a TV set and watching 48 contiguous hours of catch and release bass fishing. Subsequently, I have no problem scouting out the used books online or at garage sales, looking back a decade or two for more original, informative and entertaining work.  Game Loads and Practical Ballistic is one of those gems.

The author, Bob Hagel, was a seasoned Montana born, gunsmith, hunter, guide, and ballistician. He was also an accomplished writer, contributing editor and technical editor for a number of quality publications. My point is, the author was a guy with a lot of practical foundation to guide his work and help him relate to readers. He wasn't a writer who dabbled in firearms on his way to becoming editor for a publication on home improvement and he wasn't a guy who spent his life on manufacturers' paid hunting junkets intended to insure a positive review of products. Hagel was able to write at a level of detail that strongly suggests he knew what he was talking about, and the book jacket endorsements by Gene Hill, John Nosler and Jack O'Conner seem to reinforce that personal view.

Game loads and Practical Ballistics was published in 1978 and reprinted again in 1983 and again in 1992; a pretty good run for a hardcover gun book. The 1992 book is listed as having an additional 40 pages or so. I am not sure if this is expanded material or a change in font size and formatting. My purpose for tracking the book down was a reference the author made to a test method used to predicting bullet performance on big game, something covered between pages 244 and 245. Not knowing where the information resided before I read the book, I had to do the convention; read the book to find the information. The more I read, the more I wanted to read and it became clear, unlike most books written these days, the title of the book actually very accurately defined its contents.

This is one of the few time the terms "slow to change" and "nothing new under the sun" can be interpreted as positive. It is because almost all of the science and technological development in firearms is over a hundred years old that books such as this have a long shelf life. No, there was no reference to the new generation of short magnums, but virtually every other varmint through big game cartridge was and apparent eye appeal of a new cartridge had little to do with the author's pragmatic view of cartridge performance . There is so much detail, examination and explanation, I think it would be impossible to not gain significant knowledge of hunting bullets from reading this book. Hagel had a test, or solid logic behind every conclusion he presented and almost all ended with comparison to pulled bullets from a dead moose or elk or big bear, etc. There is also a lot of history covered that follows the evolution of the hunting bullet through what is in existence today, including cut away specimens, recovered bullets and of course external ballistics.

If there is an area that may not carry the same informational value as the rest of the books, it would be the last twenty pages where handloading practices and assembly considerations were addressed. The information was correct, detailed and considered. They just seemed out of context hanging on to the end of the book. Nothing I would have purchased the book and expected to find and not information that couldn't be found in a quality handloading manual. It's a shame Bob Hagel is no longer with us, but it's to his credit he left such a wealth of information behind.