Handloader 2014-08-09

.
338 Lapua Magnum Loads
Scroungers
Guide to
Loading
Semiautos
Cast Bullet
Loads for the
.308 Winchester
August 2014
No. 291
Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

$5.99
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Loads for the Factory .17s!

7
25274 01240
$5.99 U.S./Canada
Display until 9/13/14
Printed in USA
August 2014
Volume 49, Number 4
ISSN 0017-7393
Issue No. 291
AMMUN
AMMUNIT
ITIION REL
RELOOADING JOUR
JOURNNAL
Bears
Reloaders Press -
22
Dave Scovill
.41 Short
Rimfire
34
The Subtleties
of Tiny-Tipped
Varmint Cartridges
Cartridge Board Gil Sengel
Page 26 . . .
26
Loading the Three

Factory .17s
Case
Trimming
and Other
Onerous
Chores
John Barsness
Pistol Pointers Charles E. Petty
12
.35 Whelen
Bullets & Brass -
30
Brian Pearce
16
Black-Powder
Fouling
Mikes Shootin Shack Mike Venturino
18
Page 30 . . .
Olde
Eynsford
Black
Powder
Propellant
Profiles R.H.
VanDenburg, Jr.
Page 40 . . .
40
Mauser 6.5mm,
7mm and 8mm
Loads for Three
Military Mainstays
Traditional
.45 Colt Loads
Mike Venturino
From the Hip -
46
Brian Pearce
.338 Lapua
Magnum
Tips and HighPerformance
Handloads
Brian
Pearce
Page 46 . . .
Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer
Handloader 291
On the cover . . .
This Remington Model 700 .17 Remington Fireball wears a Swarovski variable power
scope; the cartridge lineup includes, from left: .17 Hornet, . 17 Remington Fireball,
.17 Remington. Photos by John Barsness. Coyote photo by Vic Schendel.
64
Brass
Grippers
Issue No. 291
August 2014
Product Tests Staff
AMMUN
AMMUNIT
ITIION REL
RELOOADING JO
JOUR
URNNAL
74
Why Cartridges
Fail
In Range Terry Wieland
52
Cast Bullet
Loads in the
.308 Winchester
Page 52 . . .
Contributing Editors
John Haviland
Ron Spomer
Brian Pearce
Stan Trzoniec
Charles E. Petty
R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
Clair Rees
Mike Venturino
Gil Sengel
Ken Waters
Terry Wieland
Shooting for Cheap

John Haviland
58
Publisher/President Don Polacek

Publishing Consultant Mark Harris
Editor in Chief Dave Scovill
Associate Editor Lee J. Hoots
Managing Editor Roberta Scovill
Senior Art Director Gerald Hudson
Production Director Becky Pinkley
A Scroungers
Guide to
Loading
Semiautomatics
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Desperate Times,
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Terry Wieland
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Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer
Handloader 291
BEARS
RELOADERS PRESS
or whatever reason(s), a number of readers seem to be fascinated with the debate about what
handgun(s) might be suitable for
protection from marauding bears
black, grizzly or brown, take your
pick. So it wasnt much of a surprise that John Havilands feature
in Handloader No. 288, .357 Magnum Heavy Bullets Testing Loads
for Bear Country, caused some
folks to come unglued, mostly declaring that the .357 Magnum does
not have sufficient power to put a
charging bear down. No reason
was given regarding the so-called
puny nature of the .357 with heavy
bullets, and no evidence was offered to back up the conclusion
it just wasnt and isnt suitable for
smacking a nasty bear. (See Elmer
Keiths remarks on page 279 of
Sixguns by Keith regarding Doug
Wessons successful application of
the .357 Magnum on moose, elk
and grizzly.)
Never mind that John went to
by Dave Scovill
the trouble of conducting penetration tests in wet newsprint that,
based on my tests with rifles and
handguns over the years in the
same medium, demonstrates more
than enough power to penetrate
the brain pan of your average bear.
For example, 14 to 16 inches is
about average for a 150-grain bullet fired from a .30-06 at 100 yards,
so where critics had not conducted
tests to back up their opinion, they
chose to prosecute the messenger.
Some suggested a .44 Magnum is
the bare no pun intended minimum for dealing with truculent
bears of any ilk. Others included
recommendations for pepper spray,
along with a .44-caliber and larger
handgun(s). Not that some of the
remarks werent well intended, but
it was reasonably apparent that
none of those folks had ever been
the victim of a bear attack. They
had lots of advice, some of which
came from the local fish and game
folks who obviously dont want
An average grizzly skull is shown with

a Smith & Wesson Mountain Gun for
comparison.
anyone indiscriminately shooting

up their bears. While I dont mind
reading and responding to critics,
Im amazed sometimes when folks
go on a nit-picking rant, ignoring
the fact that John and son Thomas
have spent the vast majority of
their lives living, working and hunting in close proximity to bears.
None of the above, or what follows, should be construed to mean
that folks without first-hand experience arent entitled to an opinion,
but some remarks were uncalled
for, e.g., Havilands recommendation for the .357 Magnum could
get someone killed.
First, John was not recommending the .357 but simply describing
his efforts to develop heavy loads
in an effort to increase sectional
density of the bullet and improve
penetration over lighter bullets,
including a discussion of powders
and bullet designs that might be
suitable. Of course, the instigation
for the piece was Thomas encounter with a grizzly, but no one
suggested the .357 was ideal or
even recommended. It was what
Thomas had, so he used it, much
as anyone might do, rather than
www.handloadermagazine.com
Handloader 291
buy a .44 or .45, end up carrying

it for 40 years and never see another bear, let alone one that might
get feisty.
There is also the obvious fact
that some folks are not comfortable with larger handguns that
usually go along with the bigger
calibers and the recoil they generate with full-house loads. By inference, some critics apparently
believe that folks who dont care
for a .44 Magnum, or something
more powerful, or cant afford one,
should be denied access to the

forest. Thats the same ruse the
U.S. Forest Service and BLM uses
when they cut off access to back
roads, effectively denying disabled and/or older folks access to
the backcountry that younger and
more fit hunters and/or hikers are
free to roam around in. Since when
did hunting, or self-defense, become an Olympic event, where
only medal contenders need apply?
Some folks even recommend (demand) that anyone who might like
to carry a firearm in the woods for

protection should be required to
take a safety course and/or a test
to obtain a handgun license. Thats
another ruse used by the anti-gun
crowd.
Drawing from the grizzly encounter, critics failed to acknowledge that Thomas had enough
presence of mind to take a photo
of the bear, although more than
one reader pointed out that there
was another animal, or something,
in the photo that Thomas was not
Grip-N-Pull
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August-September 2014
aware of. Good grief, critics get on

a roll and the next thing we know,
they offer additional condemnation based on something that isnt
there.
When I was growing up in the
forests of Oregon, we called those
aberrations bear stumps, or in this
case possibly cub bear stumps.
They get bigger and blacker in proportion to the distance from the
nearest road and light availability, becoming shadowy flesh-eating monsters when hiking crosscountry after sunset with the aid
of flashlight or, worse, a full moon.
Neither am I taking sides on this
issue of handguns. For the most
part, Im not all that impressed
with handguns of any caliber to
deal with bears, mostly because
experience has taught me that in
the case of serious attacks, where
folks inadvertently wander within
a few yards of a bear that goes
unnoticed until its too late, the
amount of time it takes to draw a
handgun from a holster and aim
is longer than it takes the bear
to travel several yards. At the age
of 19, I stepped on a sow bear
that was lying under a deadfall
with her cub. She reacted immediately by swatting me across the
back, whereupon I bounced off a
tree and outran the bear for 30
yards or so, when she gave up and
went back to the bawling cub. In
those days, during the early summer following the recent track
season at Oregon, I could run 100
yards in a tick less than 10 seconds,
and the bear continued to gain
ground, literally breathing on my
boot heels, until the cub drew her
off. Nowadays, rapidly approaching 70 years of age, I might have
trouble getting out of my own way,
let alone walking upright from the
bedroom to the kitchen to start a
pot of coffee, but 50+ years of living and working in the backcountry suggests my mother was right:
Folks who know the least yell
the loudest. She was referring to
politicians, but the sentiment fits
here too.
A friend who was a big-game outfitter in Montana was also jumped
10
A Winchester Model 94 .30 WCF (left)

generates about 1,900 foot-pounds
(ft-lbs) of muzzle energy compared to
a .44 Magnum carbine (right) that rates
1,650 ft-lbs with a 240-grain bullet. A
similar load in a .44 Magnum revolver
develops 775-ft-lbs or so and not much
more with 275- and 300-grain bullets.
by a black bear that knocked him

down. While the bear was attempting to bite his face and neck, he
managed to get his Smith & Wesson .41 Magnum out of the holster,
push the barrel into the bears
chest and pull the trigger several times. It figures that most
of us would not have the physical
strength to wrestle with the bear
while attempting to get to the gun
or pepper spray. My friends bout
with a black bear and my own
Handloader 291
demonstrate that even if you have

a firearm of some sort, you may
not have the chance to use it unless you are aware and the gun or
pepper spray is preemptively in
your hand, vice tucked away somewhere out of immediate reach. A
friend nearly tore his fingernails
off looking for additional ammunition in his vest after a brown bear
materialized a few yards across
a creek and absorbed two rounds
from his .458 Lott as if they were
a minor annoyance.
For those who might want to
carry a handgun of whatever caliber, theres a 50/50 chance they

are not fast enough to get it into
action given that according to the
speedometer in my 1969 Chevrolet truck, a bear can travel up to 30
miles per hour; thats 44 feet per
second. At that rate, the bear
makes 11 feet in .25 second, which
is faster than most humans can
jerk a handgun from a holster and
pull the trigger. If the bear starts
the attack at 22 feet (One critic
cited 25 feet as the hypothetical
starting line for an bear attack.),
Buffalo Bore specializes in heavy sixgun loads, shown here with Smith & Wesson
.45 Colt (left) and .44 Magnum (right) Mountain Guns. Loads shown feature 250grain hard cast bullets for the .45 Colt and .44 Smith & Wesson Special, both at
1,000 fps. Both sixguns feature Herrett stocks.
you have .5 second to shoot it

squarely between the eyes or shoot
it in the face with pepper spray. In
either case, if you miss or are a bit
slow, its hand-to-claw combat
thereafter.
While I can draw and shoot random targets at relatively close
range with a .44 Magnum in a bit
less than .25 second, the whole
idea of using a handgun against an
irate bear seems a bit convoluted,
mostly owing the fact that bears
are capable of such blazing speed
over short distances. Given .25
second to respond, assuming the
bear is within seven steps or so, a
big-bore, lever-action carbine is
easier to hit with, much more
powerful and, for the first shot at
least, a bit faster. Better yet, you
dont have to draw a rifle, it is, or
should be, already in your hands,
as opposed to being carried with a
sling over the shoulder.
Of course, a rifle or carbine is a
bit more conspicuous to be carry(Continued on page 70)
11
.35 WHELEN
BULLETS & BRASS
: I thoroughly enjoyed your

article Handloading the .35
Whelen in Handloader No. 289
(April 2014). Having used the Whelen since 1979 in a custom Winchester pre-64 Model 70, I found
several of your loads right on the
money. I was also intrigued with
some of the new powder and bullet combinations you developed,
which I have not seen published
before.
My question has to do with Varget powder. Using 61.0 grains, you
reached 2,727 fps using the Nosler
225-grain Partition bullet. Is it possible for me to use that same powder charge but with the Barnes
225-grain Triple-Shock X-Bullet?
And last, I loved your lead photo
by Brian Pearce
for that article. You may not be
able to say, but where was it taken?
Keep up the great job. I always
look forward to your very informative articles, especially those on
lever-action rifles and sixguns.
T.G., Ottawa KS
A: Yes, you can use the same powder charge, but be certain to begin at least 7 percent below that
charge (56.7 grains) and work up
carefully to the 61.0-grain charge,
while watching for signs of excess pressure. Depending on how
your rifle was chambered and
rifled, especially since it was built
when the .35 Whelen was still
a wildcat and without industry
standard specifications, it may
Hodgdon Varget is an excellent powder

for handloading the .35 Whelen with
Barnes 225-grain Triple-Shock X-Bullets.
produce pressures differently than

production rifles.
The lead photo you mention was
taken on the Idaho side of the
Idaho/Montana Continental Divide, north of Salmon. Thanks for
your letter, and I hope this information helps.
.45-70 PRIMERS
Q: Recently I started to reload
cases from Buffalo Bore Ammunition that were once-fired and headstamped LEVERGUN 45-70 MAG.
After full-length sizing and expanding case mouths, I started to
seat primers, only to realize they
had a small primer pocket. This
really threw me a curve. First, I
have no handload data for cases
with a small primer, and neither
do I know which primer to use.
Can you tell me why Buffalo Bore
uses the small primer, and can you
offer load data? I would like to duplicate the Buffalo Bore 405-grain
JSP load. Thanks in advance for
your help.
S.P., Wasilla AK
A: Not long after introducing +Pstyle .45-70 ammunition designed
for modern leverguns, around year
12
Handloader 291
2000, Buffalo Bore switched to

the small rifle primer pocket. The
reason for this change was to prevent certain wide, flatnose (WFN)
cast bullets from contacting the
primer when loaded into the
magazine tube of Marlin Model
1895 rifles. These particular guns
feature a magazine tube belly
that is just forward of the receiver and is not visible when the
rifle is assembled. This belly allows one cartridge to tilt signifi-
Buffalo Bore Ammunition utilizes a small

rifle primer for its .45-70 levergun loads,
which are designed to prevent possible
primer set-off in magazine tubes.
cantly and has the potential to

allow the edge of WFN profile
bullets to contact the center of the
primer forward of it. When subjected to heavy recoil, the cartridge
in the belly has the potential to
ignite the second cartridge. The
small rifle primer resolves this
issue and prevents possible magazine tube detonations.
To more or less duplicate the Buffalo Bore 405-grain JFN bullet at
2,000 fps, prime cases with either
the Federal 205 or Remington 7
Small Rifle primers, and load
54.0 grains of Hodgdon H-322
powder or 56.0 grains of Accurate 2015BR. Seat the Remington
405-grain JFN softpoint bullet
to an overall cartridge length of
between 2.545 and 2.550 inches,
then apply a heavy roll crimp.
The above powder charges will require slight compression when
bullets are seated. This bullet base
support is important when using Remington bullets, as it will
prevent their being deep seated
when subjected to recoil in the

magazine tube.
.204 RUGER
Q: I am a dedicated prairie dog
shooter and have decided to try
the .204 Ruger this year rather
than my old, trustworthy .22-250
Remington. I purchased a new 26inch barrel for my Thompson/Center Encore, had a new custom
barrel fit to a Remington Model
700 Varmint and am almost ready
to go. I just ordered 1,000 new
Hornady .204 cases, dies and bul-
Winchester 748 and Accurate 2520

are good powder choices for .204 Ruger
loads containing Hornady 40-grain
V-MAX bullets.
13
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Blanks
Highly Figured
and Plain Grain
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9009 River Road, Chico, CA 95928
Tel: 530-345-4012 Fax: 530-345-0990
www.winelandwalnut.com
winelandwalnut@hotmail.com
lets. I do have several potentially

good powders on hand but would
like to know what powder you
recommend before purchasing
more or beginning to develop a
load. I will only be using the Hornady 40-grain V-MAX bullet. Can
you suggest a load or two? Thanks
for your help.
S.S., Butte MT
A: There are several good propellants for handloading the .204
Ruger that include extruded and
spherical powders. However, to
alleviate the problems associated
with bridging in this small caliber, especially considering the

unusually large quantity of cartridges typically fired in a single
outing, I lean toward spherical
powders, as charges can be thrown
accurately from a quality powder
measure, which reduces handloading time.
Suggested loads for the Hornady
40-grain V-MAX bullet, which is
a great choice, include 28.5 grains
of Winchester 748 for 3,900 fps or
29.8 grains of Accurate 2520 for
3,875 fps.
.44 SPECIAL CAST BULLETS

Q: I have been using your .44 Special handload that contains the
250-grain Keith cast bullet with 8.0
to 8.2 grains of Alliant Power Pistol powder. It is very accurate in
my Ruger New Model Blackhawk
and delivers the 1,000 fps plus that
you indicate. I enjoy shooting this
handgun, but there are a couple of
problems. First, recoil is manageable but is about the maximum I
can handle for long shooting sessions. And for killing soda cans,
it is more power than I actually
need and have decided to reserve
this load for field use. So my question is, can you offer load data
with this same 250-grain Keith bullet but at around 800 or 850 fps?
Thanks for offering such a great
magazine. I especially enjoy your
articles on big-bore sixguns.
L.L., Portland OR
14
Accurate No. 2 powder is a top choice

for handloading the .44 Special.
A: Thank you for your letter. A

handload that should meet your
criterion consists of bullets from
Lyman mould 429421, or better
known as the 250-grain Keith
bullet, pushed with 5.8 grains of
Accurate No. 2 powder for 805
fps from a USFA SAA with a 5inch barrel. Increasing the charge
to 6.2 grains reached 851 fps. Extreme spreads for five shots with
the latter load were less than 10
fps. From multiple guns, including a USFA SAA Flattop Target,
Smith & Wesson 1950 Target and
custom Colt SAA, it produced subone-inch groups at 25 yards. Bullets were cast with an 11 Brinell
hardness number (BHN) and
sized to .430 inch. Use either the
CCI 300 or Federal 150 Large
Pistol primers. In spite of being
a lightened load, it is still powerful and practically duplicates
the traditional .45 Colt loads that
pushed a 250/255-grain bullet to
around 860 fps.
Handloader 291
BLACK-POWDER FOULING
MIKES SHOOTIN SHACK
nyone who has fired even a

single shot powered by black
powder realizes fouling can be a
significant problem. A significant
portion of black powder does not
burn upon ignition, and unless controlled in some manner, it accumulates as black, hard fouling in the
bore. That plays havoc with a bullets flight.
Upon becoming a Sharps Model
1874 shooter (fanatic?), it only
seemed natural to try black powder in those big rifle cartridges
originally designed for it. Blackpowder fouling was hardly given a
thought, but I should have been
prepared for what followed. Usually the first shot from a clean barrel hit relatively close to where
by Mike Venturino
aimed. The second one was just as

apt to hit the ground in front of the
target. Afterward, running a tight
patch down the rifles barrel was
difficult; it had fouled to that extreme.
Little by little, hints to the solution seeped into my brain. One
bit of evidence was the size of
lube grooves on vintage-style bullets. They were huge compared to
grooves on more modern designs.
Eventually I realized lube on modern cast bullets was there to prevent lead fouling, but on older
designs, lube was meant to both
help with lead fouling and with
black-powder fouling. A correlation was the realization that modern bullet lubes did not mix with
black-powder fouling. I tried smearing Crisco on some bullets for a
Sharps .50-90 and .45-100. Some
decent three-shot groups began
happening without swabbing after
every shot, but the slightest heat
or direct sunlight would send it
flowing into the powder. Mostly in
frustration, I shot smokeless powders in the Sharps.
About that time, two significant
factors entered the picture. One
was the NRAs inaugural match for
an envisioned new shooting game
called Black Powder Cartridge
Rifle Silhouette. It sounded like
fun, but its originators wisely decided to adhere strictly with the
name: meaning only black powder
could be used. Duplex loading
with a booster charge of smokeless powder was prohibited. I say
wisely, for without that rule, all
us BPCR Silhouette shooters would
never have been inspired to work
so hard to discover just how well
that smelly, old black powder could
actually perform.
The second factor was Steven Paul
Garbe. We were well acquainted
16
Many, if not most, BPCR Silhouette

competitors use a blow tube to keep
black-powder fouling soft just ahead
of the rifles chamber during a string
of shots.
through mutual friends, and Steve

heard about my plight in trying
to get a bullet powered by black
powder to follow the same path as
the one fired before it. He dropped
by my house with a small glass jar
of yellow stuff and said, Smear
this on some bullets. Dont swab the
SPG Bullet Lubricant was developed

specifically for black powder cartridge
shooting.
Handloader 291
Mike Bellms TCs

Encore
& Contender/G2
Custom Parts, Tools & Advice Since 1979
Tel: 970-433-9525
Mike visiting with Steve Garbe (center) and their mutual friend from Texas Bob
Glodt, during a recent national championship at Raton, New Mexico.
barrel between shots. It worked!

I could actually shoot groups that
in those days I considered exceptional. After firing a string of
rounds, a finger run across the
rifles muzzle would have black
grease on it. The bullet lube was
mixing with the fouling, keeping it
soft the full length of the Sharps
30-inch barrel.
Literature from the Sharps Rifle
Company in the 1870s recommended using a bullet lube of equal
parts Japan Wax and sperm oil,
neither of which ingredient is now
commonly available. (I had never
even heard of Japan Wax.) Evidently, Steve had found modern
replacements for such things.
At the second NRA BPCR experimental match, I only swabbed my
rifles barrel after every relay instead of every shot. Although far
from the winners circle, other competitors noted my procedure and
During his early days of black powder

cartridge rifle shooting, Mike never
thought groups such as this could
happen at 300 yards. The high shot
was the first one through a clean,
cold barrel.
www.bellmtcs.com
asked, How can you do that? I

told them about Steves bullet
lube, and they said, He should
sell it. We would buy it. SPG Black
Powder Bullet Lubricant became
commercially available that fall.
Even more inspiring, in 1987 I
dragged Steve to the first official
NRA BPCR Silhouette National
Championship. He tied for first
place (losing in a shoot-off), but
what was noticeable was he didnt
need to swab his barrel after every
shot, like most competitors were
doing.
Some BPCR shooters today swab
after every shot, especially those
competing in very hot, dry climates, like Arizona in summer.
Others firing paper-patched bullets do also. Most of the shooters
in less harsh climates use a blow
tube to keep fouling soft just
ahead of the chamber. For competition, most of us have bullets
seated out in the case so as to be
close or into the rifling. Loads
with deeper seated bullets for
hunting dont require blow tubing for chambering.
There are many black-powder
bullet lubes on the market today,
and there have been untold refinements in getting black-powder
cartridges to perform to levels
considered impossible 30 years
ago. Some BPCR Silhouette competitors dont swab their barrels
during an entire match comprising
60 or sometimes 80 shots, counting sighters. Most of us wont use
a rifle and handload combination
unless it delivers precision in terms
of 1.5 MOA or better. Things have
come a long way.
17
TRADITIONAL
.45 COLT LOADS
FROM THE HIP
by Brian Pearce
ot long after the U.S. military adopted the .45 Colt and
the Colt Single Action Army revolver around 1873, ammunition
companies began offering loads
for the civilian market. Soon a 250or 255-grain lead bullet (depending on manufacturer) with a flat
point and hollow base loaded on
top of 40 grains of black powder
became a standard, powerful and
respected load. Many years ago
I fired some vintage ammunition
through a Colt SAA with a 7inch barrel that produced almost
1,000 fps.
As the turn of the twentieth century approached, ammunition companies began offering loads with
18
both black and smokeless powders.

Although Colt warned against using smokeless ammunition in SAA
revolvers produced prior to 1900
(something I do not recommend),
or below serial number 192,000,
everyone knew this new ammunition would eventually find its way
into guns produced prior to 1900.
As a result, the same 250/255-grain
bullets were loaded to around 870
fps, which was dropped to an advertised velocity of 860 fps during
the 1960s and is still loaded by
Remington (250 grain) and Winchester (255 grain) to date. Current
industry maximum average pressure guidelines are established at
14,000 psi.
The above smokeless load is

what helped the cartridge establish a superb reputation among
lawmen, cowboys and anyone
needing a powerful sixgun. It did
not offer impressive bells and
whistles, such as high-velocity and
rapid-expanding bullets, but it
doesnt need either to perform well.
Rather, its large caliber and heavy
slug produce reliable shock, large
wound channels and deep penetration. Its large caliber, combined
with comparatively low pressures,
produces very little muzzle concussion, which is important for
a working sixgun that will probably get occasional use without
hearing protection. Recoil was
also comparatively slow, making it
Handloader 291
Traditional .45 Colt Handload Data

bullet
(grains)
powder
charge
(grains)
velocity
(fps)
250 Oregon Trail Laser-Cast RNFP
Red Dot
Promo
Hi-Skor 700X
Bullseye
Titegroup
American Select
AutoComp
A-2
True Blue
HS-6
W-231
HP-38
A-5
Universal
Competition
Unique
Power Pistol
SR-4756
CFE Pistol
SR-7625
PB
Nitro 100
Zip
6.2
6.4
6.4
6.6
6.2
6.8
9.0
6.8
8.8
11.5
7.3
7.3
10.3
8.2
6.2
8.0
8.1
9.5
8.4
8.6
7.8
6.2
7.2
860
to shoot only factory ammunition

the rest of my life, I would take the
.45 Colt as my game and defense
cartridge.
The .45 Colt was the standard
among lawmen of the Old West,
with an almost endless list of characters on both sides of the law
who gave it great endorsements. A
legendary lawman who saw plenty
of gun fighting during his 50-year
career, Bill Tilghman states, The
heavy slug of the forty-five, too,
Notes: All loads, fired from a 434-inch barreled USFA Pre-War SAA, produced between 850 and 870 fps
average velocity and are thus listed at 860 fps to more or less duplicate traditional .45 Colt ballistics.
Starline cases and CCI 300 Large Pistol primers were used throughout. Overall loaded length: 1.575
inches. Bullet diameter: .452 inch used herein (.454 inch suggested for guns with throats .454 or larger);
maximum case length: 1.285 inches; trim-to case length: 1.275 inches.
Be Alert Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.
pleasant to shoot. Deer and black

bear have been taken with traditional factory loads with good
results. Although improved handloads featuring a flatpoint cast bullet (usually in Keith pattern) pushed
to a bit more velocity are certainly
Oregon Trail Laser-Cast 250-grain

RNFP bullets were used to develop data
and feature a .275-inch wide meplat, a
deep crimp groove, a single grease
groove and have a slight bevel base.
better, we cannot ignore just how

well the traditional load works.
Elmer Keith is generally considered the father of modern sixgunning and is widely recognized for
his experience and many contributions to handgunning. In addition to being the primary influence
in getting Remington and Smith
& Wesson to introduce the .44
Magnum, he also pioneered (with
Lyman) cast bullet designs during
the 1920s. He had practical sixgun
cartridge and load experience,
mixed with common sense. In his
classic 1955 book Sixguns by Keith
(available from Wolfe Publishing
Co.), Keith states, The standard
.45 Colt, like the 45-70 in rifles,
simply will not die out. The demand is still strong for it, and will
be for many years to come. It is a
good, accurate, and lethal cartridge,
and one that has well served the
American sixgun man for eighty
years. Keith continues, As one
grows older and his hair starts
to turn gray, his respect for this
grand old load increases. If I had
19
would either kill instantly or produce a shock to put the enemy out
of commission. You shoot a man
with a small bullet and he may kill
you before he dies. But with a fortyfive, hes done with. Many similar
comments can be found by modern shooters who have extensive
experience with big-bore sixguns.
Winchester and Remington have
historically offered the above hollowbase bullets as a component
to handloaders, but Winchester
silently dropped its version sometime back, and the Remington version has been very difficult (if not
impossible) to obtain in recent
years.
An excellent cast bullet that
shares a very similar profile to the
above factory loads is Lyman
452190. It is a plain-base design,
rather than the hollow base found
on the above bullets that are designed to slug up at low pressure
to fill large throats and create a
gas seal but also prevent bullets
from tipping in the throat. When a
452190 bullet is sized to correspond with throat size and fired
from a good sixgun, accuracy can
be outstanding.
For those who dont cast bullets,
a logical option is to use Oregon
Trail Bullet Companys (800-8110548; www.laser-cast.com) 250grain RNFP (Magma) design that
has become popular among cowboy action competitors and is readily available. These bullets are cast
with a 20-plus Brinell hardness
number (BHN), are unusually consistent in weight and are high quality. This design features a beveled
crimp groove and has a portion of
the full-caliber shank forward of
the case. As a result, when the
case is crimped properly, bullets
will not deep seat when used in
a lever-action rifle with a tubular
magazine. In traditional fashion,
the nose is flat and measures
around .275 inch wide, which is
slightly larger than current factory
load versions. It has a single grease
groove filled with Magma green
lube.
Being a slight bevel-base design,
it delivers best overall results
20
Handloader 291
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Brians .45 Colt handloads duplicate ballistics of traditional factory loads.
minimal leading and best accuracy when used in revolvers with

throats that are very close to, or
just under, bullet diameter. Since
a bevel-base bullet will not slug up
or obturate, especially when cast
hard, bullet fit is important to prevent fusion and obtain a proper
seal to prevent gas cutting and
leading. Most modern gun manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, USFA and others, have
tightened throats (in the past 10 to
20 years) to measure between .451
and .452 inch. When using the Oregon Trail RNFP bullet sized .452
inch, bullet tilting is minimal and
accuracy is surprising, with many
guns grouping inside 1.5 inches at
25 yards. This bullet is also offered
in .454-inch diameter for revolvers
that have a larger throat size. In
spite of being cast hard, velocities
should be kept below 1,000 fps in
revolvers (or better yet, 900 fps),
or leading can occur.
The popularity of the bullet is extreme, but due to a widespread
powder shortage, many handloaders are unable to assemble favorite handloads. Recently I was
in a gun store wherein a customer
was purchasing a couple of boxes
of the Oregon Trail 250-grain RNFP
bullets, but was frustrated because
he had been unable to obtain his
normal powder for more than
two years. In looking at the dealers
on-hand stock, I suggested another
powder along with load data as
a substitute, which he wrote down
and promptly purchased two
pounds of new powder and went
cheerfully on his way.
With everyone (myself included)
struggling to obtain powder, I
thought readers might appreciate
load data with optional powders
to duplicate traditional .45 Colt

loads, but with the above Oregon
Trail 250-grain RNFP bullets.
In recent years I have tested traditional .45 Colt ammunition, and
velocities have occasionally been
low, too low, with select lot numbers from Winchester dropping
down to around 750 fps. Remington, however, has kept velocities
close to advertised speeds. Having
some 1950s vintage Remington
and Winchester ammunition on
hand, originally advertised at 870
fps, they were chronographed in
a USFA Pre-War SAA-pattern revolver with a 4-inch barrel. In
each instance, the loads averaged
close to 860 fps, which would become the target velocity for the
loads listed herein.
All the accompanying handload
data was developed to average between 850 and 870 fps. With that
thought in mind, there was sometimes a significant velocity change
from one powder lot number to the
next. For example, in going back
through my notes, 6.0 grains of Alliant Bullseye powder reached
around 860 fps, but with the lot
number of powder used in the accompanying load data, the charge
had to be increased to 6.6 grains
to reach the same velocity in
the same gun and with the same
bullet. Similar variances were observed with other powders. Nonetheless, these loads should get a
handloader close to the targeted
860 fps.
Incidentally, with primers designed to serve as magnum and
standard, such as the Remington
212 and Winchester WLP, velocities
will likely be increased when compared to the CCI 300 used here.
21
.41 SHORT RIMFIRE

CARTRIDGE BOARD
by Gil Sengel
his issues cartridge was a

rimfire known simply as No.
41 until the appearance of the .41
Long in 1873. Most shooters have
never heard of it. Yet it was once
so quietly popular, so widely distributed, had such an effect on
American thinking and culture
that its story should be told.
All societies contain individuals

who are fundamentally troublesome. Such people often carry
weapons, perhaps due to an attitude that they can do whatever
they want to whomever they want.
There is absolutely nothing a society can do to prevent such behavior. Intelligent people have always
known this.
During the percussion era many
citizens began carrying handguns
for personal protection, but these
werent reliable. Caps fell off nipples (especially if the gun was carried in a pocket). Roundballs, held
in place only by friction, jarred
loose and moved down the bore
B
A - Overall Length---------------.913
B - Case Length -----------------.467
C - Rim Diameter ----------------.468
Cartridge Dimensions
or fell out the front of a cylinder.

Powder became damp and would
not ignite. Dealing with all this
was beyond the ability of people
not interested in guns.
The rimfire handgun cartridge
changed everything. For the first
time in history all citizens could
have a reliable means to exercise
their inalienable right of selfdefense. This, in turn, solidified a
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22
A
D - Rim Thickness---------------.053
E - Base Diameter---------------.406
F - Mouth Diameter -------------.406
facet of American culture that was

nearly lost after World War II but
has come roaring back in the last
two decades. It is that we need not
helplessly endure home invasion,
robbery or worse at the hands of
criminals nurtured by our increasingly ignorant society and totally
failed criminal justice system. We
will freely own firearms and see to
it we can legally use them, no matter what socialists, progressives
or corrupt politicians want. Never
forget that this is what the gun
control debate is really about. It is
all it has ever been about, and it all
began with the first rimfire cartridges, most notably the .41 Short.
When Horace Smith and Daniel
Wesson marketed their first revolver in 1857, the cartridge it fired
was theirs as well. Today we know
it as the .22 Short Rimfire, the first
commercially successful, fully selfcontained metallic cartridge. Given
its obvious purpose, why chamber
a round firing a 29-grain bullet at
maybe 700 fps? Its possible to get
as much impact energy by throwing a big rock!
Unfortunately, S&W had exclusive rights to use the Rollin White
patent, which protected the concept of a revolver cylinder bored
through end to end to accept a
Handloader 291
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rear-loaded cartridge. Nobody else

could legally sell such a gun until
the patent ran out in 1869.
American ingenuity quickly provided a solution. It seems Moores
Patent Fire Arms Co. of Brooklyn,
New York, offered (1858-59) a revolver to fire rimfire cartridges and
was quickly deterred by legal action. The company then produced
a small, breech-loading, singleshot pistol reminiscent of small
percussion pistols made by Henry
Deringer of Philadelphia.
The first guns made were not

chambered in .22 Short but in
.41 Short as a centerfire! Moores
patent number 31,473 also shows
a central firing pin. This was odd
since the centerfire cartridge hadnt been invented yet! The .41 Short
centerfire would exist some 10
years later, when Eley produced it
for a small Colt single-shot pistol
made in England for the European
trade.
It is true that work was being
done on central fire systems in
France and England for a paper
shotshell. All were too large and
complex for handgun cartridges.
It is one thing for Moore to know
of experimental work and anticipate its eventual success. Its quite
another to start producing a pistol using this ignition system and
chambering a cartridge that did
not exist in any form. Did Daniel
Moore know something that history didnt?
Smith & Wesson made its own
ammunition from 1857 to 1860.
There were no cartridge makers,
because there had previously been
no cartridges. From 1860 forward,
Charles D. Leet, with various partners, acted as an inside contractor
for S&W, labeling ammunition
both for S&W and his own line.
Leet cartridges from the 1860-62
period exist in .41 Short Rimfire,
which seems to have appeared out
of nowhere.
Could it be that S&W, knowing
well the purpose for which their
handgun was needed, originally
intended it to be chambered for a
.41-caliber cartridge they created?
Were problems encountered in
drawing the copper case, or did
the amount of priming necessary
to fill the rim of a .41-caliber case
blow out the rims in a revolver
that left case heads largely unsupported? Early priming compounds
were violent and nonuniform. Was
this round then scaled down until
everything worked? The .41s very
short case length would seem to
indicate use in a small revolver,
like the S&W.
Did Daniel Moore learn of this
and design a single-shot pistol,
24
Handloader 291
which would be unaffected by the

above problems, to fire S&Ws rejected round? We will probably
never know.
The .41 Short Rimfire was made
at least as early as 1860 by Leet,
Goff & Co. of Springfield, Massachusetts, a year or so later by
Allen & Wheelock in Worcester,
Massachusetts, with Crittenden &
Tibbals of South Coventry, Connecticut, starting production in
1862-64. Union Metallic Cartridge
Co. loaded it in 1867, U.S. Cartridge Co. and Hall & Hubbard
started about 1869. Winchester,
Peters, Western and Remington
began producing the round at later
dates.
After Moores little single shot appeared, it seemed everyone wanted
one. At least 50 makers offered
similar arms, most in either .22
or .41 rimfire. Total sold is impossible to know, but its easily a
half million and could be twice
that or more.
Ballistics of the black-powder .41
Short round are hard to come by.

That strange 130-grain pointed bullet seems to be just a copy of the
conical slugs fired in percussion
revolvers, in lieu of the more common roundball. It was supposed to
increase penetration. Certainly the
.41 Short needed all the help it
could get, as its 10- to 13-grain
black-powder charge would not
give 600 fps from the little guns
short barrels. When smokeless
loads replaced black powder, velocity was reported in the 450
fps range. The intimidation factor
of the big hole in the barrel must
have been hoped to count for
something.
The round was listed until World
War II but dropped afterward.
Popularity was such, however, that
at least one special run of ammunition was loaded in the 1960s by
Remington. Navy Arms Co. sold
imported rounds at an even later
date. Its hard to believe these
guns were actually being used in
the 1960s and 1970s. Collectors
probably just wanted to fire a few
rounds from their better-conditioned pieces to see what it was

like. One person remarked that he
fired a smokeless load (He didnt
mention brand of ammunition.) at
phone books taped together to
give about 8 inches of thickness,
and when shot at 15 feet, the bullet bounced off the books.
I saw one of the swing-barrel
single shots at a recent gun show
accompanied by a full box of
smokeless Peters ammunition.
Obviously the last owner to use
the gun for its intended purpose
hadnt needed to fire it, even
though there was a lot of wear
from carrying.
Its a bit sad looking at a gun and
cartridge that were seen only by
their owners for all these years.
Yet it is comforting to realize that
the reliable capability they gave
to protect one from harm lives
on today in the subcompact .380s
and 9mms increasingly carried
by Americans who refuse to be
afraid.
25
CASE TRIMMING AND

OTHER ONEROUS CHORES
PISTOL POINTERS
by Charles E. Petty
ometimes I wonder why loading manuals show a trim-to

length for pistol cases. I can truthfully say I have never trimmed a
piece of pistol brass and precious
few revolver cases. For the newcomer, I wonder if it wouldnt save
some grief to leave that number out.
We are told that modern autopistol cartridges headspace on the
case mouth. Sometimes that is
even true. SAAMI (Small Arms &
Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, Inc.) wrote the bible on stuff
like this, and all dimensions have
a small tolerance. Using the .45
ACP as an example, the case length
is 0.898 inch with a 0.010-inch tolerance range. The chamber has a
minimum length of 0.898 inch and
maximum of 0.920 inch. What that
means is that we can be sure the
.45 ACP really does headspace on
the mouth only when we have a
maximum cartridge and minimum
chamber. Otherwise, the practical
headspace is governed by the extractor, although there is a tolerance there as well.
Headspace in a straight-wall pistol chamber is completely different from that of a bottleneck rifle
chamber. There, excessive head-
Above, the case mouth

is being chamfered
with a common tool.
Left, just because you
could trim .45 ACP
brass doesnt mean
you have to.
space can lead to case separation

and sometimes catastrophic failure. In a pistol with excessive headspace, the gun just wont go bang,
because the firing pin cant reach
the primer.
We know that case length shrinks
a bit when fired and grows a little when it is sized back to fit the
chamber. Since most pistol cases
are pretty short anyhow, the actual
change in length is very small, and
measuring a lot of cases is usually
a waste of time. If concerned,
there is a simple test that can save
some time. Simply full-length size
a couple of pieces of brass and
field strip a pistol to use the barrel

as a gauge. If the sized case falls in
and goes plunk, all is well. If the
rim extends above the hood or
headspace extension, trimming
might be in order. Realistically,
though, chances are cases will be
lost or crack before they really
need trimming, and setting up the
trimmer is such a pain, the trash
can is a valid option.
The one exception may be with
super magnum revolver cases that
are dependent on a strong crimp
for best performance. If one has to
continually adjust the crimp die to
get the desired result, it might be
time to trim that brass.
Very high on my list of things to
avoid are almost all the things we
are told to do to brass. Most of the
really bothersome ones are aimed
at rifle shooters, but some pistol
shooters, operating on the principle of good for one, good for
all, do it too. The top of that list
is cleaning primer pockets. I am
firmly convinced it doesnt matter
in any case. One argument in favor
is that carbon accumulates in the
primer pocket and could lead to
uneven ignition. The theory is that
one side of the primer might not
light evenly. Maybe that is even
26
Handloader 291
true, but if a high-order detonation

(Thats what primers do.) moves
at over 10,000 fps and the primer
is 0.205 inch in diameter, how long
could it possibly take? Besides,
when a primer pops, the gas takes
with it any leftover carbon or loose
material. Theoretically, the primer
pocket should reach a steady state
of dirtiness.
Another chore about which I have
mixed feelings is cleaning brass. I
have two good friends who are
polar opposites about this. One
has never cleaned a piece of brass
in his life, while the other comes
to the range with cases that look
even better than factory-new. Both
are very good shots and never try
to blame the ammunition for
misses. One wet-tumbles with little stainless steel rods; the other
just loads empties. Years ago I
gave him a spare tumbler, and the
last time I looked, it was in the
same place, on the same shelf, just
wearing more dust.
Im somewhere in between those
two extremes and tumble most
cases for an hour or two in corncob media. Before carbide dies
were common, a tiny grain of sand
could scratch the die and leave a
mark on every case that went in
it. Today that is rare. To say that
cleaning brass is mandatory might
be an overstatement. So, in this
case, I know I dont have to do it
but choose to.
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Another pearl of conventional

wisdom is that we should segregate brass by make, lot number
and weight. Only in the benchrest
world is doing so likely to matter.
Time and again Ive shot the same
load in sorted and mixed brass
and have yet to find a significant
difference. A couple of times the
mixed brass actually had a smaller
group average, but the difference
was not enough to be statistically
significant.
Benchrest shooters do weigh
brass and try to find a group of
cases with as little weight variation as possible, certainly not more
than .5 grain. Actually, in their
case that matters because a variation in weight indicates a variation
in case capacity, which can, in
turn, influence accuracy.
How about gun cleaning? Too
much cleaning can be just as bad
as too little. Bluntly asked: Is it
really necessary to clean a pistol
after every time it is fired? To me
it definitely isnt, but it does depend on the guns use. If it is purely
recreational, they rarely need cleaning, but if it is a duty gun, it should
be clean every time it goes out
the door. For a cop, carrying an
unfired gun is the best possible
defense if some less-than-worthy
citizen claims you shot him. For
someone who lives in a hostile environment like sand daily cleaning is wise. As a minimum, I have
a piece of sheepskin that gets an
occasional squirt of preservative
to wipe the outside.
It is also possible to kill a gun
with kindness. The worst example
I ever saw was a rifle that got
scrubbed with an abrasive bore
paste so enthusiastically that it began to look like a smoothbore. Another was a well-built 1911 whose
owner wrecked the barrel/bushing
fit by turning the bushing without
backing the slide back a little to
unlock the front end.
While there is some evidence to
suggest that cleaning down to bare
metal can be beneficial in benchrest quality rifles, few pistol barrels
show any serious copper fouling.
The reason, primarily, is that few
Handloader 291
pistols achieve the velocity levels

of rifles, nor do they operate at
similar pressure levels.
A perennial question revolves
around barrel life. When someone
says they have worn out a pistol
barrel, more often than not, they
simply wanted a new one. I am
convinced that it is truly impossible to really wear out a pistol barrel shooting lead bullets, and few
of us could afford to do it with
jacketed slugs.
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Many years ago, I inspected a

USAF 1911 pistol that had a documented 100,000 rounds of ball ammunition through it. There was
about two inches of rifling left
at the muzzle, and when I told the
shooter to whom it was issued
that I would have to fit a new barrel, his response was, Please dont;
it shoots too good. Since he was
a master-class shooter, I was inclined to believe him, but he
changed his mind when he saw
the test of his new gun.
I dont mean to belittle anyone
whose cleaning practice is different than mine, but a lot of stuff is
done just because somebody said
to, and since it sounded reasonable, nobody bothered to really
test it. Sometimes exotic cleaning
practice may even be right, but our
equipment or ability is not good
enough to see the difference. In
science there is a term lost in the
noise that means the effect of a
change is so small that other variables obscure it.
So even though Im quite convinced most of the stuff people do
to brass does not produce tangible
results, I once had a long talk with
a very skilled rifle shooter who
more or less agreed that cleaning
primer pockets probably didnt
matter, but he did it routinely because: I want my ammo to be perfect. It also makes me recall a
long-ago conversation with the
late Jim Clark. We were discussing
those newfangled compensators
just showing up in IPSC matches,
and whether or not they were really effective. If you think it helps,
then it does, he said.
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RESEARCH, INC.
29
OLDE EYNSFORD
BLACK POWDER
PROPELLANT PROFILES
ost readers are probably

aware that a few years ago
Hodgdon Powder Company purchased GOEX Powder, Inc., this
countrys only black-powder manufacturer. GOEX, in turn, is the
third iteration of the original DuPont powder operation begun in
1802. Black-powder fans are also
aware of the many obstacles that
have had to be overcome, including governmental regulations; the
advent of synthetic, or replica,
black powders; and more recently,
the importation of black powders
from Europe and elsewhere. This
is, of course, not to mention that
smokeless powder, for the past
century and more, has replaced
black for most of our uses.
by R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
Hodgdon was, and is, in good

shape regarding the replica powders, as it already offers the most
popular replica, Pyrodex, and its
high-performance cousin, Triple
Seven. Competing black powders
were another matter. Several
werent good enough when compared to GOEX and simply faded
away. There were others, however, that were quite good and presented a real threat.
The German powder Wano was
probably the first. Now sold under
the trade name Schuetzen, it began
to get shooters attention. Next
came Swiss black powder from
Switzerland. It became even more
popular among Black Powder Cartridge Rifle shooters who compete
using silhouette targets out to 500
meters, and where everything must
be exactly right.
Faced with this level of competition, GOEX needed to do something. What was needed was a
powder that maintained a high
consistency in granule size, burning rate and shot-to-shot velocity.
To this was added a higher level of
lot-to-lot consistency and a general higher level of performance.
After much effort, what evolved
was Olde Eynsford black powder.
Offered in 1 Fg, FFg and FFFg, it
is intended to match or better the
performance levels of Schuetzen
and Swiss powders.
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30
Beginning with the name and its

Old English font, it is a reflection
of a time known for its superior
black powders. The heart of Olde
Eynsford, however, is in its chemistry, producing a very consistent,
high-performance product. Even
its packaging is a step up from
the previous metal container, this
time employing a black polymer
canister with a very attractive label.
Intended principally for blackpowder match shooters, it is being

offered at a price under that of its
competition.
My first reaction to Olde Eynsford powder was that the granules
seemed smaller in dimensions for
comparable sizes FFg, for example than GOEX. Its quite similar,
in fact, to Swiss and Schuetzen
and with a pronounced absence of
dust.
A series of tests was used to compare Olde Eynsford to other powders in metallic rifle and revolver
cartridges, in muzzleloading rifles
and pistols, in cap-and-ball revolvers and both muzzleloading
and cartridge shotguns. For the
most part, comparisons were made
to GOEX and Swiss of the same
Handloader 291
granulations. My first determination, actually a conformation, was that in metallic

cartridges a magnum strength
primer best served to minimize residue. The hotter primers also produced smaller
extreme velocity spreads.
Select Olde Eynsford Handloads

cartridge
bullet
(grains)
charge
(grains)
velocity
(fps)
barrel
length
(inches)
1,417
1,246
827
1,021
26
26
434
30
Cartridge Guns:
.45-70
.45 Colt
300
400
250
118-ounces
65 112 Fg
65 112 Fg
35 FFg
82 FFg
grain, black-powder loads

of old. In a 434-inch Colt Single Action, the Olde Eynsford load with Federal 155
primers produced an extreme spread for five shots
of 9 fps. Thats good in anybodys book.
12 gauge
One thing I noticed when
Beginning with the .45-70
shooting these metallic
cartridge with 300- and 400barrel
cartridge
bullet
charge
velocity
length
loads was that GOEX 1
grain cast bullets, the bullets
(diameter)
(grains)
(fps)
(inches)
Fg and FFg produced lower
were seated on a beeswax
Muzzleloading Guns:
velocities in both the .45-70
wad over 65 grains of 1 Fg.
.50
.490 RB
90 FFg
1,664
26
and .45 Colt, respectively,
Results fired from a Marlin
.50
.490
RB
30
FFFg
1,016
8
than did Olde Eynsford
1895 were quite impressive
1
.36
.375
RB
25
FFFg
892
7
2
1 Fg and Swiss FFg. A
with single digit extreme
1
12
gauge
1
8 -ounces
82
FFg
972
28
couple of years ago in
spreads for five shots with
Notes:
The
.45-70
and
.45
Colt
performed
best
with
magnum
working with black-powOlde Eynsford. Neither GOEX
primers, Federal 215 and Federal 155, respectively. The 12-gauge
der shotshell loads in modCartridge nor Swiss 1 Fg
shotshell load used Federal 209A primers. All muzzleloading loads
ern plastic, paper and brass
performed quite as well.
employed CCI 11 percussion caps. Rifle and handgun velocities were
recorded 10 feet from the muzzle; shotshell velocities at 6 feet.
shells, GOEX FFg produced
Groups typically were under
higher velocities than other
2 inches at 100 yards. Given
black powders and replia tang rear sight and a bead
cas with the exception of the
front, thats as well as my rather
The .45 Colt was used for a
Slovenian KIK black powder and
used eyes will do. I did not wipe
metallic handgun cartridge. The
between shots but did clean beHodgdons Triple Seven. Such flipload was 35 grains of FFg under a
tween strings either by wiping or
flopping of burning rates between
250-grain cast bullet from Lyman
firing smokeless powder loads. Eimetallic cartridges and shotshells
mould 454190. In modern cases
ther seemed to suffice.
this is the equivalent of the 40frequently occurs in smokeless
31
powders, so I shouldnt have been

surprised it occurred here but I
was.
When beginning muzzleloading
testing of Olde Eynsford versus
Swiss and GOEX, I used a caplock
.50-caliber T/C New Englander
with a 26-inch barrel and limited
my testing to .490-inch roundballs
with a .010-inch patch over 90
grains of FFg. Again, Olde Eyns-
ford produced higher velocities

and smaller extreme spreads. Accuracy was first-rate. A test utilizing a Lyman Mountain Pistol with
30 grains of FFFg duplicated the
rifle experience with Olde Eynsford, again producing top velocities and the smallest extreme
spreads.
A particular favorite fun gun is a
Lyman replica of the .36-caliber
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32
Shotgun testing was divided between an American cartridge gun,

a Baker 12 gauge, and a muzzleloading 12 gauge made by the English firm of William Moore & Co.
The Bakers barrels are 30 inches;
the William Moores, 28 inches. In
these tests, comparisons were
restricted to Olde Eynsford and
GOEX , both FFg. In the Baker,
Federal paper shells with Federal
209A primers were used. The load
was 82 grains of FFg (three drams),
a BPI Obturator over-powder wad
and a 38-inch fiber filler under 118
ounces of small lead shot. Olde
Eynsford produced slightly higher
velocities than GOEX FFg and appeared to burn a bit more cleanly.
Patterns at 32 yards were quite
similar.
The William Moore muzzleloading load consisted of 82 grains of
FFg, a 18-inch over-powder wad, a
1
2-inch cushioning wad, 118 ounces
of small lead shot and an overshot
wad. Speeds were slightly under
those registered by the Baker with
its longer barrel. Once again, Olde
Eynsford loads clocked a bit
faster than those with GOEX.
The WFT II Our

newest trimmer! A universal
trimmer with interchangeable
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Colt Navy revolver. My load here

was 25 grains of FFFg and .375inch roundballs. An Ox-Yoke felt
wad was placed between powder
and ball to prevent multiple discharges. This particular load has
been used many times over the
years with GOEX FFFg and accounted for more than a few
small game animals and mountain
grouse, not to mention many hours
of plinking fun. Olde Eynsfords
velocity exceeded that of GOEX
and Swiss with no loss of accuracy or consistency.
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Tel: (320) 796-0530
Specializing in long-range rifles,

precision barreling, muzzle
brakes and metal work.
All in all, Olde Eynsford proved

to be more consistent than the
other powders, no matter what
I fired it in. Group sizes and patterns were better or equal, depending on the gun and projectile,
to those produced by the other
powders, and it always seemed to
be as clean as or cleaner burning.
I think shooters, especially match
shooters, will be pleased.
Handloader 291
Loading the
Three
Factory
.17s
The Model 700 .17 Fireball (right) shoots flatly
enough out to 300 yards and recoils so little
the shooter can see bullet strikes through the
scope. Below (left to right): .17 Remington,
.17 Remington Fireball and .17 Hornet.
34
John Barsness
eventeen-caliber wildcat cartridges have been around

since at least the 1930s, but
the .17 Remington became
the first commercial version in 1971.
Based on a slightly elongated .223
Remington case and loaded with a
25-grain bullet at a listed 4,020 fps, it
was only the second American factory round to break 4,000 fps. Early
on, however, it was plagued by bore
fouling, probably due to a combination of some rough barrels and the
dirty-burning ball powders of the
day. There werent many .17-caliber
cleaning rods or bullets available
then, so most shooters
stayed away, despite
reports of fine accuracy in many rifles.
The Subtleties of Tiny-Tipped

Varmint Cartridges
As a result, it took over three decades before another
factory .17 appeared, but in 2002 the new .17 Hornady
Rimfire Magnum became an instant success. Based on
the .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum case necked
down, it pushed a 17-grain plastic-tipped V-MAX 2,550
fps and was not only flatter-shooting than the .22 Magnum but also in most rifles more accurate.
Some people claimed the little bullets drifted too
much in the wind, thereby proving theyd never shot
one, since the 17-grain V-MAX drifts less in the wind
than bullets from any .22 Winchester Magnum load.
Within a year, .17-caliber cleaning rods appeared everywhere (even though most Hummers didnt require
much cleaning), initiating a .17-caliber renaissance.
In 2004 Hornady followed up with the .17 Mach 2,
based on the .22 Long Rifle round necked down. The
Mach 2 proved to be even more accurate but never became as popular as the Hummer, probably because it
was more than 500 fps slower. It did find favor among
tree squirrel hunters in the East and ground squirrel
shooters in the West, because it shot flatly and accu-
rately out to around 125 yards, while ammunition cost

far less than .17 HMR.
In 2007 Remington brought out the .17 Fireball, the
.22 Fireball necked down with a steeper shoulder and
almost identical to the popular .17 Mach 4 wildcat. The
primary factory load featured a green-tipped Hornady
20-grain V-MAX (called an AccuTip by Remington) at
4,000 fps. The ballistic coefficient was higher than the
25-grain hollowpoint used in the original .17 Remington factory ammunition, so the Fireball shot flatter
than the larger cartridge had in 1971. The Fireball also
recoiled noticeably less, allowing varmint hunters to
spot their own shots even in sporter-weight rifles.
This still left a huge gap in factory .17 ballistics,
which Hornady plugged five years later with its version of the .17 Hornet. The original wildcat, popularized by P.O. Ackley, was based on the improved case
of the .22 K-Hornet. Hornadys version was a little
shorter with a shoulder angle between the original .22
Hornets and the K-Hornets, though due to newer
powders, the ballistics matched the wildcat. The primary factory load featured the 20-grain V-MAX at a
listed 3,650 fps, providing 250- to 300-yard capability
in a case using only 10 to 12 grains
of powder. Handloaders could shoot
it almost as cheaply as the .17 HMR.
Hornady didnt say why it shortened the .22 Hornet
case, but a reasonable guess would be to ensure cartridges loaded with longer plastic-tipped bullets fit
in .22 Hornet magazines. Many .22 Hornet repeaters
arent able to handle 40-grain, plastic-tipped bullets,
since the round was originally designed around roundnosed bullets; but plastic-tipped bullets are one reason
for the .17 revival, since they noticeably increase both
the range and the explosiveness of the tiny bullets.
Not long after Hornadys version of the .17 Hornet
appeared, Winchester announced yet another .17 rimfire even more powerful than the .17 HMR, with a 20grain bullet at around 3,000 fps. Unfortunately, the .17
Winchester Super Magnum appeared not long before
the ammunition shortage caused by panic buying after
Obamas reelection, so it really hasnt had a chance to
show its stuff.
I was slow in joining the .17 clan, waiting for a year
after the .17 HMR appeared to see if it would survive
before buying a CZ Model 452 at a local store but
became an instant convert. Eventually, I also owned
35
Left, making .17 Hornady Hornet cases out of .22 Hornet

brass requires several steps. Above, some converted .22
Hornet cases will collapse when bullets are seated (left). Fireforming cases with Cream of Wheat bypasses the possibility.
rifles in all three centerfire .17s and

learned some interesting things
about handloading for them.
The first was a Remington Model
700 .17 Fireball. Like many purchases by rifle loonies, this rifle
appeared in my safe due to two
previous acquisitions: the cleaning rods for my rimfire .17s, plus
a case of Remington factory 20grain AccuTip ammunition, a gift
from Remingtons public relations
department at the end of a prairie
dog shoot in Wyoming. (This often
happens after company-sponsored
prairie dog shoots, especially to
gun writers who drove, because
it costs a lot to ship ammunition
back to headquarters.)
Id been very impressed with the
.17 Fireball during the shoot, taking prairie dogs at over 500 yards,
though it performed best out to
around 350, about as far as most
shooters can hit the majority of
dogs under typical conditions. The
little round shot so flatly, the crosshairs could be held right on prairie
dogs out to 300 yards and the
bullet hit could be seen through
the scope.
One of the rifles used on the

shoot would have gone home with
me, but they were scheduled for
more Remington shoots. Instead I
searched the Internet and found a
near-new synthetic-stocked Model
700 for $400, including a set of
Redding S bushing dies. Sold!
The new rifle shot the factory
ammunition into an average of
about .6 inch for five-shot groups
at 100 yards. There wasnt much
.17 Fireball loading data available
so soon after its introduction, but
there was a little on the Internet.
From Ramshots data, TAC seemed
a likely candidate, since the maximum charge of 20-plus grains filled
the case nicely, and the powders
also very temperature resistant
and clean-burning, with a de-coppering agent. Considerable experience with TAC in the .204 Ruger
and .223 Remington had proven all

three characteristics valuable in
high-volume varmint shooting.
The first range session with 20grain V-MAXes reproduced the
factory velocity and accuracy, one
of the easiest load workups Ive
ever encountered, and after installing Dyna Bore-Coat, the rifle
remained accurate for over 200
rounds without cleaning. This experience made me wonder if the
original fouling problems reported
in the .17 Remington could be
cured with modern powders and
Dyna Bore-Coat.
Within a year Id found an earlyproduction Remington 700 BDL
sporter with genuine impressed
checkering. It hadnt been shot
much at all, judging from a look at
the throat through a Hawkeye bore-
In desperation, .17 Fireball cases can

be made from .223 Remington brass.
Factory
.17s
36
Handloader 291
Above, the tiny neck of .17 cases is filled most easily by

modern spherical powders. Right, Hodgdon Extreme powders
work very well for volume shooting in hot weather, and
theres a small-granuled version that works in each of the .17s.
scope. Hodgdon Benchmark and

Varget were tried, plus Ramshot
Big Game. Ramshot only listed
data with TAC, but Big Game is
slower burning and seemed like a
better fit in the larger case. With
all three powders accuracy was
excellent and remained so for
over 100 rounds without cleaning,

but Big Game is a spherical powder so flowed a little easier through
the tiny neck than the extruded
Hodgdon powders.
The small neck is one of the
biggest problems in reloading the
.17s and one reason loading the
.17 Remington is easier today than

40-some years ago. Theres a much
wider selection of small-granuled,
extruded powders, along with
spherical powders that burn far
more cleanly than the original ball
powders.
This is also true of the .17 Hor-
.17-Caliber Load Data

bullet
(grains)
powder
charge
(grains)
primer
12.0
9.5
10.5
13.0
11.8
12.0
12.5
12.0
Remington 712
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
velocity
(fps)
100-yard
group
(inch)
3,588
3,527
3,320
3,461
3,529
3,094
3,031
2,902
.63
.68
.44*
.72
.75
.59
.87
.49
3,974
4,027
3,988
3,969
3,975
3,704
3,454
.64
.59
.65
.76
.68
.59*
.66
4,287
4,304
4,298
4,372
4,025
3,832
4,077
.96
.74
.67
.65*
.70
.97
.88
.17 Hornet, CZ 527, 22-inch barrel, 1-in-9-inch twist:

20 Nosler Varmageddon HP
20 Hornady V-MAX
25 Berger Varmint
30 Berger Varmint
A-1680
LilGun
VV-120
A-2200
H-4198
A-2200
H-322
H-322
1.629
1.734
1.641
1.642
.17 Remington Fireball, Remington 700, 24-inch sporter barrel, 1-in-9-inch twist:
20 Hornady V-MAX
20 Nosler Varmageddon Tipped
25 Berger Varmint
30 Berger FB
TAC
Benchmark
TAC
Benchmark
H-322
Benchmark
IMR-8208 XBR
20.5
19.5
20.5
20.0
19.5
19.0
20.0
CCI BR2
Tula SR
CCI BR2
1.811
1.810
1.770
1.770
.17 Remington, Remington 700, 24-inch sporter barrel, 1-in-10-inch twist:

20 Hornady V-MAX
20 Nosler Varmageddon Tipped
25 Berger Varmint
Benchmark
Big Game
Benchmark
CFE 223
Big Game
Benchmark
Varget
23.5
28.0
23.5
26.5
26.5
23.5
23.5
Federal 205M
2.228
2.225
2.162
* most accurate load in each rifle

Notes: Cases for the .17 Hornet loads were Hornady factory. Cases for the .17 Remington Fireball and .17 Remington loads were Remington factory.
37
Factory
.17s
net. Hornadys factory ammunition
uses a special blend of Superformance powder unavailable to handloaders, but the 9th edition of the
Hornady Handbook of Reloading
showed Accurate 1680 producing
the highest velocities with both
20- and 25-grain bullets. I tried
several powders in the little case,
and A-1680 proved both the fastest
and most accurate with 20-grain
bullets, though Hodgdon LilGun
(perhaps todays best .22 Hornet
powder) came in a close second.
Other powders worked better with
25- and 30-grain bullets, but most
handloaders will be using 20s.
One problem with both A-1680
and LilGun, however, became apparent during the heat of summer
rodent shooting, when pressures
rose enough to cause occasional
problems both with accuracy and
expanded primer pockets. Luckily,
Hodgdons Extreme line, so familiar to handloaders of big-game
rounds, includes some small-granuled powders that work in the tiny
.17 Hornet. With 20-grain bullets

H-4198 gets as much velocity as A1680 and LilGun but without any
hot-weather problems, and H-322
works very well with 25s and 30s.
The original one-in-10-inch twist
of the .17 Remington often doesnt
stabilize 30-grain bullets. The standard factory twist in both the .17
Hornet and .17 Fireball, however,
is one in 9 inches, and both shoot
very well with 30-grain bullets,
which some hunters prefer for
larger varmints, especially furbearers, because hollowpoints dont
expand as violently as plastictipped bullets, so penetrate deeper
and leave smaller holes.
Another problem with handloading .17s is sensitivity to bullet misalignment in the case, no doubt
because of the very short bullets.
The longer bullets in larger-caliber
cartridges tend to straighten themselves out in the rifling to a certain
extent, but a 20-grain .17 started
crookedly isnt going to fly very
straight. Redding bushing dies were
used in the .17 Hornet and Fireball, and Lee Collet dies in the .17
Remington, which prevented this
problem.
As this is written, theres still a
shortage of less-popular brass and
ammunition, including the three
The rising popularity of .17s during

the past decade has resulted in a
wider variety of bullets from major
manufacturers.
.17s. However, its relatively easy

to make .17 Remington brass by
simply resizing .223 Remington
cases. The re-formed cases will be
slightly short, but that just means
there is less need to trim them for
several firings. I have found, however, that running them through a
.204 Ruger die to step down the
neck can help. It wasnt necessary
to neck-turn any .223 brass I tried
after the conversion, but with some
makes of brass it might be.
If .221 Fireball brass can be found,
its easy to make .17 Fireball cases
by just running them into a .17
Fireball full-length die. The case
neck remains thin enough for factory chambers, which have more
neck clearance than .17 Remington chambers. (If desperate, .17
Fireballs can even be made by
using the common dies for forming .221 brass from .223 brass. I
made a few from Remington .223
cases just to see how it worked,
and the necks ended up needing
to be turned about .004 inch thinner. But so far Ive always been
able to come up with enough .17
or .221 Fireball brass to avoid that
much work.)
Making .17 Hornady Hornet cases
from .22 Hornet brass is pretty involved. It would seem that simply
trimming .22 Hornet cases to the
correct length, then sizing them in
a .17 Hornet die would work, but
Hornet brass is thin, and the upper
section of the .17 Hornets case
body is larger in diameter than
the .22 Hornets. Consequently, the
case body isnt supported by .17
38
Handloader 291
because the seating die only necks

the brass to about .19 caliber. Cases
can then be trimmed and run into
the full-length .17 Hornet die
though trimming .053 inch from
a bunch of the tiny cases, then
chamfering them all, is a lot of
work with hand tools. Instead, I
used a Gracey power trimmer and
a case holder for the .22 K-Hornet.
The Gracey chamfers as it trims;
just push each case into the shellholder, then pull it back out, saving a lot of time.
All three of the .17s typically group

five shots into less than an inch at 100
yards. The best loads in this CZ 527 .17
Hornet go under .5 inch.
Hornet sizing dies, which usually

results in collapsed cases.
One solution was to remove the
stem from a Redding seating die.
This allowed necking down .22
Hornet brass without collapsing,
Even after sizing and trimming

the necks, however, a few cases
can collapse during bullet seating,
due to the same problem: The seating die doesnt support the case
body. A .22 Hornet seater will prevent case collapse but obviously
doesnt guarantee good bullet alignment, and the easiest way to fireform varmint brass is to go shoot
varmints. Even after straightening
the bullets in the necked-down
cases with a TruTool, groups aver-
aged almost twice as large as

those shot with .17 Hornady brass.
Eventually I decided to fireform
the trimmed and neck-sized cases
with the Cream of Wheat method,
using 3.5 grains of Bullseye, dipped
with the smallest 020 scoop in a
Lee Powder Measure Kit. Another
scoopful of uncooked Cream of
Wheat filled the cases to the base
of the neck, which were plugged
with a half-inch square of paper
towel rolled into a BB-sized ball.
Winchester .22 Hornet brass was
used, and while the resulting cases
averaged about 5.5 grains lighter
than Hornady factory brass, velocities and accuracy were essentially identical.
Hopefully the present component shortage will end soon, and
we can go back to buying brass for
all factory cartridges, instead of
pretending were wildcatters. The
factory .17s are great little cartridges, definitely adding considerable versatility to a varmint
hunters rifle collection.
39
Mike Venturino
Photos by Yvonne Venturino
n a scant six-year time frame,

three military cartridges were
developed in Europe that remain
significantly popular today. For
a half-century after appearing, they
stood head and shoulders above most
other military rounds in regard to numbers of rifles so chambered. Yet, the
background and details of these three
rounds are little known to most American handloaders. Often what is known
is clouded with misinformation.
For instance, consider the largest of the three, which
in the U.S. is known as the 8mm Mauser. It actually
isnt an 8mm either. In Europe it is the 7.9x57mm or
7.92x57mm, with the first set of digits standing for the
firearms caliber and the second set for the cartridges
case length. Nor was this round developed by Mauser.
It came about in 1888 as a design put forth by German
ordnance personnel, and its introductory rifle was not
of Mauser manufacture. According to Sierras Rifle &
Handgun Reloading Data Manual #5, the new cartridge was the first successful rimless case adopted
for military use. For the purposes of clarity, however,
Ill stick with the American 8x57mm name.
field. Standard infantry loads for it had a 500-grain

roundnose bullet of lead alloy, likewise seated over a
heavily compressed charge of black powder. It is not
difficult to determine which of the three nations was
most advanced in terms of firearms technology.
Four years later, the second of the three rounds came
about, the 7x57mm Mauser, and there still exists some
confusion as to who exactly engineered it. Because
the first adopting military organization was Spains
army, and because it almost instantly became the favorite military round among many Spanish-speaking
South American countries, some sources give credit
to Spain for its development. Other sources say Mauser
designed it in Germany at the behest of Spain. Regardless, Spain officially adopted the 7mm in 1892. It
shot a 173-grain FMJ roundnose at approximately
2,300 fps. The next year Spain adopted a brand-new
Mauser turn-bolt design for its standard infantry rifle,
using the new integral, five-round box magazine
thereafter standard for Mauser bolt-action rifles. Prior
Lets put 1888 in perspective. The Germans new

8x57mm used a 227-grain FMJ roundnose bullet with
a rated velocity of approximately 2,100 fps propelled
by smokeless powder. In the same year, the Brits
adopted the .303 British, using a rimmed case with a
215-grain bullet over a heftily compressed charge of
black powder. The United States Army, at that time,
clung to its .45 Govt Model 1886 trapdoor Spring-
Mauser
6.5mm, 7mm and 8mm
40
Handloader 291
Loads for
Three
Military
Mainstays
to that, Mauser rifles held cartridges
in a straight column with a magazine box extending beneath the
stock directly in front of the trigger
guard.
There is no confusion about who
developed the next round. It was a
joint effort by Swedish and Norwegian ordnance officers. They determined that their new smokeless
powder cartridge would be 6.5mm
with a case length of 55mm. However, for some reason not known
today and often not recognized
today as significant by handloaders, they did not copy the prior
8mm and 7mm cartridges. True,
the new 6.5x55mm did have a rimless case head, but it was dimensionally unlike the two earlier
military rounds.
To help explain this point, several
current reloading manuals were
consulted for specifications on these
three cartridges. Sierras aforementioned book indicates the 8x57mms
case head diameter just ahead of
the extractor cut is .470 inch, the
7x57mms measurement there is
.471 inch and the 6.5x55mms is
.476 inch. Hornadys Handbook of
Cartridge Reloading 8th Edition
Facing page, original military loads
(left to right): 6.5x55mm (Sweden),
7x57mm (Spain) and 8x57mm (Germany).
Right, this trio includes (left to right): a
German K98k 8mm with ZF41 1.5x
scope, a Brazilian Model 1908 7mm
and a Swedish Model 1896 6.5mm
with Leupold 2.5x Scout scope.
In front is a Brazilian Model 1898 7mm. Behind it is a Spanish Model 1893 7mm.
The cartridge can be loaded to higher pressures in the 1898 than in earlier Mausers.
gives the dimensions as .469, .471

and .480 inch in the same order.
Speers Reloading Manual #14 gives
.4698, .4711 and .4782 inch, again
in the same order. The point is that
listed dimensions vary. At least all
three sources agree on case length.
From large bore to small, they are
2.240, 2.235 and 2.165 inches.
As a final arbiter of 6.5x55mm,
7x57mm and 8x57mm dimensions,
original military cartridges case
heads were measured. They were
as follows: 6.5x55mm, .477 inch;
7x57mm, .471 inch; and 8x57mm,
.469 inch. Why this fuss about case
heads? When some American ammunition factories decided to offer
6.5x55mm, they simply built it upon
the standard .30-06 rimless case
head of .470 inch, most likely as a
cost-saving move. Therefore, their
brass for 6.5x55mm starts out
.006/.007 inch small, which coupled
with generous military chambers,
can conceivably cause a problem.
for which the vast bulk of 8x57mm

rifle barrels was made. American
ammunition manufacturers have
been scared of the difference for a
century, which is the reason why
some U.S.-made 8x57mm factory
ammunition is loaded so weakly.
According to Speers Reloading
Manual #14, the SAAMI specifications call for factory loads to
give only 37,000 CUP (copper units
of pressure). European ammunition makers dont concern themselves with this J/JS stuff and
load 8x57 factory ammunition to
50,000 CUP. At the same time Germany switched to the .323-inch
bore, it also adopted spitzer bullets. Its 8x57mm loads carried 154grain FMJs fired at a phenomenal
2,880 fps.
While discussing pressures, lets
look at some of the military boltaction rifles chambered for these
three cartridges. To the best of my
knowledge, the 6.5x55mm Swedish
An important detail handloaders

must consider with the 8x57mm is
the J and JS factor. Until 1905 or
thereabouts, the Germans used a
barrel groove diameter for this
round of .318 inch (J-bore). Then
in that year a switch was made to
.323 inch (JS bore), the diameter
This Swedish Model 41b (1896 with

scope) was destroyed when a case
head failed, allowing gas to pass back
into the action.
Mauser was never chambered in

the last and strongest of the Mauser
bolt action, the Model 1898. The
Swedes started out with a Model
1894 carbine and then adopted the
Model 1896 rifle. Both were loosely
patterned on the Model 1893 Spanish 7x57mm. For Models 1894 and
1896 Swedish Mausers, SAAMI
specs call for 6.5x55mm pressures
no higher than 46,000 CUP.
There also is the point of handling gases in the rare event of
cartridge case failures. In his book
The Mauser M91 Through M98
Bolt Actions, Jerry Kuhnhausen
covers the subject well. He writes,
The M98 action was developed
during a time when blown cartridge cases and case head separations were quite common. Later
in the same paragraph, he states
again, referring to the 98: Mauser
designed and produced a case hardened action that was tough, but
not brittle, so that it would not
The Mauser bolt in the rear has the

third locking lug of the Model 1898.
The front bolt is from a Swedish Model
1896 with two locking lugs.
Mauser
42
Handloader 291
Above, these three Mauser cartridges were loaded with only

these two powders. Right, only two bullets were used per
cartridge. From left to right, 6.5mm: Sierra 140-grain spitzer
boat-tail and 140-grain Berger HPBT; 7mm: 140-grain Nosler
Ballistic Tip and Hornady 139-grain Spire Point; 8mm: Hornady
195-grain Spire Point and Nosler 200-grain HPBT.
shatter when stressed or when high

pressure gases were suddenly released. Additionally, Model 1898
Mausers gained a third locking lug
as opposed to only two for pre-98
versions.
At this point I would like to interject that I have been able to examine and photograph a Swedish
Model 41b (a Model 1896 fitted

with a scope) that shattered just
as Kuhnhausen described. It happened when a U.S.-made 6.5x55mm
case head apparently failed on its
first firing, releasing gas back into
the action. The action was destroyed, but the rifles barrel was
intact except for the rest of the
case firmly stuck in its chamber.
That brings us to the 7x57mm. It

was produced in Mauser military
rifles of both strength levels, with
perhaps the earlier, weaker versions being predominant. Handloads for 7x57mm Spanish 93s,
Chilean 95s, etc., should also adhere to the SAAMI set level of
46,000 CUP. That said, Model 1898
43
Mauser
in 1941 changed to a 139-grain

spitzer at 2,600 fps (Neutrality
Through Marksmanship by Doug
Bowser). Determining 7x57mm
military ballistics is far more complicated. Spains original loading
in the 1890s was mentioned previously. Cartridges of the World 9th
Edition has Brazils and Columbias 7x57mm loads with 139-grain
spitzer bullets at 2,950 fps, a
Uruguay load with a 142-grain FMJ
at 2,740 fps or a Mexican load using a 155-grain FMJ at 2,300 fps.
7x57mm military rifles are not

rare. At a small Montana gun show
two years back, I had hopes of
finding a 98 Mauser 7mm and
came across two. One was a German-made Brazilian Model 1908,
and another was a Czech-made
VZ24. I bought the former and since
have regretted not buying both. A
7x57mm 98 Mauser, if in good condition, can be loaded to 50,000 CUP.
It can be said that most military
8x57mm rifles encountered will
be based on the Model 1898 action. Again if in good condition,
they can be used with the 50,000
CUP loads. However, it should be
stressed that not all 8x57mm rifles
are Mausers. Just last week someone handed me a rifle to identify.
Despite Nazi Germanys Waffenamts stampings and a G98/40
marking, it obviously was not a
Mauser 98. At first I had no clue,
but a little research revealed it
to be Hungarian made, loosely
based on the countrys Model 95
Mannlicher action. Some Italian
Although 8x57mm military loads

were fielded by various nations in
a vast array of bullet weights and
ballistics, by the 1930s Germany
settled on the sS Patrone with a
198-grain FMJ bullet at a bit over
2,500 fps. Thats the one I strive to
copy. Standard rifling twist rates
for 6.5mm, 7mm and 8mm in the
same order were one turn in 7.9
inches, one in 9 and one turn in 10
inches.
Germany labeled its 8x57mm military

round sS Patrone. The box with red letters indicates it was meant for machine
guns but could be used in rifles in an
emergency situation.
Carcanos also were made as

8x57mms late in World War II.
They certainly are not equal to good
condition Model 98s in strength.
As with most military cartridges
that served in various armed forces
for decades, the basic loadings
of these three evolved from their
beginnings. Swedens original
6.5x55mm loads had 156-grain
roundnose bullets at 2,450 fps but
From the late 1990s to early in

the twenty-first century, my handloading experience with 6.5x55mm
and 8x57mm was nil. I had loaded
7x57mm but only for a few sporting rifles. Never had a military rifle
Military Mauser Handloads

bullet
(grains)
powder
charge
(grains)
case
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
velocity
(fps)
extreme
spread
(fps)
2,444
2,450
2,473
2,393
2,582
67
26
33
45
73
about 2.0 MOA

less than 2.0 MOA
less than 2.0 MOA
less than 2.0 MOA
very close to specs
2,624
2,766
2,645
2,719
60
74
29
74
between 2.0 and 3.0 MOA
3.04
2,550
2,440
16
49
3.14
2,510
50
two MOA, both 195-grain

loads good for most
big game
under 2.0 MOA and good
for vintage sniper matches
2,446
44
comments
6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser Model 1896, 29.1-inch barrel, Leupold 2.5x Scout scope:
140 Sierra spitzer boat-tail
140 Berger HPBT
Varget
IMR-4350
Varget
IMR-4350
36.0
40.0
36.0
40.0
Lapua
2.90
3.23
142 Swedish military FMJ (Norma)
7x57mm Brazilian Mauser Model 1908 (Mauser 1898), 29.1-inch barrel, issue open sights:
139 Hornady Spire Point
140 Nosler Ballistic Tip
Varget
IMR-4350
Varget
IMR-4350
40.0
46.0
40.0
46.0
Winchester
3.07
3.05
8x57mm German K98k, 23.6-inch barrel, 1.5x ZF41 scope:

195 Hornady Spire Point
Varget
IMR-4350
47.5
52.0
200 Nosler HPBT
Varget
47.0
IMR-4350
52.0
Hornady
Notes: All groups were fired at 100 yards. Chronograph figures taken with start screen at approximately 6 feet. CCI 200 Large Rifle standard primers were
used in all loads.
44
Handloader 291
A 2.5x Scout scope on a Swedish Model

1896 provided 112 MOA groups.
for any of this trio passed through

my hands, but as the centuries
changed, so did I. At this writing,
there is still the single 7x57mm
Mauser in my racks, but alongside
it are two 6.5x55mm Swedish
Mausers and no less than eight
8x57mm rifles. Through those 11
rifles, I have fired several thousand handloads and factory loads.
One result of that shooting is that
I think the Swedish Mausers and
their fine cartridge are at the top
of the heap in regard to military
rifle accuracy. My first Swedish
With the issue open sights of a Brazilian Model 1908 7mm Mauser, typical
groups run in the 2- to 3-MOA range.
Mauser was a standard opensighted Model 1896. My retirementaged eyes only allowed groups at
100 yards in the 2.5- to 3.0-MOA
range. Then I discovered an Internet outfit named Accumounts
selling what it called No Gunsmith Scope Mounts (www.accu
mounts.com). Even with a total
lack of mechanical ability, I had a
2.5x Leupold Scout scope mounted
With a 1.5x scope, fine accuracy can

be had with a K98k 8mm Mauser.
in minutes. That turned my first

6.5x55 into a 1.5-MOA rifle with
most handloads.
The shooting/hunting world doesnt need me to tell them that the
7x57mm Mauser is fine for big
game. Hunters have used it for over
a century. What I have found in my
military rifle shooting is that a
good condition 7x57mm Mauser is
capable of fine precision, even if
(Continued on page 69)
45
.338
Lapua
Magnum
Tips and HighPerformance

Handloads
The .338 Lapua Magnum shares the same .338-inch

bullets as the .338 Winchester Magnum but
has notably greater powder capacity and is
designed for long-range work.
Brian Pearce
he .338 Lapua Magnum (LM)

was initially developed in
1983 by U.S.-based Research
Armament Industries (RAI).
After further development, it was
adopted as a military sniper and longrange cartridge to fill the void between the 7.62x51mm NATO (.308
Winchester) and .50 BMG. As is often
the case with government-adopted
cartridges, it is now enjoying considerable popularity among civilians,
where it is being used for hunting and
target competitions. Every major U.S.
ammunition company is now producing loads, and a variety of rifles are
appearing on dealer shelves.
46
Original development by RAI was based on the .416

Rigby case necked down to accept .338-inch bullets,
with the case shortened and the shoulder angle
changed. Initially it was loaded to push a 250-grain bullet around 3,000 fps. The Rigby case, however, was not
really ideal for the notably greater pressures generated by the .338/416, and there were reported failures
just forward of the head. As a result, RAI contracted
with Brass Extrusion Labs Limited (BELL) to make an
improved or strengthened case, but those, too, were
unsatisfactory. In 1984 RAI began working with Lapua
of Finland to make cases, but due to financial difficulties, RAI was unable to continue development and discontinued pursuing military adoption.
Beginning in 1985, Lapua went back to work on the
cartridge, putting it into production in 1987, but it had
been further redesigning from the original .338/416
RAI version, with special attention to increase the
strength of the web and sidewalls just forward of the
head. Cases were also designed with an increase in
zinc content, which was intended to make the brass
stronger to better withstand pressures. This metallurgy combination, however, has caused cases to delaminate (or split) without even being fired, which
resulted in additional changes in the brass formula,
Handloader 291
and they were annealed at the case

mouth and shoulder to enhance accuracy, etc. Ultimately the cartridge
was given a 20-degree shoulder
(rather than the 45-degree shoulder of the .416 Rigby) and a case
length of 2.724 inches. Maximum
overall cartridge length was 3.681
inches, making it even slightly
longer than the .375 H&H Magnum.
Most of the worlds major military forces have officially adopted
the .338 LM, and it has seen considerable use in conflicts, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
where it has flexed its long-range
muscles with confirmed kills at over
2,700 yards more than 1.5 miles.
is the Savage AccuTrigger, which

is factory set with a crisp let-off of
just 12 ounces.
The most common twist rate for
the .338 LM is one turn in 10 inches
(with Sako being 12 inches); however, the Savage rifle features a
9-inch twist. The 10-inch twist is
suitable with all 250-grain bullets
and will stabilize even longer bullets, such as the Barnes 265-grain
TAC-TX BT and 280-grain LRX BT,
the Hornady 285-grain BTHP, Sierra
300-grain HPBT MatchKing and
Berger 300-grain Hybrid. At extreme ranges, however, the 9-inch
twist offers greater bullet stability
with the above heavyweight bullets. On the other hand, this faster
twist will produce slightly greater
chamber pressures (with some
power setting. The lens system

is what Leupold refers to as the
Xtended Twilight that optimizes
low-light wavelengths and light
transmission and is finished with
DiamondCoat 2 for durability and
protection from the elements. At
just 11.9 inches in length and 23.6
ounces, it is around 20 percent
shorter and lighter than the competition.
There are no SAAMI standard
pressure guidelines for the .338
LM, but there are CIP standards.
Regardless, it has been loaded to
different pressures levels, with
most production ammunition (both
U.S and foreign) currently being
held to around 61,000 psi maximum.
A variety of factory loads were
Above, a Savage Model 110 BA was

used to develop handload data. Right
and far right, a Leupold Mark 6 3-18x
44mm scope was matched with the
rifle and has many tactical features.
In sporting applications, it has

proven accurate in long-range match
competition and offers enough
muscle for larger species of thinskinned game such as elk, moose,
the great bears of the North and
African plains game.
Early .338 LM rifles were offered
by Sako, but today several U.S.
rifle manufacturers are offering
firearms so chambered. A Savage
Model 110 BA was obtained, which
is primarily designed for law enforcement and long-range target
work, but it would also serve as an
excellent test vehicle for developing load data. It features the Savage all-aluminum AccuStock with
Magpul buttstock, a 26-inch barrel
with muzzle brake and detachable,
five-round magazine. Also standard
available published data giving excess pressure in this rifle).

A couple of years back, Leupold
introduced its new Mark 6 riflescopes that offer state-of-art design, quality and precision. For
review purposes, on the Savage
Model 110 BA, the 3-18x 44mm
model was selected, which has a
34mm tube (installed in Leupold
Mark 4 34mm rings). One of its
many significant features is its first
focal plane that magnifies the reticle along with the image and allows hunters and target shooters
accurate referencing (or range estimation) at all ranges and at any
checked for velocity and accuracy

(Table I). From a sandbag rest, the
Model 110 BA managed to place
four shots from every factory load
under one inch at 100 yards, with
select loads staying under .5 inch
or less. At 200 yards, some of the
better loads would stay under .75
inch.
All bullets used in factory loads
are available as components, and
with the many excellent magnum
rifle powders available, it was easy
to assemble handloads that dupli-
47
Factory loads from Remington,

HSM, Federal and Black Hills
were referenced for velocity
and accuracy.
Table I
.338 Lapua Magnum

Factory Load Performance
load
(grains)
250 Black Hills Sierra Match

250 Federal Sierra Match BTHP
250 Hornady BTHP
250 Remington Scenar Match
285 Hornady BTHP
300 Black Hills Sierra MatchKing
300 Federal Sierra Match BTHP
300 HSM HPBT Match
advertised
velocity
(fps)
actual
velocity
(fps)
best
group
(inches)
2,950
2,950
2,900
2,960
2,745
2,800
2,580
2,735
2,937
2,934
2,914
2,861
2,766
2,671
2,561
2,701
.70
.85
.65
.45
.50
.90
.65
.50
Notes: A 26-inch barreled Savage Model 110 BA was used to test-fire the
above loads at 100 yards.
cated all factory loads, and in

some instances exceeded them.
In preparing for this handloading
article, I began purchasing new
Lapua .338 LM cases more than
two years ago. The components
shortage is nationwide and I (prob-
for Handloader magazine and Load

Data.com. Cases were never available in large quantities and were
purchased in various lot numbers
and from different sources. Also
obtained were cases from HSM,
NoslerCustom, BHA (which are
Many varieties of bullets for
various applications are
available for the .338 Lapua
Magnum.
ably like you) have struggled in

obtaining the items necessary to
keep shooting and developing data
manufactured by various sources)

and Hornady, which manufactures
its own.
The Lapua cases were prepared

by sizing, trimming, chamfering
case mouths inside and out, uniforming flash holes, etc., but the
lot numbers were kept separated.
In weighing these cases, there were
three distinct weights (without
primer) at around 325, 328 and 333
grains. When load development
began, it quickly became apparent
that these lot numbers each behaved differently. One batch of-
fered sticky case extraction prematurely, while the identical load

in cases from a different lot number handled the load without issue.
Regardless of how the case behaved with a given load, velocities
of each were very similar. Research indicated this is primarily
the result of metallurgy changes
that Lapua has made to the case.
I was especially pleased with the
precision associated with NoslerCustom cases, which came from
the factory fully sized, trimmed,
chamfered and the primer flash
holes uniformed. The work has
been done, and they are ready for
a pet load. They also handled maximum pressure loads with ease, as
did HSM cases.
48
Handloader 291
Table II
.338 Lapua Magnum Handloading Data
bullet
(grains)
200 Hornady SP-RP
200 Hornady SST
200 Nosler AccuBond
215 Sierra SBT
225 Nosler Partition
225 Nosler AccuBond
225 Barnes TTSX
powder
H-4350
charge
(grains)
80.0
82.0
84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
91.5
VV-N160
80.0
82.0
84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
RL-19
86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
94.0
96.0
RL-19
85.0
87.0
89.0
91.0
93.0
95.0
VV-N560
89.0
91.0
93.0
95.0
97.0
MagPro
92.0
94.0
96.0
98.0
100.0
102.0
IMR-7828 91.0
93.0
95.0
97.0
99.0
RL-22
81.0
83.0
85.0
87.0
89.0
91.0
93.0
H-4831
82.0
84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
94.0
96.0
RL-19
80.0
82.0
case
Lapua
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
3.565
Lapua
3.565
Lapua
3.580
Lapua
3.575
Lapua
3.540
Lapua
3.580
HSM
3.565
velocity
(fps)
2,985
3,033
3,095
3,159
3,190
3,256
3,301
2,976
3,020
3,088
3,139
3,195
3,249
3,295
3,074
3,133
3,200
3,261
3,324
3,378
2,982
3,040
3,118
3,165
3,244
3,301
3,036
3,112
3,199
3,276
3,344
2,988
3,044
3,111
3,149
3,218
3,267
2,990
3,061
3,159
3,239
3,314
2,766
2,833
2,880
2,955
3,015
3,072
3,130
2,780
2,828
2,890
2,941
2,981
3,056
3,101
3,144
2,944
2,982
Various manufacturers cases held

between 111.2 to
114.9 grains of water
when filled level with
the case mouth. When
filled to the bottom of
the neck, capacity dropped to between 101.3 and 104.8 grains.
comments
Cartridges that utilize .338-inch

bullets have been popular for
decades with examples including
the .338 Winchester Magnum, .340
Weatherby Magnum, .338 Remington Ultra Mag, .338-378 Weatherby
Magnum and others. These are
primarily designed for hunting big
game, and as a result, there is a
wide variety of excellent bullets
that are suitable for any practical
purpose. With the exception of the
Nosler 180-grain AccuBond, which
was not available at press time,
the lightest practical bullets are
the Hornady 185-grain GMX and
Barnes TSX, both of which are designed to give significant penetration for their comparatively light
maximum
maximum
do not reduce
49
(Continued from page 49)
weight. Due to
lack of having
enough quantities of either bullet on hand to develop proper handload data, they were
necessarily omitted from the accompanying data, but each of the
above bullets can be used with
200-grain bullet powder charges.
Having had extensive field experience with this caliber and with
a variety of game, select generalpurpose favorites include the
Nosler 225- and 250-grain Partition, Barnes 225-grain TSX and
TTSX and Swift 250-grain A-Frame.
However, the Hornady 225- and
250-grain Spire Point, Nosler 225and 250-grain AccuBond and Sierra
250-grain BTSP have proven effective on elk, moose and other
thin-skinned game and cost significantly less. The Barnes 250-grain
TSX is an outstanding bullet that
offers impressive penetration that
is both deep and straight, and stabilizes at any reasonable distance
that big game will be taken in 9-,
10- and 12-inch twist barrels.
Being designed for long-range
target work and military applications, the .338 LM thrives on match
bullets with high ballistic coefficients (BC), with many excellent
choices being offered. Examples
from Hornady include the 250grain BTHP Match and 285-grain
BTHP Match with a G1 BC of .670
and .700, respectively. Both bullets
yielded exceptional accuracy in
the Savage rifle. Sierra offers its
Table II
bullet
(grains)
225 Barnes TTSX
250 Speer Grand Slam
250 Nosler Partition
250 Hornady BTHP Match
250 Sierra SBT
285 Hornady BTHP
powder
RL-19
charge
(grains)
84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
VV-N170 93.0
94.0
95.0
96.0
97.0
98.0
99.0
H-4831SC 85.0
87.0
89.0
91.0
93.0
95.0
VV-N165 84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
94.0
IMR-7828 83.0
85.0
87.0
89.0
91.0
92.5
RL-22
80.0
82.0
84.0
86.0
87.0
89.0
Retumbo 89.0
91.0
93.0
95.0
H-4831SC 82.0
84.0
86.0
88.0
90.0
MagPro
87.0
89.0
91.0
93.0
VV-N165 86.0
88.0
90.0
92.0
93.0
RL-22
72.9
76.8
80.7
84.6
86.5
case
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
HSM
3.565
Nosler
3.500
Nosler
3.540
Nosler
3.565
HSM
3.575
HSM
3.625
velocity
(fps)
comments
3,023
3,066
3,135
3,187
3,226
2,985
3,003
3,040
3,082
3,093
3,131
3,153
2,978
3,018
3,066
3,133
3,190
3,224
2,686
2,742
2,790
2,866
2,918
2,970
2,648
2,701
2,754
2,839
2,911
2,949
2,632
2,688
2,770
2,817
2,889
2,951
2,851
2,899
2,935
2,969
2,785
2,828
2,895
2,935
2,976
2,777 do not reduce
2,836
2,859
2,923
2,799
2,843
2,909
2,951
2,963
2,325
2,417
2,538
2,641
2,723
50
Handloader 291
Above, assorted brass showed variances in how it handled

.338 Lapua pressures. Right, NoslerCustom brass and Federal
215 Large Rifle Magnum primers were used for developing
most of the load data.
250- and 300-grain HPBT MatchKing with .587 and .768 BC, respectively, with the latter version being
especially popular with long-range
competitors. Berger has gained an
outstanding reputation with its
competition bullets, including the
250- and 300-grain Match Hybrid
with unusually high BCs of .682
and .818, respectively. Bergers
Elite Hunter bullets in the same
weight offer an identical BC. Either the Hybrid or Elite Hunter
bullets can be used with 250- and
300-grain data; just be certain to
start at least 7 percent below maximum charges. Barnes offers its
280-grain LRX BT with a BC of .667,

but in spite of having a match-type
profile, this is a hunting bullet that
offers X-Bullet style expansion.
The best performing powders
are generally found with a burn
rate that falls between IMR-4350
and Vihtavuori N570, of which
there are many. With 200-grain
bullets, notable accuracy was obtained with Alliant Reloder 19,
Vihtavuori N160 and Hodgdon H4350, while Reloder 19 and H4831SC were top choices with
225-grain bullets.
by far the most popular in this

caliber, several powders could either duplicate or exceed factory
load performance, including Vihtavuori N165, IMR-7828, Reloder
22, Hodgdon Retumbo, H-4831SC
and Accurate MagPro. These are
all top-quality powders and have
the potential to offer extreme accuracy, but RL-22 and H-4831SC
With 250-grain bullets, which are
Table II
bullet
(grains)
285 Hornady BTHP
powder
W-780
RL-25
300 Sierra HPBT MatchKing
VV-N560
H-4831SC
RL-22
charge
(grains)
case
74.9
78.6
82.2
85.9
87.7
77.2
80.8
84.3
87.8
89.6
76.7
78.5
80.2
82.0
83.7
76.2
78.1
80.0
81.9
75.9
77.6
79.2
80.9
HSM
HSM
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
3.625
3.680
velocity
(fps)
2,410
2,488
2,600
2,727
2,804
2,391
2,468
2,561
2,673
2,748
2,502
2,543
2,591
2,670
2,711
2,464
2,502
2,579
2,613
2,475
2,500
2,571
2,602
Notes: A Savage Model 110 BA with a 26-inch barrel was used to fire all loads. Federal 215 Large Rifle
Magnum primers were used throughout. Bullet diameter: .338 inch; maximum overall loaded length:
3.681 inches; maximum case length: 2.724 inches; trim-to length: 2.714 inches.
This four-shot group with Remington

ammunition measures .782 inch and
was fired at 200 yards from the Savage
Model 110 BA test rifle.
offered potentially the best accuracy. Moving up to 285- and 300grain bullets, these same two
powders again produced topnotch accuracy, as did VV-N560.
To achieve proper powder ignition, a large rifle magnum primer
is strongly suggested with Federal 215 being used here. The CCI
250 and Remington 9 Magnum
primers were cross-referenced and
can be used as substitutions for all
the accompanying load data.
Although its origins date back
more than 30 years, with todays
long-range sporting rifles and scientifically advanced bullets and
optics, the .338 Lapua Magnum is
well on its way to becoming widely
popular.
51
Shooting
for Cheap
John Haviland
hile shooting away with

a bolt-action rifle at 100
yards, practicing from
various positions, quite a
spread of .308 Winchester cases had
accumulated on the ground. Each one
of those cases represented at least
50 blown out the rifles muzzle with
every pull of the trigger. Figuring the
expense of all those cases loaded with
jacketed bullets made me first flinch
at the cost and then on the trigger.
So I went home to develop cast bullet loads for the rifle. After experimenting with five different cast bullet
designs and a variety of powders, the
financial flinch has at least been
cured.
The only way to not break the bank and still keep Mikayla
Midtlyng in .308 cartridges is to load cast bullets.
Cast
Bullet
52
.308
The moulds chosen encompassed a variety of bullet

designs:
The RCBS 30-165-SILH bullet has a forward section
.300 inch in diameter that rides between the lands of
a .30-caliber bore. A rear section comprises about onethird the length of the bullet and is sized .001 over
groove-to-groove diameter with a gas check crimped
on the base. Two-thirds of the bullets length is supported by the bore. It has provided good accuracy in
a number of rifles, including a Savage 99 .300 Savage,
four .30-06s and a Model 70 .300 Winchester Short
Magnum.
Lymans 311467 bullet is an old-school design with a
short ogive and long, full-diameter body with a multitude of bands. The top band measures .304 inch in diameter and the next one down .306 inch. That taper
supposedly allows the bullet to enter the chamber
throat squarely with the bore. The remainder of the
bands has an as-cast diameter of .311 inch and is sized
to .309 inch while adding lubricant and crimping on a
gas check. Two-thirds of the bullets length is supported by the bore.
The SAECO No. 307 180-grain FPGC has a flat point
and is more of a hunting bullet. With a muzzle velocity
of 1,900 fps from a .30-30 Winchester (aka, .30 WCF),
the bullet has worked quite well for white-tailed deer.
Sixty percent of its length comprises a body of full diameter, plus one-fourth of the length of its forward
parallel measures .300 inch in diameter. As a result,
about 70 percent of the bullets length is supported by
the grooves and lands.
The RCBS 30-150-CM bullet has a plain base and a
broad, flat nose. Half its length consists of a full-diameter body. About half the portion in front of the body
is .299 inch in diameter before it tapers toward the
nose. About 70 percent of the bullets length is supported by the rifling grooves and lands.
The NEI 175-308-300 bullet also has a plain base. A
full-diameter body forms about a quarter of its length.
A .30-caliber jacketed bullet costs about 35 compared to a

cast bullet at about 5.
Its long front section is under bore diameter at .298

inch and tapers to a pointed tip. The front of a bullet
slid into the muzzle of my .308 Winchester rifle with
some wiggle room nearly all the way to the front driving band. That cant be good for accuracy, because
only a rather short length of the bullet is supported by
the rifling.
I have made a big deal of how much each bullet was
braced by the rifling grooves and lands. Its especially
important for relatively soft, lead alloy bullets, because bullets failing to bear against the rifling can
enter the bore crookedly or tip as they go through it
certainly no good for accuracy. A bullets undersized
front section can be increased in diameter by casting
with a harder lead alloy, but that increased diameter
is at the most .001 inch between relatively soft wheelweights and harder Linotype. Lyman No. 2 alloy (90
percent lead, 5 percent tin and 5 percent antimony)
was used to cast bullets from the five moulds. It is not
much softer than Linotype, so the front of the NEI bullet would not have been noticeably larger in diameter.
Loads in the
Winchester
53
Above, these cast bullets were used to develop inexpensive

.308 Winchester loads (left to right): RCBS 30-150-CM, RCBS
30-165-SILH, Lyman 311467, SAECO 307 and NEI 175-308300. Right, four of the cast bullets loaded in .308 Winchester
cases had overall cartridge lengths shorter than the .308s
maximum cartridge length of 2.81 inches. However, the NEI
175-308-300 bullet (far right) had a much longer loaded
cartridge length (2.81 inches), because its narrow front failed
to contact with the rifling.
A narrow front section can be expanded by compressing it in a sizing die, but that is an involved step.
Its easier to cast a bullet with the
correct diameter nose.
The SAECO and RCBS SILH bullets dropped from the moulds with
body diameters of .310 inch. The
Lyman, NEI and RCBS CM bullets
measured .310 inch. Pushing them
in and out of a .309-inch sizing die
only slightly sized the bullets and
ironed out their seams and squirted
lubricant into their grooves. Gas
checks were added to three designs. The Lyman bullets looked
like candles with their numerous
grooves full of lube.
The uniform velocities these powders turned in were very satisfying. For instance, the extreme
velocity spread was 2 fps with W760, 30 fps with IMR-3031 and 22
fps with IMR-4895 shooting the
RCBS bullet. Velocity spreads
were 0 fps with H-4198, 12 fps with
IMR SR-4759 and 21 fps with
H-322 shooting the SAECO bullet. The Lyman bullet turned in a
spread of 34 fps shooting A-5744,
21 fps with H-4198 and 7 fps with
Reloder 7.
The RCBS and NEI plain-base

bullets required the gentler handling of a velocity in the neighborhood of 1,300 to 1,500 fps. When
accuracy of these plain-base bullets falls off at higher velocities,
its not because the bullets are stripping through the rifling or being
squashed by the force of the powder
gases. More likely, excessive pressure has slightly distorted the soft,
unprotected base of the bullets.
To attain that velocity, I loaded
Below left, a plain-base bullet does not require a gas check and saves about 3
per shot. Velocities, however, must be kept at 1,500 fps or below for best accuracy.
Right, a gas check increases the cost of a cast bullet, but the little copper cup
allows accurately shooting bullets at upward of 2,200 fps.
I wanted a muzzle velocity between 1,800 and 1,900 fps for the
Lyman, RCBS and SAECO bullets
with gas checks crimped on. That
velocity would provide a sufficiently flat trajectory to shoot
targets out to 200 yards. To attain
that range of bullet speed, the
three bullets were loaded with
many of the powders commonly
used in the .308 Winchester with
jacketed bullets but at a reduced
weight. I also loaded these bullets
with a couple of faster-burning
powders.
.308
Winchester
54
Handloader 291
the plain-base bullets with powders usually loaded in handgun

cartridges. The RCBS bullet coupled with Red Dot is an accurate
combination in the .30-30 Winchester. The pair also worked great in
the .308 Winchester with an extreme velocity spread of 3 fps. The
RCBS bullets velocity was also
consistent with a 13-fps spread
with Clays, 19 fps with Titegroup
and 36 fps with Trail Boss. The
NEI bullet varied only 11 fps shot
with Trail Boss, 16 fps with
Unique and 33 fps with IMR-4227.
The .308 Winchester cartridge
lengths for the bullets listed in the
load table are where the bullets
contacted the rifling, but an unfired cartridge could still be easily
extracted from the rifle. Those
lengths were well short of the .308s
maximum cartridge length of 2.801
inches, except the NEI bullet. Its
nose was narrow enough to fit between the rifling lands. Its fulldiameter body bumped up against
the front of the chamber throat
The Lyman 311467 bullet (left) is an

old-school design with a long, fulldiameter body and short nose. The
RCBS 30-165-SILH bullet (right) has a
short body and a long bore-riding nose.
with a cartridge length of 2.880

inches. Because that was too long
to fit in the rifles magazine, the
bullet was seated deeper for a cartridge length of 2.81 inches.
The .308 Winchester used to fire

the loads was a bolt-action Colt
M-2012LT308G with a Meopta MeoPro 3.5-10x44RD scope clamped
on the receiver rail. This rifle has
accurately shot a variety of handloaded jacketed bullets, and it also
did pretty well with cast bullets.
The recoil of even the stoutest
cast bullet loads was mild from
the 10-pound rifle with its muzzle
brake in place. However, the brake
directed smoke and fumes from
the burning bullet lubricant back
into my face, so it was removed
and the shooting continued. Even
recoil from those stout loads remained at the same gentle level.
Perhaps the relatively light amounts
of powder and low pressures failed
to develop enough gas to channel
through the vents in the brake for
it to work. With the brake off, the
recoil developed by RCBS 30-150CM bullets and 8 to 11 grains of
various powders barely bumped
the scopes reticle off the aiming
squares.
55
.308
Winchester
The front of the NEI 175-308-300

bullet was narrow and easily slipped
between the lands in a Colt Model 2012
barrel, resulting in poor accuracy.
The nose of the RCBS 30-165-SILH
bullet engaged the tops of the lands in
a Colt Model 2012 rifle.
The three gas check bullets were

plenty accurate with one or several
powders to shoot out to at least
200 yards. The Lyman bullet shot
okay. Groups were somewhat less
than 3.0 inches with three powders. Each of those groups had
two bullets nearly touching and

the third out a ways. Alliant 2400
produced the tightest group. The
SAECO bullet shot very well with
four powders. Its groups had a bit
of a horizontal spread caused by a
6-mph crosswind and occasional
gusts of 15 mph. The SAECO bullet fired at 1,927 fps with H-4198
would make a great load for deer
hunting. The RCBS SILH bullets
.308 Winchester Cast Bullet Loads

bullet
(grains)
143 RCBS 30-150-CM
167 RCBS 30-165-SILH
176 Lyman 311467
175 SAECO No. 307 FPGC
178.5 NEI 175-308-300
powder
charge
(grains)
Red Dot
Titegroup
Clays
Trail Boss
IMR-4895
IMR-3031
W-760
BL-C(2)
A-5744
H-4198
RL-7
2400
H-322
SR-4759
H-4198
RL-7
Unique
Trail Boss
IMR-4227
2400
10.0
8.0
8.0
11.0
31.0
29.0
41.0
26.0
21.0
26.5
27.0
20.0
27.0
22.0
26.0
24.0
10.0
11.0
17.0
17.0
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
2.605
2.631
2.670
2.620
2.810
velocity
(fps)
100-yard
group
(inches)
1,536
1,398
1,319
1,439
1,787
1,822
2,186
1,537
1,799
1,915
1,985
1,779
1,875
1,949
1,927
1,834
1,353
1,280
1,468
1,546
2.07
1.96
1.48
2.97
1.37
1.23
2.80
1.46
2.75
2.69
2.97
1.34
.68
1.89
1.10
2.20
Notes: All loads used CCI 200 Large Rifle primers with LC 7.62 NATO cases. Velocities were recorded
10 feet in front of the 22-inch barrel of a Colt M-2012LT308G rifle. The rifling twist rate was one in 10
inches.
56
Handloader 291
Above left, bullets cast from SAECO mould 307 and loaded over H-322 in the Colt
M-2012 .308 rifle produced this group at 100 yards. Right, the .308 loaded with
bullets cast from an RCBS 30-150-CM mould and 10.0 grains of Red Dot is about
as cheap as you can shoot. This group was shot at 100 yards.
accuracy was also good. The group

shot with W-760 was the only one
with some spread. A muzzle velocity of nearly 2,200 fps from 41.0
grains of W-760 may well be the
point where the bullets alloy begins to deform.
prone. I may have flinched on the

trigger now and again but never at
the price of those .308 Winchester
cartridges.
The plain-base bullets shot well

and not so well. The RCBS bullets accuracy was mostly good
across the board. Even at 1,500 fps
from Red Dot, the bullet shot suitably. Id report on the accuracy of
the NEI bullet, if there was any.
The bullets flew here, there and
everywhere, even with a muzzle
velocity slightly slower than 1,300
fps. The bullets must have tilted in
the bore, because their long forward section was unsupported by
the rifling lands. With no lubrication on the front of the bullets,
lead had gummed up the rifling
after six shots.
Linotype, Pure Lead, WW alloy, Lyman #2,

16/1-20/1-30/1, other alloys available.
Manfacturer of hard cast pistol bullets.
Cowboy Action Shooting bullets.
By handloading these cast bullets, I can shoot a lot of .308 Winchester cartridges for a little cash.
The bullets cost only a couple of
pennies apiece to cast, and a gas
check adds a few more pennies to
the price. A few more pennies for
a primer and 10 for powder, and
.308 cartridges cost 20 apiece.
The cost is 10 to shoot a plainbase bullet with 10.0 grains of
powder. At that price I can shoot
all the .308s I want.
In fact, recently I shot nearly 50
.308 Winchester cartridges loaded
with RCBS 30-165-SILH bullets
and IMR-3031. Recoil was mild,
and I shot pretty well sitting and
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125 GR.
130 GR.
180 GR.
180 GR.
160 GR.
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9mm 115 GR. RN /500
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.38
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158 GR. SWC /500
.40
180 GR. RNFP /500
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57
Terry Wieland
hile at the range recently,

there was a strange sight:
a half-dozen guys were on
their hands and knees,
combing through the grass, looking
for brass. Yes, it has come to that. In
some parts of the country, desperate
for something to shoot, handloaders
have become equally desperate for
the components that make it possible.
9mm, .38 Special, .45 Auto and .45 Colt for $10 to $20
for a box of 50. At 20 to 40 a round, a handloader
could hardly do it for less.
The same thing happened in various parts of the U.S.,
and its all to the good for most of us, most of the time.
Until, that is, a shortage hits, and the cheap ammunition disappears from the shelves. Then it pays to have
loading dies and a supply of components brass, bullets, powder, and primers or take up golf instead.
The trouble now is, although many people want to
start loading handgun ammunition, components are
either hard to find or completely impossible. Primers?
Well, theres no substitute for them, and all you can do
is obtain some any way you can; and plan to lay in a
A Scroungers Guide to
Loading Semi
For months, the greatest shortages were in ammunition for ARs (.223 Remington), other paramilitary
rounds (.308 Winchester) and most desperate of all
9mm Luger, .380 ACP and .45 ACP. Notice that those
five have a few things in common.
First, most of the millions of rounds are shot in semiautomatics. Casings are flung hither and yon, far and
wide, onto pavement and concrete, bouncing off
walls, hiding under leaves and burrowing into the
gravel. Theyre a pain to pick up, when they can be
found at all, and they are usually dirty and dented. Second, because they are in such great demand for both
military and civilian purposes, every company in the
world produces them in massive quantities. They sell
so cheaply, in their most basic form, that these days
its hardly worth anyones while to handload them.
When I was shooting IPSC 25 years ago, everyone reloaded. You couldnt afford to shoot otherwise. Then,
a dozen years ago, in the part of southern Ontario,
Canada, where I lived, an enterprising shooter set up
a business remanufacturing ammunition. He made
deals with shooting ranges to take all their spent
brass, put it through extreme resizing, cast his bullets
in bulk, repackage cheaply and sell such calibers as
58
supply, once things get back to normal, knowing that

the next time an antigun president is elected, the panic
buying will occur all over again.
Bullets? Here theres more leeway. If favorite jacketed Speers and Hornadys have disappeared from the
shelves, there are usually some cast bullets to be had
that will work fine. And, in the absence of commercial
lead, you can either cast your own or throw yourself
on the mercy of a lead-melting friend. If you choose to
cast your own, you do get into expense in both money
and the time required to learn the skill.
Brass? Believe it or not, many outdoor ranges are saturated with stuff that was never picked up and gradually disappeared from sight in the grass. Get down on
your hands and knees and paw through the dirt looking for it, and youll come up with quite a lot. Not all
will be the caliber you want but but! it will be a caliber someone else wants. Take it home, clean it up,
and use it for trade goods. Well come back to brass
later, and the requirements for cleaning and conditioning before using.
Powders are, in some ways, the easiest. Since small
handgun rounds dont use much, a pound of Bullseye,
for example, will do 3,000 to 5,000 rounds of .380; the
Handloader 291
same amount of Unique will fill up

1,000 to 1,500 9mm Luger rounds.
The problem is, these popular
handgun powders are the first to
disappear. Here is where you need
to improvise.
If you have some old loading
manuals, consult them and see
what alternatives might work in
your favorite caliber. Newer manuals tend to ignore ancient propellants like Herco, but they are
included in old manuals because
for years they were a mainstay.
Herco itself is a shotgun powder,
and as such it sees less use than
formerly, but its still good.
Even during recent shortages,
shotshells and shotshell components have not suffered the same
Shortages always engender a return to barter, and anything unwanted may be used to trade for
other components. There are many
tales of guys in gun shops who
dont find what they want themselves but buy components they
know others will need. Take the
brass home, clean and deprime,
polish it up, put it in some nice
new plastic bags, and youll have
some highly desirable trade goods.
With that in mind, a little hoard of
.40 S&W, say, can be turned into a
stash of primers or some .32 ACP
brass into a pound of Bullseye.
One great thing about brass is
that, for all intents and purposes,
it can sit out in the rain and mud
and never deteriorate. It discolors,
Finally, deprime and resize. Carbide dies are almost essential for
this, simply to save time spent in
lubing and delubing. After this, I
put them into the tumbler and polish them up.
For the three cartridges in question .380 Auto, 9mm Luger and
.45 ACP that headspace on the
mouth of the case, its important to
ensure they are the right length. A
practical way of handling this is
to set your caliper at the proper
length, check each case and separate those that need trimming from
those that dont. The good stuff
can be put to use immediately,
then go back and do a massive
trimming operation later.
As for what cases can be reloaded
automatics
drastic shortages. An eight-pound
keg of a great shotgun powder like
Clays provides the means of loading thousands of rounds. Other
possibilities are Red Dot, Blue Dot,
Universal, 700X and 800X.
Not every manual includes Clays
as a handgun alternative, but the
Hodgdon Reloading Data Center
on the Internet is a good source of
loading information for any Hodgdon powders, including IMR and
Winchester. Pick a cartridge, then
work back from the powder in
question (for example, click on
9mm Luger, look at the powders
that will work in it, click on Clays,
and it provides data.)
While down on your knees combing the grass, pick up everything.
but an hour in a tumbler solves

that. Just about any brass (provided its real brass and not plated
steel) can be made pretty again.
My method for cleaning brass is to
remove obvious debris, then put it
into a Hornady Sonic Cleaner bath.
This is before depriming: You dont
want abrasive grit grinding your
dies.
Next, sort by manufacturer and
caliber. Once Ive isolated 50 or so
in a specific caliber, each case is
inspected closely. Particularly, pay
attention to cases with unfamiliar
foreign headstamps, and check for
Berdan primers, identifiable by the
twin off-center flash holes. Inadvertently trying to deprime one of
these results in a broken pin and
major irritation.
and what cannot (or should not),

Robin Sharpless at Redding was
consulted. I would not attempt to
reload any of the steel stuff, he
said. We use brass for its ability to
seal the chamber and then spring
back without stressing too much.
Inherently, steel is more resistant
to movement, so it likely stresses
more through the action. Redding
suggests good, high-quality brass
from SAAMI- or CIP-affiliated manufacturers or those that rigorously
adhere to those standards as a matter of their manufacturing process.
Some cases are labeled as nonreloadable, including aluminum
and other alloys found in the cheapest ammunition. With some imported stuff, you wonder what on
earth the metal actually is. Others,
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

59
Loading
Semiautomatics
Speers 125-grain cast bullet (left) has

the same profile as the military FMJ bullet, while Hayleys Custom Ammunition
cast bullet is an exaggerated truncated
cone (Ideal 356402) copied from the
original German World War I bullet.
Above, imported ammunition can be
very inexpensive, but the brass may not
be brass at all. This recovered brass is
unidentified but, put beside American
brass such as Federal (right), the differences are obvious. Right, assorted,
grungy brass can be salvaged, cleaned
and used again and, probably, again.
mate the process as much as possible.
such as plated steel cases, are

questionable. I would not put them
through my dies, and most manufacturers recommend strongly
against it. I would have to be a lot
more desperate than I am before
using them. This is where a magnet on the loading bench can be
very useful, to see exactly what
you are dealing with.
munition for these calibers are

consumed at a prodigious rate. It
is not at all unusual for a shooter
to fire 50 to 100 rounds at every
sitting. Dedicated target shooters
usually have progressive and automated presses that can produce
thousands of rounds. Turning out
the same amount with a singlestation press is a chore.
Having assembled brass, primers

and suitable powders and bullets,
the last step is putting it all together. Target and practice am-
So how do we make do with what

we have? Again, some advice from
Robin Sharpless, who uses Reddings T-7 turret press to auto-
I am not a progressive fan, especially for one just getting started,

he said. The T-7, employing a system and a 50-round loading block,
together with a quality powder
measure, can be used to generate
large volumes of quality ammunition very quickly. If we use a carbide die and in-line primer feed on
the press, we reduce handling to
almost nothing.
Sharplesss system has seven
steps. All three dies (resizing, casemouth expansion and bullet seating) are placed in the rotating
head. If taper crimping is required,
the fourth die can be added.
(1) Insert case and resize/deprime;
(2) rotate head, expand case mouth
Far left, SR-7625 rifle powder works
extremely well in the .380 Auto. It, along
with the other SR powders (4756 and
4759) are to be discontinued this year.
Left, Herco is very useful in handguns,
although it is excluded for this use from
most modern handbooks, so one should
start at the minimum and work up. Below,
Hodgdon Clays is an excellent shotgun
powder that is easy to use in small pistol
cases, such as the 9mm Luger.
Handloader 291
Above, when Terry visited Sierra in February, these 35,

90-grain bullets were Sierras entire stock of slugs for the
.380. Right, new Starline brass is excellent quality, requiring
no case conditioning before loading.
Loads for Semiautomatics

cartridge
.380 Auto
9mm Luger
.45 ACP
bullet
(grains)
90 cast
90 Sierra JHP (8100)
125 Speer cast
125 Sierra JHP (8125)
230 Cramer cast
200 Sierra FMJ (8825)
powder
charge
(grains)
primer
case
PB
SR-7625
Herco
Clays
Herco
Universal
3.0
3.5
5.0
3.5
5.5
6.0
Federal GM100M
Starline
mixed*
Starline
mixed**
Starline
Starline
Federal GM100M
Federal GM150M
overall
loaded
length
(inches)
velocity group
(fps)
(inches)
.984
.933
1.166
1.100
1.270
1.155
852
906
1,057
1,019
740
809
4.70
4.67
5.81
3.84
4.30
2.80
handgun
Walther PPK/S
Glock
Kimber Gold Match II
* mixed Federal and Hornady brass

** mixed Federal brass
Notes: Bullet description includes the manufacturers product number (in parentheses) where possible. Velocity is the average of five shots over a chronograph 10 feet from the muzzle. Group size is one five-shot group at 20 yards, with a sandbag rest.
on upstroke and reprime on downstroke; (3) place case in 50-round

loading block; (4) repeat 50 times;
(5) with a full block, use a powder

measure to dump all 50 loads, holding the block under the measure;
(6) when finished, visually check

every round to ensure no double
loads and place a bullet in each
61
Loading
Semiautomatics
case mouth; (7) seat bullets. If
needed, click turret and taper crimp
as a second seating operation.
Once a handloader gets the hang
of this and establishes a rhythm,
producing a few hundred rounds
at a sitting is no problem at all. I
prefer to bell the cases in one operation, then seat primers in the
next using an RCBS priming tool,
but thats more habit than anything else.
Semiautomatic cases should be
belled whether cast or jacketed bullets will be used. The bell should
be so slight it is not visible to the
eye but can just be felt with the
fingertips. It aids proper seating
and alignment, and the mouth is
readily returned to the correct
shape for headspacing.
With these three cartridges, reliable feeding, extraction and cycling
the action are required. Velocity
and pinpoint accuracy are secondary, since were producing am-
munition for general practice. If

loading ammunition for either selfdefense or serious target work, I
would do a few things differently.
Two loads in each caliber were
put together one with cast bullets and one with jacketed using
data that was strictly middle of the
road. Even so, they worked out
pretty well.
Neither .380 load was especially
accurate in terms of group size,
but both grouped exactly where
the Walther PPK/Ss sights were
pointed. The 9mm load was none
too good with lead bullets Id
want to improve that before loading 1,000 of them but acceptable
with jacketed bullets. In the case
of the .45 Auto, the lead load was
acceptable and the jacketed load,
using Sierra 200-grain FMJs, was
very good indeed.
All these groups were shot using
only a sandbag rest and factory
sights at 20 yards. For a clutch of
desperation loads, using whatever I could find, they didnt turn
out too badly.
NOTES ON THE HANDLOADS USED

The .380 Auto load with PB is
from the Hodgdon Data Center.
The .380 Auto and SR-7625: Clay
Harvey (Propellant Profiles)
recommends 7625 as the performance powder in the .380
and uses 4.1 grains. Speer Reloading Manual #11 recommends a range from 3.2 to 3.4
but with an 88-grain bullet.
Sierra recommends 3.3 to 3.8 in
the fifth edition (2003) but in
the second edition (1985) gave
a range from 3.3 to
4.6 grains. Hodgdon now gives just
one load, 3.2 grains
maximum. A starting load of 3.5 grains
seemed prudent.
ABCs, 3rd) and is excluded

from most modern handbooks
as a result. Start at the published minimum and work up.
The 9mm load with Clays is
from the Hodgdon Data Center.
The .45 ACP load with Herco
is from John Wootters article on
Herco (Propellant Profiles). The
.45 ACP Universal load is from
the Hodgdon Data Center.
The 9mm and Herco:

Few loads are available. Herco is noted
for varying pressures
in handguns (Grennell,
62
Handloader 291
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64
RCBS Tube
Bullet Feeder
Progressive loading machines
are a part of life for many highvolume handgun shooters. It
wasnt all that long ago that
case feeder accessories came
along to provide a major increase in the rate of production, but bullet feeders showed
up only very recently. The first
one I saw was designed by a
former Dillon employee and is
known as the GSI Bullet Feeder.
I got all excited until I learned
it could only be used with
jacketed bullets. The stated
reason was that lead bullet
lube gummed up the works.
Since the majority of my highvolume loading is with cast
bullets, I did not pursue it further. Since then, others have
offered feeders with the same
restriction.
Handloader 291
This year the RCBS catalog

shows a tube bullet feeder
that can use either jacketed or
cast projectiles. It reminds me
of the old Hulme case feeder I
once had for a Star reloader,
where cases were held in a tall
plastic tube and pushed into
the tool head by a cam. There
are no moving parts here, and
while some cleaning may still
be needed, it will not be a monumental project. The big news
is that while the RCBS electric-powered feeder for jacketed bullets costs $558.95, the
tube feeder costs $37.95.
RCBS lets gravity do the work.
As long as the tool has four or
more die stations, the feeder
can be used with any progressive loader. The kit comes in a
long plastic tube along with
well-illustrated, easy-to-follow
instructions. There are three
sizes: The smallest is suitable
for use with .380 ACP, 9mm
Luger and .38/.357 revolver ammunition. The others are for
.40 S&W and .45 ACP. I havent
tried it, but the .45 should also
work with .45 Colt, and the
smaller one with .38 Super/ACP.
It looks very much like a conventional die with a long tube
sticking out the top. The heart
of the matter is a little molded

Delrin part the company calls
bullet fingers that serves to
keep bullets from falling out of
the tube. It is accompanied by
a tiny rubber Tension Band
that should be familiar to anyone who has ever had braces
on their teeth. The band keeps
the fingers from opening too
widely. This assembly is held
into the bottom of the die portion by a spring-clip retaining
ring. There is a cut in the die
body where the clip fits, but it
is one of those fiendish gadgets that is easy to install but a
challenge to remove.
The die body screws into the
press like any other die. Next
is a bullet guide, much like a
funnel, that lines up the bullets
as they go into the fingers.
As the charged case goes up
into the die body, the case
mouth pries the Delrin fingers
open a little to allow one bullet
to pass. Whatever you do, dont
try to fill the tube and put it in
the die a sure recipe for bullets everywhere. Instead, put
the empty tube in the die and
drop in enough bullets until a
couple can be seen extending
above the die body. Expansion
of the case mouth is critical
and RCBS recommends expanding 0.030 inch over bullet
diameter using the following
measurements: .380/9mm = .385
inch, .38/.357 = .387 inch, .40
S&W = .430 inch and .45 ACP =
.481 inch.
When a charged case is inserted into the feeder, the case
mouth expands the bullet fingers enough to allow a bullet
to pass through. As the case is
removed, they close up to prevent another bullet from falling.
The only trick is to adjust the
position of the die, and this is
.302
.338
.375
.416
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65
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This is a gage to measure consistency of rim thickness on

.22 rimfire ammunition (a .22
rimfire rifles headspace is determined by case rim thickness).
The more consistent the rim
thickness, the more consistent
the ignition of the primer and the powder
charge in the case. In other words, the firing pin will fall the same distance every
time if the same rim thickness is used on
every case being fired for a particular
group. By sorting the shells into various
groups by rim thickness, a reduction in
group size of up to 25% can be realized
in some IF NOT MOST rimfire rifles. This
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from the .22 rimfire benchrest participants who compete in the extremely difficult BR-50 matches. All of the top
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66
best done using a dummy case

that has been properly expanded and gradually adjusting the die down until you see
the level of bullets in the tube
drop. The die should not be
positioned any lower than absolutely necessary to avoid possible damage to the fingers.
Once this is done, tighten the
screw and lock the die in place.
Unless bullet type or weight is
changed, its good to go.
Then I outsmarted myself. Remembering the old Star case
feeder, I drilled a hole in the
tube and put in a cotter pin
just above the die body. But
when I pulled the pin on a tube
full of bullets, I got a vivid illustration of one of Mr. Newtons laws. Even though the
bullets only had to fall about
an inch or two, they built up
quite a head of steam, and the
result was bullets everywhere.
The solution took two steps:
Start with a tube with just
enough bullets to allow adjustment for proper feeding. When
done, and with a few left in the
tube, put in a full tube and pull
the pin. It helped to have the
ram up at this stage, but then
success! The only minor glitch
was that sometimes when the
bullet tube was running low,
there wasnt enough weight to
push a bullet through.
One perennial question about
progressive loaders is: How
many rounds can one load in
an hour? First of all, no tool
the hobby loader would own
can run for an uninterrupted
hour. Sometimes the published
numbers seem to be inflated or
obtained by a well-trained pit
crew. As an owner and frequent
user of three progressive tools,
I justify that due to convenience and the needs of my
work, and there is no doubt
the bullet feeder speeds things
up. With the 650, and working
at a leisurely pace, I get 10 to
11 rounds per minute and about
half that with the manual indexing Pro 2000.
Handloader 291
One of the ongoing debates

concerns manual versus auto
indexing of the shell plate. I
had flirted with auto some time
ago, but it wasnt until I got the
650 that I became a fan. With it
I could go at a leisurely pace
and still make all the ammunition I wanted. By adding a case
feeder, my right hand never left
the handle and the left shuttled back and forth with a bullet. When first using the RCBS
feeder, it took a long time to
make my left hand stop reaching for bullets. I think my pace
is still leisurely, and eventually
Ill figure out what to do with
the left hand.
Sometime ago I wrote about a
friend who had loaded 290,000
rounds through an old Herters
single-stage press that was new
in the 1950s. After he read the
piece, he rather indignantly told
me that I was wrong. The real
number was 300,000. Im pretty
sure I have done that many also
on a countless number of tools.
However, I also know he is tell ing the truth, because the press
is mounted on an old green
desk, and he has made a mark
for every brick of 1,000 primers
that he opened. As I was finishing this work, I thought to
check again; now its 305,000.
Who knows what it will be by
the time this is published?
I use the manual indexing
RCBS Pro 2000 for rounds I
67
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68
dont shoot in quantity. Right

now it is set up for 9mm, but
the same feeder can be used
for .380 ACP, .38 Super and .38
Special/.357 Magnum. Previously, my left hand did most of
the work, because it had to
make two trips to rotate the
shell plate, then put brass and
bullet in their proper places.
The improvement is that my
left hand can now turn the
shell plate and insert a piece of
brass in one motion. My lei surely rate was 6 to 7 rounds
per minute.
One of the limiting factors for
tools with rotating shell plates
is centrifugal force. If it turns
too fast, powder or bullets can
be slung hither and yon. Sometimes we may sacrifice quality
for quantity in a search for
higher loading rates, because
really rapid operation leaves no
time for inspection or reflection. When youre really hustling, there is an intoxicating
rhythm, and if something goes
wrong, it may be too late to
stop. One recent curse is the
change to small primer pockets on some .45 ACP brass.
There is nothing wrong with
the small pocket brass with
the exception of trying to cram
a large primer in there. If not
stopped at the first sign of
resistance, the result can be a
loud noise, or lots of them,
with a significant risk of damage to property or person. Sometimes haste really does make
waste.
As said, much of my loading
is with cast bullets, and Ive
found that bullet lube can and
does accumulate on the bullet
fingers of the feeder. A cotton
swab wet with bore cleaner is
a helpful tool. We are often
told we should buy some gad get or another as a time saver.
In this case, that really is true.
For more information contact:
RCBS, 605 Oro Dam Blvd., Oro ville CA 95965; 1-800-533-5000;
or online at: www.rcbs.com.
Charles E. Petty
Handloader 291
Mauser
From the BLACK POWDER ERA

through WWII
For some reason the 8x57mm

Mauser never caught on with
American sportsmen as have the
6.5mm and 7mm rounds. It seems
Hornadys 195-grain Spire Point at
2,500 fps would be excellent for
elk and moose. Sadly, health problems keep me out of the hunting
fields nowadays, so I try to compensate by shooting these military
rifles in competition.
Custom Ammunition
Specializing in the:
100 years old. As of yet, a scout

scope hasnt been fitted to the
Brazilian Model 1908, but its on
the to-do list. Even so, Ive routinely fired five-shot groups of
2.0 to 3.0 MOA. What I have not
found possible is duplicating that
supposed Brazilian military load
giving 2,900 fps with 139-grain bullets. My handloads top out at 2,700
to 2,800 fps.
Hayleys
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In an effort to simplify things,

two powders are my primary
choices for loading all three of
these Mauser cartridges: IMR-4350
and Varget. Naturally, powders
similar to or between those two in
burning rates are likely to give
good results, depending on individual rifles.
One component I wont change
is the use of Lapua brass from Finland in the 6.5x55, because it is dimensionally correct. In regard to
7mm and 8mm Mausers, most any
commercial brass serves well,
along with any standard large rifle
primers.
For bullets, my preferences are
for those near in weight to those
favored by the military organizations from where each rifle originated. In other words, the Swedes
ended up with 139-grain spitzers,
so I use 139/140-grain designs. Brazil thought that same bullet weight
was good for its 7mm Mausers,
so I do too. The Germans went to
those heavy 198-grain bullets, so
Ive concentrated on Hornady 195grain Spire Points and Nosler or
Sierra 200-grain HPBT competition bullets.
69
Reloaders Press
ing around in the forest, but its

your hide thats at stake, not some
macho image associated with the
big-bore handgun riding on your
hip. Unless folks are exceptionally
good with a handgun, leave it home
and rely on a rifle or carbine until
such time that you can pull a sixgun from a holster, aim and hit
a 6-inch target at 10 feet inside .5
second or so. Dedicated practice
will make the movements smooth,
and direct. Of course, its much
easier to be motivated to practice
after a bear has threatened you.
Hint: Wax or Speer plastic bullets
powered by primers are cheap to
shoot and easier to work with
Custom, odd, obsolete and specialty

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70
until such time that speed and accuracy are acquired. Then switch
to full-house loads when you are
capable of getting the gun out of
the holster without shooting yourself in the leg or foot.
In case folks dont want to take
the time to look it up, a .30-30 carbine or a 12-gauge slug load has
more punch than a .44 Magnum
sixgun. In his book Sixguns by
Keith, Elmer mentions on page
134, Up to at least 50 yards, a good
heavy sixgun load seems to kill as
well as most .30/30 rifles . . . The
sixgun load Keith referenced is apparently his 250-grain semiwadcutter over 17.5 grains of 2400 that
develops about 1,200 fps in a .44
Smith & Wesson Special with a
5.5-inch barrel and fairly duplicates his load of record for the .44
Magnum that produced similar velocity from a 4-inch Model 29.
Back in the days when I worked
in the backcountry on survey crews
with the U.S. Forest Service and
Soil Conservation and civil engineers, bear encounters were relatively rare. Most of those critters
were well beyond 30 yards, seemingly unperturbed as they casually
wandered off. Out of a dozen or
so encounters, outside of the one
that slapped me around, the closest, around 15 feet or so, was a
young black bear that was working its way through my backpack
one morning when I poked my
head out of my sleeping bag. I
yelled, the bear grabbed one more
candy bar for the road and ran
off, causing me to reflect over the
years that one of the most relieving sights in all the outdoors has
to be when you can see the pads
on all four feet simultaneously as
a bear disappears into the high
lonesome.
Obviously, there are a few folks
who recommend carrying whatever handgun in bear country.
Staffer Phil Shoemaker lives and
guides brown bear hunters in
Alaska (Grizzly Skins of Alaska),
and we have had this debate where
Phil wrote that I stated, . . . shooting a bear with a handgun is a
fantasy, but I actually said almost
Handloader 291
a fantasy, but whos quibbling?

(Handloader No. 233 June-July
2003) I can go along with Phils rationale, mostly because he has
years of experience and can read
a bears intent, and there is hardly
a day in his hunting and fishing
areas that you dont have a fair
chance of bumping into a bear.
He is comfortable with a handgun
under those circumstances, so
its his choice. On the other hand,
there is an area around the old
stage road south of Bill Williams
Mountain that is about 25 miles,
the way the crow flies, from our
office that is littered with acorns
and bear scat. I sometimes wander around in that area prior to
deer or elk hunting seasons, and
while there may be a handgun in
my back pocket, either a .44 Magnum or .45 Colt S&W Mountain
Gun, there is a rifle or carbine in
my hand that, according to the
PACT timer, when I simply have to
pull the hammer back and pull the
trigger, shaves about .15 second
roughly the time required to get a
handgun out of a holster off my
reaction time with a handgun. Im
comfortable with that.
Gas Checked & Plain Base Match Grade Cast Bullets

Everything from 7mm to .500 S&W, 20-22 BHN
Real Keith Bullets - .357, .41, .44 & .45
440, 465 & 500 Gr. in .500 S&W, .460 S&W - 395 Gr.
We supply all of CorBons

cast bullets!
349 NW 100 St. St. John, KS 67576

Tel: 620-549-6475
Website: www.proshootpro.com
Rifle Tang Peep Sight

Adjustable for Windage and Elevation
Fits Most Lever-Action Rifles
Blued Steel Finish
Made in the U.S.A.
WWW.THEHAWKENSHOP.COM
One subject left out of correspondence from readers was dogs. I

know of one brown bear attack
that was prevented because a dog
distracted the bears attention long
enough for the person to get to his
rifle. In Arizona, a dog must to be
on a leash when hiking or camping on public state or federal
land, and thats probably good advice anywhere, to hold the dog
close, so it wont get mauled, unless of course the bear wont back
off. In either case, a bear will usually pick a fight with the dog first.
More importantly, I suppose, a dog
will let you know if a bear is in the
immediate vicinity, which is the
other reason to keep the dog on a
leash, so it wont run off to chase
a bear, cougar, bobcat, javelina,
coyote or, more recently, a wolf
and get killed.
For additional reading see Handguns for Bear Protection by Brian
Pearce in Handloader No. 213,
October-November 2001.
71
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Contact: Norman Johnson
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Phone: 701-448-9188
243 14th Avenue NW
Turtle Lake, ND 58575
Quinetics
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Phone/Fax: 830-693-0237
www.quineticscorp.com
19 Badger / CZ 527 Rifle

My all time favorite varmint cartridge!
Quote from gunwriter Don Lewis, of Kittanning, PA after
over 40 years of shooting and writing about shooting.
Also offering:
19, 20 and 22 caliber Varmint Bullets
Custom CZ 527 Varmint Rifles
CZ 527 accessories including: Hunker scope
mounts, modified bolt handles, single-shot followers.
4343 U.S. Hwy 87

Havre, MT 59501
Ph: (406) 395-4079
www.james calhoon.com
In Range
and Rugers Hawkeye single-shot

pistol.
Loaded with a 60-grain bullet that
gave 2,800 fps from a 24-inch barrel, it lacked both the velocity for
serious varmint work and the bullet weight for deer. It was a .25,
when the hot diameters were .22
and .24, and was chambered in a
lever rifle, when levers were in
retreat.
Finally, it was billed as a dualpurpose cartridge for rifles and
handguns, like the .32-20 Winchester, and look where that ended up.
.25 WSSM
In the post-2000 short-magnum
mania, Winchester and Remington
fell over each other designing ever
more unnecessary variations on the
same questionable theme. With the
.25 Winchester Super Short Magnum, Winchester hit rock-bottom.
Its only rival for the dunces cap
was the very similar .223 version.
The quarter-inch cartridge realm
is ruled in the middle by the .25-06
Remington and at the upper end
by the .257 Weatherby Magnum.
The .25 WSSMs claim to fame, if
one can call it that, was delivering .25-06 velocities in a quarterinch shorter case, and that was it!
Hardly a red-hot sales pitch. The
cartridge went nowhere. It would
be interesting to know how many
were actually sold. It cant be many.
6.5MM REMINGTON MAGNUM

Introduced in 1966 for the futuristic Remington Model 600 boltaction carbine, the 6.5 Remington
Magnum was an excellent little
.264-caliber that deserved a better
fate. Alas for it, and for virtually
every other .264, Americans have
never warmed to this European
standard. From the .256 Newton
(1913) to the .264 Winchester Magnum (1958), even the lure of high
velocity has failed to break the
jinx.
The 6.5mm Remington Magnum
was contradictory, in that it offered less velocity than the already
72
Handloader 291
sickly .264 Winchester Magnum

but did so in a belted case. To
Americans in the mid-1960s, a belt
meant it should have more velocity than other cartridges.
If Americans did not want the
red-hot .264 Winchester Magnum,
why would they want the distinctly
cooler 6.5mm Remington Magnum, especially in a rifle with an
18-inch barrel? It didnt add up,
which suggests the ammunition
and rifle divisions of Remington
did not speak to each other, and
neither one spoke to their sales
reps or actual shooters.
.264 WINCHESTER MAGNUM

Why did this cartridge die, while
the almost identical 7mm Remington Magnum, which arrived four
years later, was so wildly successful? Several factors contributed,
but mainly it was reports of
washed-out barrels, the realization that magnum velocities dont
come from short barrels and a
dearth of hunting bullets that
could handle the velocity.
.308 NORMA MAGNUM

One of the best cartridges of the
short, belted crowd, it should have
been a wild success and might
have been, except Winchester came

along with the .300 Winchester
Magnum three years later, offering
slightly (!) higher velocities in a cartridge that was cheap, readily available and native-born. Sayonara,
.308 Norma.
8MM REMINGTON MAGNUM

It was supposed to compete with
the .338 Winchester Magnum. It
didnt. It was more powerful, but
not enough so, and since it was
based on the full-length .375 H&H
case, it required a longer action.
Also, there was little in the way of
8mm bullets to handle these velocities. There was no compelling
reason to choose an 8mm Remington Magnum over a .338 Winchester Magnum or a .375 H&H.
.350 REMINGTON MAGNUM

Introduced at the same time as
the 6.5 Remington, for the same
rifle, the .350 Remington Magnum
shared the same fate, and for much
the same reasons. Good cartridge,
but by the time its virtues for elk
in thick bush were eventually recognized, it was too little, too late.
MOST OF THE SHORT MAGNUMS

This may seem like cheating,
lumping all these together, but its

hard to differentiate among them,
except for such spectacular bombs
as the .25 WSSM. It almost seems
like Winchester and Remington
were deluded by their own press
releases and genuinely believed
that the shooting public craved
endless short-magnum designs.
The slavish adulation of much of
the shooting press didnt help either, constantly assuring Remington and Winchester that they were
on the road to Damascus and that
no such cartridge breakthrough
had occurred since the advent of
smokeless powder.
It was, of course, hogwash. Both
the .284 Winchester and 6mm PPC
embodied the same principles and
had done so 50 and 30 years earlier, respectively.
Is there a lesson here? Just one:
Big ammunition companies should
employ more people who actually
hang out at shooting ranges. Ideas
hatched in isolation by engineers
and marketing executives, oblivious to the desires of shooters themselves, seldom work. Or, in the
unlikely event that they do, its for
reasons no one expected.
AD INDEX
4D Reamer Rentals, Ltd..........................................70
Act Tactical .............................................................67
Action Bullets, Inc...................................................57
Alliant Techsystems, Inc. ........................................76
Anneal-Rite .............................................................28
Barnes Bullets.........................................................27
Berger Bullets .........................................................56
Berrys Mfg. ..............................................................2
Box Elder Innovations, LLC.....................................68
Buffalo Arms Company...........................................69
Bullet Proof Samples, LLC ........................................8
Bullets.com.................................................17, 19, 21
CJN Casting ............................................................21
Colorado Shooters Supply .....................................68
Conetrol Scope Mounts ....................................21, 71
Cooper Firearms of Montana, Inc. ..........................15
Crossbreed Holsters ...............................................20
Custom Brass and Bullets.......................................66
Dale Fricke Holsters ................................................26
Dayton Traister Trigger Co. .....................................71
Dillon Precision Products, Inc. ...............................49
Douglas Barrels, Inc. ..............................................68
DW Battlesight........................................................14
Elite Sports Express................................................70
Gebhardt Machine Company...................................66
Gemmells Machine Works .....................................24
GOEX, Inc. ..............................................................33
Gradient Lens Corporation............................9, 11, 13
Grizzly Industrial, Inc. ...............................................3
Gunstop Reloading Supplies, Inc............................22
Harrells Precision ...................................................67

Harris Engineering ..................................................20
Harvey Deprimer.....................................................68
Hayleys Custom Ammunition.................................69
High Plains Reboring & Barrels, LLC ......................72
Hornady Manufacturing Co.......................................5
Huntington Die Specialties................................50, 67
James Calhoon Mfg. ...............................................72
Johnson Design Specialties ....................................66
King Shooters Supply, Inc. .....................................66
Leadheads Bullets...................................................71
Little Crow Gunworks, LLC .....................................32
Lohman Arms .........................................................32
Lyman Products Corporation..................................25
Meacham Tool & hardware, Inc. .............................66
Merit Corporation ...................................................68
Midsouth Shooters Supply Co. ...............................29
Mike Bellms TCS ....................................................17
MTM Molded Products Company ...........................69
Neco-Accuracy Products ........................................74
NOE Bullet Moulds, LLC .........................................17
Norma.....................................................................62
Nosler .....................................................................23
Oehler Research, Inc...............................................29
Oregon Trail Bullet Company ..................................61
Pacific Tool & Gauge, Inc........................................12
PMA Tool ................................................................68
Precision Accuracy Company, LLC .........................64
Precision Reloading, LLC........................................43
Puff-Lon .................................................................66
Quality Cartridge .....................................................70

Quinetics Corporation .............................................72
RCE.........................................................................68
Redding Reloading Equipment ...............................71
RGB Bullet Company ..............................................29
Rigel Products ........................................................64
Rim Rock Bullets ....................................................57
Sharp Shoot R Precision, Inc..................................38
Sheep River Hunting Camps ...................................28
Shoot-Thru .............................................................28
Shotgun Sports ......................................................72
Sierra Bullets ..........................................................24
Sinclair International, Inc........................................10
Sisk Rifles, Inc........................................................69
Sonoran Desert Institute.........................................16
SouWester Outfitting .............................................29
SPG Lubricants.................................................68, 70
SSK Industries........................................................65
Starline ...................................................................55
Stockys Stocks ......................................................14
Swift Bullet Company ...............................................7
Timney Triggers, LLC..............................................30
Tru-Square Metal Products .....................................64
UniqueTek, Inc. .......................................................57
Vais Arms, Inc. .......................................................48
Western Powders .................................18, 31, 39, 45
Wineland Walnut.....................................................14
Wolfe Publishing Co. ........................................63, 75
Xcalibers Reloading Supplies .................................28
Zero Bullet Company, Inc........................................65
73
WHY CARTRIDGES FAIL

IN RANGE
by Terry Wieland
veryone, it seems, loves lists.

So lets start with a list of cartridges that failed, and then go into
the big question: Why? They are
the .222 Remington Magnum, .244
Remington, .256 Winchester Magnum, .25 Winchester Super Short
Magnum, 6.5mm Remington Magnum, .264 Winchester Magnum,
.308 Norma Magnum, 8mm Remington Magnum, .350 Remington
Magnum; and, in a multiway tie for
last, all but a couple of the short
magnums of a decade ago.
A year later, for reasons we can

only guess at, the company created
the .222 Remington Magnum. It
was ballistically identical to the
.223, although slightly longer. Once
the .223 Remington became the milThe .264 Winchester Magnum (left)
was introduced in 1959 and fizzled.
Four years later, the nearly identical
7mm Remington Magnum was a
runaway success almost from the
day it was born.
itary standard, however, with ammunition available in case lots,

the contest was over. This is a puzzling case of a company defeating
itself.
Ten seems to be the favorite

length for such lists, so well stop
there. For our purposes, a failed
cartridge is one that appeared
briefly, was not widely chambered
and faded quickly.
Every cartridge on the list has its
little band of fanatical devotees
who insist their baby was unfairly
treated and deserves respect, if
not resurrection. I confess up front
to affection for at least three of
them, but our feelings will not
change their status. Failed they
are, and failed theyll stay.
.222 REMINGTON MAGNUM

The .222 Remington, introduced
in 1950 as a totally new cartridge
based on no previously existing
.244 REMINGTON
case, is one of the all-time great

cartridge successes. Lengthening
its case to increase volume and velocity was an obvious next move,
which Remington did in 1957, in
the form of the .223 Remington,
for use in the AR series of military
rifles.
A perfectly good cartridge, a trifle better ballistically than the rival

.243 Winchester, the .244 Remington was done in by a miscalculation on the part of the people
at Remington. They viewed their
round as primarily a varmint cartridge suited for light bullets and
gave the rifle barrels a slow twist.
This delivered poor accuracy with
heavier bullets needed for deer.
By the time Remington rethought
it, renamed the cartridge the 6mm
Remington and produced it with
tighter twists, the race was over and
the .243 Winchester was munching hay in the barn.
.256 WINCHESTER MAGNUM

One of two cartridges introduced
in 1961 based on the .357 Magnum
case (The .22 Jet was the other.),
the .256 Winchester Magnum was
in the wrong place at the wrong
time, with the wrong stuff. Designed by Winchester but never
chambered in a Winchester firearm, the .256 found a home only in
the Marlin Model 62 Levermatic
74
Handloader 291
Colt
s
Single Action Army
The Colt SAA is as
popular today as it was in
the past. This legendary
revolver played an
important role in
the history of the
American West.
In this detailed volume,

Editor Dave Scovill shares
his knowledge of how to
develop accurate loads
for these fine guns and
the skills needed to
shoot them.
Catalog #554.3
$54.00
Plus $7.25 shipping & handling
in the U.S.
Call for foreign rates.
AZ residents add 8.35% tax.
Wolfe Publishing Co.

2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A
Prescott, AZ 86301
ORDER:1-800-899-7810 or
www.riflemagazine.com
From the original firstgeneration guns to the

replicas that are available
today, this book is the
definitive source on
reloading and shooting
the Colt Peacemaker.
This hard-bound edition
contains 160 full-color
photographs and is a
worthy addition to any
sportsmans library.
NOW
AVAILA
BLE!

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338 Lapua Magnum Loads

Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Loads for the Factory .17s!

Display until 9/13/14

Cartridge Board Gil Sengel

Loading the Three

Pistol Pointers Charles E. Petty

From the Hip -

Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer

Issue No. 291

Product Tests Staff

Shooting for Cheap

Publisher/President Don Polacek

Wolfe Publishing Co.

Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer

An average grizzly skull is shown with

anyone indiscriminately shooting

buy a .44 or .45, end up carrying

should be denied access to the

to carry a firearm in the woods for

aware of. Good grief, critics get on

A Winchester Model 94 .30 WCF (left)

by a black bear that knocked him

demonstrate that even if you have

carry a handgun of whatever caliber, theres a 50/50 chance they

you have .5 second to shoot it

: I thoroughly enjoyed your

Hodgdon Varget is an excellent powder

produce pressures differently than

2000, Buffalo Bore switched to

Buffalo Bore Ammunition utilizes a small

cantly and has the potential to

when subjected to recoil in the

Winchester 748 and Accurate 2520

Cultivating Natures Beauty!

lets. I do have several potentially

with bridging in this small caliber, especially considering the

.44 SPECIAL CAST BULLETS

Accurate No. 2 powder is a top choice

A: Thank you for your letter. A

nyone who has fired even a

aimed. The second one was just as

Many, if not most, BPCR Silhouette

through mutual friends, and Steve

SPG Bullet Lubricant was developed

Mike Bellms TCs

barrel between shots. It worked!

During his early days of black powder

asked, How can you do that? I

both black and smokeless powders.

The above smokeless load is

Traditional .45 Colt Handload Data

250 Oregon Trail Laser-Cast RNFP

to shoot only factory ammunition

pleasant to shoot. Deer and black

Oregon Trail Laser-Cast 250-grain

better, we cannot ignore just how

Brians .45 Colt handloads duplicate ballistics of traditional factory loads.

minimal leading and best accuracy when used in revolvers with

to duplicate traditional .45 Colt

.41 SHORT RIMFIRE

his issues cartridge was a