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$5.99 U.S./Canada

August 2014 No. 291Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Display until 9/13/14 Printed in USA

7 2 5 2 7 4 0 1 2 4 0 4

0 8

$ 5 . 9 9

Loads for the Factory .17s!

.338 Lapua Magnum Loa

ScroungersGuide toLoading

Semiautos

Cast BulletLoads for the.308 Winchester

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Page 26 . . .

Page 40 . . .Page 30 . . .

4 Handloader 291

August 2014Volume 49, Number 4

ISSN 0017-7393Issue No. 291

Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer

8 Bears Reloaders Press - Dave Scovill

12.35 Whelen Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

16Black-Powder Fouling Mikes Shootin Shack - Mike Venturino

18Traditional .45 Colt Loads From the Hip - Brian Pearce

34 Loading the Three Factory .17s The Subtleties of Tiny-Tipped Varmint Cartridges John Barsness

40 Mauser 6.5mm, 7mm and 8mm Loads for Three Military Mainstays Mike Venturino

46 .338 Lapua Magnum Tips and High- Performance Handloads Brian Pearce

Page 46 . . .

22.41 Short Rimfire Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

26Case Trimming and Other Onerous Chores Pistol Pointers - Charles E. Petty

30 Olde Eynsford Black Powder Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

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Publisher of Handloader is not responsible mishaps of any nature that might occur from usepublished loading data or from recommendationsany member of The Staff. No part of this publicatimay be reproduced without written permission frothe publisher. Publisher assumes all North AmericRights upon acceptance and payment for all mascripts. Although all possible care is exercised, tpublisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mtilated manuscripts.

Issue No. 291 August 201

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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

Contributing Editors

John Haviland Ron SpomerBrian Pearce Stan Trzoniec

Charles E. Petty R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

Clair Rees Mike Venturino

Gil Sengel Ken Waters

Terry Wieland

Advertising

Advertising Director- Tammy Rossi

[email protected]

Advertising Representative - Tom Bowma

[email protected]

Advertising Representative - James Dietsc

[email protected]

Advertising Information: 1-800-899-7810

CirculationCirculation Manager Kendra [email protected]

Subscription Information: 1-800-899-781

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Handloader (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bmonthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Presiden2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301 (alpublisher ofRifle magazine). Telephone: (928) 447810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizonand additional mailing offices. Subscription priceU.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $22.912 issues, $39.00. Foreign and Canada single issu$5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12 issues, $51.00. Please allo8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnisheon request. All rights reserved.

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Wolfe Publishing Co.2180 Gulfstream, Ste. APrescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124 Polacek Publishing Corporation

Background Photo: 2014 Gary Kramer6 Handloader 291

52 Cast Bullet Loads in the

.308 Winchester Shooting for Cheap John Haviland

58 A Scroungers Guide to Loading Semiautomatics Desperate Times, Desperate Measures Terry Wieland

64 Brass Grippers Product Tests - Staff

74 Why Cartridges Fail In Range - Terry Wieland

On the cover . . .

This Remington Model 700 .17 Remington Fireball wears a Swarovski variable powscope; the cartridge lineup includes, from left: .17 Hornet, . 17 Remington Fireball,.17 Remington. Photos by John Barsness. Coyote photo by Vic Schendel.

Page 52 . . .

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Handloader 2918 www.handloadermagazine.com

For whatever reason(s), a num-

ber of readers seem to be fas-cinated with the debate about whathandgun(s) might be suitable for

protection from marauding bears black, grizzly or brown, take yourpick. So it wasnt much of a sur-prise that John Havilands featureinHandloaderNo. 288, .357 Mag-num Heavy Bullets Testing Loadsfor Bear Country, caused somefolks to come unglued, mostly de-claring that the .357 Magnum does

not have sufficient power to put acharging bear down. No reasonwas given regarding the so-calledpuny nature of the .357 with heavybullets, and no evidence was of-fered to back up the conclusion it just wasnt and isnt suitable forsmacking a nasty bear. (See ElmerKeiths remarks on page 279 of

Sixguns by Keith regarding DougWessons successful application ofthe .357 Magnum on moose, elk

and grizzly.)Never mind that John went to

the trouble of conducting penetra-

tion tests in wet newsprint that,based on my tests with rifles andhandguns over the years in thesame medium, demonstrates morethan enough power to penetratethe brain pan of your average bear.For example, 14 to 16 inches isabout average for a 150-grain bul-let fired from a .30-06 at 100 yards,so where critics had not conductedtests to back up their opinion, theychose to prosecute the messenger.

Some suggested a .44 Magnum isthe bare no pun intended min-imum for dealing with truculentbears of any ilk. Others includedrecommendations for pepper spray,along with a .44-caliber and largerhandgun(s). Not that some of theremarks werent well intended, butit was reasonably apparent thatnone of those folks had ever beenthe victim of a bear attack. Theyhad lots of advice, some of which

came from the local fish and gamefolks who obviously dont want

anyone indiscriminately shootingup their bears. While I dont mindreading and responding to critics,

Im amazed sometimes when folksgo on a nit-picking rant, ignoringthe fact that John and son Thomashave spent the vast majority of

their lives living, working and hunt-ing in close proximity to bears.

None of the above, or what fol-lows, should be construed to meanthat folks without first-hand expe-rience arent entitled to an opinion,

but some remarks were uncalledfor, e.g., Havilands recommenda-tion for the .357 Magnum couldget someone killed.

First, John was not recommend-

ing the .357 but simply describinghis efforts to develop heavy loadsin an effort to increase sectionaldensity of the bullet and improve

penetration over lighter bullets,including a discussion of powdersand bullet designs that might besuitable. Of course, the instigationfor the piece was Thomas en-counter with a grizzly, but no one

suggested the .357 was ideal oreven recommended. It was what

Thomas had, so he used it, muchas anyone might do, rather than

RELOADERS PRESS by Dave Scovill

BEARS

An average grizzly skull is shown witha Smith & Wesson Mountain Gun forcomparison.

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August-September 2014 9www.handloadermagazine.com

buy a .44 or .45, end up carrying

it for 40 years and never see an-

other bear, let alone one that might

get feisty.

There is also the obvious fact

that some folks are not comfort-

able with larger handguns that

usually go along with the bigger

calibers and the recoil they gen-

erate with full-house loads. By in-

ference, some critics apparentlybelieve 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 useswhen they cut off access to back

roads, effectively denying dis-

abled 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, be-

come an Olympic event, where

only medal contenders need apply?

Some folks even recommend (de-

mand) 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 en-

counter, critics failed to acknowl-

edge that Thomas had enough

presence of mind to take a photoof the bear, although more than

one reader pointed out that there

was another animal, or something,

in the photo that Thomas was not

The Grip-N-Pull easilyreplaces expensive col-let bullet pullers. Usingthe corresponding cali-ber hole, raise the car-tridge through the topof the press and squeezethe tool enough to holdthe bullet in place whilelowering the cartridge.www.Grip-N-Pull.com

Grip-N-Pull

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aware of. Good grief, critics get ona roll and the next thing we know,they offer additional condemna-tion based on something that isntthere.

When I was growing up in theforests of Oregon, we called thoseaberrations bear stumps, or in thiscase possibly cub bear stumps.

They get bigger and blacker in pro-portion to the distance from thenearest road and light availabil-ity, becoming shadowy flesh-eat-ing monsters when hiking cross-country after sunset with the aidof flashlight or, worse, a full moon.

Neither am I taking sides on thisissue of handguns. For the mostpart, Im not all that impressedwith handguns of any caliber todeal with bears, mostly because

experience has taught me that inthe case of serious attacks, wherefolks inadvertently wander withina few yards of a bear that goesunnoticed until its too late, theamount of time it takes to draw ahandgun from a holster and aimis longer than it takes the bearto travel several yards. At the ageof 19, I stepped on a sow bearthat was lying under a deadfallwith her cub. She reacted immedi-

ately by swatting me across theback, whereupon I bounced off atree and outran the bear for 30yards or so, when she gave up andwent back to the bawling cub. Inthose days, during the early sum-mer following the recent trackseason at Oregon, I could run 100

yards in a tick less than 10 seconds,and the bear continued to gainground, literally breathing on myboot heels, until the cub drew her

off. Nowadays, rapidly approach-ing 70 years of age, I might havetrouble getting out of my own way,let alone walking upright from thebedroom to the kitchen to start apot of coffee, but 50+ years of liv-ing and working in the backcoun-try suggests my mother was right:Folks who know the least yellthe loudest. She was referring topoliticians, but the sentiment fitshere too.

A friend who was a big-game out-fitter in Montana was also jumped

by a black bear that knocked him

down. While the bear was attempt-ing to bite his face and neck, hemanaged to get his Smith & Wes-son .41 Magnum out of the holster,push the barrel into the bearschest and pull the trigger sev-eral times. It figures that mostof us would not have the physicalstrength to wrestle with the bearwhile attempting to get to the gun

or pepper spray. My friends boutwith a black bear and my own

A Winchester Model 94 .30 WCF (left)generates about 1,900 foot-pounds(ft-lbs) of muzzle energy compared toa .44 Magnum carbine (right) that rates1,650 ft-lbs with a 240-grain bullet. Asimilar load in a .44 Magnum revolverdevelops 775-ft-lbs or so and not muchmore with 275- and 300-grain bullets.

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August-September 2014

demonstrate that even if you havea firearm of some sort, you maynot have the chance to use it un-

less you are aware and the gun orpepper spray is preemptively inyour hand, vice tucked away some-

where out of immediate reach. Afriend nearly tore his fingernailsoff looking for additional ammuni-tion in his vest after a brown bearmaterialized a few yards acrossa creek and absorbed two roundsfrom his .458 Lott as if they werea minor annoyance.

For those who might want to

carry a handgun of whatever cal-

iber, theres a 50/50 chance they

are not fast enough to get it into

action given that according to the

speedometer in my 1969 Chevro-

let 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.),

you have .5 second to shoot itsquarely between the eyes or shoot

it in the face with pepper spray. In

either case, if you miss or are a bitslow, its hand-to-claw combatthereafter.

While I can draw and shoot ran-dom targets at relatively closerange with a .44 Magnum in a bitless than .25 second, the wholeidea of using a handgun against anirate bear seems a bit convoluted,mostly owing the fact that bearsare capable of such blazing speed

over short distances. Given .25second to respond, assuming thebear is within seven steps or so, abig-bore, lever-action carbine iseasier to hit with, much morepowerful and, for the first shot atleast, a bit faster. Better yet, youdont have to draw a rifle, it is, orshould be, already in your hands,as opposed to being carried with asling over the shoulder.

Of course, a rifle or carbine is a

bit more conspicuous to be carry-

Buffalo Bore specializes in heavy sixgun loads, shown here with Smith & Wesson.45 Colt (left) and .44 Magnum (right) Mountain Guns. Loads shown feature 250-

grain hard cast bullets for the .45 Colt and .44 Smith & Wesson Special, both at1,000 fps. Both sixguns feature Herrett stocks. (Continued on page 70)

11www.handloadermagazine.com

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Q

: I thoroughly enjoyed your

article Handloading the .35Whelen in Handloader No. 289(April 2014). Having used the Whe-len since 1979 in a custom Win-chester pre-64 Model 70, I foundseveral of your loads right on themoney. I was also intrigued withsome of the new powder and bul-let combinations you developed,which I have not seen publishedbefore.

My question has to do with Var-

get powder. Using 61.0 grains, youreached 2,727 fps using the Nosler225-grain Partition bullet. Is it pos-sible for me to use that same pow-der charge but with the Barnes225-grain Triple-Shock X-Bullet?

And last, I loved your lead photo

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 inform-

ative articles, especially those on

lever-action rifles and sixguns.

T.G., Ottawa KS

A: Yes, you can use the same pow-

dercharge, but be certain to be-

gin 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 ex-cess 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

produce pressures differently than

production rifles.

The lead photo you mention was

taken on the Idaho side of the

Idaho/Montana Continental Di-

vide, north of Salmon. Thanks for

your letter, and I hope this infor-

mation helps.

.45-70 PRIMERS

Q: Recently I started to reload

cases from Buffalo Bore Ammuni-tion that were once-fired and head-stamped LEVERGUN 45-70 MAG.After full-length sizing and ex-

panding case mouths, I started toseat primers, only to realize theyhad a small primer pocket. Thisreally threw me a curve. First, I

have no handload data for caseswith a small primer, and neitherdo I know which primer to use.

Can you tell me why Buffalo Boreuses the small primer, and can youoffer load data? I would like to du-plicate the Buffalo Bore 405-grain

JSP load. Thanks in advance foryour help.

S.P., Wasilla AK

A:Not long after introducing +P-

style .45-70 ammunition designedfor modern leverguns, around year

BULLETS & BRASS by Brian Pearce

.35 WHELEN

Hodgdon Varget is an excellent powderfor handloading the .35 Whelen withBarnes 225-grain Triple-Shock X-Bullets.

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August-September 2014

2000, Buffalo Bore switched tothe small rifle primer pocket. The

reason for this change was to pre-

vent certain wide, flatnose (WFN)

cast bullets from contacting theprimer when loaded into the

magazine tube of Marlin Model1895 rifles. These particular guns

feature a magazine tube bellythat is just forward of the re-

ceiver and is not visible when the

rifle is assembled. This belly al-lows one cartridge to tilt signifi-

cantly and has the potential to

allow the edge of WFN profile

bullets to contact the center of the

primer forward of it. When sub-

jected 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 mag-

azine tube detonations.

To more or less duplicate the Buf-

faloBore 405-grain JFN bullet at

2,000 fps, prime cases with either

the Federal 205 or Remington 7

Small Rifle primers, and load54.0 grains of Hodgdon H-322

powder or 56.0 grains of Accu-

rate 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 re-

quire slight compression when

bullets are seated. This bullet base

support is important when us-

ing Remington bullets, as it willprevent their being deep seated

when subjected to recoil in the

magazine tube.

.204 RUGERQ: I am a dedicated prairie dog

shooter and have decided to trythe .204 Ruger this year rather

than my old, trustworthy .22-250

Remington. I purchased a new 26-inch barrel for my Thompson/Cen-

ter Encore, had a new custombarrel fit to a Remington Model

700 Varmint and am almost readyto go. I just ordered 1,000 new

Hornady .204 cases, dies and bul-

Winchester748and Accurate 2520aregood powder choices for.204 RugerloadscontainingHornady 40-grainV-MAX bullets.


Buffalo Bore Ammunition utilizes a smallrifle primer for its .45-70 levergun loads,

which are designed to prevent possibleprimer set-off in magazine tubes.

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lets. I do have several potentiallygood powders on hand but wouldlike to know what powder yourecommend before purchasingmore or beginning to develop aload. I will only be using the Hor-nady 40-grain V-MAX bullet. Canyou suggest a load or two? Thanksfor your help.

S.S., Butte MT

A: There are several good propel-

lants for handloading the .204Ruger that include extruded and

spherical powders. However, toalleviate the problems associated

with bridging in this small cal-

iber, especially considering the

unusually large quantity of car-

tridges typically fired in a single

outing, I lean toward spherical

powders, as charges can be thrown

accurately from a quality powder

measure, which reduces hand-

loading time.

Suggested loads for the Hornady40-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.

Q: I have been using your .44 Spe-

cial handload that contains the

250-grain Keith cast bullet with 8.0

to 8.2 grains of Alliant Power Pis-

tol powder. It is very accurate inmy 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 manage-

able but is about the maximum I

can handle for long shooting ses-

sions. 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 ques-

tion is, can you offer load data

with this same 250-grain Keith bul-

let 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

A: Thank you for your letter. Ahandload that should meet yourcriterion consists of bullets from

Lyman mould 429421, or betterknown as the 250-grain Keithbullet, pushed with 5.8 grains of

Accurate No. 2 powder for 805fps from a USFA SAA with a 5-inch barrel. Increasing the charge

to 6.2 grains reached 851 fps. Ex-treme spreads for five shots withthe latter load were less than 10

fps. From multiple guns, includ-

ing a USFA SAA Flattop Target,Smith & Wesson 1950 Target andcustom Colt SAA, it produced sub-

one-inch groups at 25 yards. Bul-lets were cast with an 11 Brinellhardness number (BHN) andsized to .430 inch. Use either theCCI 300 or Federal 150 Large

Pistol primers. In spite of beinga lightened load, it is still pow-erful and practically duplicates

the traditional .45 Colt loads that

pushed a 250/255-grain bullet toaround 860 fps.

Accurate No. 2 powder is a top choicefor handloading the .44 Special.

.44 SPECIALCASTBULLETS

9009 River Road, Chico, CA 95928Tel: 530-345-4012 Fax: 530-345-0990

[email protected]

Claro andEnglishWalnut

Gun StockBlanks

Highly Figuredand Plain Grain

Cultivating Natures Beauty!

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A

nyone who has fired even a

single shot powered by blackpowder realizes fouling can be asignificant problem. A significantportion of black powder does notburn upon ignition, and unless con-trolled in some manner, it accumu-lates as black, hard fouling in thebore. That plays havoc with a bul-lets flight.

Upon becoming a Sharps Model1874 shooter (fanatic?), it onlyseemed natural to try black pow-

der in those big rifle cartridgesoriginally designed for it. Black-powder fouling was hardly given athought, but I should have beenprepared for what followed. Usu-ally the first shot from a clean bar-rel hit relatively close to where

aimed. The second one was just as

apt to hit the ground in front of thetarget. Afterward, running a tightpatch down the rifles barrel wasdifficult; it had fouled to that ex-treme.

Little by little, hints to the solu-tion seeped into my brain. Onebit of evidence was the size oflube grooves on vintage-style bul-lets. They were huge compared togrooves on more modern designs.Eventually I realized lube on mod-

ern cast bullets was there to pre-vent lead fouling, but on olderdesigns, lube was meant to bothhelp with lead fouling and withblack-powder fouling. A correla-tion was the realization that mod-ern bullet lubes did not mix with

black-powder fouling. I tried smear-

ing Crisco on some bullets for aSharps .50-90 and .45-100. Somedecent three-shot groups began

happening without swabbing after

every shot, but the slightest heator direct sunlight would send itflowing into the powder. Mostly infrustration, I shot smokeless pow-ders in the Sharps.

About that time, two significantfactors entered the picture. Onewas the NRAs inaugural match foran envisioned new shooting gamecalled Black Powder CartridgeRifle Silhouette. It sounded like

fun, but its originators wisely de-cided to adhere strictly with thename: meaning only black powdercould be used. Duplex loadingwith a booster charge of smoke-less powder was prohibited. I saywisely, for without that rule, allus BPCR Silhouette shooters would

never have been inspired to workso hard to discover just how wellthat smelly, old black powder could

actually perform.

The second factor was Steven PaulGarbe. We were well acquainted

through mutual friends, and Steveheard about my plight in trying

to get a bullet powered by blackpowder to follow the same path asthe one fired before it. He droppedby my house with a small glass jarof yellow stuff and said, Smearthis on some bullets. Dont swab the

MIKES SHOOTIN SHACK by Mike Venturino

BLACK-POWDER FOULING

Many, if not most, BPCR Silhouettecompetitors use a blow tube to keepblack-powder fouling soft just aheadof the rifles chamber during a stringof shots.

SPG Bullet Lubricant was developed

specifically for black powder cartridgeshooting.

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barrel between shots. It worked!I could actually shoot groups thatin those days I considered ex-ceptional. After firing a string ofrounds, a finger run across therifles muzzle would have blackgrease on it. The bullet lube wasmixing with the fouling, keeping itsoft the full length of the Sharps30-inch barrel.

Literature from the Sharps RifleCompany in the 1870s recom-mended using a bullet lube of equalparts Japan Wax and sperm oil,neither of which ingredient is nowcommonly available. (I had nevereven heard of Japan Wax.) Evi-dently, Steve had found modernreplacements for such things.

At the second NRA BPCR exper-imental match, I only swabbed myrifles barrel after every relay in-stead of every shot. Although farfrom the winners circle, other com-

petitors noted my procedure and

asked, How can you do that? Itold them about Steves bulletlube, and they said, He shouldsell it. We would buy it. SPG BlackPowder Bullet Lubricant becamecommercially available that fall.

Even more inspiring, in 1987 I

dragged Steve to the first officialNRA BPCR Silhouette NationalChampionship. He tied for firstplace (losing in a shoot-off), butwhat was noticeable was he didntneed to swab his barrel after everyshot, like most competitors weredoing.

Some BPCR shooters today swabafter every shot, especially thosecompeting in very hot, dry cli-mates, like Arizona in summer.

Others firing paper-patched bul-lets do also. Most of the shootersin less harsh climates use a blowtube to keep fouling soft justahead of the chamber. For compe-tition, most of us have bulletsseated out in the case so as to beclose or into the rifling. Loadswith deeper seated bullets forhunting dont require blow tub-ing for chambering.

There are many black-powder

bullet lubes on the market today,and there have been untold refine-ments in getting black-powdercartridges to perform to levelsconsidered impossible 30 yearsago. Some BPCR Silhouette com-petitors dont swab their barrelsduring an entire match comprising60 or sometimes 80 shots, count-ing sighters. Most of us wont usea rifle and handload combinationunless it delivers precision in terms

of 1.5 MOA or better. Things havecome a long way.

Mike Bellms TCs

Encore & Contender/G2Custom Parts, Tools & Advice Since 1979Tel: 970-433-9525

www.bellmtcs.comMike visiting with Steve Garbe (center) and their mutual friend from Texas BobGlodt, during a recent national championship at Raton, New Mexico.

During his early days of black powdercartridge rifle shooting, Mike neverthought groups such as this couldhappen at 300 yards. The high shot

was the first one through a clean,cold barrel.

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Not long after the U.S. mili-

tary adopted the .45 Colt andthe Colt Single Action Army re-

volver around 1873, ammunition

companies began offering loads

for the civilian market. Soon a 250-

or 255-grain lead bullet (depend-

ing 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 7-

inch barrel that produced almost

1,000 fps.

As the turn of the twentieth cen-

tury approached, ammunition com-

panies began offering loads with

both black and smokeless powders.

Although Colt warned against us-

ing smokeless ammunition in SAA

revolvers produced prior to 1900

(something I do not recommend),

or below serial number 192,000,

everyone knew this new ammuni-

tion 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 ad-

vertised velocity of 860 fps duringthe 1960s and is still loaded by

Remington (250 grain) and Win-

chester (255 grain) to date. Current

industry maximum average pres-

sure guidelines are established at

14,000 psi.

The above smokeless load is

what helped the cartridge estab-lish a superb reputation amonglawmen, cowboys and anyoneneeding a powerful sixgun. It didnot offer impressive bells andwhistles, such as high-velocity andrapid-expanding bullets, but itdoesnt need either to perform well.Rather, its large caliber and heavyslug produce reliable shock, largewound channels and deep pene-tration. Its large caliber, combined

with comparatively low pressures,produces very little muzzle con-cussion, which is important fora working sixgun that will prob-ably get occasional use withouthearing protection. Recoil wasalso comparatively slow, making it

FROM THE HIP by Brian Pearce

TRADITIONAL.45 COLT LOADS

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pleasant to shoot. Deer and blackbear have been taken with tradi-tional factory loads with goodresults. Although improved hand-loads featuring a flatpoint cast bul-let (usually in Keith pattern) pushedto a bit more velocity are certainly

better, we cannot ignore just how

well the traditional load works.

Elmer Keith is generally consid-

ered the father of modern sixgun-ning and is widely recognized forhis experience and many contri-

butions to handgunning. In addi-tion to being the primary influence

in getting Remington and Smith& Wesson to introduce the .44Magnum, he also pioneered (with

Lyman) cast bullet designs duringthe 1920s. He had practical sixgun

cartridge and load experience,mixed with common sense. In his

classic 1955 bookSixguns by Keith(available from Wolfe PublishingCo.), Keith states, The standard.45 Colt, like the 45-70 in rifles,

simply will not die out. The de-mand is still strong for it, and will

be for many years to come. It is agood, accurate, and lethal cartridge,

and one that has well served the

American sixgun man for eightyyears. Keith continues, As onegrows older and his hair starts

to turn gray, his respect for thisgrand old load increases. If I had

Traditional .45 Colt Handload Data

bullet powder charge velocity

(grains) (grains) (fps)

250 Oregon Trail Laser-Cast RNFP Red Dot 6.2 860

Promo 6.4

Hi-Skor 700X 6.4

Bullseye 6.6 Titegroup 6.2

American Select 6.8

AutoComp 9.0

A-2 6.8

True Blue 8.8 HS-6 11.5

W-231 7.3

HP-38 7.3

A-5 10.3

Universal 8.2 Competition 6.2

Unique 8.0

Power Pistol 8.1

SR-4756 9.5 CFE Pistol 8.4

SR-7625 8.6

PB 7.8 Nitro 100 6.2

Zip 7.2

Notes: All loads, fired from a 434-inch barreled USFA Pre-War SAA, produced between 850 and 870 fpsaverage 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: 1.575inches. 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.

Oregon Trail Laser-Cast 250-grainRNFP bullets were used to develop dataand feature a .275-inch wide meplat, a

deep crimp groove, a single greasegroove and have a slight bevel base.

to shoot only factory ammunitionthe rest of my life, I would take the.45 Colt as my game and defensecartridge.

The .45 Colt was the standardamong lawmen of the Old West,with an almost endless list of char-acters on both sides of the lawwho gave it great endorsements. A

legendary lawman who saw plentyof gun fighting during his 50-yearcareer, Bill Tilghman states, Theheavy slug of the forty-five, too,

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would either kill instantly or pro-duce a shock to put the enemy outof commission. You shoot a manwith a small bullet and he may kill

you before he dies. But with a forty-five, hes done with. Many similarcomments can be found by mod-ern shooters who have extensiveexperience with big-bore sixguns.

Winchester and Remington havehistorically offered the above hol-lowbase bullets as a componentto handloaders, but Winchestersilently dropped its version some-time back, and the Remington ver-sion has been very difficult (if notimpossible) to obtain in recentyears.

An excellent cast bullet thatshares a very similar profile to theabove factory loads is Lyman

452190. It is a plain-base design,rather than the hollow base foundon the above bullets that are de-signed to slug up at low pressureto fill large throats and create agas seal but also prevent bulletsfrom tipping in the throat. When a452190 bullet is sized to corre-spond with throat size and firedfrom a good sixgun, accuracy canbe outstanding.

For those who dont cast bullets,

a logical option is to use OregonTrail Bullet Companys (800-811-0548; www.laser-cast.com) 250-grain RNFP (Magma) design thathas become popular among cow-boy action competitors and is read-ily available. These bullets are castwith a 20-plus Brinell hardnessnumber (BHN), are unusually con-sistent in weight and are high qual-ity. This design features a beveledcrimp groove and has a portion of

the full-caliber shank forward ofthe case. As a result, when thecase is crimped properly, bulletswill not deep seat when used ina lever-action rifle with a tubularmagazine. In traditional fashion,the nose is flat and measuresaround .275 inch wide, which isslightly larger than current factoryload versions. It has a single grease

groove filled with Magma greenlube.

Being a slight bevel-base design,it delivers best overall results

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to duplicate traditional .45 Coltloads, but with the above OregonTrail 250-grain RNFP bullets.

In recent years I have tested tra-ditional .45 Colt ammunition, andvelocities have occasionally beenlow, too low, with select lot num-bers from Winchester droppingdown to around 750 fps. Reming-

ton, however, has kept velocitiesclose to advertised speeds. Havingsome 1950s vintage Remingtonand Winchester ammunition onhand, originally advertised at 870fps, they were chronographed ina USFA Pre-War SAA-pattern re-volver with a 4-inch barrel. Ineach instance, the loads averagedclose to 860 fps, which would be-come the target velocity for theloads listed herein.

All the accompanying handloaddata was developed to average be-tween 850 and 870 fps. With thatthought in mind, there was some-times a significant velocity changefrom one powder lot number to thenext. For example, in going backthrough my notes, 6.0 grains of Al-liant Bullseye powder reachedaround 860 fps, but with the lotnumber of powder used in the ac-companying load data, the charge

had to be increased to 6.6 grainsto reach the same velocity inthe same gun and with the samebullet. Similar variances were ob-served with other powders. None-theless, these loads should get ahandloader close to the targeted860 fps.

Incidentally, with primers de-signed to serve as magnum andstandard, such as the Remington212 and Winchester WLP, velocities

will likely be increased when com-pared to the CCI 300 used here.

minimal leading and best accu-racy when used in revolvers withthroats that are very close to, orjust under, bullet diameter. Sincea bevel-base bullet will not slug upor obturate, especially when casthard, bullet fit is important to pre-vent fusion and obtain a properseal to prevent gas cutting andleading. Most modern gun manu-

facturers, including Smith & Wes-son, Ruger, USFA and others, havetightened throats (in the past 10 to20 years) to measure between .451and .452 inch. When using the Ore-gon Trail RNFP bullet sized .452inch, bullet tilting is minimal andaccuracy is surprising, with manyguns grouping inside 1.5 inches at25 yards. This bullet is also offeredin .454-inch diameter for revolversthat have a larger throat size. In

spite of being cast hard, velocitiesshould be kept below 1,000 fps inrevolvers (or better yet, 900 fps),or leading can occur.

The popularity of the bullet is ex-treme, but due to a widespreadpowder shortage, many handload-ers are unable to assemble fa-vorite handloads. Recently I wasin a gun store wherein a customerwas purchasing a couple of boxesof the Oregon Trail 250-grain RNFP

bullets, but was frustrated becausehe had been unable to obtain hisnormal powder for more thantwo years. In looking at the dealerson-hand stock, I suggested another

powder along with load data asa substitute, which he wrote downand promptly purchased twopounds of new powder and wentcheerfully on his way.

With everyone (myself included)struggling to obtain powder, I

thought readers might appreciateload data with optional powders

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T

his issues cartridge was a

rimfire known simply as No.41 until the appearance of the .41Long in 1873. Most shooters havenever heard of it. Yet it was onceso quietly popular, so widely dis-tributed, had such an effect onAmerican thinking and culturethat its story should be told.

All societies contain individualswho are fundamentally trouble-some. Such people often carryweapons, perhaps due to an atti-

tude that they can do whateverthey want to whomever they want.There is absolutely nothinga soci-ety can do to prevent such behav-ior. Intelligent people have alwaysknown this.

During the percussion era manycitizens began carrying handgunsfor personal protection, but thesewerent reliable. Caps fell off nip-ples (especially if the gun was car-ried in a pocket). Roundballs, held

in place only by friction, jarredloose and moved down the bore

facet of American culture that wasnearly lost after World War II buthas come roaring back in the lasttwo decades. It is that we need nothelplessly endure home invasion,robbery or worse at the hands ofcriminals nurtured by our increas-ingly ignorant society and totallyfailed criminal justice system. We

willfreely own firearms and see toit we can legally use them, no mat-ter what socialists, progressivesor corrupt politicians want. Neverforget that this is what the guncontrol debate is really about. It isall it has ever been about, and it allbegan with the first rimfire car-tridges, most notably the .41 Short.

When Horace Smith and DanielWesson marketed their first re-volver in 1857, the cartridge it fired

was theirs as well. Today we knowit as the .22 Short Rimfire, the firstcommercially successful, fully self-contained metallic cartridge. Given

its obvious purpose, why chambera round firing a 29-grain bullet atmaybe 700 fps? Its possible to getas much impact energy by throw-ing a big rock!

Unfortunately, S&W had exclu-sive rights to use the Rollin Whitepatent, which protected the con-

cept of a revolver cylinder boredthrough end to end to accept a

or fell out the front of a cylinder.Powder became damp and wouldnot ignite. Dealing with all thiswas beyond the ability of peoplenot interested in guns.

The rimfire handgun cartridgechanged everything. For the firsttime in history all citizens couldhave a reliable means to exercise

their inalienable right of self-defense. This, in turn, solidified a

CARTRIDGE BOARD by Gil Sengel

.41 SHORT RIMFIRE

Cartridge DimensionsA -Overall Length---------------.913

B -Case Length -----------------.467

C -Rim Diameter ----------------.468

D -Rim Thickness---------------.053

E -Base Diameter---------------.406

F -Mouth Diameter -------------.406

AB

FED

C

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NOT ALL BRASSMEASURES UP TO THENOSLER STANDARD.AND THATS OK. THE WORLD NEEDS

DOORKNOBS, BELT BUCKLES,

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Premium Nosler Brass: Fully Prepped, Ready To Load.Copper and zinc make it brass. Craftsmanship makes it Nosler Brass. We start with the

highest quality material. We trim, chamfer and deburr it. We inspect it by hand. We weight

sort it to within one-half grain. And only then do we put our name on it. What happens

to the brass that doesnt make the cut? Were sure someone will find a use for it.

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rear-loaded cartridge. Nobody elsecould legally sell such a gun untilthe patent ran out in 1869.

American ingenuity quickly pro-vided a solution. It seems MooresPatent Fire Arms Co. of Brooklyn,New York, offered (1858-59) a re-

volver to fire rimfire cartridges andwas quickly deterred by legal ac-tion. The company then produceda small, breech-loading, single-shot pistol reminiscent of smallpercussion pistols made by HenryDeringer of Philadelphia.

The first guns made were notchambered in .22 Short but in.41 Short as a centerfire! Moorespatent number 31,473 also showsa central firing pin. This was oddsince the centerfire cartridge had-nt been invented yet! The .41 Shortcenterfire would exist some 10years later, when Eley produced itfor a small Colt single-shot pistol

made in England for the Europeantrade.

It is true that work was beingdone on central fire systems inFrance and England for a papershotshell. All were too large andcomplex for handgun cartridges.It is one thing for Moore to knowof experimental work and antici-pate its eventual success. Its quiteanother to start producing a pis-tol using this ignition system andchambering a cartridge that didnot exist in any form. Did DanielMoore know something that his-tory didnt?

Smith & Wesson made its ownammunition from 1857 to 1860.There were no cartridge makers,because there had previously beenno cartridges. From 1860 forward,Charles D. Leet, with various part-ners, acted as an inside contractor

for S&W, labeling ammunitionboth for S&W and his own line.Leet cartridges from the 1860-62period exist in .41 Short Rimfire,which seems to have appeared outof nowhere.

Could it be that S&W, knowingwell the purpose for which theirhandgun was needed, originallyintended it to be chambered for a.41-caliber cartridge they created?Were problems encountered in

drawing the copper case, or didthe amount of priming necessaryto fill the rim of a .41-caliber caseblow out the rims in a revolverthat left case heads largely unsup-ported? Early priming compoundswere violent and nonuniform. Wasthis round then scaled down untileverything worked? The .41s veryshort case length would seem toindicate use in a small revolver,like the S&W.

Did Daniel Moore learn of thisand design a single-shot pistol,

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Short round are hard to come by.That strange 130-grain pointed bul-let seems to be just a copy of the

conical slugs fired in percussionrevolvers, in lieu of the more com-mon roundball. It was supposed toincrease penetration. Certainly the.41 Short needed all the help itcould get, as its 10- to 13-grainblack-powder charge would notgive 600 fps from the little gunsshort barrels. When smokelessloads replaced black powder, ve-locity was reported in the 450fps range. The intimidation factor

of the big hole in the barrel musthave been hoped to count forsomething.

The round was listed until WorldWar II but dropped afterward.Popularity was such, however, thatat least one special run of ammu-nition was loaded in the 1960s byRemington. Navy Arms Co. soldimported rounds at an even laterdate. Its hard to believe theseguns were actually being used in

the 1960s and 1970s. Collectorsprobably just wanted to fire a few

which would be unaffected by theabove problems, to fire S&Ws re-jected round? We will probably

never know.

The .41 Short Rimfire was madeat least as early as 1860 by Leet,Goff & Co. of Springfield, Massa-chusetts, a year or so later byAllen & Wheelock in Worcester,Massachusetts, with Crittenden &Tibbals of South Coventry, Con-necticut, starting production in1862-64. Union Metallic CartridgeCo. loaded it in 1867, U.S. Car-tridge Co. and Hall & Hubbard

started about 1869. Winchester,Peters, Western and Remingtonbegan producing the round at laterdates.

After Moores little single shot ap-peared, it seemed everyone wantedone. At least 50 makers offeredsimilar arms, most in either .22or .41 rimfire. Total sold is im-possible to know, but its easily ahalf million and could be twice

that or more.Ballistics of the black-powder .41

rounds from their better-condi-

tioned pieces to see what it waslike. One person remarked that he

fired a smokeless load (He didntmention brand of ammunition.) at

phone books taped together to

give about 8 inches of thickness,

and when shot at 15 feet, the bul-let bounced off the books.

I saw one of the swing-barrel

single shots at a recent gun showaccompanied by a full box of

smokeless Peters ammunition.

Obviously the last owner to use

the gun for its intended purposehadnt needed to fire it, eventhough there was a lot of wear

from carrying.

Its a bit sad looking at a gun andcartridge 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 .380sand 9mms increasingly carried

by Americans who refuse to beafraid.

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Sometimes I wonder why load-

ing manuals show a trim-tolength for pistol cases. I can truth-fully say I have never trimmed apiece of pistol brass and preciousfew revolver cases. For the new-comer, I wonder if it wouldnt savesome grief to leave that number out.

We are told that modern auto-pistol cartridges headspace on thecase mouth. Sometimes that iseven true. SAAMI (Small Arms &

Ammunition Manufacturers Insti-tute, Inc.) wrote the bible on stufflike this, and all dimensions havea small tolerance. Using the .45ACP as an example, the case length

is 0.898 inch with a 0.010-inch tol-erance range. The chamber has aminimum length of 0.898 inch andmaximum of 0.920 inch. What thatmeans is that we can be sure the.45 ACP really does headspace onthe mouth only when we have amaximum cartridge and minimumchamber. Otherwise, the practicalheadspace is governed by the ex-tractor, although there is a toler-ance there as well.

Headspace in a straight-wall pis-tol chamber is completely differ-ent from that of a bottleneck riflechamber. There, excessive head-

space can lead to case separationand sometimes catastrophic fail-ure. In a pistol with excessive head-

space, the gun just wont go bang,because the firing pin cant reachthe primer.

We know that case length shrinksa bit when fired and grows a lit-

tle when it is sized back to fit thechamber. Since most pistol casesare pretty short anyhow, the actualchange in length isvery small, andmeasuring a lot of cases is usuallya waste of time. If concerned,there is a simple test that can savesome time. Simply full-length sizea couple of pieces of brass and

field strip a pistol to use the barrelas a gauge. If the sized case falls inand goes plunk, all is well. If therim extends above the hood orheadspace extension, trimmingmight be in order. Realistically,though, chances are cases will belost or crack before they reallyneed trimming, and setting up thetrimmer is such a pain, the trashcan is a valid option.

The one exception may be withsuper magnum revolver cases thatare dependent on a strong crimpfor best performance. If one has tocontinually adjust the crimp die toget the desired result, it might betime to trim that brass.

Very high on my list of things toavoid are almost all the things we

are told to do to brass. Most of thereally bothersome ones are aimedat rifle shooters, but some pistolshooters, operating on the prin-ciple of good for one, good forall, do it too. The top of that listis cleaning primer pockets. I amfirmly convinced it doesnt matterin any case. One argument in favoris that carbon accumulates in theprimer pocket and could lead touneven ignition. The theory is that

one side of the primer might notlight evenly. Maybe that is even

PISTOL POINTERS by Charles E. Petty

CASE TRIMMING AND

OTHER ONEROUS CHORES

Above, the case mouthis being chamferedwith a common tool.Left,just because youcould trim .45 ACPbrass doesnt meanyou have to.

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true, but if a high-order detonation(Thats what primers do.) movesat over 10,000 fps and the primeris 0.205 inch in diameter, how longcould it possibly take? Besides,when a primer pops, the gas takeswith it any leftover carbon or loosematerial. Theoretically, the primerpocket should reach a steady stateof dirtiness.

Another chore about which I havemixed feelings is cleaning brass. Ihave two good friends who arepolar opposites about this. Onehas never cleaned a piece of brassin his life, while the other comesto the range with cases that lookeven better than factory-new. Bothare very good shots and never tryto blame the ammunition formisses. One wet-tumbles with lit-tle stainless steel rods; the otherjust loads empties. Years ago Igave him a spare tumbler, and thelast time I looked, it was in thesame place, on the same shelf, justwearing more dust.

Im somewhere in between thosetwo extremes and tumble mostcases for an hour or two in corn-cob media. Before carbide dieswere common, a tiny grain of sandcould scratch the die and leave a

mark on every case that went init. Today that is rare. To say thatcleaning brass is mandatory mightbe an overstatement. So, in thiscase, I know I dont have to do itbut choose to.

Another pearl of conventionalwisdom is that we should segre-gate brass by make, lot numberand weight. Only in the benchrestworld is doing so likely to matter.Time and again Ive shot the sameload in sorted and mixed brassand have yet to find a significantdifference. A couple of times themixed brass actually had a smaller

group average, but the differencewas not enough to be statisticallysignificant.

Benchrest shooters do weighbrass and try to find a group ofcases with as little weight varia-tion as possible, certainly not morethan .5 grain. Actually, in theircase that matters because a varia-tion in weight indicates a variationin case capacity, which can, inturn, influence accuracy.

How about gun cleaning? Toomuch cleaning can be just as badas too little. Bluntly asked: Is itreally necessary to clean a pistolafter every time it is fired? To meit definitely isnt, but it does de-pend on the guns use. If it is purelyrecreational, they rarely need clean-ing, but if it is a duty gun, it shouldbe clean every time it goes outthe door. For a cop, carrying an

unfired gun is the best possibledefense if some less-than-worthycitizen claims you shot him. Forsomeone who lives in a hostile en-

vironment like sand daily clean-ing is wise. As a minimum, I havea piece of sheepskin that gets anoccasional squirt of preservativeto wipe the outside.

It is also possible to kill a gunwith kindness. The worst exampleI ever saw was a rifle that got

scrubbed with an abrasive borepaste so enthusiastically that it be-gan to look like a smoothbore. An-other was a well-built 1911 whoseowner wrecked the barrel/bushingfit by turning the bushing withoutbacking the slide back a little tounlock the front end.

While there is some evidence tosuggest that cleaning down to baremetal can be beneficial in bench-rest quality rifles, few pistol barrels

show any serious copper fouling.The reason, primarily, is that few

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pistols achieve the velocity levelsof rifles, nor do they operate atsimilar pressure levels.

A perennial question revolvesaround barrel life. When someonesays they have worn out a pistolbarrel, more often than not, theysimply wanted a new one. I amconvinced that it is truly impossi-

ble to really wear out a pistol bar-rel shooting lead bullets, and fewof us could afford to do it withjacketed slugs.

Many years ago, I inspected aUSAF 1911 pistol that had a docu-mented 100,000 rounds of ball am-munition through it. There wasabout two inches of rifling leftat the muzzle, and when I told theshooter to whom it was issuedthat I would have to fit a new bar-

rel, his response was, Please dont;it shoots too good. Since he wasa master-class shooter, I was in-clined to believe him, but hechanged his mind when he sawthe test of his new gun.

I dont mean to belittle anyonewhose cleaning practice is differ-ent than mine, but a lot of stuff isdone just because somebody saidto, and since it sounded reason-

able, nobody bothered to reallytest it. Sometimes exotic cleaningpractice may even be right, but ourequipment or ability is not goodenough to see the difference. Inscience there is a term lost in thenoise that means the effect of achange is so small that other vari-ables obscure it.

So even though Im quite con-vinced most of the stuff people doto brass does not produce tangible

results, I once had a long talk witha very skilled rifle shooter whomore or less agreed that cleaningprimer pockets probably didntmatter, but he did it routinely be-cause: I want my ammo to be per-fect. It also makes me recall along-ago conversation with thelate Jim Clark. We were discussingthose newfangled compensatorsjust showing up in IPSC matches,and whether or not they were re-

ally effective. If you think it helps,then it does, he said.

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PROPELLANT PROFILES by R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

OLDE EYNSFORDBLACK POWDER

Most readers are probably

aware that a few years agoHodgdon Powder Company pur-chased GOEX Powder, Inc., thiscountrys only black-powder man-ufacturer. GOEX, in turn, is thethird iteration of the original Du-Pont powder operation begun in1802. Black-powder fans are alsoaware of the many obstacles thathave had to be overcome, includ-ing governmental regulations; theadvent of synthetic, or replica,

black powders; and more recently,the importation of black powdersfrom Europe and elsewhere. Thisis, of course, not to mention thatsmokeless powder, for the pastcentury and more, has replacedblack for most of our uses.

Hodgdon was, and is, in good

shape regarding the replica pow-

ders, as it already offers the most

popular replica, Pyrodex, and its

high-performance cousin, Triple

Seven. Competing black powderswere another matter. Several

werent good enough when com-

pared to GOEX and simply faded

away. There were others, how-

ever, that were quite good and pre-sented a real threat.

The German powder Wano wasprobably 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 Car-

tridge Rifle shooters who competeusing silhouette targets out to 500

meters, and where everything must

be exactly right.

Faced with this level of competi-

tion, GOEX needed to do some-

thing. What was needed was a

powder that maintained a high

consistency in granule size, burn-

ing rate and shot-to-shot velocity.To this was added a higher level of

lot-to-lot consistency and a gen-

eral 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.

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 OldeEynsford, however, is in its chem-

istry, producing a very consistent,

high-performance product. Even

its packaging is a step up from

the previous metal container, this

time employing a black polymercanister with a very attractive label.

Intended principally for black-powder match shooters, it is beingoffered at a price under that of itscompetition.

My first reaction to Olde Eyns-ford powder was that the granulesseemed smaller in dimensions for

comparable sizes FFg, for exam-ple than GOEX. Its quite similar,in fact, to Swiss and Schuetzenand with a pronounced absence ofdust.

A series of tests was used to com-

pare Olde Eynsford to other pow-ders in metallic rifle and revolvercartridges, in muzzleloading riflesand pistols, in cap-and-ball re-volvers and both muzzleloadingand cartridge shotguns. For the

most part, comparisons were madeto GOEX and Swiss of the same

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granulations. My first deter-mination, actually a confor-mation, was that in metalliccartridges a magnum strength

primer best served to mini-mize residue. The hotter prim-

ers also produced smallerextreme velocity spreads.

Beginning with the .45-70

cartridge with 300- and 400-grain cast bullets, the bulletswere seated on a beeswaxwad over 65 grains of 1 Fg.Results fired from a Marlin1895 were quite impressivewith single digit extremespreads for five shots withOlde Eynsford. Neither GOEXCartridge nor Swiss 1 Fgperformed quite as well.Groups typically were under2 inches at 100 yards. Givena tang rear sight and a beadfront, thats as well as my ratherused eyes will do. I did not wipebetween shots but did clean be-tween strings either by wiping orfiring smokeless powder loads. Ei-ther seemed to suffice.

grain, black-powder loadsof old. In a 434-inch Colt Sin-gle Action, the Olde Eyns-ford load with Federal 155primers produced an ex-treme spread for five shotsof 9 fps. Thats good in any-bodys book.

One thing I noticed when

shooting these metallicloads was that GOEX 1Fg and FFg produced lowervelocities in both the .45-70and .45 Colt, respectively,than did Olde Eynsford1 Fg and Swiss FFg. Acouple of years ago inworking with black-pow-der shotshell loads in mod-ern plastic, paper and brassshells, GOEX FFg producedhigher velocities than otherblack powders and repli-

cas with the exception of theSlovenian KIK black powder andHodgdons Triple Seven. Such flip-flopping of burning rates betweenmetallic cartridges and shotshellsfrequently occurs in smokeless

The .45 Colt was used for ametallic handgun cartridge. Theload was 35 grains of FFg under a250-grain cast bullet from Lymanmould 454190. In modern casesthis is the equivalent of the 40-

Select Olde Eynsford Handloads barrel

cartridge bullet charge velocity length (grains) (grains) (fps) (inches)

Cartridge Guns:

.45-70 300 65 112 Fg 1,417 26

400 65 112 Fg 1,246 26

.45 Colt 250 35 FFg 827 434

12 gauge 118-ounces 82 FFg 1,021 30

barrelcartridge bullet charge velocity length

(diameter) (grains) (fps) (inches)

Muzzleloading Guns:

.50 .490 RB 90 FFg 1,664 26

.50 .490 RB 30 FFFg 1,016 8

.36 .375 RB 25 FFFg 892 712

12 gauge 118-ounces 82 FFg 972 28

Notes: The .45-70 and .45 Colt performed best with magnumprimers, Federal 215 and Federal 155, respectively. The 12-gaugeshotshell load used Federal 209A primers. All muzzleloading loadsemployed CCI 11 percussion caps. Rifle and handgun velocities wererecorded 10 feet from the muzzle; shotshell velocities at 6 feet.

Be Alert Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

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powders, so I shouldnt have beensurprised it occurred here but Iwas.

When beginning muzzleloadingtesting of Olde Eynsford versus

Swiss and GOEX, I used a caplock

.50-caliber T/C New Englander

with a 26-inch barrel and limitedmy testing to .490-inch roundballs

with a .010-inch patch over 90grains of FFg. Again, Olde Eyns-

Colt Navy revolver. My load here

was 25 grains of FFFg and .375-

inch roundballs. An Ox-Yoke felt

wad was placed between powder

and ball to prevent multiple dis-

charges. This particular load has

been used many times over the

years with GOEX FFFg and ac-

counted 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 accu-

racy or consistency.

Shotgun testing was divided be-

tween an American cartridge gun,

a Baker 12 gauge, and a muzzle-

loading 12 gauge made by the Eng-

lish firm of William Moore & Co.

The Bakers barrels are 30 inches;

the William Moores, 28 inches. Inthese 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 ap-

peared to burn a bit more cleanly.

Patterns at 32 yards were quite

similar.

The William Moore muzzleload-

ing load consisted of 82 grains of

FFg, a 18-inch over-powder wad, a12-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 bitfaster than those with GOEX.

All in all, Olde Eynsford proved

to be more consistent than the

other powders, no matter what

I fired it in. Group sizes and pat-

terns were better or equal, de-

pending 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 matchshooters, will be pleased.

ford produced higher velocities

and smaller extreme spreads. Ac-

curacy was first-rate. A test utiliz-ing a Lyman Mountain Pistol with

30 grains of FFFg duplicated therifle experience with Olde Eyns-

ford, again producing top veloci-ties and the smallest extreme

spreads.

A particular favorite fun gun is aLyman replica of the .36-caliber

We now have three

versions of the

Worlds Finest

Trimmer!

The Original WFT Designed for high-volumeshooters. Each trimmer willtrim a cartridge family, forexample: the 308 Win. trim-mer will also trim the 243Win., 260 Rem. and the 7mm-08 Rem. Uses your 3/8 drillfor power. Suitable for bottle-neck cartridges up to 338cal. $69.95

The WFT II Ournewest trimmer! A universaltrimmer with interchangeablechambers. 80+ chambersavailable. Chambers will trima specific caliber or casefamily like the original WFT.Suitable for bottleneck car-tridges up to .45 cal. Re-quires a 1/2 chuck.Housing/Cutter assembly$69.95 + $24.95 perchamber.

The Big BoyWFT Our scaled-up uni-versal trimmer for the 50BMG. Chambers availablefrom 338 Lapua to 50 BMG.Requires a 1/2 chuck. Hous-ing/Cutter assembly$69.95 + $29.95 perchamber.

All three trimmers areextremely fast, robust

and precise.

Does it feel like you havea mountain of brass to trim?

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Loading the

ThreeFactory

.17sThe Model 700 .17 Fireball (right) shoots flatlyenough out to 300 yards and recoils so littlethe shooter can see bullet strikes through thescope. Below (left to right): .17 Remington,.17 Remington Fireball and .17 Hornet.

John Barsness

S

eventeen-caliber wildcat car-tridges have been aroundsince at least the 1930s, but

the .17 Remington becamethe first commercial version in 1971.Based on a slightly elongated .223Remington case and loaded with a25-grain bullet at a listed 4,020 fps, itwas only the second American fac-tory round to break 4,000 fps. Earlyon, however, it was plagued by borefouling, probably due to a combina-

tion of some rough barrels and thedirty-burning ball powders of theday. There werent many .17-calibercleaning rods or bullets availablethen, so most shootersstayed away, despitereports of fine accu-racy in many rifles.

34 www.handloadermagazine.com

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The Subtleties of Tiny-TippedVarmint Cartridges

As a result, it took over three decades before anotherfactory .17 appeared, but in 2002 the new .17 HornadyRimfire Magnum became an instant success. Based onthe .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum case neckeddown, it pushed a 17-grain plastic-tipped V-MAX 2,550fps and was not only flatter-shooting than the .22 Mag-num but also in most rifles more accurate.

Some people claimed the little bullets drifted toomuch in the wind, thereby proving theyd never shotone, since the 17-grain V-MAX drifts less in the windthan bullets from any .22 Winchester Magnum load.

Within a year, .17-caliber cleaning rods appeared every-where (even though most Hummers didnt requiremuch 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. TheMach 2 proved to be even more accurate but never be-came as popular as the Hummer, probably because itwas more than 500 fps slower. It did find favor amongtree squirrel hunters in the East and ground squirrelshooters in the West, because it shot flatly and accu-

rately out to around 125 yards, while ammunition costfar less than .17 HMR.

In 2007 Remington brought out the .17 Fireball, the.22 Fireball necked down with a steeper shoulder andalmost identical to the popular .17 Mach 4 wildcat. Theprimary factory load featured a green-tipped Hornady20-grain V-MAX (called an AccuTip by Remington) at4,000 fps. The ballistic coefficient was higher than the25-grain hollowpoint used in the original .17 Reming-ton factory ammunition, so the Fireball shot flatterthan the larger cartridge had in 1971. The Fireball also

recoiled noticeably less, allowing varmint hunters tospot 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 ver-sion of the .17 Hornet. The original wildcat, popular-ized by P.O. Ackley, was based on the improved caseof the .22 K-Hornet. Hornadys version was a littleshorter with a shoulder angle between the original .22Hornets and the K-Hornets, though due to newerpowders, the ballistics matched the wildcat. The pri-mary factory load featured the 20-grain V-MAX at a

listed 3,650 fps, providing 250- to 300-yard capabilityin a case using only 10 to 12 grainsof powder. Handloaders could shoot

it almost as cheaply as the .17 HMR.

Hornady didnt say why it shortened the .22 Hornetcase, but a reasonable guess would be to ensure car-

tridges loaded with longer plastic-tipped bullets fitin .22 Hornet magazines. Many .22 Hornet repeaters

arent able to handle 40-grain, plastic-tipped bullets,

since the round was originally designed around round-nosed 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 rim-fire even more powerful than the .17 HMR, with a 20-

grain bullet at around 3,000 fps. Unfortunately, the .17Winchester Super Magnum appeared not long before

the ammunition shortage caused by panic buying after

Obamas reelection, so it really hasnt had a chance toshow 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 butbecame an instant convert. Eventually, I also owned


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One of the rifles used on theshoot would have gone home withme, but they were scheduled formore Remington shoots. Instead Isearched the Internet and found anear-new synthetic-stocked Model700 for $400, including a set ofRedding S bushing dies. Sold!

The new rifle shot the factoryammunition into an average ofabout .6 inch for five-shot groupsat 100 yards. There wasnt much.17 Fireball loading data availableso soon after its introduction, but

there was a little on the Internet.From Ramshots data, TAC seemeda likely candidate, since the maxi-mum charge of 20-plus grains filledthe case nicely, and the powdersalso very temperature resistantand clean-burning, with a de-cop-pering agent. Considerable expe-rience with TAC in the .204 Ruger

and .223 Remington had proven allthree characteristics valuable inhigh-volume varmint shooting.

The first range session with 20-grain V-MAXes reproduced thefactory velocity and accuracy, oneof the easiest load workups Iveever encountered, and after in-stalling Dyna Bore-Coat, the rifleremained accurate for over 200rounds without cleaning. This ex-perience made me wonder if theoriginal fouling problems reportedin the .17 Remington could be

cured with modern powders andDyna Bore-Coat.

Within a year Id found an early-production Remington 700 BDLsporter with genuine impressedcheckering. It hadnt been shotmuch at all, judging from a look atthe throat through a Hawkeye bore-

Factory

.17s

Left, making .17 Hornady Hornet cases out of .22 Hornetbrass requires several steps. Above, some converted .22Hornet cases will collapse when bullets are seated (left). Fire-forming cases with Cream of Wheat bypasses the possibility.

rifles in all three centerfire .17s and

learned some interesting thingsabout handloading for them.

The first was a Remington Model700 .17 Fireball. Like many pur-chases by rifle loonies, this rifleappeared in my safe due to twoprevious acquisitions: the clean-ing rods for my rimfire .17s, plusa case of Remington factory 20-grain AccuTip ammunition, a giftfrom Remingtons public relationsdepartment at the end of a prairiedog shoot in Wyoming. (This often

happens after company-sponsoredprairie dog shoots, especially togun writers who drove, becauseit costs a lot to ship ammunitionback to headquarters.)

Id been very impressed with the.17 Fireball during the shoot, tak-ing prairie dogs at over 500 yards,though it performed best out toaround 350, about as far as mostshooters can hit the majority ofdogs under typical conditions. The

little round shot so flatly, the cross-hairs could be held right on prairiedogs out to 300 yards and thebullet hit could be seen throughthe scope.

In desperation, .17 Fireball cases can

be made from .223 Remington brass.


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.17-Caliber Load Data overall

loaded 100-yard

bullet powder charge primer length velocity group

(grains) (grains) (inches) (fps) (inch)

.17 Hornet, CZ 527, 22-inch barrel, 1-in-9-inch twist:

20 Nosler Varmageddon HP A-1680 12.0 Remington 7

1

2

1.629 3,588 .63 LilGun 9.5 3,527 .68

VV-120 10.5 3,320 .44*

A-2200 13.0 3,461 .72

20 Hornady V-MAX H-4198 11.8 3,529 .75

25 Berger Varmint A-2200 12.0 1.734 3,094 .59

H-322 12.5 1.641 3,031 .87

30 Berger Varmint H-322 12.0 1.642 2,902 .49

.17 Remington Fireball, Remington 700, 24-inch sporter barrel, 1-in-9-inch twist:

20 Hornady V-MAX TAC 20.5 CCI BR2 1.811 3,974 .64

Benchmark 19.5 Tula SR 4,027 .59

20 Nosler Varmageddon Tipped TAC 20.5 CCI BR2 1.810 3,988 .65

Benchmark 20.0 3,969 .76

H-322 19.5 3,975 .6825 Berger Varmint Benchmark 19.0 1.770 3,704 .59*

30 Berger FB IMR-8208 XBR 20.0 1.770 3,454 .66

.17 Remington, Remington 700, 24-inch sporter barrel, 1-in-10-inch twist:

20 Hornady V-MAX Benchmark 23.5 Federal 205M 2.228 4,287 .96

Big Game 28.0 4,304 .74

20 Nosler Varmageddon Tipped Benchmark 23.5 2.225 4,298 .67

CFE 223 26.5 4,372 .65*

25 Berger Varmint Big Game 26.5 2.162 4,025 .70

Benchmark 23.5 3,832 .97

Varget 23.5 4,077 .88

* 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.Be Alert Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.


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 pow-der so flowed a little easier through

the tiny neck than the extrudedHodgdon powders.

The small neck is one of thebiggest problems in reloading the.17s and one reason loading the

.17 Remington is easier today than40-some years ago. Theres a muchwider selection of small-granuled,extruded powders, along withspherical powders that burn farmore cleanly than the original ballpowders.

This is also true of the .17 Hor-

Above, the tiny neck of .17 cases is filled most easily bymodern spherical powders. Right, Hodgdon Extreme powderswork very well for volume shooting in hot weather, andtheres a small-granuled version that works in each of the .17s.

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Factory

.17s

The rising popularity of .17s duringthe past decade has resulted in awider variety of bullets from majormanufacturers.

net. Hornadys factory ammunitionuses a special blend of Superfor-

mance powder unavailable to hand-loaders, but the 9th edition of the

Hornady Handbook of Reloading

showed Accurate 1680 producingthe highest velocities with both20- and 25-grain bullets. I triedseveral powders in the little case,and A-1680 proved both the fastestand most accurate with 20-grainbullets, though Hodgdon LilGun(perhaps todays best .22 Hornetpowder) came in a close second.

Other powders worked better with25- and 30-grain bullets, but mosthandloaders will be using 20s.

One problem with both A-1680and LilGun, however, became ap-parent during the heat of summerrodent shooting, when pressuresrose enough to cause occasionalproblems both with accuracy andexpanded primer pockets. Luckily,Hodgdons Extreme line, so famil-iar to handloaders of big-game

rounds, includes some small-gran-uled powders that work in the tiny

.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, how-ever, 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 fac-

tory chambers, which have moreneck clearance than .17 Reming-

ton chambers. (If desperate, .17

Fireballs can even be made by

using the common dies for form-

ing .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 thin-

ner. 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 in-

volved. 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, thecase body isnt supported by .17

.17 Hornet. With 20-grain bulletsH-4198 gets as much velocity as A-1680 and LilGun but without anyhot-weather problems, and H-322works very well with 25s and 30s.

The original one-in-10-inch twistof the .17 Remington often doesntstabilize 30-grain bullets. The stan-dard factory twist in both the .17

Hornet and .17 Fireball, however,is one in 9 inches, and both shootvery well with 30-grain bullets,which some hunters prefer forlarger varmints, especially furbear-ers, because hollowpoints dontexpand as violently as plastic-tipped bullets, so penetrate deeperand leave smaller holes.

Another problem with handload-ing .17s is sensitivity to bullet mis-alignment in the case, no doubt

because of the very short bullets.The longer bullets in larger-calibercartridges tend to straighten them-selves out in the rifling to a certainextent, but a 20-grain .17 startedcrookedly isnt going to fly verystraight. Redding bushing dies wereused in the .17 Hornet and Fire-ball, and Lee Collet dies in the .17Remington, which prevented thisproblem.

As this is written, theres still a

shortage of less-popular brass andammunition, including the three

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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 shell-

holder, then pull it back out, sav-

ing a lot of time.

Even after sizing and trimming

the necks, however, a few cases

can collapse during bullet seating,

due to the same problem: The seat-

ing die doesnt support the case

body. A .22 Hornet seater will pre-

vent case collapse but obviously

doesnt guarantee good bullet align-

ment, and the easiest way to fire-

form 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 asthose shot with .17 Hornady brass.

Eventually I decided to fireformthe trimmed and neck-sized caseswith the Cream of Wheat method,using 3.5 grains of Bullseye, dippedwith the smallest 020 scoop in aLee Powder Measure Kit. Anotherscoopful of uncooked Cream of

Wheat filled the cases to the baseof the neck, which were pluggedwith a half-inch square of papertowel rolled into a BB-sized ball.Winchester .22 Hornet brass wasused, and while the resulting casesaveraged about 5.5 grains lighterthan Hornady factory brass, veloc-ities and accuracy were essen-tially identical.

Hopefully the present compo-nent shortage will end soon, and

we can go back to buying brass forall factory cartridges, instead ofpretending were wildcatters. Thefactory .17s are great little car-tridges, definitely adding consid-erable versatility to a varminthunters rifle collection.

Hornet sizing dies, which usuallyresults in collapsed cases.

One solution was to remove thestem from a Redding seating die.This allowed necking down .22Hornet brass without collapsing,

All three of the .17s typically groupfive shots into less than an inch at 100yards. The best loads in this CZ 527 .17Hornet go under .5 inch.

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Mauser6.5mm, 7mm and 8mm

Mike VenturinoPhotos by Yvonne Venturino

In a scant six-year time frame,three military cartridges weredeveloped in Europe that remainsignificantly popular today. For

a half-century after appearing, theystood head and shoulders above mostother military rounds in regard to num-bers of rifles so chambered. Yet, thebackground and details of these threerounds are little known to most Ameri-can 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 actuallyisnt an 8mm either. In Europe it is the 7.9x57mm or7.92x57mm, with the first set of digits standing for thefirearms caliber and the second set for the cart

handloader 2014-08-09

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