HANDLOADERHANDLOADER®

Ammunition Reloading Journal

RIFLE’S

February 2018 No. 312

Display until 03/19/18 Printed in USA

Powder Coating Cast BulletsThe Benefits and Downsides of Coating Your Own

Handloading the 6XC

.44 S&W Special +p

Turnbull Commander Heritage

Testing a New 1911 .45 ACP

7.63mm (.30 Caliber)

MauserLoads for a

Century-Old Broomhandle

Handloader 312

6 Learning to Shoot Handguns Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

10 Long Range Shooting Part III: Exterior and Terminal Performance Practical Handloading - Rick Jamison

14 .327 Federal Magnum Data Problems Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

18 .35 S&W Auto Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

22 Accurate 2520 Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr

24 SIG Sauer P938 9mm Luger From the Hip - Brian Pearce

26 .38 & .44 WCF Revolvers Mike’s Shooting Shack - Mike Venturino

28 .50 B&M Alaskan Wildcat Cartridges - Layne Simpson

30 Turnbull Commander Heritage Testing a New 1911 .45 ACP Charles E. Petty

36 Handloading the 6XC A High Power Cartridge with Versatility John Barsness

42 .44 S&W Special +P Handloads for a Classic Revolver Cartridge Brian Pearce

On the cover . . .A Turnbull Commander Heritage 1911 .45 ACP (photo by Chris Downs) is shown with powder- coated NOE 453-210-RF cast bullets (photo by John Haviland).

4

Page 10 . . .

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COLUMNS FEATURES

50 7.63mm (.30 Caliber) Mauser Loads for a Century-Old Broomhandle Terry Wieland

56 Powder Coating Cast Bullets The Benefits and Downsides of Coating Your Own John Haviland

Page 56 . . .

Page 22 . . .

55 Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, 10th Edition Book Reviews R.H. VanDenburg, Jr

64 Master Index

66 Putting Shawnee Mission on the Map In Range Terry Wieland

Page 28 . . .

28 www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 312

Sometime during the 1950s gunsmith Harold Johnson, who

owned a shop in Cooper Landing Alaska called Johnson’s Kenai Rifles, decided to create a rifle and cartridge combination that would be ideal for back-up use by guides who were tasked with prevent-ing clientele from being eaten by a brown bear or gored by a bull moose. His small advertisement in American Rifleman (May 1955, page 83) read: “The .450 Alaskan is the most powerful lever ac-tion made. Light, fast and handy, it is used from Alaska to Africa by hunters, guides and photogra-phers. Uses .348 Winchester case with 400-grain, .457-inch bullet at 2,100 fps. New rifle on Winchester Model 71 action for $185 or $85 on your Model 71 action.”

Johnson later acquired a Win-chester Model 86 .50-110 with a

rusted-out bore and decided to make a replacement for it from a military-surplus .50 BMG machine gun barrel. But rather than cham-ber the barrel for the Winchester cartridge, he necked up the .450 Alaskan case to .50 caliber. Lack-ing a jacketed bullet for his new cartridge, he whittled away at the 750-grain .50 BMG boat-tail bullet until it weighed 450 grains. When shooting his homemade projec-tile seated in a case base-for-ward, Johnson claimed it would zip clean through a moose or a bear from any angle. He usually referred to the cartridge as “the .50” and carried it while guiding RCBS founder, Fred Huntington, and other hunters. The cartridge eventually became commonly known as the .50 Alaskan.

Fast-forward about 60 years and we have the introduction of the .50 B&M Alaskan by Michael McCourry (the “B” is for his friend

William Bruton). It is but one of about a dozen of his wildcats in calibers ranging from 9.3mm to .50. Some are on the Remington Ultra Mag case, others are on the Winchester Short Magnum (WSM) case. Rather than simply design a new cartridge and leave it at that, McCourry heads to points around the globe for tests on various game ranging from Asiatic buffalo in Australia to elephant and Cape buffalo in Africa. And rather than guesstimating chamber pressures, he has his own pressure-testing equipment at an indoor range. He also designs bullets for his car-tridges, and a recovery box al-lows testing them for expansion and penetration prior to heading to the field.

The original .50 Alaskan was made by necking up the .348 Win-chester case and fireforming to minimum body taper. Doing so remains an option, but Starline

WILDCAT CARTRIDGES by Layne Simpson

.50 b&m aLaSkan

The SSK Marlin .50 B&M Alaskan test rifle features after-market sights, a McGowen barrel and a Weaver

V3 1-3x scope in a T’SOB mounting base.

Cartridges shown include a (1) .348 Winchester, a (2) Starline .50 Alaskan case, a (3) .450 Alaskan, a (4) .50 Alaskan and a (5) .50 B&M Alaskan.

1 2 3 4 5

.601

.070

.545 .525

1.5451.595

.535.525

2.1002.550

4º

.500.50 B&M Alaskan

NOTE: Dimensions may vary.

Using a Corbin CSP-1 press to push the Swift .510-inch, 450-grain A-Frame through an annular draw die decreases its diameter to .500 inch for the .50 B&M Alaskan.

29February-March 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com

eliminates the chore by offering fully formed cases. Bullet diame-ter for Harold Johnson’s cartridge is .510 inch, whereas Michael Mc-Courry went with .500 inch, which just happens to be the diameter of bullets made for the .500 S&W Magnum. One trip through an RCBS .50 B&M Alaskan full-length resizing die squeezes down the mouth of the Starline case for the smaller-diameter bullet.

Only a few .510-inch bullets of the correct weight and style for the .50 Alaskan are available while .500-inch bullets are quite com-mon. Using the slightly skinnier bullet increases the versatility of the original .50 Alaskan con-cept. As far as I know, the Swift 450-grain A-Frame is the lightest .510-inch bullet available for the .50 Alaskan, and while it would be an excellent big bear stopper, it is a bit heavily constructed for quick

expansion on deer-size game. In regard to .500-inch bullets, and while heavier bullets of this diam-eter are available for the big stuff, lighter (and softer) bullets are better for use on deer, black bear and such. McCourry’s favorites for deer are the Hornady 300-grain FTX and the Sierra 400-grain JSP.

It is important to note that when pushed to maximum .50 B&M ve-locities, most bullets designed spe-cifically for the .500 S&W Magnum are too soft for adequate penetra-

tion on heavier game. This espe-cially holds true inside 50 yards, where velocities are still high. Stouter bullets suitable for use on bigger game are available.

Cutting Edge 300-, 335- and 375-grain, deep-cavity Lever Gun bullets included in the accompa-nying table were designed by Mc-Courry and are available from Cutting Edge. He is especially fond of the heaviest version, but due to the position of its crimp groove,

Running a Starline .50 Alaskan case (left) into an RCBS .50 B&M Alaskan full-length resizing die (center) necks it down for a .500-inch bullet (right).

Pristine bullets and those recovered from expansion test media at 50-yard impact velocities include (left to right): a Swift 325-grain A-Frame, a North Fork 450 Bonded SP and a Swift 450 A-Frame.

(Continued on page 63)

.50 B&M Alaskan Handloads 50-yard 3-shot group bullet powder charge velocity average (grains) (grains) (fps) (inches)

SSK Industries custom Marlin New Model 1895, 22-inch barrel, 1:20 twist

300 Cutting Edge Lever Gun CN IMR-4198 68.0 2,444 1.30 300 Hornady FTX (1) IMR-4198 67.0 2,428 1.08325 Swift A-Frame RL-7 66.0 2,251 .73335 Cutting Edge Lever Gun CN IMR-4198 65.0 2,331 .82350 Speer Deep Curl RL-7 65.0 2,059 .94375 Cutting Edge Lever Gun CN (2) RL-7 64.0 2,087 .81400 Sierra JSP-SM H-4198 63.0 2,113 .79 IMR-4198 40.0 1,334 1.11400 RCBS 82099 cast (3) IMR-4198 50.0 1,986 1.21405 Cutting Edge Lever Gun Solid IMR-4198 61.0 2,138 1.14450 Swift A-Frame (4) RL-7 58.0 1,827 .86450 North Fork Bonded SP H-322 62.0 1,966 1.10 H-4198 56.0 1,970 1.18 500 Hornady XTP FP RL-10X 62.0 1,947 1.27500 Woodleigh Weldcore (4) IMR-4198 56.0 1,902 .91

SSK custom Ruger No. 1, 20-inch barrel, 1:12 twist *410 Cutting Edge Raptor HP IMR-4198 65.0 2,198 n/a450 Cutting Edge Safari Solid IMR-4198 64.0 2,122 n/a 450 Northfork Bonded SP IMR-4198 65.0 2,203 n/a500 Hornady FP-XTP IMR-4198 62.0 2,027 n/a

* Not for lever-action rifles(1) Shorten case to 1.97 inches for this bullet; cartridge length not to exceed 2.55 inches.(2) For Winchester/Browning only (see text) (3) Actual weight cast from scrap wheel weights is 408 grains(4) Diameter reduced to .500 inch with Corbin draw die

Notes: All powder charges were pressure-tested by the cartridge designer, Michael McCourry. All charges are maximum, or close to it, and starting loads should be reduced by 10 percent. Velocities are the average of five shots chronographed 12 feet from the muzzle with a Oehler 33 chronograph. Starline .50 Alaskan cases and Federal 210M primers used in all loads.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data. Listed loads are only valid in the test firearms used. Reduce initial powder charge by 10 percent and work up while watching for pressure signs.

The Benefits and Downsides of Coating Your Own

Powder Coating

John Haviland

Casting lead-alloy bullets and preparing them for shoot-ing requires a great deal of work. Always on the lookout

for easier and inexpensive methods of readying cast bullets and improv- ing their use, I started coating cast bullets with powder.While doing so re-moved the requirement of lubricating bullets, it was not a time-saving pro-cess compared to lubricating by run-ning them through a sizer/lubricator press. Powder coating provided several other benefits, however, such as the reduction of bore-leading and elimi- nation of smoke from burning lubri-cant. Plus the colored bullets looked cool.

Powder-coating material is essentially plastic that has been ground into a fine powder, with resins, color and other ingredients added to provide the desired coating film. Polyester powders are the most common. Heat is applied to melt the powder that cools as a hard film, enclosing the bullets.

Everyone who powder-coats bullets has a favorite powder brand. I bought a pound of Harbor Freight red powder coat paint for $6. The bottle stated the powder “protects against wear, corrosion, impact and weather.” That pound of powder is enough to coat thousands of bullets; less than the cost of traditional lubes.

Powder can be applied to bullets by several meth-ods, from complicated to quick. Harbor Freight sells a powder coat gun for $70. An air compressor that pro-vides 10 to 30 psi of air pressure is also required. The gun blows negatively charged powder onto positively charged bullets. This electrostatic attraction adheres

powder to bullets. This method requires standing bul-lets upright with enough space between them to spray an even coat all around the bullets, but leaves the bul-lets’ bases uncoated. Standing up a bunch of slender rifle bullets requires nimble fingers.

Another coating technique is to tumble bullets in a slurry of powder and acetone. However, all I ended up with was a gooey mess of gobs of powder on bullets when trying this process. If I had kept at it, it prob-ably would have worked. But even while wearing a mask I felt light-headed from the solvent fumes, and my thought process became spotty at best.

Simply tumbling bullets and powder together in a container turned out the cheapest and easiest way to coat bullets evenly. Putting bullets and powder in a Ziploc bag, closing the bag to contain the powder dust and gently tumbling the bag coated bullets fairly well. The clear plastic allowed me to see when bullets where suitably covered, but the bags eventually split and leaked powder.

I switched to more durable plastic tubs. The type

www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 31256

Cast Bullets

of plastic tub used had a great influence on how well power stuck to bullets. Barely any powder adhered to bullets tumbling in hard plastic jars. Tumbling in soft plastic tubs, like the containers potato salad comes in, coated bullets fairly well.

This adhesion of powder to bullets relies on elec-tricity, just like the powder coating gun. The poly-ethylene surface of Ziploc bags and soft plastic tubs tends into attract electrons when brought into con-tact with other materials. In this case, the material is lead-alloy bullets that give up electrons when brought into contact with polyethylene.

Some handloaders who powder coat bullets at-tempt to increase static electricity by adding plastic Airsoft BBs or copper-coated BBs to powder. Others tumble bullets while wearing wool socks and drag-ging their feet across carpet.

Bullets must be clean for the powder to stick. Noth-ing is freer of contaminates than freshly cast bullets, or bullets stored in a sealed container.

Some advice I read suggested to shaking a con-tainer with powder and bullets like a paint-shaking machine. Some handloaders even place a container in a vibrating case tumbler. All that vigorous shaking did for me was knock the powder off bullets. Gently

turning a container end over end from a few to five minutes evenly coated bullets.

Transferring powder-coated bullets onto a pan to heat the bullets and melt the powder is a delicate pro-cess. Some folks use tweezers to pick up each bullet and set it in a pan, which is time consuming. Wearing latex gloves and picking out bullets is slightly faster, but touching the bullets in any way removes some powder. I gently rolled the bullets into a strainer po-sitioned over a pail and lightly jiggled the strainer to drain excess powder. From there the bullets were slowly rolled into a pan lined with nonstick aluminum foil. Whether the bullets are standing up or laying on their side does not affect how evenly the powder cures. A slight space between bullets prevents them from sticking together and eliminates rough spots from forming where they touched.

Powder coating is a fairly clean process. I wore a dust mask and latex gloves while handling the pow-der. After shaking bullets, the lid was left on for a few minutes to settle the dust. Excess powder sifted through the strainer into a pail was poured back into the powder bottle. Of course, sprinkles of powder showed up here and there. Wet paper towels wiped up the splotches.

These bullets were cast from an NOE 453-210-RF mould. The two bullets at left have one coat of powder and are fairly well covered. The bullets at right have two coats.

February-March 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com 57

58 www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 312

A toaster oven is the most com-mon heat source for melting pow-der onto bullets. A toaster oven was purchased for $20 at a local store, with a coupon and a dis-count. The oven rack holds an 8.5-inch square pan with some room to spare. Suggestions for oven temperature settings and baking time vary. I’ve read everything from 400 degrees for 20 minutes to 300 degrees at half that time.

I set the oven at 350 degrees and kept an eye on the powder as it began to melt on a batch of .30-30 bullets. After 15 minutes

the powder had melted and a shiny coat of paint appeared on the bul-lets, but some of the bullets looked weird – as in they had started to melt and flatten. It was finally de-termined that the melted bullets had been directly over the heating element. A flat pan placed over the heating element spread the heat more evenly.

After some experimenting, an oven temperature of 350 degrees and a baking time of 15 minutes was settled on. Bullets that were laying on their side came out of the oven with an even coat. Some

thin spots appeared here and there on some bullets coated once. The driving band diameter was .310 inch of as-cast RCBS 30-150-CM bullets. Diameter increased to .311 inch with one coat of powder.

The finish on the bullets was slippery, and the bullets easily pushed in and out of a .309-inch sizer die. I shot 20-some of these bullets through a .30-30 at a ve-locity of 1,267 fps. A Lyman bore-scope showed a smear of red at the beginning of the rifling and a few streaks in the bore. They wiped out with a few brush strokes fol-lowed by two patches. There was no visible sign of leading.

A second coat of powder readily adhered to bullets. A second cured coat added about an additional .002 inch in diameter. That is fine for bullets that will be sized and do not have a bore-riding forward portion. However, RCBS 7mm-145-SIL bullets have a bore-riding nose. The rifling lands of a New Ultra Light Arms Model 20 and a Winchester Model 70 lightly en-graved the nose of these as-cast bullets. One application of pow-der coat increased the diameter of the nose enough that bullets would not fit in the rifles’ bores. The nose of the bullets could have been sized to the proper diameter, but that is an additional step that can be avoided.

The increased thickness made me leery of the coating; it might have filled crimp grooves enough

The shiny finish shows that the powder has melted and cured on these 7mm bullets.

Powder Coating Cast Bullets

Powder coating cast bullets can be expensive or economical. All that is really required is powder, a plastic container, protec-tive gloves and a mask. An inexpensive oven comes in handy.

Select Powder-Coated Bullet Handloads overall 5-shot loaded 100-yard bullet powder charge length velocity group comments (grains) (grains) (inches) (fps) (inches)

7mm-08 Remington, Remington Model Seven, 18.5-inch barrel*

147 RCBS 7mm-145-SIL Unique 12.0 2.724 1,512 1.59 sized and lubricated 1,515 1.81 powder coated A-5744 21.0 1,751 2.02 powder coated

.30-30 Winchester, Winchester Model 94 Legacy, 24-inch barrel**

147 RCBS 30-150-CM Red Dot 7.0 2.485 1,290 2.09 sized and lubricated 1,267 1.94 powder coated

.45 Auto, Colt Gold Cup, 5.5-inch barrel***

225 NOE 453-210-RF Titegroup 4.6 1.205 801 1.62† sized and lubed 813 1.98† powder coated 814 2.80† two coats of powder

* Federal cases and Remington 9½ primers** Winchester cases and Remington 9½ primers*** Federal cases and CCI 300 primers† Groups were the average of five-shot groups at 25 yards.Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data. Listed loads are only valid in the test firearms used. Reduce initial powder charge by 10 percent and work up while watching for pressure signs.

59February-March 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com

to prevent applying a sufficient case mouth crimp on bullets to keep them in place during hard recoil. To put that worry to rest, I applied two coats of Harbor Freight Red Powder to bullets cast from an LBT 358-200-FN mould and crimped the bullets in .357 Magnum cases over 14.0 grains of Accurate No. 11FS pow-der. The bullets had a velocity of 1,163 fps fired from the 6-inch bar-rel of a Smith & Wesson Model 686 .357 Magnum revolver. Recoil was sharp. I left one cartridge unfired in the cylinder while firing ten rounds. Measuring the cartridge showed its length had remained unchanged.

The LBT bullets accept a gas check. I left them off, as they pro-vide no benefit when shot from the .357. Gas checks are a tight fit when pushed onto the base of coated RCBS 7mm-145-SIL bul-lets, so I added gas checks on 7mm bullets before they were coated. I wore latex gloves while handling the bullets and made sure the sizer die was clean to keep from con-taminating bullets.

Powder coating provides a hard surface on bullets. The paint does

not crack or peel off when sizing bullets. Some of the NOE 453-210-RF bullets were shot from a .45 Auto into a stack of dry news-papers, and most of the coating remained on the shanks of the re- covered bullets. After firing 20-some coated bullets through the .45, its bore was only slightly fouled, probably with primer residue.

Often when shooting plain cast bullets, you get a face full of smoke and a taste of lead when the wind blows in your face. Powder- coated bullets eliminated the smoke for sure, and perhaps some air-borne lead.

Powder coating does not strengthen a bullet’s lead alloy. Perhaps the coating does protect a bullet’s base somewhat from powder gas, but I’ve never seen

where the plain base of cast bul-lets ever melted from the heat of powder gas. Pressure is what distorts a cast bullet and ruins accuracy. I shot RCBS 7mm-145-SIL bullets cast of wheel weights with gas checks through the worn bore of a Remington Model Seven 7mm-08. Fired with 12.0 grains of Unique, the velocity and size of five-shot groups was pretty much the same whether the bullets were lubed and sized or powder coated and sized. A borescope showed no streaks of lead in the bore. In-creasing velocity to 1,751 fps us-ing 21.0 grains of A-5744, groups widened a bit. After 10 shots, the borescope showed slight streaks of lead in a few spots in the bore. That was fairly well the bore’s con-

This five-shot group was fired at 25 yards using a Colt Gold Cup

National Match .45 ACP with bullets cast from an NOE 453-210-RF mould

and loaded with Titegroup powder.

Coated bullets contain no gooey lubricant that eventually gums up a seating die.

Two coats of Harbor Freight red put a thick coat of paint on bullets cast from an LBT-358-200 FN mould. The bullet’s crimp groove remained deep enough to apply a good crimp that kept the bullets in place during heavy recoil in a .357 Magnum revolver. The paint also increased the diameter of the bullet’s nose, making a tight fit in the chambers.

60 www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 312

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Two coats of Harbor Freight red powder put a .003-inch-thick coat on the forward section of RCBS 7mm-145-SIL bullets, making the bullets too wide to fit in new 7mm-08 rifles.

dition after shooting sized and lubed bullets.

Powder coating bullets does require more time than the tradi-tional method of running bullets through a sizer/lubricator press. Facing the daunting task of pre-paring a thousand .38 Special bul-lets, I would rather run the bullets through a sizer/lubricator press or choose bullets that drop from a mould the correct diameter, roll the bullets in a liquid lube and al-low them to dry.

If the work of preparing cast bullets is pleasant and pleasurable for you, then the powder-coating process is a good investment of time and small expense of about $30. I’ll spend that time pow-der coating rifle bullets for hunt-ing and target shooting so I don’t have to peer through a screen of smoke. Because they look so cool, I’ll even keep on hand some .30-30 and .45 Auto ammunition loaded with powder-coated bul-lets. •

February-March 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com 61

was developed at +P pressures. It omits A-2520 as a suitable pow-der altogether. Nosler’s Reload-ing Guide 8 pairs A-2520 with 85- and 100-grain bullets, but nei-ther comes close to reaching the maximum velocities attained by slower powders. With all this in mind, I loaded A-2520 with a Nos-ler 85-grain Ballistic Tip, a Hor-nady 100-grain SP and a Hornady 117-grain SST. My .257 is pretty accurate and provided three-shot groups of .93, .68 and .23 inch. The rifle is throated for heavier bullets and the groups reflect that.

In the .30-30 Winchester, my Model 94 carbine with its 20-inch barrel loses velocity to Western’s published data for a 24-inch bar-rel, but Speer 150- and 170-grain bullets performed well.

The .308 Winchester is A-2520’s spiritual home. My 22-inch bar-rel gave up some speed to pub-lished 24-inch data, but accuracy was first rate. In the .30-06, again with a 22-inch barrel, I topped off A-2520 powder charges with Hornady 150- and 165-grain Spire Points. Accuracy was what I’ve come to expect from that rifle and those bullets. None of the manuals call for magnum prim-ers in the ’06 for any powder, but I suspect at this case capacity and above it would be a better choice, especially in cold weather. Unfor-tunately, I didn’t get to try it this time but will in the future.

The .303 British was quite a puz- zle. Both Western and Hornady list the cartridge with Hornady 150-grain SPs and Accurate 2520. Western Powders’ maximum is 46.0 grains for 2,769 fps from a 24-inch barrel. Hornady data lists 41.1 grains as maximum for 2,600 fps from an Enfield No. 4 Mk II 25.25-inch barrel. Both used Winchester Large Rifle primers. I have two .303s; one an Enfield No. 4 Mk I and the other a Ruger No. 1. The Ruger was for the tests. It has a 22-inch barrel. I could use the Western data safely, but cutting the maximum charge by 2 grains gave me longer case life.

The final cartridge was the 8mm Mauser. The situation repeated it-self. Western used a 24-inch test bar-rel; Hornady used a Mauser ’98 with a 24-inch barrel. Western’s maxi-mum charge with a Sierra 150-grain spitzer was 52.5 grains for 2,955 fps. Hornady listed its 150-grain bullet over 49.7 grains at 2,800 fps. Once again, I have two rifles, one a WWII-era Mauser ’98 and the other a Remington Model 700 Classic. I used the latter for the tests. The Western data worked perfectly in the Remington, but I would prob-ably use the Hornady data in the Mauser. Accurate 2520 performed quite well in the cartridge. I’ve shot a lot of these bullets with a range of powders and taken several head of game. Accurate 2520 seems right at home.

Propellant Profiles(Continued from page 23)

Interestingly, A-2520 seemed to give its best performance in such cartridges as the various .338s and .358s, including the .338 Marlin Express, the .338 Ruger Compact Magnum, the .358 Winchester and .35 Whelen.

Regardless, its good to see the Accurate line now home, or close to it. Distribution, availability and lot-to-lot consistency can only benefit.

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STATEMENT REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AS AMENDED BY THE ACTS OF MARCH 3, 1933, JULY 2, 1946 and JUNE 11, 1960 (74 STAT. 208), SHOWING THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT and CIRCULATION OF THE HANDLOADER MAGAZINE (PUBLICATION NO. 577-540). PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY AT PRESCOTT, ARIZONA, FOR NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017.1. The name of the publisher is Don Polacek and the editor is Lee Hoots, Prescott, Arizona.2. The owner is Polacek Publishing Corporation, 2180 Gulf-stream, Ste. A, Prescott AZ 86301.3. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: (if there are none, so state.) None.4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases where the stock-holder or security holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting; also, the statements in the two paragraphs show the affiant’s full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security hold-ers who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bonafide owner.5. The average number sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during the 12 months preceding the date shown was: (This information is required by the act of June 11, 1960, to be included in all statements regardless of frequency of issue.) 86,040DONALD R. POLACEK, President

•

63February-March 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com

overall cartridge length is too long for the Marlin action to handle. Winchester and Browning Model 71 rifles accept slightly longer car-tridges, so it works fine in them. With a wide flat on its nose, the monolithic Cutting Edge 405-grain Lever Gun Solid may be the only available tube magazine-friendly bullet of its type. Exiting the 18-inch barrel of a Browning 71 at 2,175 fps, it has proven to be quite effective on big stuff, including Cape buffalo.

Another preference for use on heavy game is the 450-grain North Fork, with its bonded lead core. The Swift 350-grain A-Frame re-ally hammers huge Vancouver Is-land black bears. I wanted to try the Swift 450-grain A-Frame and the Woodleigh 500-grain Weld-core in my rifle, but they are .510-inch bullets. Dave Corbin came to the rescue with an annular draw die for my CSP-1 press. In goes a .510-inch bullet and out comes a .500-inch bullet.

As powders go, IMR-4198 seems to do it all. The cartridge does have some recoil, so loading 40.0 grains behind any bullet weighing from 300 to 500 grains results in an excellent reduced-velocity load. Shooting the RCBS .500-400-SWC or Lyman No. 501680 bullet cast of scrap wheel weights saves money during practice sessions. Moving to the opposite extreme in velocity and power, no other powder beats IMR-4198.

The first .50 B&M Alaskan rifles I shot belonged to McCourry and were built by SSK Industries on Marlin New Model 1895 and Browning Model 71 actions. Both had 18-inch Pac-Nor barrels. My Marlin was also built by SSK, and its 22-inch barrel was made by Mc-Gowen Precision Barrels in Kalis-pell, Montana. It has a 1:20 twist and a muzzle diameter of .795 inch compared to .725 inch for the .45-70 barrel it replaced. Depending on the powder/bullet combina-tion, velocity difference between it and an 18-inch barrel ranges from just a tad to upward of 75

fps. More important than a small increase in velocity is the reduc-tion in muzzle blast from a longer barrel. Making the big cartridge flow smoothly through the Mar-lin action requires talent, and the guys at SSK obviously are blessed with an abundance of it.

It rains a lot in Alaska, so for the conversion I chose a Model 1895 MLXR with laminated wood stock and stainless steel barreled action. The barrel features Master-piece open sights from N.E.C.G., a No. 61 Adjustable at the rear and a No. 661 Banded Ramp up front. The front sight is the S-4 version, and in addition to a fixed 3⁄32-inch silver bead it has a larger 11⁄64-inch white bead that can be hinged up and in front of the smaller bead when light is bad, or folded down when not needed. British rifle builders call it a “night sight,” and the folding bead is often made from the tusk of a warthog because it does not turn yellow with age as elephant ivory is prone to do.

The .50 B&M Alaskan shoots flat enough for shots on game out to about 150 yards, but it is seen at its best as a close-range stopper. For that, a scope with a wide field of view is needed, and after trying several I settled on a Weaver V3 1-3x with a 22-foot field of view at 25 yards. An indestructible T’SOB

2020 W. Quail Avenue - Dept. HLPhoenix, AZ 85027

Introducing theGRX Recoil Lug for

the Ruger 10/22™!

Little Crow Gunworks, LLC6593 113th Ave. NE, Suite C • Spicer, MN 56288

Tel: (320) 796-0530 • www.littlecrowgunworks.com

• Eliminates fliers and improves accuracy 15% to 20%• Simply installed by replacing the barrel retainer,

fitting and bedding the lug into the stock (instructions included)

Only

$$3399..9955

The GRX solves the chronic accuracy problemwith the 10/22 platform by focusing the recoilarea to a lug similar to a centerfire rifle.

Wildcat Cartridges(Continued from page 29)

scope mounting base installed by SSK holds Maxima quick-detach rings from Warne. Total weight is 8.75 pounds. It was used to shoot most of the loads included in this column. The Ruger No. 1 loads were shot by Michael McCourry. •