It has been 31 years since I posted a handgun column titled “Those Incredible Silvertips” for this magazine. The intent was to review the lineup of Winchester Silvertip handgun bullets and to include a few loads that had been adopted, some of which replaced standards that largely featured cast bullet designs. ...Read More >

Crimping is one aspect of handloading best avoided unless there is some reason that bullets tend to move either into or out of case mouths after being seated or during feeding and firing. There are a lot of reasons for this to happen. In a rifle with a box magazine, for example, recoil acting against the inertia of magazine-housed cartridges can bash bullet tips into the forward face of a magazine box. Handloaders may have noticed pointed lead-tipped bullets that are flattened when firing magnum-type big-game rounds. Severe recoil and lots of inertia from heavy bullets designed for the biggest game can even drive bullets deeper inside cartridge cases, altering cartridge performance and possibly creating a feeding malfunction. ...Read More >

Q: I read and re-read your Pet Loads feature article on the .45 Colt in the June 2019 No. 320 issue of Handloader Magazine, which was a most excellent and informative piece unlike anything that I have ever read before. Your comments on throat sizes were especially interesting and I am considering fitting my Colt Single Action Army .45 with a new cylinder and have several questions. First, my gun is a second generation manufactured in 1959 and has throats that measure .457 inch. ...Read More >

No matter how hard one tries, it is sometimes difficult to determine what useful purpose some cartridges serve. However, we can apply the old quotation… “The past is a different place; they did things differently there.” Looked at in this light, the two .32 Colts make sense. ...Read More >