Handloader December 2017

As a preteenager newly involved in handloading, among other hobbies like tying flies and making arrows, accuracy in the sense that folks refer to it nowadays didn’t mean much. My stepfather Lester and I never shot at a formal target with a black bullseye, etc., but merely drew a black oval on a piece of cardboard and tacked it up on a fence post at some convenient range that allowed us to see the dot. Using a coat or other impromptu padding on the hood of the truck while aiming at the dot, bullets might strike low, high or at least somewhere in proximity to the aiming point and that was it. Whether bullets spread over a few inches was a matter of shooting skill or the rifle, or both, I had no idea. ...Read More >

In the last issue, this column presented an overview of shooting at long range and an idea about appropriate energy figures and hunting cartridges. It was mentioned that a handloader holds all the cards when it comes to load development. With all these cards, the handloader has the responsibility of being judicious in his component selection and load assembly. We are talking specifics, and there are a lot of things to think about. Usually, when developing a hunting load, a bullet is selected and powder is then loaded up to see if the combination groups well. Accuracy is usually the initial focus. Some would say that it is the only aspect of importance. I have found that long-range hunting load development is the ultimate in handloading, because there is a lot more that goes into making a great load. ...Read More >

Back in October 2006, you wrote an article on the .38-44 cartridge. The question is: would a post-World War II Colt Official Police in .38 Special be able to handle the .38-44 loads? Also, would the Smith & Wesson Model 10 Heavy Duty .38 Special handle the same loads? Smith & Wesson used this same gun to create the Model 13 .357 Magnum by reaming out the chambers to .357 Magnum, so it seems logical that it should easily handle heavy .38-44 loads. ...Read More >

Anyone who studies shooting history knows that many companies acquire a reputation for producing a particular type of firearm. In the U.S., for example, lever-action rifles will probably be forever associated with Winchester. Now consider Great Britain and its famed double rifle. Here again, one name stands out, Holland & Holland (H&H), even though several makers produced superb examples of such rifles. ...Read More >

Continuing a look at IMR’s new series of powders – IMR Target, IMR Red, IMR Green, IMR Blue and IMR Unequal – let’s turn our attention to IMR Red. Obviously intended to compete with Alliant’s Red Dot, IMR Red’s primary usage will be as a 12-gauge target powder for 7⁄8- and one-ounce shot charges, but with broad acceptance in low-pressure handgun cartridges, principally with lead bullets. ...Read More >

I have often been asked if I prefer cast or jacketed bullets for sixguns. I like and use both, as each can produce top performance, though there are certain applications where one works better than the other. ...Read More >

Two very interesting .50-95 WCF rifles I have been fortunate to shoot and handload for have been a vintage and a replica Winchester Model 1876. Despite having been made about 130 years apart – and fired by me nearly 20 years apart – both rifles behaved similarly. With black powder for propellant under lead-alloy bullets, both would group their first three shots into about 3 to 3.5 inches at 100 yards. After that, groups would grow to 5 or 6 inches for five shots due to fouling build up in their barrels. Swab them out with a wet patch, then a dry patch, and they would perform nearly identically again. ...Read More >

A fire crackled in the corner, rain played a tune on the metal roof, and Jon Sundra had our undivided attention. He was telling stories of hunting Rusa stag, black lechwe, warthogs and leopards. On that rainy Newfoundland night there was no mention of the 7mm JRS, but it was relevant because Sundra had used the wildcat cartridge bearing his initials to take all those animals. ...Read More >

The name Lyman has been around since 1878, when the Lyman Gun Sight Corporation was founded. The association of Lyman with reloading began in 1925, when Lyman purchased the Ideal Products Reloading Tool Company. Ideal, founded in 1884, began offering catalogs of its products immediately and soon, probably 1888, issued its first Ideal Handbook. These early handbooks lacked our modern, sophisticated testing results and real velocity and pressure information. On the other hand, they were, and are, a delight to read, as users of the company’s products often passed on stories of their successes. ...Read More >

Handloading and wildcatting are natural fields for visionaries. Equally, they provide fertile soil for dreamers and hucksters. Sometimes the line separating the two is very thin indeed. Early great names include Sir Charles Ross, then Charles Newton and later Roy Weatherby. ...Read More >

The CZ Model 527 bolt-action rifle is based off the old Brno Fox rifle that was made into the 1980s. CZ introduced the 527 in Europe in 1989 and a few years later in North America. In the years since, CZ has received a lot of attention out of the Model 527 “micro centerfire.” Various models include the Carbine, Youth Carbine, Varmint, American, Lux and Full Stock with a walnut or beech stock, and the American M1 and American Synthetic Suppressor with a synthetic stock. The Carbine, Full Stock and Lux rifles come with iron sights. The rifles are chambered in compact cartridges such as the .17 and .22 Hornets, .204 Ruger, .222 and .223 Remingtons, .300 Blackout and 7.62x39. ...Read More >

Temperature affects how gunpowder burns, including the ambient temperature of the surrounding air and the barrel heat created by firing. In fact, temperature was a major problem with the first smokeless rifle propellants. The famous Poudre B, developed in the early 1880s by French chemist Paul Vielle, is considered the first successful smokeless rifle powder. But along with being very temperature sensitive, Poudre B was extremely unstable, resulting in a few spontaneous explosions. By the 1890s it had been replaced by improved (but not perfect) Poudres. ...Read More >

In the bad old days when good brass was so hard to come by, we haunted small-town gun shows, buying up lots of a dozen cases here, a dozen there – used, grimy, tarnished and of uncertain history, but ready to be lovingly returned to life (It was hoped!) and ready to reload. ...Read More >

In the early days of the Great Depression, Winchester Repeating Firearms Company engineers and designers began to think about a new hunting rifle and cartridge. The rifle would be a lever action, as in those days it was the most favored. The company’s Model 86 Winchester had fallen on hard times. All of the black-powder cartridge chamberings had been dropped, and the old-timer had been chambered only in the .33 WCF cartridge since the 1920s. With its 50th anniversary coming up in 1936, it appeared to be time to introduce an updated rifle and cartridge. The plan worked, up to a point. ...Read More >

The wildcat 6.5-284 Winchester and the industry standardized 6.5-284 Norma have proven to be good long-range target cartridges that have set rec-ords at 1,000 yards and have become dominant in NRA Long Range High Power competition. Either is an excellent choice for hunting big game, especially in open country where long shots are expected. A handloader can expect good accuracy and modest recoil. ...Read More >