Handloader December - January 2025

One early morning, while sleepily strolling from the kitchen to the front door to check outside, the dog began barking aggressively before I could open the door and step out. Peeking out the window, a quick glimpse of a rattlesnake was seen, posed perfectly to strike at any unsuspecting dog or person who would have walked out the front door. The dog was snake trained and had certainly saved more than just me from stepping too close to danger. Deciding this snake was too close for comfort, I carefully went out the back door and dispatched the snake with an Uberti Cattleman in 45 Colt loaded with you guessed it, snake shot. I was a lot younger then, but it set in motion a desire to develop more effective snake loads. ...Read More >

In the moment between ignition and the bullet’s emergence from the muzzle, a time frame that is measured in microseconds (1/1,000,000 of a second) – complex forces that are still not fully understood – drive a bullet down a barrel. In a magnum centerfire rifle, the projectile can be accelerated over the span of a few feet to velocities in excess of 3,000 feet per second (fps) over a time frame of approximately 1.2 microseconds. The speed and power of this dynamic system is difficult for the human mind to grasp. Thanks to the piezoelectric transducer and computers, many of the mysteries of internal ballistics have been solved, but this technological turn is relatively new. ...Read More >

Q: I have been reading Handloader for about 15 years and have learned much from your detailed articles. I have used your +P style 45-70 Government loads and am very pleased with the accuracy I am getting. They have worked great for hunting whitetail deer and elk here in Northern Idaho, where it is almost always dense timber. The problem is that those +P loads kick too much when shooting for fun at the range. ...Read More >

With the conclusion of World War II, sanity finally returned to the world (at least for a while). As the industry retooled to produce peace-time products, demand for shotshells and 22RF cartridges reached numbers that are exceeded only by the current U. S. national debt. ...Read More >

The SIG Sauer P320 was first offered to the U.S. market in 2014 and then formally adopted by the U.S. Military as their standard sidearm in 2017 as the M17 (full size) and M18 (compact), replacing the Beretta M9 (92 series for the civilian market), which was the Military’s sidearm since 1985. The previous pistol was the Colt Model 1911 45 ACP that was adopted in that same year and served admirably through many, many wars and conflicts for an incredible 74 years – and still does in the hands of elite fighting men in various Special Forces that further proves its timeless design and caliber. ...Read More >

Creating precision ammunition is a matter of properly utilizingquality components and tools to achieve the greatest cartridge-to-cartridge consistency. “Precision” is a relative term, of course; in our context here, the difference between precision competition handloads and hunting or plinking ammunition is literally measured in thousandths of an inch. ...Read More >

Texan John Wootters wrote columns and features for Rifle and Handloader for many years. An accomplished hunter, he enjoyed safaris in Africa where he took a variety of game, including a magnificent leopard with a Ruger No. 1 in 45-70. John was also among the first to use the 416 Taylor, a wildcat cartridge that was receiving a lot of attention during the mid-1970s. Hunting in the same area of Botswana as the developer of the cartridge, Bob Chatfield-Taylor, had hunted three years prior. John used the 416 to take a record book lion and a 45-inch buffalo. John’s real passion was studying the whitetail deer, and his classroom was a 1,600-acre spread in southern Texas Brush Country. An area that was famous for producing more big-antlered bucks than anywhere else in the state. His book Hunting Trophy Deer became a classic. ...Read More >

Looking back to your fevered days as a teenager, sweating with angst and obsessing over everything from nuclear war to the efficacy of Stridex pads, there was your old grandad out on the porch, rocking gently, puffing his pipe, and taking it all with a rueful smile. ...Read More >

The Super 30 Magnum Rimless was introduced by the British firm of Holland & Holland (H&H) in 1920. At the time, the shop was building high-grade stalking rifles in 375 Magnum on actions built at the Mauser factory in Oberndorf, Germany, and the same action was used for building rifles chambered for the Super 30. ...Read More >

The 32-40 has been around now for 140 years. During that time, it has been chambered in just about everything except machine guns. Born in the era of black-powder and cast-lead bullets, it survived the transition to semi-smokeless and smokeless powders and jacketed bullets. ...Read More >

The 6.8 Western was created in 2021 through a collaboration between Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Browning Arms Company. The goal was to produce a long-range cartridge introducing magnum ballistics combined with tolerable recoil ideal for Western big-game hunting and long-range target shooting. The 6.8 Western accomplished this by introducing heavy, long-for-caliber bullets up to 175 grains carrying high ballistic coefficients (BCs) and sectional densities, combined with rifles with a fast 1:8 (Winchester) to 1:7.5 (Browning) rifling twists for ensured bullet stabilization. ...Read More >

During the early days of automobiles, while the makings of unimaginable war simmered in Europe, stateside rifle enthusiasts A.O. Neidner and F.J. Sage concluded a case the size of the .30-40 Krag’s was perfect for a hot .25 cartridge. They had in mind just the rifle for it. ...Read More >

The 32 Winchester Special (W.S.) was introduced in 1901 and first appeared in the 1902 Winchester catalog (although some sources suggest 1898, but this is not well supported). In glancing at the ballistics and comparing them to the 30-30 Winchester, most of today’s shooters will wonder why the 32 W.S. ever existed; after all, it only offers a very small ballistic advantage. ...Read More >