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 >