Handloader April/May 2017

When my wife, Roberta, came home and informed me of Ken Waters’ passing recently, a lot of thoughts raced through my mind, but it all boiled down to one: It was an honor to work with such a remarkable man. ...Read More >

Brian answers questions on the Uberti Single-Action .45 Colt, the 9mm Hi-Power, the .240 Weatherby Magnum and the .30-30 Winchester ...Read More >

A friend recently questioned why no shotgun cartridges have been covered in this column. Good question. Perhaps it is just that shotguns are so darn basic. Everybody interested in shooting has one . . . or two or three or more. Shotguns are also old. Humans have been stuffing rocks, nails, bits of iron, glass and lead down smoothbore barrels for hundreds of years. Early citizens fired their smoothbores at small edible birds and mammals, plus annoying or predatory vermin. Of course, these folks also regularly fired their guns at each other for the same reasons – except, usually, the eating part. ...Read More >

Winchester powders once covered the shotshell reloading scene like a blanket. Winchester 296 served the .410 bore well. Everything else was addressed with four powders; 452 and 473 were target powders for the 12 and 20 gauges, and 540 and 571 were field powders covering everything from the 12 to the 28 gauge. ...Read More >

Lyman offers a Pistol 4 Die Set that includes both a roll-crimp and taper- crimp die for revolver cartridges.Obtaining the correct crimp on revolver cartridges is a crucial part of producing top-notch handloads. Unfortunately, this is often misund... ...Read More >

As with thousands of handgunners and handloaders of my generation, Skeeter Skelton was a great and good influence on me. He was responsible for my interest in the .44 Special and the several dozen revolvers so chambered that I have owned over the past 40 years. Unlike most .44 Special fans, however, I thought my way out of the .44 Special box. ...Read More >

A new wildcat cartridge is obtained by altering the case of an existing standardized or wildcat cartridge. It’s a fact most wildcat cartridges are more work than they’re worth, but as long as the metallic cartridge case exists, handloaders will be wildcatting. Those riflemen who consider the endeavor pointless or nothing more than an effort to answer questions that have not been asked have no soul. ...Read More >

In a deer camp in Kansas last year, the question was asked: Are premium bullets worth the money, or is it all a scam? The man asking the question was carrying a 7mm Remington Magnum, using factory ammunition loaded with standard Remington bullets. He’d been around, had hunted quite a bit, shooting animals of various sizes. In his experience, he said, the old Core-Lokt worked just fine. Why should he pay more? ...Read More >

On June 26, 1959, Sweden’s Ingemar Johansson demolished Floyd Patterson in the third round of their first heavyweight title fight in New York. Johansson’s main weapon – in fact, his only one – was a devastating right hand that boxing writers called the “Hammer of Thor.” ...Read More >

This third installment of “Beginning Bullet Casting” will discuss the methods I use in producing lead alloy bullets. Some of the things I do might be pronounced obsolete by others. For instance, upon beginning casting back in 1966, my mentors at Williamson, West Virginia’s small gun club said to drop a thumbnail-sized piece of bullet lube, or section of candle, into the pot for fluxing. Although there now are commercial mixes for fluxing, I still use the old bullet lube/candle wax method. To prevent excess smoke, I keep a match handy to light the melted flux. ...Read More >

Contrary to the prevailing preference for large cartridges that fire bullets fast enough to shoot at dots of deer on the far horizon, in recent years I’ve leaned toward deer hunting cartridges that require a closer approach, which helps retain my enthusiasm for deer hunting. ...Read More >

When Winchester introduced the .243 Winchester in 1955, it quickly became a best-selling sporting cartridge. In the past 62 years, it has been chambered in a huge variety of rifles and actions from dozens of manufacturers and is consistently one of the most reloaded rifle cartridges. It is versatile, serving as a top-notch, flat-shooting varmint cartridge or as a big-game number capable of cleanly taking deer, antelope and similar game, all while offering modest recoil and excellent accuracy. ...Read More >

Half a century ago, most handloaders firmly knew they could beat factory ammunition in both velocity and accuracy. Improved accuracy was easily proven, but velocity was a guess. Electronic chronographs were so expensive few existed outside major ballistics laboratories. Shooters instead depended on velocities listed in ammunition catalogs and handloading manuals, which were regarded somewhat like the National Enquirer: Many people believed everything printed inside, while others suspected the “facts” might be fiction. ...Read More >

There are so many different rifle cartridges that there is no tangible reason to add expense and trouble by working with a wildcat, but the intangibles attract us. The anticipation in planning, the excitement in rounding up all the necessary dies and other equipment and the pleasurable expectation of how the round will perform cannot be measured. The fact is, making loads for any first-time cartridge is satisfying and fun. ...Read More >