Joe Berk

A Kinder, Gentler Range Session

I always liked that “kinder, gentler” line from George Bush. We don’t do politics here at ExNotes (we’d lose half our readers no matter which way we leaned), but every once in a while I’ll borrow a phrase if it fits. So, you’re looking at the big photo above showing a 300 Weatherby Magnum, a 7mm Remington Magnum Ruger No. 1, and a custom Howa 30 06, and you’re probably wondering: What is kinder and gentler about shooting those T-Rex cannons?

Cast bullets, that’s what. I started shooting cast bullets back in the 1970s in El Paso and I’ve been hooked on them ever since. I don’t cast my own these days (it’s easier to buy them), but I still enjoy the benefits. Lower cost, exclusivity (far fewer folks shoot cast bullet rifle loads), long brass life, easier cleaning, and the big one: Lower recoil.

That last one, reduced recoil, figures prominently in my mind. I’ve been beating myself up lately shooting full bore .300 Weatherby cartridges and it’s been tough. I have a box of 180-grain cast .308 bullets and I have a bottle of Trail Boss propellant and that got me to thinking: Would cast bullets work in the .300 Weatherby?

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I checked the Lyman manuals and there are cast loads listed for .300 Weatherby. I checked the Trail Boss site and it lists .300 Weatherby cast loads, too. Hmmm. I wondered how good it could be. After all, you could fit the Hollywood Bowl inside a .300 Weatherby cartridge case. There’s a lot of space in there, and not occupying it usually hurts accuracy. With jacketed bullets, the .300 Weatherby usually delivers its best accuracy at max or near-max loads. Would all that volume and the much lighter charges associated with cast bullets make an accurate load?

Trail Boss propellant. It’s shaped like flattened Cheerios and it’s a light, fluffy powder. It’s good stuff.

There’s one powder designed for cast bullet shooting that hits the cartridge case volume issue head on, and that’s Trail Boss. The Trail Boss people tell you to fill the case to the base of the bullet and that’s your max load, and if you take 70% of that, you’ll have your minimum load. My Weatherby brass took 31.3 grains of Trail Boss, but that was in a fired, unresized case, so I figured 30.0 grains would make for a good max load. 70% of that is 21.0 grains. Then I checked the Hodgdon site (they’re the folks who make Trail Boss) and it showed a range of 19.0 to 27.5 grains. That’s close enough for government work…my lower end load would be 21.5 grains, and then I’d try a warmer load with 24.5 grains. You know, to get a feel for what the Weatherby Mark V preferred. So I loaded a few rounds early one morning and I was ready to test the Mark V with cast bullets.

The .308 180-grain cast bullets I used in both the .30 06 and the .300 Weatherby. They were sized to .309.

.300 Weatherby ammo loaded with the above 180-grain cast bullets.

I already had a bunch of 7mm Remington Magnum reloads with Gardner’s 145-grain cast bullets. I had three boxes: One with 18.0 grains of Trail Boss, one with 20.0 grains, and a third with 21.4 grains. My prior reloading adventures with the 7mm Remington Magnum in my Ruger No. 1 indicated that it liked Trail Boss, but I didn’t know what the right dose would be.

7mm Remington Mag ammo with cast bullets seated to different depths, with and without crimping.

I also had a box of .30 06 ammo loaded with cast bullets. I loaded these with SR 4759 powder, a stellar cast bullet propellant. I grabbed that box and my custom Howa.

I stocked this rifle with a Bishop cherry stock about 35 years ago. It’s one of my favorite rifles. There’s a blog on it here.

I wanted to try my hand at a Mannlicher style, full length stock. I carved it to match the Alex Henry fore end tip on a Ruger No. 1. It’s a unique rifle that always gets noticed on the range.

Howa sold barreled actions to Smith and Wesson when Smith wanted to play in the rifle business maybe 40 years ago. They no longer are.

.30 06 ammo loaded with 180-grain cast bullets and SR 4759 propellant.

A comparison: .30 06, 7mm Remington Magnum, and .300 Weatherby ammunition, all loaded with cast bullets. It’s cool-looking ammo.

So how did the cast bullet rifle session go? Surprisingly well. I shot the Weatherby first, as it was the rifle that had prompted the cast bullet theme. The recoil level was low, almost like shooting a .38 Special. That was a welcome relief from the factory-level loads I had been shooting. The .300 Weatherby Mark V printed its best 50-yard group at 1.102 inches (a three-shot group), and that was with 21.5 grains of Trail Boss.

Shooting cast bullets in the .300 Weatherby was a pleasant experience. I could do this all day.

Because I was shooting at 50 yards, I needed to readjust the parallax on the Mark V’s 4-16 Weaver scope. When I did this at 100 yards, the parallax adjustment was right where Weaver had marked it for 100 yards. At 50 yards, the Weaver marking on the scope’s objective was a bit off, but that’s okay. I could move my eye around behind the scope and the crosshair movement had been appropriately minimized.

At 50 yards, the parallax adjustment was at about the 46-yard mark. I took this photo so I could return to this spot on subsequent 50-yard shooting sessions.

The Ruger No. 1 in 7mm Remington Magnum printed a 1.107-inch five-shot group at 50 yards with 18.0 grains of Trail Boss.

The Ruger No. 1 shot well with Trail Boss and cast bullets. I have more loaded with a slightly lighter load (not because of recoil, but because it appears the gun will do better with a lighter load).

And my .30 06 Howa did the best of the three, with a 0.902-inch three-shot group at 50 yards. I loaded that ammo with 24.5 grains of SR 4759. I’ve always had good accuracy with SR 4759 when shooting cast bullets.

The .30 06 group. These were with SR 4759 powder; I’ll next test with Trail Boss.

None of the cast bullet loads leaded the barrels, and that’s a good thing. Take a look (all of these photos were after shooting, but before cleaning):

The 7mm Ruger No. 1 bore after firing cast bullet loads. The bore was surprisingly clean with almost no leading.

The Howa’s bore after firing a box of cast bullets. This bore was immaculate. It appears the machining on it was better than the Weatherby and the Ruger rifles.

The Weatherby Mark V’s bore after firing cast bullets. There’s a very tiny bit of leading, but nothing significant. It cleaned up easily.

Cleaning a rifle after shooting cast bullets is much easier than cleaning after shooting jacketed bullets. I run a patch soaked with Hoppes through the bore and let it set for maybe 15 minutes to soften any lead remnants and combustion residue. After that I run a bronze bore brush through the barrel three or four times, and then I push two or three patches through the bore. That’s all it takes to get an immaculate bore. It’s much easier than removing copper fouling after firing jacketed bullets.

On the next set of cast bullet loads, I think the direction is clear. The .300 Weatherby shot better with 21.5 grains of Trail Boss than it did with 24.5; the Hodgdon online data shows the charge going as low as 19.0 grains. My next .300 Weatherby load will be with 20.0 grains of Trail Boss. The 7mm Remington Mag shot better with 18.0 grains of Trail Boss than it did with 20.0 and 21.4 grains; I think I’ll try 17.0 grains in a few to see if accuracy improves. I haven’t tried any 30 06 loads with Trail Boss yet (the loads I shot for this blog were loaded with SR 4759), so I’ll do some .30 06 Trail Boss loads for the next outing.

I was just about out of Trail Boss powder after loading more cast bullet ammo for the next session with the above three rifles, and with component availability today being what it is, that concerned me. I got lucky, though. I found a source with a 5-pound bottle of Trail Boss at a decent price and I jumped on it. I’m set for a while.

Trail Boss propellant. Good stuff and a good find.

Ready for the next range session: 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Weatherby, and .30 06 ammo, all loaded with cast bullets and Trail Boss propellant.

I’ll move the targets to 100 yards the next time I’m out. Good buddy Paul set me up with a box of Montana Bullet Company’s 200-grain .308 cast bullets, and I’ll load a few of them to see how they do in the .30 06 and the .300 Weatherby. Montana Bullet Company’s cast bullets have done superbly well in my .35 Whelen and .416 Rigby rifles; I’m eager to see how these do in the .30 06 and .300 Weatherby.

Montana Bullet Company cast 200-grain rifle bullets. These are great bullets.

That’s it for now. I intend to be on the range sometime this week to continue the cast bullet testing, and when I do, you’ll read about it here.

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Badlands National Park

Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park is one of life’s bucket list destinations. We visited it in 2008 when we were doing South Dakota’s Black Hills and, by accident, the Sturgis Rally. I’m not big on Sturgis, but we were in the area to see Mt. Rushmore and we caught the tail end of the rally. Okay, Sturgis: Check. If anybody asks, I can say I’ve been. But there are far more interesting things to see and do in this part of the world, and Badlands National Park is one of them.

Badlands National Park is about 100 miles east of Sturgis, and it’s one of a half dozen cool things to see if you ever make Sturgis. There’s Rapid City (a cool town with one of the best gun stores I’ve ever visited), Custer State Park (magnificent roads and scenery), Mt. Rushmore (amazing; words can’t do it justice), Devils Tower 100 miles to the west in Wyoming (think Close Encounters), Badlands (today’s topic), and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (I’ll touch on that, too). South Dakota is a great place to visit.

So, back to Badlands. This place is magic, but that’s not just my opinion. It’s a view I share with my hero Theodore (as in Theodore Roosevelt). Roosevelt came here in 1883 to hunt buffalo (we call them buffalo; the correct term is bison), and then again to remake himself when dealt a double whammy a year or two later (his wife and mother died on the same day). He came as a dandy (a skinny, Harvard-educated, New York politician) and left as a rancher, a true Westerner, a future Rough Rider and President of the United States.

50 bison were transferred to Badlands National Park from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1963; today, the Badlands bison population is north of 1,000 animals.

To call the Badlands terrain dramatic is a massive understatement; you really need to stand before the landscape and take in the erosion-formed pinnacles and colors to get the full effect.

Badlands National Park in one word: Wow!

Stunning panoramas are the norm in Badlands National Park.

Highway 240, the Badlands Loop, through Badlands National Park.

The region’s history is a story of persistence, paleontology, politics, and (from a Native American perspective), duplicity. Paleo-Indians hunted the area 11,000 years ago, followed by the Arikara people, and then the Great Sioux Nation. The Oglala Lakota (one of seven Sioux tribes) named the area “mako sica” (it translates to “bad lands”). Homesteading by white settlers began in the 1850s, continued during the Civil War, and then picked up dramatically before and after the turn of the century. In an 1868 treaty, the US government promised the Sioux the area would be theirs forever, but you can guess how that went (we broke the treaty a short 21 years later). Calvin Coolidge designated the area Badlands National Monument in 1929, it was formally established as such in 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt, and then redesignated a National Park in 1978.

The Lakota Native American people were the first to find fossils in the area and they correctly ascertained the area was formerly an ancient sea. The Badlands are one of the richest fossil fields in the world with specimens reaching 33 million years into the past (there are 84 known extinct species; 77 of them are from this area). Here’s another tidbit worth knowing if you plan a visit to the region: The South Dakota School of Mines in nearby Rapid City has an outstanding museum displaying some of these prehistoric finds.

A School of Mines dinosaur in Rapid City.

A fossil on display in South Dakota’s School of Mines.

Like much of South Dakota, the Badlands are rich with bison, badger, bighorn sheep, bird species galore, prairie dogs, bobcat, coyote, fox, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, rattlesnake, and porcupine. We saw many, including a princely, portly porcupine proudly padding along as if he owned the place (in retrospect, I suppose he did).

There’s all kinds of critters out there. We didn’t see any snakes, but we probably walked right by a few.

Parts of Dances with Wolves and Thunderheart were filmed here.

Here’s another cool little secret about the area: The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is positioned right at the northeast edge of the Park. The U.S. Government took a former operational intercontinental nuclear missile site and turned it into a national historic site. You can’t just show up and get in, though. You have to make reservations and they only take a few people at a time, but wow, is it ever cool. You go down to the control module, which is this tiny, thick wall, metal, electronics-crammed structure way underground. The command capsule is mounted on giant springs, you know, to protect the occupants from an incoming bad guy nuclear intercontinental missile. After you’ve seen that, the park rangers (all former USAF senior NCOs who actually served on Minuteman sites) take you outside to peer into a silo and view a Minuteman missile (presumably, one that’s been disarmed). It’s shades of the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove, and Mutually Assured Destruction all rolled into a tourist attaction. Trust me on this: It’s cool and unless you stood guard against Ivan during the Cold War, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

A Park Ranger and former USAF ICBM NCO at the Minuteman National Historic Site. This is cool, folks.

A thermonuclear threat…the real deal. Peering down into the silo was a bit unnerving. What is really unnerving is that there are similar missiles on the other side of the world still pointed at us.

So there you have it…Badlands National Park, the Minuteman National Historic Site, and more. South Dakota is one of my all time favorite places to visit. If you are headed that way, don’t just wallow in the weirdness that is Sturgis. There’s much more to see and do in South Dakota, and these two spots should be high on anyone’s list.

I took these photos back in 2008 with my Nikon D200 camera and a first-generation Nikon 24-120 lens. As I view them today, they are not up to the richness and quality I would get from my current D810 Nikon and its VR 24-120 lens. I may have to return to get better photos.

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RIA Compact: Load vs Point of Impact

My Rock Island Armory Compact 1911 is a favorite. I carry with factory ammo (Winchester’s 230-grain hardball, like I had in the Army). But that’s not what I shoot on the range; there, I shoot reloads exclusively. This blog answers a question keeping all of us awake at night: Where do different loads shoot compared to factory ammunition?

What you’re going to see aren’t tiny target groups. The Rock Compact 1911 is a concealed carry handgun. I know Facebook trolls can shoot dime-sized 1911 groups at 100 yards with both eyes closed. What you see below are my groups.

I have three favorite loads for my .45. The first is one I’ve been shooting for 50 years. That is a 230-grain cast roundnose bullet (I like Missouri bullets, although I’ve had good luck with just about any cast 230-grain roundnose), 5.6 grains of Unique, whatever primers I can find, and whatever brass I have on hand. I use the Lee .45 ACP factory crimp die on all my ammo; overall length is 1.262 inches. This load is a bit lighter than factory ammo, but not by much. The good news is it feeds in any 1911 (it doesn’t need a polished ramp and chamber) and wow, it’s accurate.

From left to right: 185-grain Gardner powder-coated cast semi-wadcutter, 200-grain Missouri cast semi-wadcutter, 230-grain Missouri cast roundnose, and Winchester 230-grain full metal jacket hardball .45 ACP ammunition.

The next load is a 200-grain cast semi-wadcutter bullet (I use Missouri or Speer), 4.2 grains of Bullseye, anybody’s primers, and mixed brass. Cartridge overall length on this one is 1. 255 inches. The semi-wadcutter profile usually needs a polished feed ramp and chamber.

The third load is a 185-grain cast semi-wadcutter bullet and 4.6 grains of Bullseye. For this test, I had CCI 350 primers. My usual 185-grain cast load uses 5.0 grains of Bullseye and a CCI 300 primer, but primers are tough to find these days so I dropped the powder down to 4.6 grains. Lately I’ve been using Gardner powder-coated bullets. They look cool and they’re accurate. Cartridge overall length is 1.260 inches. Like the load above, this one needs a polished ramp and chamber, too.

And then there’s factory ammo. I use 230-grain hardball from Winchester. Just for grins I measured its overall length; it is 1.262 inches. Factory hardball typically runs between 1.260 and 1.270 inches.

Good buddy TJ over at TJ’s Custom Gunworks polished my Compact’s ramp and chamber (it feeds anything), he recut the ejector (no more stovepiping) and fitted a better extractor, he polished the barrel and the guide rod, he engine-turned the chamber exterior, and he installed red ramp/white outline Millett sights. The Compact didn’t need a trigger job; it was super-crisp from the factory. I added the Pachmayr grips. You can read more about the Rock here.

All shooting was at 50 feet, all groups (except with factory ammo) were 5-shot groups, I used a two-hand hold, and my point of aim was 6:00 on the bullseye.

I shot my first set of four groups with the 185-grain cast semi-wadcutter load. As you can see on the target below, the groups move around a bit. That notwithstanding, the center of the groups seems to be pretty much right on the point of aim.

185-grain Gardner bullets and 4.6 grains of Bullseye.

About that 4.6 grains of Bullseye with the CCI magnum primers: The standard load (5.0 grains of Bullseye and regular primers) is a much more accurate load.

The next four groups were with the 200-grain cast semi-wadcutter. The center of these groups is maybe just below the point of aim. Maybe. It’s very close to the point of aim.

200-grain semi-wadcutter Missouri cast bullets.

Next up was the 230-grain cast roundnose load. The groups are about 2 inches below the point of aim and maybe slighly biased to the left, but they’re still pretty close.

230-grain cast roundnose Missouri bullets.

My last shots were with the Winchester 230-grain roundnose factory ammo. I used a full-sized silhouette target (not the four-targets-per-sheet targets you see above) and again, I held at 6:00. The point of impact is just about at point of aim (maybe a scosh lower).

On target with 230-grain Winchester hardball ammo.

The bottom line? The Compact shoots different loads to different points of impact, but the difference isn’t significant. Predictably, the 230-grain loads shoot a little lower than the 200-grain loads, and the 200-grain loads are a bit lower than the 185-grain loads. Factory ammo shoots essentially to point of aim. The differences wouldn’t matter on a real target. For a fixed sight combat handgun all are close enough for government work.

One last comment: Every load tested fed and functioned perfectly with my TJ-modified Compact Rock. If you want world class custom gun work, TJ’s Custom Gunworks is the best.

What’s next? I’m going to repeat this test, but with a Turnbull-finished Smith and Wesson 1917 revolver. That’s going to be fun.

A 1917 Smith and Wesson with Turnbull color case hardening. It, too, shoots the .45 ACP cartridge.

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Adios, Mi Amigo!

Well, I had a good day on the range until my Model 59 broke. It’s the gun my father bought for me before I went overseas and I’ve had it for 50 years. I was having fun and I’d just fired 80 rounds at a 25 yard target. I went to put the next magazine in and it wouldn’t seat. Uh oh. When I pulled it out, the piece you see above fell from the magazine well. I pulled the slide release, dropped the slide, and wowee. This wasn’t good. Or maybe it was (more on that in a second).

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Ugly, ain’t it? Surprisingly, the surface fractography doesn’t look like a fatigue failure (there are no characteristic beach marks). I make it to be a brittle failure.

The photo below is my beautiful jeweled Model 59 barrel, all dressed up with no place to go. The arrows point to the ramps on either side of the chamber (the photo below shows the ramps on the left side). Those ramps are what smack into the aluminum frame with each shot.

The arrows in the next pic point to the matching right side of the Model 59 frame. Note the worn area. It’s where the barrel ramp contacts the frame ramp when the gun recoils. That ramp (along with the mating ramp on the barrel) drops the barrel slightly to disengage it from the slide when the slide moves to the rear. You can see this area took a beating over the last 50 years. The photo shows the opposite side of the frame, where it didn’t break.

You might think I’m mad at the gun, but I’m not. I have a good dose of mechanical empathy. Imagine you are that aluminum ramp on the Model 59 when a 9mm cartridge lights off and the barrel is recoiling toward you at speed. WHAM! Do that 20,000 or 30,000 times in a row and think about how you would feel. Nope, the Model 59 did its job for 50 years. I can’t be mad at it.

You read that right. I had 50 years of fun with my Model 59 on the range, carrying it on hunting trips, keeping it handy when I felt I needed to, and on one occasion, threatening a late night marsupial Sue thought was a burglar (the ‘possum was not impressed). I’ve fired between 20,000 and 30,000 rounds through my Model 59 (a guess based on how many boxes of 9mm I’ve reloaded). Very few of these (maybe none) were light loads, as the best 9mm accuracy is at the top of the spectrum. From what I’ve found in the endless stream of what passes for information on the Internet, semi-auto aluminum handgun frame life expectancy estimates are around 10,000-20,000 rounds, so I’m in the zone. Maybe I’m even ahead of the game.

I figure the cost of my reloaded 9mm ammo is about $.15 per round, so if I fired 20,000 rounds through this gun, that’s $3K in ammo. Dad paid something like $135 for the Model 59 back in 1972. Ignoring inflation, the ammo costs make the gun the least expensive part of the deal. Somehow that makes the fact that my Model 59 is toast slightly less bothersome. I probably could part it out (grips, slide, barrel, jeweled parts, etc.), but I don’t think I will. My buddies suggested putting it in a wooden frame and hanging it on the wall. That sounds like a good idea. I guess I can’t bitch too much. 50 years of service ain’t too shabby.

Some of you might be wondering why I don’t just get the gun repaired. It can’t be fixed; even Smith and Wesson told me it’s a goner. They didn’t offer to buy it back like Ruger did when I wore out a .357 Mag Blackhawk, but hey, Ruger is Ruger and Smith is Smith. One of my friends said I should buy a new 9, and I’m ahead of the curve on that, too. I bought a SIG P226 Scorpion a year or two ago. The SIG is the finest 9mm handgun I’ve ever owned, a worthy successor to the Model 59. If it lasts 50 years like the Model 59 did, I’ll be 120 years old and I’ll feel like I got my money’s worth with it, too.

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Reloading and Shooting the .300 Weatherby

I’m in the money with the Mark V .300 Weatherby now, but it took some doing to get there and the journey isn’t over yet. My recent reloads with this rifle were all over the place at 100 yards. I suspected it was more me than the rifle (or the loads) and I was probably right about that. This rifle has serious recoil, way more than I am used to. I was developing a flinch in anticipation of getting whacked by the Mark V.

I have a friend who shoots the .300 Weatherby a lot, and he’s about the same size as me. I thought about him a bit, mentally picturing him on the range, and then I realized: He uses a shoulder pad. It was a click or two on Amazon until I found the Caldwell recoil shield.

I had the Caldwell recoil shield the next day, and I had to play with it a bit to find how to wear the thing. I bought the thickest version, figuring that if some is good, more would be better.

I next researched the Internet to find ways to improve my bench rest technique and I immediately found two improvement opportunities: Parallax, and how I positioned the rear rest.

With regard to parallax, it’s a real thing and a real issue. Most scopes don’t have any adjustment for parallax, but the 4×16 scope I have on the Mark V does. To adjust for parallax, you set the rifle in the rest and put the cross hairs on the target. Then, without touching the rifle, you move your head around and see if the reticle moves around on the target. On a scope with parallax adjustment, what I read is that you ignore the markings on the parallax adjustment and move your head around, adjusting the parallax adjustor until the parallax is minimized. I couldn’t completely eliminate the parallax on my 100 yard target, but I was able to greatly reduce it. After making the adjustment I looked at the scope objective (the parallax adjustment feature), and what do you know, it was right on the 100-yard mark. I guess those Weaver boys knew what they were doing.

I had a rifle with me that has a non-parallax-adjustable scope and checked it for parallax at 100 yards, and wow, when I moved my head around the reticle was moving around a good 3 inches on the target (left to right, and up and down). To control parallax with a non-parallax-adustable scope, the trick is to get your eye in exactly the same spot every time. In fact, that’s good technique with any scope.

The next thing for me was to get the rear rifle rest directly under where my face rested on the stock. You can see the front and rear rest in the large photo at the top of this blog (I use Caldwell equipment). The idea behind getting the rear rest directly under where your cheek contacts the stock is that the downward force from your cheek is transmitted directly through the stock into the rear rest without flexing the stock. It may not seem possible (or even detectable), but if your face is ahead of the rear rest or behind it, you will impart a torque into the rifle and it can be enough to shift the point of impact at 100 yards.

On to my loads: I reloaded the next set of .300 Weatherby cartridges, going with 73.0 grains of IMR 7828, the CCI 250 magnum primer, 200-grain Sierra MatchKing bullets, and every trick I knew of to improve accuracy. This is a relatively light load. I neck sized three different sets of brass (fireformed .300 Remington cases made from .300 H&H brass, Remington .300 Weatherby brass, and Weatherby brand .300 Weatherby brass). I have a Lee .300 Weatherby collet die that squeezes the neck down to size, and I used brass I had previously fired in the Mark V rifle. I also seated the bullets out much further (the reloading manuals all show the cartridge overall length to be 3.560 inches, but I seated the Sierras out for an overall length of 3.718 inches). The Weatherby Mark V rifles have a lot of freebore. The cartridges still fit in the magazine and the bullets did not contact the rifling, so I was good to go.

It was a quick trip to the West End Gun Club and I had the range to myself. I got everything set up, pulled on the Caldwell shoulder pad, and went to work. The Caldwell shoulder pad was awkward at first (as you might imagine), but it was wonderful. The .300 Weatherby Magnum is still a beast, but the Caldwell pad did its job. It greatly alleviated my fear of getting clobbered every time I squeezed the trigger and my groups tightened up immediately.

So my groups were way better, but I had a new problem. Many of the cases were sticking in the chamber after firing. The bolt would rotate freely, but the cases didn’t want to come out. When I pulled harder on the bolt, the extractor popped over the rim and the case stayed in the chamber. I had to tap the cases out with a cleaning rod. Other than the cases sticking, there were zero indications of excess pressure. No flattened primers or anything. The Remington cases were sticking almost 100% of the time (both the fireformed .300 H&H cases and the .300 Weatherby Remington cases). The Weatherby brass did not stick in the chamber, although a couple felt like they wanted to.

On to the good news: My best group was a .608-inch 3-shot group at 100 yards, which ain’t half bad on a fire-breathing monster like the .300 Weatherby. Before you trolls tell me I should shoot 5-shot groups, I will share with you that in my experience it’s pretty difficult to get animals to sit still for five shots. If your dead set on being critical, let’s get your butt out here. I want to watch you shoot 5-shot groups with your .300 Weatherby.

The next morning, after cleaning the rifle, I rechambered a couple of the fired Remington cases, and then when I withdrew the bolt the cases stuck in the chamber again. And again, I had to tap them out with a rod. The Weatherby brass did not, but it was tight. I measured each of the cases that stuck, and they all met the SAAMI .300 Weatherby specification. My conclusions are:

- - I don’t have an excess pressure situation. I loaded at the bottom of the propellant range, the bolt rotated freely, there were no pressure signs on the case base, and the primers were not flattened.
  - Neck sizing on my .300 Weatherby Mark V is not a good way to go (notice I said mine; your mileage may vary). I full length resized one of the cases that stuck (a Remington case) and it chambered and extracted easily. Weatherby brass is better (but it is hard to get).
  - I need to full length resize when reloading for this rifle.
  - The Weatherby Mk V extractor is weak. For a dangerous game rifle, that’s not a good thing. Maybe the extractor spring is weak.

I think the real issue was the neck sizing approach. I’m out of IMR 7828 propellant (powder goes fast with the 300 Weatherby) and no one seems to have any in stock, so I’ll try either H1000 or IMR 4831 next. Like we always say, stay tuned.

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I reload with Lee Precision equipment.

Product Review: Black Rifle Coffee

Good buddy Mike was in town for a few days, and what better way to spend it than on the range ringing the gongs that good buddy Duane built for me. We had a blast. We’ve known each other since the 7th grade. Mike and I joke about who’s the better shot, and after our session at the West End Gun Club, that’s still an open question. The man can shoot (and so can I).

Mike wanted to stop at a nearby 5-11 outlet to pick up a few clothing items, and while we were there he pointed out the Black Rifle coffee. If you read the blog you know that I’m not a member of the Mattel crowd and I have negative interest in so-called black rifles. In fact, the closest thing I have to a black rifle is my Ruger GSR (it’s what you see Mike ringing gongs with above). It has a green and black laminate stock that Ruger calls black laminate, so I guess maybe it could be called a black rifle. The GSR is a fine weapon, and Mike and I were both making the gongs sing with those big 173 grain full metal jacket .308 bullets.

But I diverge. This blog is about Black Rifle Coffee and the company that makes it.

In a word, Black Rifle Coffee is great. I wish we had it when we rode across China, but like they say, better late than never. You know, they don’t drink coffee in other than the big cities in China, and staying awake on the bike was a challenge for me on that ride. But here at home I start every day with a cup of black coffee (the only way to drink it), and Black Rifle Coffee was rings my gong well.

Black Rifle Coffee is veteran owned and a portion of the profits go to veterans’ groups, police, and other first responders. That’s a good thing. And Black Rifle Coffee is a U.S. company. Reading the labels tells me that the owners have a sense of humor, too. That’s good. Good coffee and a good sense of humor make the world more fun, I think.

It’s good stuff, and it became my coffee of choice as soon as I had my first taste. Give Black Rifle Coffee a try. You can thank me later.

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Book Review: The Director

As a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s I only heard good stuff about J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. One example is a classic movie most folks my age have seen called The FBI Story. It starred Jimmy Stewart and featured a cameo appearance by J. Edgar Hoover:

Then the 1970s came and with it the protest era. Everything that was good was now bad, and there were a string of books (mostly written by disgruntled former FBI execs) about J. Edgar Hoover. I’ve read them all, and I pretty much dismissed them as the whinings of guys who had an agenda. After college and the Army, I spent a few years in the US defense industry, and the security manager in one of the companies was a retired FBI agent. I asked him if all the negative J. Edgar Hoover stuff had any truth to it and his answer was an emphatic no. “J. Edgar Hoover was a charismatic guy and a real gentleman,” he said. “We all thought the world of him.”

When I saw a Wall Street Journal review of The Director (written by Paul Letersky, who was a personal assistant to J. Edgar Hoover), I knew I wanted to read it. I bought The Director on Amazon and thoroughly enjoyed the book. It countered the propaganda previously published about Hoover (and what motivated the urchins who wrote those lies) and told an interesting story. Some things I found fascinating included:

- Hoover didn’t carry a gun. I thought that was interesting. I knew that Hoover received one of the very first Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolvers in the 1930s, but he didn’t personally carry a gun.
- Hoover was never big on personal security. He didn’t keep a security contingent at his home, he dined out nearly every day, and he frequently went for walks around his neighborhood on his own.
- Contrary to what most folks think, Hoover deplored wiretaps and worked hard to minimize them. He knew they could backfire, and his principal concern was avoiding anything that could embarass the FBI.
- Hoover didn’t “blackmail” U.S. Presidents. The story about Hoover informing John F. Kennedy that the FBI knew about his affair with a Mafia kingpin’s mistress is true, but Hoover did it to protect Kennedy (who broke off the affair the next day). Hoover never used that information to his advantage, nor did he ever reveal it.

There’s a lot more, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Trust me on this…if you want a good read, pick up a copy of The Director.

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The Buck Stops Here

No, I’m not going all Joe Biden (God forbid) or Harry Truman on you. The “buck” in this case refers to Buck Knives, the big folders that seem to be standard issue for bros worldwide. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a bro, mind you.

Talk about impulse buys and effective advertising: I need another folding knife like I need another gun, but the ad from Buck Knives popped up and before I knew it I had customized my Buck 110 and placed my order. It was a Facebook ad and it did what it was intended to do (it got me). I already have four other big folders (all of those were similarly impulse purchases), but I don’t wear or carry any. If I want to go armed it will be with my 1911 (never bring a knife to a gunfight). But I like these big Bucks. I didn’t know Buck offered custom knives or about their online customizing configurator (in fact, I had never even been to the Buck website), but when I saw it I had to click and start fooling around. It was fun, and before I realized it, my wallet (figuratively speaking) was a lot lighter.

Buck lets you change the handle material (about a dozen different materials), the bolsters (brass or nickel), rivets (yes or no), finger grooves (yes or no), the blade material (different types of steel, polished or brushed), the blade configuration (drop point or regular), serrations (several options), and engraving (potentially infinite options). Woweee!

I chose no rivets, no finger grooves, nickel bolsters, mirror-polished blade, and elk grips (it will match my 1917 Colt). It’s the one you see at the top of this blog, and the ticket in is $161.50 plus freight. It will be here in about two and a half months. Be a bro and don’t tell Susie.

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A Kawasaki Indian Wannabe

Fuel injected, shaft driven, water cooled, and startlingly reminiscent of a 1940 Indian Chief: The Kawasaki 1500cc Drifter is one of those bikes I always wanted. They were only made from 1999 to 2005, I think, and other than what I’ve read on the Internet, I have no idea if they were any good. The most common complaint seems to be that the plastic gear that drove the water pump was prone to failure (Kawasaki used a plastic gear on at least one other model that was also problematic; these guys were slow learners, I guess). But in my eyes, they hit a home run in the styling department. They just look cool.

I spotted this one in a San Francisco Bay marina parking lot, and I instantly wanted it. Don’t get me wrong: Doug Bingham notwithstanding, I have absolutely zero desire to own a sidecar. If I had this bike, the first thing I’d do is lose the sidecar and sell it. But ah, that motorcycle. That I would keep. And ride, and ride, and ride.

The later years had different colors; the first year, I think, got it right with the deep burgundy, red pinstriping, and those beautifully valanced fenders. Kawasaki got a little weird from what I’ve read with the rear fender design; it pivots up and down with the rear suspension. Ah, what’s a little unsprung weight between friends, especially on a motorcycle that no one bought because of the handling. I also read that the fuel economy was abysmal on these bikes, but other folks said it was okay. Whatever. I wouldn’t buy this bike to save fuel. But I would buy it if the price was right, even though I could get a used Sportster for the same kind of money. I like it.

Kawasaki made both a 1500cc and an 800cc Drifters. The 800cc version came in a pastel blue that was stunning. When one of my friends first saw these photos, he asked if the bike was a 1500 or the smaller 800. I was pretty sure it was the 1500, but I wasn’t sure. Then I remembered one of my photos caught the VIN label and I was able to zoom in enough to know.

I shot these with my phone, and I guess that iPhone 12 does a good job. It’s a 1500cc Drifter, as you can see above.

If I owned this bike, I think the only thing I’d do (other than a regular service and a good detailing) is to maybe get the seat redone. It looks just perfect to me as is.

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Hey, how about this supercool World War II US Navy Indian 30-50?

You can see the Indian 741 featured in the above video in person at the Chino Planes of Fame Museum, and you can read our feature story on it in Motorcycle Classics magazine.

Spotted: The Rivian

We were in northern California last week on another secret mission. During a long and boring drive through the central valley, we took a quick break at one of those truck stop/gas station/everything stores spaced every 50 miles or so along what has to be one of the most boring roads in America. To my surprise, I spotted a pickup just ahead of us that was something new. I had only read about the new Rivian electric pickup in The Wall Street Journal the day before. They’re not for sale yet, and this one (with manufacturer plates) was obviously on a test drive of some sort. On Interstate 5. Where they evidently wanted to keep it secret.

The guy in the truck was not too happy I was there with my Nikon, but hey, it is what it is. After the first shot, he kept moving between me and the Rivian. To the honchos at Rivian: Your guy tried. So did I.

The truck was a sharp-looking vehicle and I was impressed. I looked up a bit more about the company and the initial claims are impressive…a range of something like 300 miles, and a 0-60 time of 3 seconds. The price is going to be $70K or $75K, with no dealers to jack that up. The Rivian is being sold direct to the consumer, similar to what CSC does with its motorcycles. The dealers won’t be able to get their snouts in the trough, and that’s a good thing.

Anyway, that’s my close encounter of the 3rd kind with the first Rivian I’ve seen. I like it.

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