Guns – Page 26 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Coming Up: A 9mm Comparo

I’ve been lusting over the SIG P226 Scorpion for some time now, and after a little bit of brushing up on my negotiation tactics, I pulled the trigger (figuratively speaking) on one this morning.

I like the looks of the SIG, I like that it is an alloy-framed handgun (I’m not a big fan of the plastic guns), and I like that it is a SIG. Good buddy TJ told me he believes these are the finest handguns available today, and he’s a guy who knows handguns. The US Army recently made their sidearm decision and it’s SIG. That’s a strong endorsement, I think.

I bought my SIG Scorpion at Turner’s, the gun will be in the store this Thursday, and that’s when I get to start the PRK (Peoples Republik of Kalifornia) 10-day waiting period.

My tried and trusty Model 59, the gun that got me hooked on 5.0 grains of Unique and a 125-grain cast roundnose bullet.

I’ve got a boatload of 9mm ammunition reloaded and ready to go, but that got me to thinking: What load might work best in the new SIG? I’d found in the past that 5.0 grains of Unique and a 125-grain cast roundnose bullet provided great accuracy in my Model 59, but then I got lazy and I stuck with that as my standard 9mm load in everything. I’ll be the first guy to tell you that to find the best load in any gun, you need to experiment and develop a load specifically for that gun. I have a couple of other 9mm pistols (a Springfield Armory 1911 and the Model 659 Smith and Wesson that I’ve blogged about before), and I’ve simply used my 5.0-grain Unique/125-grain cast roundnose in all of them. Is there a better load for each of these handguns?

The 659 with my 125 grain cast roundnose reloads.

The Springfield 9mm 1911. It seems to like the 5.0 grain Unique/125-grain roundnose load, too.

So here’s what’s coming up: I’m going to do a load development comparo for the 659, the 1911, and the P226 to see where the accuracy lives for each gun. I’m thinking Unique, Bullseye, Power Pistol, the 147 grain Speer, the 125 gr cast RN Missouri, and maybe a 115 full metal jacket or hollowpoint bullet. I’m looking for inputs, so if you have a favored load for your 9mm handgun, let me know and I may throw it into the mix, too. Please add your suggestions to the Comments section here. I’ll keep you posted.

Want to read our other Tales of the Gun stories? You can find them here.

We’re thinking about another book, one that would include all of our Tales of the Gun stories and much more. What do you think? Let us know if you think you might have an interest in this new book to help us assess the market. In the meantime, you can see our other titles here.

An accurate Compact 1911 load…

10 shots at 50 feet with the Rock Island Armory Compact 1911. The secret sauce is a 185-grain cast SWC bullet, 5.0 grains of Bullseye propellant, a CCI 300 primer, and a 1.174-inch overall cartridge length.

I’ve been working lately on developing an accurate load for my Rock Island Compact 1911 with light target bullets, and I found one that works. One of my good buddies gave me a little over a thousand 185-grain semi-wadcutter bullets, and I found a great load for my Rock Island pistol. It’s the one I shot the targets with you see above.

The 185-grain cast lead SWC bullets used for the target above. The caramel-colored band around the bullet’s periphery is bullet lube, which prevents barrel leading and further enhances accuracy.

A bit of background info first: “SWC” (or semi-wadcutter) refers to the bullet configuration. A wadcutter bullet is one that is flat across the face of the bullet, and it is a typical target configuration for revolvers. What this means is that the bullet cuts a clean, circular hole through the target (much like a hole punch), making it easier to score. A semi-wadcutter bullet has a shoulder at the face of the bullet, but it also has a truncated cone of lesser diameter on the bullet face (it’s a “semi” wadcutter). It cuts a relatively clean hole, and it’s a bit more aerodynamic.

Loading .45 ACP ammo. It’s what I did this weekend, and I have 600 rounds ready to go.

Finished ammo, ready to go. This ammo is custom tailored to my Rock Island Compact. It’s the most accurate load I’ve found in the Compact 1911. Every gun is different, and every gun needs a load tailored to it for best accuracy. This load is not particularly accurate in my full-sized Colt 1911, but it sure shoots well in the Compact Rock.

A semi-wadcutter bullet feeds easier in a semi-automatic handgun than would a wadcutter bullet, but you can still have problems with a semi-wadcutter in an automatic when the round enters the chamber. That’s not a concern in a revolver because you load the cartridges by hand (you do the chambering of each round manually when you load a revolver). It’s a potential issue in a semi-automatic handgun, though, because the cartridge has to ride up the ramp in the frame and feed into the chamber each time you fire the weapon, and a semi-wadcutter’s shoulder can cause the gun to jam. Generally speaking, for semi-autos roundnose bullet configurations feed the most reliably because the bullet tip guides the round into the chamber. Sometimes semi-autos work well right out of the box with semi-wadcutter bullets, and sometimes they don’t. If you want to make sure a semi-auto will feed reliably with a semi-wadcutter or a hollow point bullet, you have an expert gunsmith who knows what he’s doing polish the gun’s feed ramp, and throat and polish the entrance to the chamber. That’s what I had done on my Rock Island Compact by good buddy TJ, and my gun will feed anything.

Throated and polished, my Rock Island Compact is extremely reliable with any kind of bullet. You can read more about the way TJ customized my 1911 here.

During my load development effort, I tried these 185-grain cast SWC bullets with 4.5, 4.7, 5.0, and 5.3 grains of Bullseye, and 5.0 grains of Bullseye is the sweet spot. The other loads were also accurate, but the 5.0-grain load is the most accurate. The 5.3-grain load is accurate, too, but the recoil at that charge was a bit much for me. As mentioned in the first photo’s caption, cartridge overall length was 1.174 inches, and I used CCI 300 primers. A word to the wise on this: The load you see here is one I developed and it shoots well in my handgun. You should develop your own load. Always consult a reloading manual when you do so, and always start at the lower end of the propellant spectrum and carefully work up a load tailored to your firearm.

Folks tell me I need to buy a chronograph to measure bullet velocity, but hell, I don’t care how fast the thing is going, and I seriously doubt it would make a difference to any target. What I’m looking for is reliable function and accuracy, and with this load, I have it. A chronograph is one more thing I’d have to cart out to the range and screw around with once I got there, and I don’t want the hassle. But if you need to know, my Lyman Cast Bullet Reloading Guide tells me the velocity with this powder charge should be a little over 900 feet per second. That’s close enough for government work, I think.

The next step for the Rock, for me, is to add a set of Pachmayr checkered rubber grips. I have those on my full size 1911 and I like them a lot. That’s coming up, and I think the Pachmayr grip will further improve the Compact. I ordered a set today and when they arrive, you’ll read all about it right here.

You know, I like my Rock Island Compact. I’m on the range with it every week and I put a lot of lead through that short 3.5-inch barrel. It’s fun to shoot, it’s accurate, and it carries well. It’s become one of my all time favorite guns.

Want to read more on the Rock Island Compact 1911? Check out our other reports here:

The 1911
A Tale of Two .45s
TJ’s Custom Gunworks
RIA Compact 1911 Update

Want to learn how to reload .45 ammo? We’ve got you covered!

Reloading the .45 ACP: Part I
Reloading the .45 ACP: Part II
Reloading the .45 ACP: Part III
Reloading the .45 ACP: Part IV

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A .257 Weatherby No. 1 Update: A story with a happy ending

I posted a series of blogs on my Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby and the loads I was developing for it a few months ago, and I told you about the stock cracking on my rifle. That held things up for a while.

The original stock on my .257 Weatherby Ruger No. 1 cracked on the top and the bottom, just aft of the tang. I can repair this stock and use it, but Ruger provided a new stock on the warranty. Ruger customer service is top notch.

Ruger Customer Service

I was disappointed about the stock fracture, but the wizards at Ruger did a good job in selecting a piece of wood of comparable quality, figure, and tone. I also asked Ruger to return the defective stock to me after they installed the new one, and they did. And they didn’t charge me anything to put a new stock on the rifle (it was a warranty repair). Ruger sent photos of three stocks they had selected that were a good match for the forearm, and they allowed me to pick the one I wanted. More good news is that I believe the stocked crack can be repaired. I’m going to do that and maybe put it back on this rifle. Or maybe I’ll just have it as a spare.

Tang Relief

I believe the reason the original stock cracked is that the wood around the receiver tang had not been properly fitted (there should be a little clearance to prevent the tang from acting like a wedge to split the wood). I asked Ruger to make sure the new stock had some clearance behind the tang, and they did. They actually went a little overboard in my opinion, but that’s preferable to having no relief.

At my request, Ruger relieved the new stock to provide clearance between the receiver’s tang and the wood.

More good news is that I now have a load that reaches into the upper stratosphere of what the .257 Weatherby cartridge can do, and it does so with high velocity and great accuracy.

The New Ruger No. 1 Stock

First, allow me to show you the new lumber on the Ruger No. 1:

The new stock on my Ruger No. 1. Notice how well the stock matches the forearm.

The left side of my new stock. It’s Circassian walnut.

And the right side. The original stock had horizontal stripes, which I wanted Ruger to duplicate. They did a good job. They showed photographs of three stocks to me; this is the one I selected.

Here are a couple more shots to show the new stock, one in the gun rack and another on my workbench when I was cleaning the rifle:

Another view of the new stock. I love pretty wood. I selected this No. 1 because of the wood, and when the stock cracked, I was afraid that the replacement would not be as nice. But it was.

And one more view. The rifle on the left is an unissued, unfired 1956 M44 Polish Mosin-Nagant. The one on the right is another Ruger No. 1, this one chambered in .300 Weatherby. Ruger has in the past offered the Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby, .270 Weatherby, and .300 Weatherby, along with many other non-Weatherby chamberings. There are still a few new .257 Weatherby Rugers out there. They are destined to be collectibles.

A Mississippi Dave .257 Weatherby Load

I’d like to take credit for discovering the load on my own, but I can’t do that. My good buddy Mississippi Dave, who knows more about the .257 Weatherby cartridge than anybody I know, turned me on to Barnes solid bullets and H1000 propellant powder as the keys to success with this cartridge, and he was spot on in his guidance. Here are my results, all at 100 yards:

Those are great results, and 70.5 grains of H1000 is the load I am going to use with the Barnes bullets. I think I could have done even better, but conditions were less than ideal when I was shooting that day. There were a lot of guys on the range the day I was out there, including a couple of Rambo wannabees on either side of me with assault rifles and muzzle brakes shooting rapid fire. I know that’s what caused that third group with 70.5 grains of H1000 to open up to over an inch. I think the No. 1 could be a half-minute-of-angle rifle with this load. And this load in my rifle (the Ruger has a 28-inch barrel, 2 inches longer than normal) is probably attaining velocities well over 3700 feet per second. That’s smoking.

One quick additional comment on the above loads: These are loads that work in my rifle. Your mileage may vary. Always consult a reloading manual when you develop a load, and always start at the bottom of the propellant range and slowly work up. Barnes publishes their recommended reloading data, and you can go to their website to download that information.

Barnes Bullets

The high velocities mentioned above are only possible with Barnes’ solid copper bullets. Jacketed bullets (lead core bullets shrouded in a copper jacket, which is normally how bullets are constructed) would break up in flight at these higher velocities, and for me, they did (see the earlier .257 Weatherby blogs).

The bullets Mississippi Dave recommended. And wow, they worked superbly well.

The Barnes bullets are solid copper. That’s all you can use if you hunt in California. The concern is that if you wound an animal and it later dies, it might be subsequently consumed by a California Condor, and if it had a lead bullet in it, the Condor might die of lead poisoning. I can’t make this stuff up, folks. Our politicians really believe this could happen.

.257 Weatherby Lessons Learned

I’ve learned a lot, with help from Mississippi Dave, about reloading the .257 Weatherby cartridge. You have to use solids (the monolithic Barnes bullets) to realize the full velocity potential of the .257 Weatherby. The .257 Roy can be extremely accurate, and at its upper-range velocities, higher velocities means more accuracy. Cup and core (conventional jacketed) bullets will work in the .257 Weatherby, but only at lower velocities, and if you’re going to do that, you’re not really using the .257 Roy the way it is intended to be used. Bore cleanliness is critical on these rifles, and because of the huge powder charges and high projectile velocities, the bore fouls quickly. When you reload for this cartridge, you not only need to full-length resize the cartridge case, you need to go in another 90 degrees on the resizing die after it contacts the shell holder in order to get the round to chamber. The best powders for this cartridge are the slow burning ones. H1000, in particular, works well in my rifle.

Earlier .257 Weatherby Blog Posts

The .257 Weatherby sage has been a long one but it is a story with a happy ending. If you’d like to read our earlier blogs on this magnificent cartridge, here they are:

A Real Hot Tamale
Reloading the .257 Weatherby
Taking Stock of Things
The .257 Weatherby Saga Continues

More Cool Reloading and Gun Stuff

If you enjoyed this blog and you want to see more, you can read our other Tales of the Gun stories here. And if you don’t want to miss anything from us, sign up for our automatic email blog notifications here:

Revisiting World War II from a Rifleman’s Perspective

I went to the range yesterday with two rifles, a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 and an M1 Garand. The Mosin was the Soviet Infantry’s standard rifle during World War II (it’s been around in various forms since 1891), and it’s one I’ve always enjoyed shooting. The Garand is a US weapon developed in the 1930s and first used by our troops in World War II. It is a semi-automatic rifle, which gave us a tremendous advantage over the enemy forces we fought (their rifles were bolt action).

My Mosin-Nagant 91/30. I refinished the stock, glass bedded the action, and developed a load shown in the photo below. This rifle is superbly accurate.

I enjoy getting out to the range, and yesterday was a beautiful day. Sunny, cold, and not too windy. I shot on the 100-yard range, first with the Mosin and my standard load for that rifle.

There are only four holes, but the one just below the “10” is actually two shots. This rifle is so accurate it is almost boring.

After five shots, I put the Mosin away. It’s almost too easy with that rifle. I had a good target, I thought I would get a photo for the blog, and I was eager to try the Garand.

My Garand is kluge rifle assembled with parts from a series of mismatched manufacturers. The receiver is a CAI (considered to be of inferior quality to the ones made by the standard US suppliers Winchester, Harrington and Richardson, and Springfield Arsenal), the trigger group is from Beretta, and the barrel is a 1955 RSC (presumed to be Italian). I’ll state up front I don’t know a lot about Garands, and the reasons I bought this one (my first and only Garand) is I liked the finish, the price seemed right, and the money was burning a hole in my pocket that day.

My mutt Garand. I enjoy shooting this rifle. There’s a lot going on with each shot, and it’s powerful.

Shooting the Garand well has been a challenge for me. I like shooting with iron sights, but I’m a post-and-slot guy. I haven’t had a ton of experience with aperture sights, and that’s taking some getting used to. Then there’s the issue of a decent load. I’ve been playing with different loads for the Garand, and I found three loads that work well. On my last outing, I had a few shots that were low left on the target outside the bullseye, and one of our readers asked if those shots were either the first or last shots from each clip. I didn’t know at the time because I shot each en bloc clip of 8 rounds without looking at the target after each shot.

My objective yesterday was to answer the above question, and sure enough, I did. My shots grouped well except for the first shot from each clip. I shot three clips (for a total of 24 rounds), and in each clip, the first shot hit low left.

My Garand’s performance at 100 yards. There are 24 shots on this target. The rifle groups well with this load, but the first shot from each en bloc clip of 8 rounds goes low and to the left.

The challenge now is to determine the reason why that first shot from each clip is going low. I posted the target you see above in a Garand group asking for input on why the first round from each clip went low, and as you might guess, the answers were all over the map. Most responses served only to illustrate that people don’t read very well, but a few were informative. A couple said their rifles behaved the same way and it was predictable enough (as is the case with mine) to allow for simply aiming high right for the first shot from each clip to put all 8 rounds in the black. One response suggested that the bolt may not be closing fully, as the first round is chambered by manually releasing the op rod, while all subsequent rounds are chambered when the action is cycled by the gun gases. I think that guy is on to something, and that will be where my future focus is going to be. If you have any ideas, I’d sure like to hear them. Leave a comment if you have the answer, and thanks in advance for any inputs.

Read our other Tales of the Gun!

The Colin D. MacManus Award

US Army Captain Colin D. MacManus, Rutgers University ’63.

Captain Colin D. MacManus, a US Army Infantry officer and an Airborne Ranger, graduated from Rutgers University in 1963. He was killed in action in Vietnam in February 1967. A synopsis of his Silver Star citation follows:

Captain (Infantry) Colin David MacManus, United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star (Posthumously) for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy while serving with Company C, 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, in the Republic of Vietnam.

The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation assembled this tribute to Captain MacManus:

Colin D. MacManus was born on August 29, 1941 to Mrs. Barbara MacManus in Elizabeth, NJ. He lived in New York and Quincy, MA before moving to Newark, NJ. He graduated from South Side High School in 1959. He attended Rutgers University and graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and an award as a distinguished military student. While he was an undergraduate, he was a member of the university’s track team, and Scabbard and Blade, an ROTC honor society.

Following graduation, the captain attended Paratroop and Ranger schools at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then stationed with the 3rd Armored Division “Spearheaders” in Frankfurt, Germany. While there, his mother explained, Captain MacManus led the rifle team representing the United States at the 1965 Central Treaty Organization games in Istanbul, Turkey. The squad finished second in the contest and received special honors from the U.S. commander.

In a February 22, 1967 article from the Newark Evening News his brother, John, stated “Colin was always very proud of the work he was doing. When we tried to sway him from volunteering from combat duty, he simply said that he had the training necessary to do the job–the type of training ‘those young boys’ with fear written on their faces didn’t have.”

MacManus was planning to marry Linda Neeson, the secretary of his commanding officer in Germany. The couple postponed their plans when he received his orders to report to Vietnam.

He entered the US Army from Newark, NJ and attained the rank of Captain (CAPT). MacManus was killed in action on February 16, 1967 at the age of 25. He was serving with C Company, 1st Battalion, 22 Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.

Captain McManus’s mother stated that her son wrote in his last letter that he was going out in the boondocks and had just reached his goal of being named a company commander, and that he would be unable to write for a while. His mother said that he never mentioned the fighting at all. He received a full military funeral.

There is a memorial at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ dedicated to the graduates who were killed or missing in action from the Vietnam War. MacManus’ name is listed among those killed in action.

To commemorate his life, each year the MacManus family awarded a Colt .45 Auto to the graduating senior who held his Rutgers Corps of Cadets assignment. In 1973, that was me. I never had the honor of meeting Captain MacManus (he graduated before I started my engineering studies at Rutgers), but I felt like I knew him through the Rutgers Reserve Officers Training Corps. We all knew of Captain MacManus. I met the MacManus family when I graduated in 1973, and his brother John (the same one mentioned above) presented the 1911 to me. It was a Series 70 Government Model Colt (the US Army sidearm back then), and receiving that award was a very big deal. It was a big deal to me in 1973, and it’s still a big deal to me today.

My first handgun: The Colin D. MacManus 1911 and a couple of 5-shot, 25-yard hand held groups I fired with it. I had it accurized in the 1970s, and it is still a tack driver.

That 1911 was the very first centerfire handgun I ever owned. US Army Sergeant Major Emory L. Hickman taught me how to shoot my .45 while I was a grad student at Rutgers (you can read about that here). I had a gunsmith accurize the 1911 a few years later when I lived in Fort Worth, and I still shoot the MacManus .45 on a regular basis. I most recently had my good buddy TJ (of TJ’s Custom Guns) go through it to make sure everything is in good working order (and it is). The MacManus 1911 and I go way back. It means a lot to me.

Somewhere along the way during the last 46 years, the MacManus Award fell by the wayside, and when I heard about that, it just felt wrong. So I called the ROTC detachment at Rutgers and spoke to the Professor of Military Science (the commander there). Colonel Cortez agreed: The MacManus Award is something that needs to continue. I did a bit of sleuthing online, one thing led to another, and last night I had a nice conversation with a young man from the MacManus family (I spoke with Colin D. MacManus, who was named after his uncle). We’re going to revive the Captain MacManus Award, and I’ll keep you posted on the status of our efforts right here on the Exhaust Notes blog.

Keep up with all the good stories!

Tom Collins – The Southern Armoury

Our good buddy Art has another gun story for us, this time about owning a 1911 .45 auto in the UK. The 1911 is one of my all time favorite firearms. I enjoyed reading Art’s story and I’m sure you will, too.

On March 10th, 1984, 39 years after its manufacture, the Colt 1911A1 with serial number 2322134 became all mine, along with a mere 150 FMJ rounds and a bottle of Hoppe’s No. 9 (ah, that sweet aroma). My new addition cost me the grand sum of £150 ($192) for the gun, the total bill being £183.65 ($236) for the ammo and cleaner.

The Southern Armoury at 171 New Kent Road in southeast London was a small, nondescript shop tucked in between others. Far from salubrious, the battered front door and dirty shutters belied the fact that its owner, Tom Collins, would stock some very obscure ammo and classic guns from the bellicose Victorian era right up to the latest in firearms. To keep it all low key and to prevent wannabees and Walter Mittys, his drudgey shop window would uninvitedly be filled with airguns, pellets, targets and old shotguns. This small, honest-to-God shop was always busy with a throng of two-or-three deep patiently waiting people. Tom and his wife used to live upstairs from the shop which had an old clock outside that everyone used as a marker point. It held good time and was too high to be vandalized or stolen.

Whenever I used to ring up and ask for the price of something, Tom would think for a second and mumble “about £20.” I would then offer to send him a check for “about £20” which would have him scuttling away for the proper price. It never failed.

Tom had a penchant for the most obscure adverts via the shooting press. We’d all stand around discussing this at the shooting club and wonder what the hell had gotten into him for producing some seriously mercurial stuff, sometimes involving cartoon balloon texts, barrels of black powder, an old sailing vessel and a circus elephant.

The other aspect also open for frequent and frivolous discussion was Tom’s toupee, which seemed to have a life of its own. Ill-fitting would not even begin to describe it. At first it looked like his head was nursing a few semi-comatose gray squirrels, such was the thing’s mobility when perched on top of his head. We swore that it would stay in one spot every time he turned his head, and we’d place silent bets where the parting would be from one day to the next. It was doubtful that Tom knew which was the front or rear.

The quality of Tom’s math was suspect and as he refused to use a calculator, quite a few clients walked out of his shop having been undercharged. Some of these actually bought from him again, hoping he’d make the same mistake.

One of my shooting club members, Bob Wade, gave me a handwritten note about the serial numbers range of all the contracted 1911A1 manufacturers. Mine was about 6000 away from the last Colt batch in 1945. My gun was nothing special, although the slide and frame numbers were matched, it seemed that most of the other parts weren’t. Not that it mattered much. The original grips were discarded for some Pachmayrs and my clunker shot well. I don’t think I ever bought more ammo for it. Another club member reloaded for me but the solid lead bullets he had were never supposed to be used in an auto and just wouldn’t cycle properly. The guy was also known for not taking a double load too seriously, so I never asked him again. When he later died in a scuba diving accident and the facts of his miscalculations became known to us, none of us were surprised.

My wife and I took a long weekend in Yorkshire and my .45 with two full mags came with me just in case there was an opportunity for some unofficial target shooting. This came in the shape of a little ensconced lay-by at the side of a quiet country road with 12′ high sloping chalk walls. As I was busy examining my shot placements on a small discarded gas canister, the crunching of gravel alerted me to see a very curious cyclist who arrived out of nowhere and was wondering where the hell those shots had come from. He took off when he saw me and so did we – in the opposite direction. My only visual memories exist in saving four distorted slugs out of the chalk.

In 1987 the Southern Armoury closed its doors for good. Tom and his wife were getting old and tired, and it would only be a few years later that Tom hung up his toupee for good, leaving behind a plethora of old memories that the old dogs like myself are only too fond of recollecting. The old clock is no longer there and the last time I drove past there, the shop had sacrilegiously become a hairdresser.

Although I sold my Colt around 1990, the new owner must have been one of the 40,000 pistol shooters who had to say farewell to their belongings during the 1997 pistol ban. My old .45 is probably part of a manhole cover somewhere in China where its American spirit continues to be part of the old guard who will never retire or capitulate.

I think all of us with a few miles under our belt have a story or two about a favorite old gunstore, a favorite old gunstore proprietor, or a favorite old gun. Mine cover places like Barney’s in El Paso, the Rutgers gun shop in Highland Park, Treptow’s in Milltown, Starkey’s (another El Paso shop), and more. They’re mostly all gone today, but wow…the memories.

Do you have a favorite memory? Hey, drop us a line in the Comments section, or maybe even write a guest blog for us (send it to us at info@ExhaustNotes.us). We love hearing from our readers. And Art, thanks for another great tale!

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A Garand Update: Speer and Hornady

The M1 Garand on the bench at the West End Gun Club.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about new bullets I had purchased for the Garand. They are Speer 168-grain Target Match bullets, and they’re designed to go head-to-head with the benchmark bullet in this arena, the Sierra 168-grain jacketed boat tail hollow point bullet. As you will recall, I talked to the Speer engineer and he recommended bumping the IMR 4064 propellant charge up from what I had tried previously and seating the bullets out a little further.

Speer 168-grain jacketed hollow point boat tail bullets.

I only had 20 Speer bullets left from the box of 100 I initially purchased and Phillips, my local dealer, didn’t have any more. I also had a couple of boxes of 178-grain Hornady AMAX bullets in my stash and my Hornady reloading manual had a Garand-specific load for these, so I loaded some of them for testing in the Garand as well. You can’t just use any .30 06 load for the Garand; the loads have to be specific for the Garand. If you go outside of what’s recommended for these rifles, you can damage the rifle.

Reloaded .30 06 ammunition with Hornady’s 178 grain AMAX bullets. I was concerned about the plastic tips hitting the feed ramp, but I need not have been. These bullets performed well.

It was windy out at the West End Gun Club this past weekend, so I don’t know if my results were the result of the load, or the wind, my shooting abilities, or all of the above. Take my results as an indication of what might work, not the ultimate authoritative conclusion on either bullet’s inherent accuracy. And as regards my propellant charges, work from your own manual. You will want to develop your own loads, starting at the bottom of the range and working up.

My testing for this session was limited. I had two loads for each bullet (both the Hornady and the Speer bullets), and all were with IMR 4064 propellant. I did all of my testing from the bench at 100 yards.

For the 178-grain Hornady AMAX bullets, I used 45.0 and 46.4 grains of IMR 4064, and a cartridge overall length of 3.240 inches. This load came right out of the Hornady reloading manual. For the 168-grain Speer bullets bullets, I used 47.0 and 48.0 grains of IMR 4064, and a cartridge overall length of 3.295 inches (as recommended by Speer). All loads were with Remington brass and CCI 200 primers. I trimmed the brass to 2.500 inches. This was the 6th firing of these cases in the Garand with these cases.

I reloaded and fired a total of 40 rounds for this test. I reload for the Garand in multiples of eight cartridges (because that’s what the en bloc clip holds), and like I said above, I only had 20 of the Speer bullets left. So bear with me (this is going to get a little complicated). I had one clip of eight rounds with the 168-grain Speers at 47.0 grains of IMR 4064, and one clip of eight rounds with the 168-grain Speers at 48.0 grains of IMR 4064. Then I did another clip of eight with the 178-grain Hornady bullets at 45.0 grains of IMR 4064, and a fourth clip of eight with the 178-grain Hornady bullets at 46.4 grains of IMR 4064. That left four of the Speer 168-grain bullets, so I loaded those four with 47.0 grains of IMR 4064, and then I loaded another four rounds with the Hornady 178-grain bullets and 45.0 grains of IMR 4064. Yep, you read that right. That en bloc clip had two different loads in it.

I had a concern that the plastic tips on the Hornady 178-grain AMAX bullets might be damaged sliding up the Garand’s feed ramp, but that didn’t occur. At the seating depth Hornady recommended, the bullets are pointed into the chamber and the tips never touched the feed ramp.

None of the 40 cartridges exhibited any pressure signs. There were no flattened primers, no excessive muzzle blast, no case ruptures, no extraction issues, or anything of that nature. Everything fed and ejected normally.

I fired the mixed clip of Hornady and Speer bullets first, and surprisingly, it was my best group of the day (it was also the only group I fired where there was a lull in the wind that morning). The first four shots were with the Hornady bullets, and of these, only one was just outside the bullseye (it might have been the first round fired from the cold, oiled barrel). All the remaining seven rounds shot into a pretty tight group, with six of the seven in the 10 ring. The bottom line based on this one group to me was that either load (the 178-grain Hornady load at 45.0 grains of 4064, and the 168-grain Speer load at 47.0 grains of 4064) were awesome, and both shot to the same point of impact.

The next group up was the 168-grain Speers with 47.0 grains of IMR 4064. I couldn’t duplicate my prior results as shown in the above photo. Six shots were in the black, two were out, and of these two, one was down in the 6 ring. It could have been the wind, or it could have been me. Most likely it was me (the wind wasn’t blowing down).

Then I fired the clip of eight with the Speer 168-grain bullets and 48.0 grains of IMR 4064. Five shots were in the black and three were outside, with one low at 7:00 in the 6 ring again.

It was on to the Hornady 178-grain bullets, first at 45.0 grains of IMR 4064. Five shots were in the black, one was in the 8 ring at 9:00, one was in the 7 ring at 10:00, and again, I had one shot go low in the 6 ring at 7:00. The group was biased to the left. That was probably the wind.

And finally, I shot the Hornady 178-grain bullets at 46.4 grains of IMR 4064. 6 were in the black, 1 was in the 8 ring at 9:00, and yet again, 1 was in the 6 ring at 7:00. These were a little more tightly clustered favoring the left side of the bullseye, consistent with the wind pushing the shots to one side (the wind at the West End Gun Club always blows northeast to southwest, pushing the shots to the left).

The bottom line is that any of loads could be good, but that first clip of mixed bullets was (for a guy at my low talent level) phenomenal. The wind no doubt distorted my results (along with my lack of consistency shooting the Garand). I have 180 of the Hornady bullets left, and I’m going to load them at 45.0 grains of IMR 4064. I’ll buy more of the 168 gr Speer bullets because they did well, too, and I’ll load them at 47.0 grains. I’m just not that good to say with certainty which load is best; the variability in group size you see here is probably more me than anything else.

The Speer bullets are the least expensive of the three brands I’ve tried in the Garand at $25/100. Next up are the Hornady AMAX bullets at $32/100. The Sierra 168-grain MatchKing bullets (not tested yesterday, as I had used all of them previously) are the most expensive at $37/100. If there’s a difference in performance between the bullets, I’m not good enough to see it. I have 180 of the Hornady bullets left, and I’m going to load them at 45.0 grains of IMR 4064 later today. I’ll buy more of the 168-grain Speer bullets because they did well, too, and I’ll load them with 47.0 grains of IMR 4064.

So which bullet works best in the Garand? Any of these are better than I am, and for a guy like me, evaluating accuracy at 100 yards with iron sights is subjective at best (my old eyes ain’t what they used to be). But I’m having fun, and I love shooting my Garand.

Read more on the Garand (and many more) rifles and handguns here.

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Joe’s .44 Magnum

I’m not the Joe in this story, nor is Joe Gresh. Nope, this is something altogether different…a guest blog by our good buddy Art, and it touches on a topic near and dear to my heart, the .44 Magnum Smith and Wesson Model 29. Let’s get right to it, and that would be Art’s blog on his friend, Joe, and their experiences with the mighty Model 29.

Joe Abbott was one of South London’s finest characters. Probably in his mid-fifties, this tough looking, gruff-talking individual of which at least one in three words was an expletive, was also a man of many diverse talents. He’d been in the fruit & vegetables and meat trade, blue movies, and had settled in the more lucrative scrap metal trade.

But what made Joe such so endearing was that he always came to the shooting club with a 6.5” barrel, lusciously-blued, S&W Model 29 tucked away in a suitable shoulder rig. This unloaded piece was also kept in fine company by a bullet belt with about 8 rounds.

Joe always graciously allowed people to handle his .44 Magnum. This experience was always accompanied by lurid stories about just how many engine blocks it could destroy and the unsavory whack the shooter would receive.

It was 1975, and I had not yet seen “Dirty Harry,” but the repeated references were made and after coming out of the cinema, I realized that I really needed one.

Getting a Firearms Certificate (FAC) in the UK is a drawn-out procedure and you must join a reputable shooting club. Once done, I obtained a ‘slot’ on my FAC for a 6”, Model 29-2 which I bought through “The Saddlery & Gunroom” in Biggin Hill, Kent – and which still exists today.

And so it came to be that on one fine October evening in 1981 I found myself on the “Stone Lodge” shooting range in Dartford, southeast of London – now long defunct due to the UK’s continuing anti-gun stance.

The dozen or so, pistol booths, divided by plywood walls had battered wooden counters which bore a few scattered marks of various NDs over the years.

With some trepidation, I partially loaded op the cylinder with 240-grain Federal JHPs, took my stance and gently bought the gun up one-handed as I had been taught for slow-fire. Joe Abbot’s biblical warnings returned to me when the next thing was a thunderous muzzle blast, a blinding flash that seemed to light up the skies and a mule’s kick to my right hand, which was still clutching my 44 in a near-vertical position.

“You OK, mate?” came a voice from the booth next to me. It seemed that the flimsy plywood had not been sufficient in dampening the 44’s roar.

When my fellow shooter peered into my booth, he found me gazing open mouthed at my new piece which I had placed on the counter, wondering what the hell I had just bought. That evening I only put five more rounds through it, the standard Goncalo Alves grips with its sharp checkering not giving any quarter.

The .44’s reputation preceded me, so every time I took it to any range, there was always a healthy line of people wanting to shoot it, and who offered their pieces in return to fire, which allowed for a good experience with a wide range of guns. One of the club’s members downloaded my brass into .44 Special loads, easing up the load on my gun and my wrist.

In 1997, the whole thing came to an end when the British government banned all handguns in private possession. Along with 40,000 law abiding sports men and women all over the UK, I was commanded to go to a local police station of their choice and hand in my 44 and Walther GSP .22 target pistol, never to be seen again.

As rumors persisted that the higher end guns would be stored for some years and then sold to lesser restrictive countries, I had written my full name and address inside the grips of both guns.

In 2015, I became a proud ‘Documented-American-In-Waiting’, my AZ residence allowing me to enjoy an unprecedented freedom that no other world country could dream of offering. I would continue to dream of owning another part of identical S&W history, despite the steep prices to which they had climbed over the years.

In the ever-increasing universe of polymer self-loaders, the appreciation of the traditional steel has begun a steady upwards trend. Revolvers with their near-clockwork mechanism are becoming increasingly in demand, especially from the younger shooters. Ex-police guns, predominantly the stainless autos, have found their way into the civilian market and are hungrily bought by discerning citizens who are swayed by historical interest and the very affordable prices.

One fine day, and at half the price of the blued ‘Dirty Harry’ model, a 6” stainless .44 Magnum Hunter Classic with unfluted cylinder followed me home from one of the Phoenix shows. The continued underlug, ventilated barrel rib, resembling the beautiful Colt Python, and Pachmayr grips sounded the bells of seduction. I was well and truly on the rocks.

Those 38 years must have dulled my initial reactions to Joe Abbott’s apocalyptic performance figures since I pointed my Model 29-2 downrange for the very first time. Perhaps it was the increased weight of my new piece that seemed to have tamed the ferocious recoil, or having fired a great many handguns of various calibers. Whatever, happy days are here again and I’m privileged to enjoy the 228-year-old rights and privileges that all Americans are born with. Long may it continue.

Art, I could not have said it better myself. Well done, and thanks for your guest blog. I enjoyed reading it and I’m sure our readers will, too. We’re glad you’re here in America with us, and it’s always good to hear from a fellow .44 aficionado (how’s that for alliteration?). Please shoot us a copy of your snail mail address, Art, and we’ll send to you a signed copy of 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM as a small thank you for helping us make the blog a success.

And to the rest of our readers: Do you have an idea for a guest blog? It can be any topic: Motorcycles, watches, guns, bicycles, travel, photography, and more. We’d love to hear from you. Write to us at info@exhaustnotes.us!

The Model 659 Smith and Wesson

After reading one of the blogs I posted on my most capable, TJ-customized Smith and Wesson Model 59, good buddy Tom commented that he had a Model 659. “I always wanted a Model 659,” I said.

My custom Model 59. I’ve been sending lead downrange with this one for close to 50 years.

Well, you know how these things go. One thing led to another, and now I do. Own one, that is. A Model 659. Tom gave me a super deal on his Model 659, and after a visit to an FFL dealer and waiting the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia’s obligatory 10-day cooling off period, I had (in Kalifornia’s infinite left-leaning wisdom) chilled sufficiently. I took possession of this latest addition to the ExNotes Armory, and let me tell you, this new-to-me 9mm is a honey.

My 659, along with a few 9mm reloads. The 659 has an ambidextrous safety. Mine also has Pachmayr grips, which make it easier to get a good grip.

The Model 659 was the follow-on in Smith and Wesson’s 9mm semi-automatic handgun evolutionary arc, and it sold riotously well. The 659’s all stainless steel construction gives it a comfortable heft and provides a stable firing platform. High capacity, 9mm, stainless steel, and an American manufacturer with a storied reputation: What’s not to like? Police departments turned to the Model 659 in droves. It was the right gun at the right time as police departments abandoned their .38 Special six-shooters and moved to 9mm autos.

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As the police armament evolution advanced, the Model 659 Smiths were superseded by yet even newer wunderguns, and used 659s became widely available when the police departments traded them in. I don’t know that this is my 659’s heritage, but I suspect it was. My 659 was well worn externally with lots of fine scratches in the metal work, it didn’t have hardly any internal wear (it hadn’t been fired much), and the safety decocker didn’t work the way it was supposed to. All these things were signs that pointed to lots of carry but little actual shooting.

First, the safety decocker. It’s that gizmo on the rear of the slide that drops and blocks the hammer, and on mine, when it was fully depressed, the hammer wouldn’t drop the way it was supposed to. I guessed it wore out from having been actuated a ton of times, which is probably what happened when whoever carried it put it away for the night every night. This issue was slightly complicated by the fact that Smith and Wesson no longer supports these pistols (that’s the bad news). The good news is that the old Numrich corporation purchased Smith and Wesson’s entire inventory of Model 659 parts (Numrich is now known as the Gun Parts Corporation, but everyone still calls them Numrich). That’s where I found what I needed. Numrich has exploded drawings of these (and many, many other) old guns on line, and you can dope out how older guns work and identify the parts you need. With the help of their isometric drawing below, follow along with me as I explain how this safety decocker thing works.

The 659 Smith decocker is activated by a thumb lever. It’s Find No. 1 in the above drawing. The thing fits into a through-hole at the rear of the slide. When you rotate the decocker down to the safe position, a slot in it pushes the sear release lever down, which is Find No. 63 in the above drawing. When that happens, the sear release lever rotates and acts on the sear, which is Find No. 29. When that happens, the sear releases the hammer (Find No. 61). When the hammer falls, it can’t hit the firing pin because the hammer’s fall to the firing pin is obstructed by the decocker having been rotated to the safe position (which brings us back to Find No. 1). It’s all very clever.

So, like I said above, when Smith went to their newer series of handguns, they sold all their remaining parts inventory to Numrich. Numrich had the new sear release lever, and it was only $4.50. Weirdly, I could have bought a used part from Numrich for $3.50, but the used part would be worn and it would probably not correct the problem I needed to fix (a problem which resulted from wear). It was a no brainer to me, so I splurged for the extra $1 and bought the new part (I’m cheap, but I’m not stupid). My new safety release lever arrived in the mail a few days later.

The 659’s original safety release lever. This one was worn beyond serviceable limits and I bought a new replacement. The upper arrow points to the part of the safety lever that rides along the decocker drum. The lower arrow points to the part that actuates the sear. It was this area (the area designated by the lower arrow) that needed to be fitted to assure proper function. That .22 Long Rifle cartridge? It’s only in the photo to provide a sense of scale.

When the new sear release lever arrived, I had to strip the gun down to the bare frame. I installed the new sear release lever, but it needed to be fitted so that it actuated the hammer drop at the appropriate point in the decocker’s rotation. It was a matter of assemble the gun, try it, take it all apart again, file the sear release lever a little bit, reassemble the gun, try it again, and repeat the process until the decocker worked the way it is supposed to. The whole thing took me about an hour of disassembling, testing, filing, and reassembling. I like doing this sort of stuff. I imagine it’s a lot like resurrecting a 900cc Kawasaki.

The next step was to go to work on all the minor scratches on the gun’s slide and frame. That’s one of the great advantages of a stainless steel firearm. With a little bit of 600-grit sandpaper, you can keep a stainless gun looking new forever. I was really pleased with the way this one turned out. It looks like a new gun now. Nah, scratch that (pardon the pun). I think Smith finished these guns with 400-grit abrasive, which is a little rougher than 600-grit. Mine looks better than new. Polished, almost. It really is a thing of great beauty.

My standard 9mm load is 5.0 grains of Unique behind a 124 grain roundnose bullet, and I’ve got a bunch reloaded and packed away in my ammo locker. It’s an accurate load and it’s reliable. Yeah, I know, you can buy 9mm ammo cheaper than you can reload it these days. I don’t care. I like to reload. Logic doesn’t always prevail when it comes to guns and ammo.

I grabbed a few hundred rounds and it was off to the range for me and the 659. I was more than pleased with the results. I didn’t have a single failure to feed, fire, extract, or eject, and the 659 is accurate. It’s a lot of fun to shoot and the 9mm is a great cartridge.

50 rounds at 50 feet, fired offhand from the standing position. The 659 is a keeper. It’s a lot of fun to shoot, and the bullets go where you tell them to. Nearly all shots were in the 10 ring, and only a few dropped into the 9 ring. The shots that went low? I mostly likely shifted my focus from the front sight to the target. That’s what makes shots go low, and that’s the subject of an upcoming blog.

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Motorcycle Commercials and a Garand Accuracy Update

I mentioned last week that Speer offers 168 grain jacketed hollow point boat tail bullets, and that I was going to load a few rounds for the Garand to see how they performed. My initial results with the Speer bullets were not as good as with Sierra bullets, but I’m just getting started. The Speer Competition Target bullets are much less expensive than the Sierra MatchKings, and I want to make the Speers work. I’m basically a cheap SOB.

Speer’s 168 grain target bullets are just $25 for a box of 100; the comparable Sierra bullets are $37.

My accuracy load with the Sierra bullets was 47.0 grains, which did well in my Garand. That’s the load I used with the Speer bullets. Here’s what I did at 100 yards:

Two clips of 8 rounds each. There’s potential here.

I shot two clips of 8 rounds each at the above target. The promising part was that the second 8 shots grouped better than the first. Not quite as good as the Sierras, but the Speer bullets are hinting there’s more accuracy hiding in those shiny copper jackets. I didn’t exercise the care and consistency I normally would when I loaded these; I guess I was in a hurry. I used brass I had fired four times in the Garand, the brass is getting longer, and I didn’t trim it. I didn’t clean the primer pockets, either. For the next load I’ll trim the cases to a consistent length, I’ll clean the primer pockets, and I’ll use all the other little tricks I’ve learned over the years.

I called the Speer folks yesterday to see if they had any further insights on accuracy with their bullets in the Garand. Reaching the Speer guy was not easy; they don’t list a number on their website and I hate those website “ask us your question” pages. I finally got through to a guy who knew what he was talking about. The Speer rep said he couldn’t tell me the Garand accuracy load because they use a different barrel in their rifle and the harmonics would be different. After asking about the load I was using with the Sierra bullets, he told me their IMR 4064 propellant range with this bullet goes from 45.0 grains up to 49.0 grains (higher than the max load with the Sierra bullets). He also said that the Speer bullets do better with higher charges. He recommended I start at 47.0 grains of IMR 4064 and go up from there. The Speer bullets have ogive and boat tail profiles that are longer than the Sierra bullet, so the Speers have less bearing area in the barrel (that’s why they can be loaded hotter). The Speer dude told me they also load to a longer cartridge overall length of 3.295 inches (which basically defines how deep the bullets are seated in the cartridge case). For someone who couldn’t give me their accuracy load, he sure had a bunch of good information.

So, that’s my plan for the next load. I’ll pick up another box of the Speer bullets and I’ll shoot them later this week, assuming my component dealer still has the Speers in stock. It would be good if I can get them to shoot as well as the Sierras. They are way less expensive. Did I mention I am a cheap SOB?

On to that motorcycle commercial thing mentioned in the title of this blog. Good buddy TK sent this YouTube to me last week, and it’s a hoot. It looks like the Harley and Kawi commercials overseas are a lot better than the silly stuff we see here (although I don’t think I’ve seen any motorcycle commercials for at least a couple of years now).