It was one of the ones that got away, that Colt 1917 was, and I regretted it for years. I like to describe some of the firearms I’ve let get away as ones I’ve stupidly sold but I don’t like being redundant, so let’s just say I sold it. It was stupid to sell any of them, and having been on a quest for a decade or so to replace the ones I’ve stupidly sold (oops, there I go again), I can tell you that I’m not selling any of my guns. You might be wondering where I’m going with this story, but wonder no more. It’s all about a magnificent score, in this case, a US Army Colt Model 1917 .45 ACP revolver. To jump ahead for just a second, this is the one that is on its way to being mine…
A magnificent original finish Model 1917 Colt revolver. Those are genuine elk antler grips. What appears to be an unblued area near the front sight is not…read on for more information.
The 1917s are interesting handguns, and yeah, that’s plural. There were two of them: A Colt, and a Smith and Wesson. In a very real sense, they are handguns that were never meant to be. The 1911 Automatic came on the scene in 1911, and the plan was to ultimately incorporate it throughout our Armed Forces. But life is what happens when you’re making plans, and the US Government generally moves slowly. When we entered World War I in 1917, there weren’t enough 1911s to go around, so the US Army turned on Smith and Colt to make their large frame revolvers in .45 ACP, and that’s how the 1917s came to be. It was an emergency measure to make up for what we didn’t have yet, and that was enough 1911s to go around.
Major General James E. Rudder, who carried a Colt 1917 when ascending Normandy’s Pointe du Hoc cliffs on D-Day.
When World War II happened, the US military had plenty of 1911s, but there was at least one soldier who preferred the 1917. Interestingly, I recently read an account in American Rifleman magazine (yeah, I’m a strong NRA supporter and I watch Fox News, too) about 34-year-old Lieutenant Colonel James E. Rudder, who led the U.S. Army Rangers when they scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy on D-Day. Colonel Rudder carried a 1917 Colt instead of a 1911 auto (presumably, a 1917 that had been through the arsenal refurb and wore a Parkerized finish). Rudder was an interesting man. He held numerous awards for valor, he retired from the Army as a Major General, and he then went on to become president of Texas A&M University. The American Rifleman article was about Rudder’s 1917 Colt, which he preferred to the 1911 auto because of its greater reliability. Ah, if these guns could talk…
Help us keep the lights on…please click on the popup ads!
In the 1970s, when I was in the US Army stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, I bought a 1917 Colt revolver at the El Paso gun show. I didn’t know too much about these guns then, except that they were large frame revolvers and they didn’t cost too much. I think I paid something like $125 for mine. It was cool. Big, heavy, Parkerized, and it shot the .45 ACP cartridge, a round I had already recognized as the ultimate handgun chambering. I had a .45 auto (a Government Model 1911), and having a revolver chambered for the same round felt like it was the right thing to do. My 1917 had interesting markings…it said US Army, United States Property, and all kinds of cool stuff. I liked it. I shot that revolver for a while, I had fun with it, and then I sold it to someone who wanted it more than I did. I think I got $200 for it, and in those days I fancied myself a Texas wheeler dealer gun guy.
But that 1917 danced around in my head for decades. I liked it and I missed it, and I wished I had kept it. Finally, a few years ago I started hunting for a replacement. The problem is, living here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, I couldn’t look outside the left-leaning anti-gun liberal looney bin we call home, as the Model 1917 isn’t on our roster of handguns approved for sale here. If I was to find one, it would have to be one already here in LeftyLand, and that cut my options considerably. I kept an eye on the local gun shops (it’s okay if the gun is already in California, but the way the law is written I couldn’t bring in a 1917 from out of state). I checked Gunbroker.com (the premier site for gun sales) every few weeks. And I watched a California-specific site, Calguns.net. I kept looking, but none of the 1917s I saw looked nice enough for my tastes, or they were out ot state, or they were priced in the stratosphere.
Then I hit paydirt. Big time. I saw the 1917 you see in the photo above in a post on the Calguns.net site a couple of weeks ago. It looked to me like it had been reblued (because my earlier 1917 had been Parkerized and I’d never seen one that wasn’t) and the genuine stag grips were appealing (the 1917s originally wore uncheckered walnut grips). Those genuine stag grips all by themselves are a big ticket item and to me they look like they belong on a 1917. Unoriginal, yeah, but they sure looked good. The reblue (I thought) and the elk grips took away from the gun’s authenticity, but I liked the look. In fact, I liked it a lot.
I sent a message to the advertiser (who became my new good buddy Jim), and I learned that the gun had not been reblued. It wore its original brushed blue finish, and the direction of the brushing was an indication of its originality. The 1917s went through an arsenal refinish between the wars, Jim explained, and that’s when they were Parkerized. The original finish is the one you see in the photos here. I researched what Jim told me, and yup, he had it right. That made the gun even more appealing. (That brushed blue original finish and the brushing direction is what made the area on either side of the front sight look unblued when the camera’s flash hit it, but it is, in fact, blued). This particular 1917 is unfired other than proof rounds at the Colt factory, and this particular handgun was manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1918. Yep, it is 101 years old. And it’s essentially a new gun.
All right, I decided, I’d most likely never get an opportunity like this again. Jim and I met at Imbert and Smithers in Redwood City to legally transfer ownership, and I was blown away when I saw the revolver in person. It is stunning. The guy behind the counter, a dude about my age, was similarly impressed. “I’ve never seen one in this condition,” he said, and he called the gunsmith over to look at it. I’ll admit it: I like having a gun that’s the center of attention in a circle of folks who know guns. It’s a cool feeling.
Okay, enough bragging with words. Let me do so with a few photos I shot yesterday at the start of my 10-day cooling off period…
The 1917 Colt, chambered in .45 ACP, wearing the factory original finish.The view from the left. The elk antler grips work. It’s an elegant handgun.The Prancing Pony. Colt more properly calls its logo the “Rampant Colt.” Prancing Pony works for me. It’s one of the world iconic logos.The proof mark, showing that the revolver had been fired with a proof pressure test round at the factory.Yep. US Army Model 1917. Lanyard ring. I love the look of this thing.Good buddy Jim explained the brush blued finish on these guns to me. They have a unique pattern, and you can see some of it on the right side of the 1917’s frame. It’s beautiful.The Colt roll marks on top of the 1917’s 5.5-inch barrel.United States Property, the rollmarked lettering on the barrel’s underside.
You might be wondering: Am I actually going to shoot this revolver?
You bet. And you’ll read about it here when I do. Just 9 more days, and I’ll be fully cooled off. And then this puppy is mine.
The word “wow” might have been invented in anticipation of the .300 Weatherby Magnum. It’s that impressive. I’ve owned and fired a lot of different cartridges over the years, and the one that I find the most interesting, the most intimidating, and the most coolest ever is the .300 Weatherby. For a lot of years it was the most powerful .308-caliber cartridge on the planet. Roy Weatherby, my personal hero, created the cartridge in 1944 and it’s only been in the last few years that two or three more powerful .30-bore cartridges emerged, but these new .30-caliber cartridges are overkill. In fact, I could make a good argument that the .300 Weatherby is overkill. But I won’t. I love the round and I love the fact that it scares me a little every time I shoot it.
A sense of scale. From left to right, it’s the .22 Long Rifle, the .45 ACP, the .223 Remington (essentially, our M-16 round), the .30-30 Winchester (America’s premier deer cartridge), the mighty .30-06, and the last two are .300 Weatherby Magnum cartridges. Every cartridge shown here (with the exception of the .22 Long Rifle) is a reloaded round.
The first rifle I ever bought chambered for the .300 Weatherby, oddly enough, was not a Weatherby. It was a Winchester Model 70 that I bought maybe 35 years ago. It was a limited production item and that might have been a good reason to buy it, but the thing that grabbed my attention on this particular rifle was the walnut. You just don’t see factory Model 70s with fancy walnut, but this one had it in spades.
A 1980s Model 70 Winchester in .300 Weatherby Magnum, wearing a Weaver T-10 telescopic sight.The right side of the .300 Weatherby Model 70.Ah, that beautiful walnut. It’s not often lumber like this appears on a Winchester.Both sides, too! When I saw this rifle I was still in my 30s. I really couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t afford to let it get away, either.
I think I paid just over $400 for that rifle back in the 1980s, which is what they were going for then. I had a Weaver T10 target scope I had used when shooting metallic silhouette and it went on the Model 70. It’s most definitely not the scope for a .300 Weatherby, but it’s what I had at the time. The scope is a collectible item all by itself…it’s steel and it was manufactured when Weaver made their scopes in El Paso.
So that’s the first rifle in this trio of .300s. The next is one I bought exactly 10 years ago, in 2009, at the height of the Great Recession. I was lucky in 2009…I was working, and lots of folks were selling things to raise cash, including more than a few gun stores. An outfit called Lock, Stock, and Barrel advertised a new-in-the-box Mark V Euromark on Gunbroker, and I was on that in a New York minute. The store was in the upper Midwest somewhere and they stated in their ad they would not sell to California (our state commissars make life difficult in a lot of ways, and more than a few sellers simply won’t ship to California). But I wanted that Euromark something fierce (the Euromark is a Mark V Weatherby with a satin oil finish, rather than the Mark V’s usual high gloss urethane finish). I called the guy, did my “woe is me” routine, and he agreed to ship the rifle to my FFL-holder here in the Peoples’ Republik.
Saw it on Gunbroker, saw the wood, and I couldn’t say no.It was nice on both sides, too. Rosewood accents, beautiful walnut, and the mighty .300 Weatherby Magnum in a Mark V. What’s not to like?
I bought a new Weaver 4×16 scope, put it on the rifle, and then I put the Mark V in the safe. It stayed there for 10 years. I fired it for the first time this weekend, for this blog.
You know, the funny thing is my good buddy Marty saw the Weatherby before I put it in the safe and he decided he needed one, too. He tried calling Lock, Stock, and Barrel a week after I received mine, but they had already gone out of business. The Great Recession was rough. My grabbing that rifle was a lucky break.
These photos impart a bit of an orange hue to the Mark V’s stock. It’s really a bit more subdued.Like the Model 70, this Mark V is pretty on both sides. The stock profile is the classic Weatherby Monte Carlo look, which actually works very well in reducing felt recoil.Unlike the other Deluxe Mark V rifles, the Euromark has a classic, low-sheen satin finish. It works well with the rosewood accents.It was sunny when I was on the range this weekend. I get better photos when it’s overcast, but you get the idea. The 4×16 Weaver on this rifle is a magnificent optic.
The last .300 Weatherby I’m going to talk about today is my Vanguard. It’s one of the original series Weatherby Vanguards, and it has what we tongue-in-cheek refer to as the Tupperware stock. I’ve written about this rifle on the ExNotes blog before. I wasn’t looking for a Vanguard when I bought this one, but I saw it at the Gunrunner gun shop in Duarte, the price was right, and, well, you know how these things go. It came home with me.
My Series 1 Weatherby Vanguard with the plastic stock. It’s accurate. And it’s hard-hitting (on both ends).A view from the port side. You can see the profile similarity between the Vanguard’s composite stock and the Mark V’s walnut stock above.The Vanguard came from the factory with a Bushnell 3×9 scope. It needs more eye relief. Before I go into the field with this rifle, I’m going to replace the scope.
The deal on the Vanguard rifles is that Weatherby wanted to bring a lower cost rifle to market without cheapening their flagship Mark V, and they contracted with Howa of Japan to build the Vanguards. The principal difference is that the Vanguard has a 90-degree bolt lift compared to the Mark V’s 54-degree bolt lift, and the Mark V sells for about $1400 more than a Vanguard. I’m here to tell you that the Vanguard is an outstanding rifle, every bit as good as the Mark V, and in many cases, more accurate.
So how do these three puppies shoot?
Like I said at the beginning of this blog, the .300 Weatherby is intimidating. I like to think I’m not recoil sensitive, but the .300 Weatherby is right on the edge of what I think I can handle shooting from the bench. It’s not an easy rifle to shoot for accuracy. To get the best groups from any rifle, I like to minimize contact with the rifle. I let the rifle lay in the benchrest, lightly hold the fore end with my fingers, barely touch my cheek against the stock, move my head to an appropriate position to get a full image through the scope, and just touch the recoil pad with my shoulder. The idea is that I don’t want to exert any force on the rifle, as that can move the rounds around on the target, and I’m shooting for the tightest group. That works with rifles that have light to moderate recoil, say, up to the .30 06 level. Try that with a .300 Weatherby, though, and you’re going to get popped in the face by the scope when you drop the hammer. Really. Trust me on this; I know. Nope, when you shoot the .300 Weatherby from the bench, you need a solid grip on the rifle, and you need to pull it firmly into your shoulder. It’s a little harder to get tight groups doing that. But it’s easier than getting smacked by the scope.
Before I get into the accuracy results, I’ll share my impressions of the three rifles based on trigger pull, felt recoil, fit, and optics.
The Mark V has the best trigger. I broke cleanly at about 3 lbs, and it made shooting the rifle easier. I guess that’s to be expected with a rifle that has a price tag like the Mark V (these things ain’t cheap). The Model 70 had a crisp (no creep) trigger, but it was heavy. That made it a little harder to shoot well, especially when shooting it right after I shot the Mark V (I got spoiled; it’s pretty hard to follow the Mark V act). The Vanguard trigger had a bit of creep in it, and it was about as heavy as the Winchester’s trigger, which is to say both the Vanguard and the Winchester triggers were heavier than the Mark V’s trigger.
The Mark V is a clear winner from a felt recoil perspective. There are several reasons for this. One is that it is the heaviest of the three rifles, with its dense walnut stock and 26-inch barrel. Another is the Weatherby stock profile. Folks make fun of it, but it works. When the gun recoils, it draws away from your cheek, and the perception is that it has less recoil. Another factor is Mark V’s recoil pad. And the last one is the Weaver 4×16 scope’s eye relief. Head position isn’t critical, and you’re far enough back from the scope that it doesn’t hit you in recoil. Don’t get me wrong: The Mark V still packs a wallop. It’s just easier to shoot than the other two. The Winchester Model 70 was a close second, most likely because it also has a real stock (read: walnut), but it’s thinner recoil pad made it slightly more punishing than the Mark V. Third place from the felt recoil perspective was the Vanguard. It has a big recoil pad like the Mark V, but the plastic stock and 24-inch barrel make the gun lighter, and like we say in the engineering biz, f still equals ma. Also, the Vanguard’s low end Bushnell Banner scope does not have generous eye relief, and I got smacked a couple of times. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to get my attention.
I’ve already started talking about scopes, so let me continue that discussion. The Weaver 4×16 I purchased for the Mark V is a killer scope. It’s incredibly bright, crisp, and clear. In fact, it’s so good I didn’t realize I had it turned down to 4X for the first couple of groups I fired. Eye relief on this scope is generous enough for a bucking bronc like the .300 Weatherby. It’s the clear winner.
The Weaver T-10 on the Model 70 was out of its element. It’s a target scope. Eye relief was good enough, but alignment and distance were hypercritical; move just a little too far forward or backward, or left or right, and you’ve lost the image. I like the scope (I’ve owned it for over 40 years), but it’s in the wrong place on a hunting rifle.
The Vanguard’s Bushnell Banner…what can I say? Maybe this: Halitosis is better than no breath at all. I played around with the focus adjustment, but the Bushnell just isn’t as clear or crisp as either of the Weavers. That said, it’s considerably less expensive than the other two scopes. When I bought the Vanguard, it was essentially in as new condition, and the Bushnell was part of a factory package (it came with the rifle). If I was do it over, I’d get the Weaver 4×16, or maybe a Leupold, for this rifle. I may do that anyway. I know this is heresy, but I actually think the Weaver has a crisper image than a Leupold scope.
Of the three rifles, the Mark V fits me best, with the Vanguard a close second. I like the Weatherby profile. It just works for me. If I had to choose one of these three rifles for a hunting trip in the mountains (and I do, as I’m chasing deer with good buddy J later this year in Idaho), it would definitely be the Vanguard. It’s lighter, and that counts on a hunt like the one I’m headed into. Yeah, I know…a .300 Weatherby is a bit much for deer. You take what you want when you hunt. I’m taking my .300.
Okay, so the big question emerges: How about accuracy?
I almost didn’t include this. I did a bit of accuracy testing, but my advice is to take my results with a grain of salt. A big grain. Maybe a barrel of salt. I hadn’t been on the rifle range in a month or two, and firing 50 or 60 rounds of .300 Weatherby Magnum ammo in one sitting is not the best way to do this kind of shooting. Stated differently, I was not really giving these rifles a fair shake in this test. The first few groups you see below are me getting settled in, and the last few groups you see below are more likely than not me deteriorating after getting smacked around all morning. These rifles are better than what the results below indicate.
That said, here we go. All groups you see in the chart below were 3-shot groups at 100 yards from the bench. There was no wind, it was a bit warm, and conditions were about ideal.
The loads. Don’t take my word for this stuff; get thee to a load manual, study it, and do your own testing. Start low and work up.
I knew from past dealings that IMR 7828 propellant is good stuff in the big magnums, and I think that my 76.5 grain load with the 180-grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullet is a great load. I was a bit off on the first group I fired with this load (two shots were touching; the third was a flyer most likely induced by me) and then the other two groups with this load were at minute of angle. I could do better if I shot this rifle more (yeah, that’s another factor; this was the first time I had this rifle out and the barrel is not broken in yet). This is not a max load (I could go hotter) and the group size was smaller with the warmer of the two loads I tried with 7828 and the Remington 180-grain bullets. That suggests an even warmer charge of 7828 under this bullet is where greater accuracy lives, but I just don’t feel a need to go there. No animal on the planet would be able to tell the difference from an energy-on-target perspective and minute-of-angle accuracy is close enough for government work (especially for the game I plan to hunt). Dead is dead. There’s no sense getting beat up by more recoil to make an animal more dead.
The 80 grains of 7828 with the 165-grain Hornady bullet I show in the table above is near a max load, and I think it’s obvious I was losing my edge toward the end of this range session. I shot a 0.507-inch group at 100 yards with that same load in the Vanguard a couple of years ago; I just couldn’t duplicate it near the end of my range session this past weekend.
Yeah, this dog will hunt.
The difference between a cup of coffee and my advice is you might have asked for a cup of coffee, but I’ll give you my advice anyway. If I was going to get one rifle in .300 Weatherby, I’d get the basic model Vanguard with a walnut stock, and I’d put either a Weaver 4×16 or a Leupold scope on it. You’d be getting the Vanguard’s accuracy, with the walnut stock you’d get a little added weight to soak up the recoil, and you’d save a cool $1400 over the Mark V. I think the Weatherby Vanguard is the best rifle value on the market today. Shop around on Gunbroker.com for a bit and you can find new walnut Vanguards for about $600. That’s a phenomenal deal and owning a Weatherby will make you thinner, taller, and better looking. It will make you a better man. Trust me on this.
One last comment: The results you see above regarding different loads are my loads in my rifles. Your mileage may vary. Consult a load manual, and always work up your own loads starting at the low end of the manual’s recommended propellant charges.
More Tales of the Gun? No problem. Click here, and enjoy!
It’s another one of those stream-of-consciousness blogs, folks…things I’ve been meaning to mention but forgot, new stuff that’s cool, and more.
For starters, you all will remember my good buddy and former US Army paratrooper Mike. I first met Mike on one of the CSC Baja rides and we’ve been friends since.
Airborne all the way…that’s Mike.
Mike posted a photo on Facebook over the weekend of himself and, well, take a look…
Hmmmm….
I saw that photo, and I realized: This is an image that cries out for a caption. So, we’re having a caption contest. There’s no prize, other than seeing your entry posted here on the ExNotes blog. There’s all kinds of possibilities with things related to being Airborne, being a turkey, sitting under a turkey, that “almost airborne” T-shirt Mike is wearing, and on and on it goes. Let’s hear your thoughts in the Comments section, or shoot us an email.
If you missed this one, you gotta go back. And if you didn’t miss it, read it again. I have. Several times.
More good stuff…I keep returning to Gresh’s blog on the BMW R18. I first read it when I was enjoying an Einstein’s bagel in the Denver airport a couple of nights ago, and I realized that folks were looking at me because I was laughing out loud. The writing is classic Gresh. Funny as hell. My good buddy Arjiu can write.
Another one…you might remember my blog on the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site a few weeks ago.
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. It’s in southeastern Colorado and it’s worth a visit.
While I was out there, I asked the US Park Ranger which of the several books they offered for sale he would recommend, and he suggested A Misplaced Massacre by Ari Kelman.
The Ranger’s book recommendation was solid, and A Misplaced Massacre was a fascinating read. Part of the book was about the massacre, but most of it was about the controversy in contemporary Colorado associated with recognizing that Sand Creek was a massacre (and not an heroic battle, as claimed by the cowardly cavalry officer who led it). Another aspect to the story I had not heard before was the uncertainly associated with the actual massacre site (since resolved, but the effort involved in finding it was one hell of a story that resulted in the title of this fine book). And yet another aspect was US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s involvement in designating the site as a national historic site. I met Senator Campbell over 20 years ago at the Laughlin River Run. Yep, Senator Campbell is a motorcyclist.
Gordon Smith as the XO of VA-152 during a deployment in Southeast Asia.
More good stuff…30 years ago, I managed the Sargent-Fletcher plant in El Monte, California, where we designed and manufactured aerial refueling equipment and combat aircraft fuel tanks. It was a fabulous place to be and I had a wonderful team, but the best part was that I worked for Rear Admiral Gordon Smith, one of the best bosses I ever had. I learned more about leadership working for Gordon than I did in any other job, and I’ve worked for several truly outstanding leaders. Sue and I reconnected with the Admiral a few weeks ago, and we’re having dinner with him this week. I’m really excited about that. It’s a story we may share here on the ExNotes blog.
A 2014 L.A. Cetto Malbec. This, all by itself, is worth a trip to Mexico.
Another random thought…Joe and I did a Baja run a few weeks ago for Royal Enfield, and I mentioned that story is running in the current issue of Motorcycle Classics magazine. On our way home, as I always do on any Baja run, we stopped at the L.A. Cetto vineyard along the glorious Ruta del Vino between Ensenada and Tecate. It turns out that I am somewhat of a wine snob. Well, not really a wine snob…that implies a degree of sophistication I don’t possess. What I am is a guy who appreciates a good Malbec, a wine I learned about on a business trip to Colombia 15 years ago (I had never heard of Malbec before then). When you re-enter the US from Baja, you can only bring one bottle of wine, and when Joe and I visited the L.A. Cetto vineyard, I asked if they had a Malbec. It turns out they had a couple, and the guy there recommended the 2014. It cost a little more than the other one so I figured it must be good (like I said, being a real wine snob requires a level of sophistication I don’t have). Based on my wine selection logic (more expensive must be better), I bought it. Susie and I barbequed salmon last week and we opened the Malbec (another demonstration of my lack of sophistication…drinking a red with fish). Good Lord, it was wonderful. I checked, and you can’t buy L.A. Cetto Malbec in the US. You know what that means: Another trip to Baja!
And finally, I was out on the rifle range yesterday, and we’re working up a good story tentatively titled A Tale of Three 300s.
Winchester made a small number of Model 70 rifles chambered in .300 Weatherby in the 1980s, and I managed to get one. Nope, it’s not for sale.
A Tale of Three 300s will be up in another day or two after my shoulder recovers from the recoil. In the meantime, if you need more gun stuff, just mosey on over to Tales of the Gun!
I’m up early before I head to the rifle range, poking around a bit on the Internet, checking the news sites and reading the latest propaganda from both ends of the political spectrum (is anyone objective any more?), and generally just catching up on things. This is another random walk through an ever-increasingly random place (i.e., my mind). Bear with me; here we go…
One site I’d like to alert you to if you don’t know about it already is Bator International:
Bator International popped up in my Facebook feed. I knew of it, but I didn’t know much about the place, so I clicked and wow I was impressed. The photographs of vintage motorcycles are awesome, and I saw more than a few I’d like to own. Bator International is in Ojai, California, and I know that makes for a nice motorcycle ride. Take a look. You can thank me later.
The sticker business is going well. Gresh had a great idea with this stickers, and we’ve been getting lots of signups for our automatic email update notifications…
Do you have your ExNotes sticker yet?
You can get your ExNotes sticker by signing up here…
We’ve had requests and your two Joes have been talking about organizing the Baja staff ride we mentioned earlier. We’re thinking maybe a 7-day ride to see the whales in Scammon’s Lagoon, and that puts it sometime in the first quarter of next year. You’d have to have your own motorcycle, of course, and you’d have to be on our automatic email update list. If you want to go, let us know, but only let us know if you’re willing to commit. You know how that goes…you say you want to do a big ride, 200 guys say they’re going, and the morning you roll, it’s you and one other guy. So if you say you’re in, please be for real. And those whales….wow!
So I’m leaving for the rifle range in a little bit, and I’m pumped up. I bought a box of once-fired vintage .300 Weatherby brass at a gun shop in Lamar, Colorado a couple of weeks ago, I loaded it last week (we’ll be doing a series on reloading rifle ammo in the near future), and I’m going to send lead downrange through a rifle I bought a decade ago but never fired. It’s a Weatherby Mk V I saw on a Gunbroker.com auction at the height of the Great Recession. A gun shop in the upper Midwest was going under, and this one was a real find. These photos are from that Gunbroker ad…
A Weatherby Euromark in .300 Weatherby. Check out the wood!
The price was right, the caliber was the quintessential .300 Weatherby, and I pulled the trigger (figuratively speaking). I just never got around to firing it, and today I’m going to correct that character flaw. I’ll post more photos of the Euromark later this week, and we’ll add a feature on this fine rifle to our Tales of the Gun page.
And that, folks, is a wrap for today’s ExNotes blog. Stay tuned; we’ve got more good stuff coming your way.
Good buddy Python Pete and I went to the range a few days ago to let loose with a pair of prancing ponies (that is to say, Colts), in both revolver and automatic flavors. The auto was my tried-and-true bright stainless Colt Government Model 1911; the wheelgun was Pete’s stunning 8-inch Colt Python. Both are stunningly beautiful and both are good shooting guns.
A custom bright stainless Colt, with Baer barrel, Millet sights, and a few other nice touches.
I bought the 1911 you see above at a pawn shop brand new back in the mid-1980s for just over $500. Colt no longer offers bright stainless steel guns, so I guess you could say mine is collectible, and when you see bright stainless Colt 1911s come up for sale (which doesn’t happen very often), prices start at $2,000 and go north from there. I guess you could say I made a good investment (except I won’t ever sell it).
A few years ago the front sight popped off my 1911, so I took it to a local gunsmith to have it restaked. That repair lasted all of 50 rounds, and I realized I needed to see an expert. That’s when I hooked up with TJ’s Custom Guns, and I had TJ revamp the Colt. It’s got a Les Baer match barrel, an extended one-piece guide rail, an engine turned chamber (I love that look), high profile/high visibility Millet fixed sights, and TJ’s exclusive high reliability tune. That last little bit means that my Colt 1911 will reliably feed any bullet configuration (semi-wadcutters, hollow points, etc.) and it will work no matter what. Folks, I’ve put tens of thousands of rounds through my 1911 since TJ massaged it, and it’s never had a failure of any kind (no failures to fire, no failures to feed, and no failures to eject…it just goes and goes and goes).
On to the Python. I’ve known good buddy Pete for more than 30 years (we sort of grew up together in the aerospace industry). Pete owns a Colt Python, a gun that is arguably the finest revolver ever made. His is the super-rare 8-inch model, too.
Revolver royalty…the stunning Colt Python. The Colt Python is perhaps the finest revolver ever made.
Colt no longer makes the Python, probably because they were too expensive to produce. The fit and finish are superior, and the feel of the thing is just sublime. It’s a .357 Magnum, one of the world’s all time greats, and a cartridge that dominated the police market before 9mm became all the rage. Colt revolvers were hand-fitted and involved lots of custom assembly, and I suppose it just didn’t in with the need for low cost manufacture in a market dominated by black plastic 9mm handguns. No, the Python is from another era characterized by highly polished blue steel and finely figured walnut, an age in which I felt more comfortable. Seeing a Python on the firing line again was a treat, and when Pete asked if I wanted to try the big Colt, he didn’t have to ask twice.
Pete and I had four handguns with us (the two mentioned above, plus a SIG 9mm and my Rock Island Compact 1911). I shot my two 1911s offhand for a while, and then I tried my luck with Pete’s SIG and the Python. It was fun.
You can argue about a good automatic being as accurate as a high-end revolver, but you won’t convince me. The Python is a tack driver.
I fired 5 shots of “nothing fancy” factory ammo with the Python, and the accuracy was superb. The targets don’t lie, folks.
I’ve owned two Pythons in my life, and both were back in the 1970s. When I was in Korea, I found out I could order one though the Base Exchange at a substantial discount. I couldn’t believe what the nice lady was telling me at the Kunsan AFB Exchange, so I ordered a 6-inch blue steel Python for something like $150 (it sounded too good to be true). Incredibly, it came in the mail to me in Korea. Before I rotated home, I had to submit a form through the Army to get permission to import the revolver back to the US. I did that, and a few weeks later I had a letter signed by the Director of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau allowing me to bring my Python home. It went into my duffel bag, I produced the letter when I went through Customs in San Francisco, and that was that. Better times.
You know how it goes with these things. When I was back in Texas shortly after my stint in Korea, I saw a Ruger No. 1 single shot rifle in .30 06 I couldn’t live without, and I traded the Python for it (the guy at the store through in a couple of boxes of .30 06 ammo, too). Then I felt a void in my life because I no longer owned a Python, so I ordered another one (this time a 6-inch nickel-plated model) through the Fort Bliss Gun Club. It was under $200. Then I traded that for something else (I can’t remember what). Ah, the mistakes we make. But maybe they weren’t all mistakes. I’ve sent a lot of lead downrange with the Ruger No. 1 over the last 45 years, it’s one of the most accurate rifles I own, and it has stunning walnut.
The Ruger No. 1 in 30 06 I traded the Kunsan Python to get. It’s a 200th Year Ruger. I miss the Python, but I love my ’06 No. 1. Some day I’ll do a blog on this rifle.
Today, Colt Pythons typically sell for something in the $3,000 to $4,000 range. Pete’s would command even more, because it’s the 8-incher, which is a rare item. I’ve asked Pete if he wanted to sell his, but all I got in return was a smile. That’s probably just as well; I couldn’t afford it at today’s prices.
In our prior two blogs on reloading .45 ACP ammunition, we discussed the equipment and components needed, and the first steps (cleaning the brass, case resizing, and depriming). If you’d like to catch up on those two steps, you can do so on our Tales of the Gun page. In this blog, we’re going to continue the reloading process.
So here we are, with 150 cleaned, resized, and deprimed .45 ACP cases neatly arranged in three reloading trays…
150 resized and deprimed cases.
We’re now going to use the second die in our three-die .45 ACP set. It’s the die in the middle of the photo below…
The center die is the one we’ll be using this time.
The die is the expander die. It has an insert that opens the case mouth to the required diameter. It also flares (or bellmouths) the forward rim of the case to accept the .45 bullet.
Note the expander plug inside this second die.
The drill here is to thread the die into the press.
The expander die body threads into the press, and the expander plug threads into the die. The trick is to put a resized and deprimed .45 case into the shellholder, lift the press ram all the way up, and adjust both the die and the plug so that the case mouth is very slightly flared. You’ll have to lower and raise the press ram several times, tweaking the die and expander plug position each time, to get the proper amount of flare.
You’ll need to grab a bullet to assess this adjustment for the amount of case mouth flare. Once the die is adjusted so that the bullet just enters the flared case mouth, lock the die and the expander plug into position with the locknuts shown in the photo above.
Here’s a .45 bullet on top of a case that has not yet been expanded and flared. Note that it will not enter the case.
This next photo shows a .45 ACP case that has been expanded and flared.
Note the very slight flare on the case mouth.
As you can see in the photo below, the slight case mouth flare now allows the bullet to start into the case.
A properly-flared case mouth. The trick here is not to overdo the flaring operation. You want to open the case mouth just enough to allow the bullet to start entering the case. The idea is to prevent the case mouth from shaving bullet material in the reloading step that pushes the bullet into the case.
Once the flare is acceptable, we lock both die locknuts and run all of our cases through the press. This concept of doing one step on all of the cases at the same time is an important part of the reloading process. We want to do each step on all of the cases in one run to assure consistency from case to case. It’s this consistency that leads to enhanced accuracy.
Once all of our cases have been through the above operation, we can now move on to priming, and at this point, it’s time to introduce another optional equipment item. Most reloading presses come with a priming arm, which is a feature that allows inserting a new primer on the press downstroke. I don’t use this feature any more, as it never performed consistently enough for me. Instead, I purchased a separate priming tool made by Lee. It’s what you see in the photo below.
The Lee priming tool. This is an older one. The newer design looks a little different; we’ll see it when we do our series on reloading .300 Weatherby rifle ammunition. The operating principal is the same.
And we’ll need primers. There are two or three primer sources. I use whatever I have available, and for now, that’s Winchester. CCI and Remington also offer primers, and maybe a few other companies. I buy whatever the store has available. I’ve not found that primer brand makes any difference in accuracy.
A case of Winchester large pistol primers.
The box you see above holds 1,000 primers. There are 10 trays of 100 primers each…
A tray of 100 primers. The priming tool cover has been removed in this photo.
The next step is to add primers to the primer tool. We have to remove the priming tool cover (you do so by rotating it a few degrees), and then adding the primers to the priming tool…
100 primers in the Lee priming tool.
When you drop the primers into the reloading tool, take care not to spill any outside the tray. They’ll be facing up, down, and some will be on their sides, as you see in the photo above. See those little concentric striations in the priming tray? They serve a purpose. The trick here is to jiggle the priming tool slightly from left to right, and it will make all of the primers orient in the face up position, like you see below. Don’t shake the priming tool too hard, or primers will go flying out. Jiggle it just enough to get them all facing up.
100 primers, face up. Note that there’s also a shell holder in the priming tool. Different shell holders are required for different cartridge calibers. When you buy the Lee tool, it comes with a collection of shell holders that covers most cartridges.
Once all of the primers are face up, reinstall the priming tool tray cover.
The priming tool cover, back in place over the primer tray.
At this point, jiggle the priming tool again to feed a primer into position.
A primer, ready to be pressed into the empty case. Note the No. 2 shell holder. It’s the one used for the .45 ACP cartridge. This shell holder also works for the .30 06, .308, 7.65 Belgian Mauser, 7×57, and several other cases that share a common base.
We can now insert a .45 ACP case into the shell holder, squeeze the priming tool handle, and a primer will be seated into the case.
A .45 ACP case in the Lee priming tool.Squeezing the priming tool lever to seat the primer.A new primer, seated in the .45 ACP case.
And there you have it. We’re going to repeat this operation to prime all 150 cases. That, my friends, is enough for today.
We’ll complete the reloading process in our next and final .45 ACP reloading blog.
Me? I’m headed out to the range this morning, where I’ll be firing reloaded .45 ACP ammo prepared just like I described here. I’ll grab a photo or two show you, too.
Stay tuned!
Want to read more about reloading and our other cool gun stories? It’s all right here on our Tales of the Gun page!
This is the first image on the ExhaustNotes home page, and it provides a link to the ExNotes blog. This is the Gobi Desert in northwestern China, and that’s the real deal…a camel caravan. Gresh and I rode there on our motorcycles.The link to articles by Joe Gresh previously published in a variety of magazines. There’s good reading here! The photo? That’s Gresh entering the Gobi Desert on a Zongshen RX3.This is at the entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and it’s your link to magazine articles by Berk.Want to know what the ExNotes site is all about? You can get the story here. That photo? Hey, Gresh and I like gladiator movies. We were actors in one filmed in central China, near the city of Liqian.Trust me on this: You need to advertise on ExhaustNotes.us. Here’s the link to get that process started. This photo was up on the Tibetan Plateau, with the city of Aba in the background.The best riding on the planet, and it starts just across the border! Click this link to get our stories, our guidance, our suggested itineraries, and more on this magical place. I took this photo while riding my CSC Mustang through Baja’s Catavina boulder fields.Yep, we’re a motorcycle site, but this is one of the busiest places in all of the ExhaustNotes empire. Click this link for our Tales of the Gun stories. That’s me firing the mighty M1 Garand. My daughter shot the above photo on her iPhone, capturing the cartridge case in midair!The only thing better than our Epic Motorcycle Rides page is actually getting out and creating the adventure yourself! Enjoy our tales of the adventure riding trails here! Oh, and that photo? It’s Gresh on an Enfield in Mexico!Gresh doesn’t do 100-point restorations. Nope, his deal is rustorations, not restorations. A bike is only original once. The photo is Gobi Gresh’s mighty Z1 Kawasaki at the Tinfiny Ranch. It runs now, and you can read about how Joe brought it back to life here.The stuff of dreams, the ones that got away, and more. You can peek into our dreams here. That’s my old 1200 Triumph Daytona after a 120-mph sprint across Highway 58 in California.Who you calling Tubby? Here’s a cool collection of our videos. The photo was taken in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. Gresh and others are grabbing videos during a changing of the guard ceremony.Motors, the best job on the force. I believe it, and you should, too. We’ve recently added a page indexing our police motorcycle stuff, and you can get to it here. The photo is good buddy Jim Watson on a Honda ST1300P police motorcycle.The RX3 is a great bike, but folks wanted more displacement. Zongshen responded with the RX4, and upsized version of their iconic RX3, and CSC is taking orders now. You can read all about the RX4 and how it compares to the RX3 and the KLR 650 here. We rode the one above in the San Gabriel Mountains, which is where we shot this photo.It’s a new world out there, folks, and electric motorcycles are part of it. You can catch up on what’s happening here. That’s a CSC City Slicker, a phenomenal buy at just $2495!Writers write. Hey, it’s what we do. With something north of 20 titles under our belt, yeah, we’re gonna brag a bit. Read all about it here, and get links to buy our books on this page!Want the e-ticket ride back to the ExhaustNotes home page? It’s right here. And that photo? It’s the Bridge of the Gods, spanning the mighty Columbia River from Washington to Oregon. When I’m there, it feels like it’s a place where I belong. What could possibly be a more fitting home page link?
There you have it, my friends. You’ll see all of the above when you open our home page, and it’s your nav system to the rest of the site.
Hey, there’s more good stuff coming your way. We do our best to blog every day, and we’ve got great stories lined up for you:
Good buddy Steve’s Norton Commando
More vintage police motors
The continuation of our .45 ACP ammo series
The Indiana Jones aspects of riding in China
And much, much more. Don’t miss any of it…sign up for our automatic email updates (add your name to our email list), and you’ll stay up to date!
Reloaded .45 ACP ammunition. Bright, shiny, and far more accurate than factory ammunition in my Colt and Rock Island 1911 pistols. I’ve got the targets to prove it.
In our first post on this topic, we talked about the equipment and components needed for reloading the .45 ACP cartridge. In this blog, we talk about the reloading process. We won’t cover all of it here (we’ll get about halfway through), and we’ll cover the rest of the process in a subsequent blog or two. In our first blog, we discussed the basic equipment. In this blog, we’ll talk about a few more bits of equipment that I use, but they are not essential. You can get by without them.
If you want to catch up with the first blog on this topic, you can do so here.
Let’s say you’ve been to the range, you’ve made .45-caliber holes in your targets, and you’ve collected your spent brass. That’s the only part of the reloading process I don’t like…at my age, bending over and picking up all that brass is a pain-in-the-you-know-what. But I still do it. In fact, if I see somebody leaving brass on the ground, I’ll collect it. I grew up collecting brass to reload, and leaving brass at the range feels to me like a crime against nature.
So we’re home, and you’ve got your fired brass…
Fired .45 ACP brass. I just can’t leave brass at the range. To me, it’s like leaving cash on the ground.
This next step I’m going to show you is an optional one, and that’s cleaning the brass. You don’t need to do this, and I reloaded .45 ammo for a lot of years without ever cleaning my brass. I always do it now, though, and I do it for two reasons: Cosmetics and accuracy
Here’s how I go about doing it. I dump the brass into my vibratory tumbler and let it rock for a couple of hours.
My Frankford Arsenal vibratory cleaner. I call it a tumbler. It has corn cob media. You unscrew the butterfly nut on top, remove the cover, and dump the fired brass into the media.Here’s the tumbler with the cover removed and the brass placed on the media. The cover goes back on and I let the thing vibrate for a couple of hours.
Like I said above, I tumble my brass. One of the reasons is that I like bright, shiny ammo (it just looks cool). But a far more important reason is that it makes the ammo more accurate. When you tumble the brass, you’re cleaning it on the inside and the outside. The outside is cosmetic. The inside affects the grip the brass case has on the bullet. We’re not interested in making it shiny on the inside; we’re interested in making that grip consistent. I’ve found over the years that a consistent inside case surface (where the case interfaces with the bullet) makes for a more accurate cartridge. It’s extremely significant in a rifle (I’ve seen 100-yard groups shrink from 3 inches to a quarter of an inch in my .30 06 Model 70 Winchester just by tumbling the brass). The accuracy improvement in a handgun is not that significant, but it’s still there. You don’t have to do this (you can reload the brass without tumbling it), but it’s something I do.
Here’s what the brass looks like after it’s been tumbled….
Squeaky clean and shiny. Fired, cleaned brass.
Now we’re ready to start the resizing operations. We’ll want to get our ammo trays ready…
Reloading trays. Each tray holds 60 rounds, but I only load 50 in each one.
The next step is to install the first of our reloading dies (the resizing die) in the press. We’re going to use this die to squeeze the cartridge case back to its unfired case diameter and simultaneously knock out the fired primer.
The resizing die. Note the protruding pin; it’s what pushes the old primer out of the brass case.The resizing die, threaded into the reloading press. Note the large locknut at the base.With the shell holder installed on the press ram, we fully elevate the ram, thread the resizing die down to contact the shellholder, withdraw the ram slightly, turn the die in just a bit more, run the ram up, and then lock the die in place with its locknut. What we want is to feel a slight “knuckle over” when the ram is fully elevated.
At this point, we’re ready to start resizing and depriming cases. Here’s what that looks like.
A case in the shellholder. When we raise the ram, it will be resized and the old primer will be pushed out.The ram is raised all the way to the top of its stroke. Here we see the case just starting to enter the resizing die. You don’t want to get your finger caught between the die and the fired case (don’t ask me how I know). The ram will go up until the shellholder contacts the bottom of the sizing die. As that occurs, the case is resized to its original diameter, and the primer is pushed out of the case.
This is what the case looks like after it has been resized. Note that the primer is no longer in the case. Also, note how funky the primer pocket is. It’s gunked up with combustion residue.
A resized, deprimed case. Note the combustion reside remaining in the case’s primer pocket. And yes, I’ve been reloading this case since 1984. I’ve got some that are even older. .45 ACP brass lasts a long time.
As each case comes out, I’ll place it in the reloading tray, like you see below.
Resized and deprimed cases in the reloading tray.
When I reload, I’ll generally do between 20 and 200 rounds in a batch. I reloaded 150 rounds in this batch.
150 resized and deprimed cases. Note that there are 10 empty spaces in each tray.
I use reloading trays that hold 60 rounds, and the reason I like these is that for a group of 50 cases I can track which case I’ve performed an operation on and which ones remain. Each time a case undergoes a reloading step, I move it over such that I always have 1o open spots between the cases that have undergone a reloading step and those that have yet to undergo the step.
Ah, but those primer pockets. Remember how dirty they were after we pushed the primers out? Well, this is another optional step. I clean the primer pockets. I do each case manually, one at a time, using a primer pocket cleaning tool.
The primer pocket cleaning tool. It’s a primer-pocket-sized wire brush, and it removes the primer pocket combustion residue.A cleaned primer pocket. It doesn’t need to be bright and shiny; we just want to remove the clumps of combustion residue so the new primer can fully seat.
Like I said, primer pocket cleaning is optional. I reloaded for a lot of years and won more than a few matches without primer pocket cleaning, but these days I do it on every case. The reason we want the residue gone is that the residue can interfere with the new primer seating fully in the case (we’ll talk more about that in the next .45 ACP reloading blog). Having the primers all seated to the same depth will theoretically make for more accurate ammunition (less variability always equals more accuracy). It won’t effect functioning if the primers are at slightly different depths in a 1911, but if you’re reloading ammo for a revolver, a primer that is seated above flush (one that sticks out beyond the cartridge case base) can interfere with the cylinder turning.
At this point, we’ve got cleaned, resized, and deprimed cases. We’re ready to bellmouth the cases, install the primers, charge the cases with propellant, and seat the new bullets.
So that’s it for now. Stay tuned; this series will continue right here on the ExNotes blog!
The finished product: Reloaded .45 ACP ammunition. This handcrafted ammo is tailored for my 1911, and it is much more accurate than factory ammunition. Our blogs on reloading will cover the equipment and components needed, and the steps involved, in reloading ammo for the .45 Automatic.
I’ve had a few requests for a blog on reloading. You know, not just favored loads for different cartridges, but how to go about reloading. I know it can be a bit intimidating if you’ve never done it, but (trust me on this), learning how to reload adds an entirely new dimension to shooting, and many of us view reloading as being as much fun as shooting. In fact, one of my friends often jokes about shooting…he says it’s what we do so we get to reload ammo again.
A very cool guy named Roy Johnson taught me how to reload when I was in the Army. I was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas, and Roy ran the Rod and Gun club there. Roy was a colorful El Paso fixture, and they named the road to the Rod and Gun club Roy Johnson Lane when he died. I was 22 years old when Roy taught me how to reload, and I’ve been reloading ever since.
I thought I would approach this topic in two or three parts, with the first blog focused on the equipment and components you’ll need to reload, and a subsequent blog or two on the actual reloading process. I had to pick a cartridge, so I thought I would start with the first one I learned to reload: The .45 ACP.
With that as a backdrop, here we go…
Reloading reverses the process of firing a bullet, and reversing that process requires several pieces of equipment.
One part of the equipment list is the dies that force the fired brass case back into shape (the brass expanded during firing) and knock the used primer out of the case.
A set of RCBS carbide dies for the .45 ACP cartridge.A die set consists for a pistol cartridge typically includes three dies. From left to right, they are the resizing die (it sizes the brass case back to original dimensions and punches the primer out of the case), the expander die (it opens and flares the case mouth to accept the new bullet), and the seating die (it seats the new bullet in the case and removes the case mouth flare).
I stick with RCBS dies, as I’ve learned over the years they work best, but there are other manufacturers out there. I also use Lee dies for a few of the cartridges I reload (they are typically less expensive than RCBS dies, and they are as good). An added advantage of the Lee dies is that they include the shellholder with the die set, so you don’t have to buy a separate shellholder and pay extra for it. I don’t care for Hornady dies, but as they say, your mileage may vary. I’m the guy doing the writing here, so I’ll share my experiences and preferences, and I like RCBS and Lee. A new set of RCBS carbide dies are a little north of $50; Lee dies are typically $10 to $15 less than the RCBS dies (and like I said earlier, the Lee dies come with a shellholder).
The business end of the carbide resizing die. The red arrow points to the carbide insert.
I use carbide dies for pistol cartridges. A carbide die has a super-hard carbide insert that interfaces with the brass case, and it allows you to squeeze the case back to its unfired configuration without having to lubricate the case first. The downside is that carbide dies are slightly more expensive than non-carbide dies. For straight-walled pistol cartridges, there are three dies in a set. We’ll discuss in more detail what each does in Part II of this series.
You will also need a reloading press and a shellholder for the brass cartridge case. I use an RCBS Rockchucker press I bought new nearly 50 years ago when Roy Johnson taught me how to reload. A good press lasts forever.
The RCBS Rockchucker reloading press. A good one lasts forever. The red arrow points to the shell holder. Different cartridges take different shell holders. We’ll see how all this stuff is used in Part II of our reloading series.
A scale is necessary for measuring propellant charges (also referred to as powder). Several companies offer scales specifically designed for reloading.
My RCBS reloading scale. Like the Rockchucker press shown above, I’ve been using this for a half century.
It’s a good idea to have reloading trays for the cartridges. These are relatively inexpensive, and they seem to last forever, too.
Reloading trays. These hold the brass cases we are going to reload, and allow for easy tracking and inspection of each reloading process step.
A powder dispenser allows you to dispense the correct amount of propellant in each cartridge case.
A powder dispenser, and the propellant I like to use for loading .45 ACP ammunition. I bought that dispenser back in the day, along with the scale and the press. My preferred propellant is Unique.
At this point, we’ve covered the equipment necessary; let’s now turn to the components. One is the propellant you see in the photo above. As seen in the photo below, for the .45 ACP cartridge, I prefer Unique.
You’ll need previously-fired cartridge cases. You can also buy new brass that has never been loaded if you don’t have any, or you can buy factory ammo, shoot it, and save the brass. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased new brass for the .45 ACP, mostly I had plenty available from my days in the Army. The .45 ACP cartridge is a relatively low-pressure cartridge, and the brass seems to last forever. I’ve been reloading the brass you see here for a long time.
Fired .45 ACP brass. It’s dirty. I usually polish mine, but it’s not necessary that you do so. We’ll talk more about that in the next blog.Polished .45 ACP brass. It cleans up well and it seems to last forever (look at the stamps on the two cases on the left).
You’ll need primers. The primer is the little cap that the firing pin strikes when you pull the trigger. There are two or three companies making primers these days. I usually buy whatever the shop has in stock. I haven’t found that primers make a difference in accuracy or reliability for handgun shooting.
Winchester primers. We’ll talk about the tool you see below the primers, and how to install the primers, in the next blog.
And finally, you will need bullets. I’m using moly-coated 230-grain roundnose lead bullets these days, like you see in the photo below, mostly because I have a bunch of them in my reloading locker. Many other bullet configurations are available.
Bullets. I usually buy them in boxes of 500 because I do a lot of shooting. There are different kinds of bullets available, but that’s a discussion for another time, too. If you’re just starting out and you’re reloading .45 ACP ammo, my advice is to get a 230-grain roundnose bullet in either cast or jacketed flavors. It will feed reliability in nearly any 1911. We’ll talk more about this in the next blog, too.
There’s one other item I strongly recommend you purchase, and that’s a reloading manual. These manuals list different loads for different cartridges and different bullets and propellants. The whole idea here is to experiment with these combinations (within the parameters provided by the manuals) to find the recipe that produces the best accuracy and reliability in your gun. My preference is the Lyman manual, as it lists different bullet manufacturers and cast bullets, too. You can buy manuals from the bullet manufacturers, but the downside there is they only show data for their bullets.
You can buy all of the equipment separately (as I did a long time ago) or you can buy a complete kit that has everything you need to get started. RCBS has a kit that goes for about $350. Lee has a similar kit for a lot less (about $150), and it will get you into the reloading game. I have a friend who bought the Lee kit a few years ago, he uses it to reload .308 Winchester ammo for his Model 700 Remington, and the ammo he makes routinely delivers 1/2-inch groups at 100 yards. With either kit, you’ll need to buy the dies required for the cartridge you wish to reload, and the components as described above.
You might be wondering: Where do you buy this stuff? Most gun stores sell reloading equipment and components. Cabela’s and Bass Pro are two that come to mind. You can also buy components and equipment online from places like Amazon, Midway, Natchez Shooter’s Supply, Grafs, and other places. Buying the energetic components online gets a bit more complicated (propellants and primers), but the stores can fill you in on that. In most areas, there’s usually a shop that is known for being the best in your neck of the woods for reloading stuff, and you can find these places with a quick Google search or by asking around.
So there you have it. I’ve described the equipment and the dies you’ll need to reload the .45 ACP, but the procedures I’ll describe in subsequent blogs will be the same for nearly any handgun cartridge (.38 Special, .537 Magnum, .380, 9mm, .40 S&W, .44 Magnum, and .45 Colt). All you need will be different dies and shellholders, and of course, different types of bullets.
Our next reloading blog will cover the first steps of the reloading process. Stay tuned; it’s coming up!
Read our other Tales of the Gun stories for the loads we prefer. Disagree with anything above or want to toss your $0.02 into the discussion? Hey, there’s a comments section below and we’d love to hear from you.
One last thing…ever wonder what the “ACP” stands for in .45 ACP? Well, here you go…wonder no more.
Yep, by popular demand, it’s another Tales of the Gun piece, this time focused on shooting cast bullets in my 1903A1 Springfield. I like shooting cast bullets in a rifle, and my intent is to use the Springfield with cast bullets only. I have two good buddies who also own ’03 Springfields, and we’ve all been playing with different loads to see what works best. I think I’m out in front here. I’ve been sharing my results with ’03 buddies, and I thought I’d share what I’ve found with you, too.
My Springfield is one that was built up from parts as an ’03, but with the scant stock, so it is sort of a wannabe 1903A1 in essentially as new condition. I bought it from a guy who had it built up but hadn’t fired it. I’ve written about the Springfield before here on the ExNotes blog, but I had not gone into any detail on the loads I am developing for it. The intent today is to talk a bit about some of the cast loads I’m playing with for this rifle.
But first, here’s a look at my rifle. It’s a magnificent old warhorse…
Sweet, huh?The right side of my Springfield. Folks who know what they’re seeing have stopped to admire this rifle each time I’ve been to the range with it.The 1903A1’s rear sight. It is a complicated little arrangement, which the government simplified dramatically on the 1903A3 version.The man who built this rifle from parts knew what he was doing. Check out the cartouche.The barrel on this rifle was a new old stock 1942 Springfield barrel.
I had reasonably good results in an initial range session with this rifle using 190-grain gas-checked bullets sized to 0.309. I have a local guy who casts these bullets for me. The idea behind using a gas check is to prevent leading the bore.
190-grain cast bullets. I like shooting cast bullets. There’s a story behind that, but it’s one for another blog. The copper thingamabobber on the aft end of these bullets is the gas check. The red stuff is bullet lube, designed to ease the passage of the bullet down the bore. Both the bullet lube and the gas checks serve to prevent leaving deposits of lead in the rifle’s bore.
For the initial range session mentioned above, I had prepared loads ranging from 21.0 grains to 24.0 grains of SR 4759 propellant, and I had the best results (just eyeballing the results) at 24.0 grains. In the first outing with the Springfield I wasn’t being too rigorous in my accuracy and test protocols; I just wanted to get an idea of what worked and what didn’t.
For my next set of accuracy tests, I went from 24.0 grains to 26.0 grains of SR 4759 in half-grain increments. Here are the results…
Test results for SR 4759 propellant and 190-grain cast bullets in the Springfield 1903A1. The yellow-shaded row highlights the best accuracy. 24.5 grains of SR 4759 is the secret sauce here.
The risk in assessing accuracy from any of these tests is that a lot of the variation is my aiming error, and the resulting group sizes may not truly represent how the different loads perform in the rifle. Based on the above data, though, it looks like my Springfield wants to be at 24.5 grains of SR 4759. My Lyman manual says the muzzle velocity at that charge is somewhere around 1750-1800 fps. That’s hotter than I normally would want to be with cast bullets, but the above loads didn’t lead the barrel too badly. Recoil was moderate. For these loads, I did not trim the brass cartridge cases and they were uneven, and because of that, I did not crimp the bullets. I’m pretty sure I can get better accuracy if I trim the brass to a uniform length, weigh each charge, and crimp (I’ve always found cast bullets do better when crimped).
The above results were encouraging. The accuracy with cast bullets was good, but not quite as good as my Mosin or my 1909 Argentine Mauser. The Springfield shot just under an inch at 50 yards, which would be just under two inches at 100 yards, and with cast bullets and iron sights, that ain’t half bad. My Mosin and my Argentine Mauser will sometimes shoot into a half-inch at 50 yards. The Springfield might do that, too, if I trimmed the brass and employed all of the other accuracy tricks mentioned above. The good news is that I’m getting there. It took a while to get everything right for the Mosin and the Mauser. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.
Encouraged by the above results, I reloaded more ammo with the 190-grain cast bullets to confirm the SR 4759 propellant results and to evaluate a few additional powders, including IMR 3031, IMR 4227, IMR 4198, 5744, Trail Boss, and Unique. The reason I wanted to explore using other propellants is that SR 4759 is a discontinued powder. I have a stash of it, but my two Springfield buddies do not, and someday I’ll run out of 4759.
I was able to repeat the 4759 results (it’s a good propellant for cast bullets), and I found the other propellants show potential for great accuracy, too. Here are the results (all at 50 yards) with the other powders…
IMR 3031 and IMR 4198 are looking good. IMR 4227 is good, too.
It was raining when I shot the above loads and I got my targets and loads mixed up a bit (eh, it happens). I got enough out of the range session, though, to form some general impressions. The loads generally seem to fall into two categories:
Hotter loads. These loads were roughly 70%-80% of what jacketed loads would be (with recoil nearly like a jacketed load). Surprisingly, these had very little leading with the cast bullets. In particular, IMR 3031 worked well and it nearly had the recoil of a regular 30 06 jacketed load.
Milder loads. These were in the 1500 fps range. These have lighter recoil and were moderately accurate, but they drop significantly at 50 yards compared to the hotter loads. These are easy on the shoulder, but the drop put them off the target and they would require flipping the elevated ladder sight up on the ’03 to get back on target. For that reason, I’m not doing any more work with these. In this group, though, 13.0 gr of Unique gave decent (not great, but decent) groups. Trail Boss did okay, too. The Trail Boss loads were super light. Recoil was about like a .22.
The good news is that IMR 4227 works well in the 30 06 Springfield with the 190 grain bullets. (The reason it’s good news is that one of my Springfield buddies has a lot of 4227 on hand.) The bad news is that 4227 is not in the current Lyman reloading manual. I have older manuals from the 1970s that list 4227, and that’s where the load data came from.
In cleaning the Springfield after the above range sessions, I checked the action screws (the two that secure the barreled action in the stock) and while they were snug, they were not fully tightened. I tightened them and it’s likely accuracy will improve. Next time, folks. A properly-secured action, trimmed brass, crimped bullets, and good weather with no wind at the range…those half-inch Springfield groups are out there. I just need to find them.
Like what you’re reading here? Check out our other Tales of the Gun stories, and please sign up for our automatic email blog updates!
Good buddy Python Pete and I went to the range a few days ago to let loose with a pair of prancing ponies (that is to say, Colts), in both revolver and automatic flavors. The auto was my tried-and-true bright stainless Colt Government Model 1911; the wheelgun was Pete’s stunning 8-inch Colt Python. Both are stunningly beautiful and both are good shooting guns.
? Get them 
Hey, there’s more good stuff coming your way. We do our best to blog every day, and we’ve got great stories lined up for you:
