Category: Guns

Reloading Part II: The first steps

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!

Reloading Part I: Equipment and Components

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.

Cast Bullets in a 1903A1 Springfield

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.

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Living Legends…

I’ve got a few good buddies who are living legends, and you’ve heard me talk about some of them in the past:  Guys like Jeff Beatty (US Army Ranger, Delta Force, FBI HRT, and CIA CTC), Steve Seidner (founder and president of CSC Motorcycles), and our very own Joe Gresh (purveyor of the human condition and writer extraordinaire).  One of the guys you haven’t heard me mention yet is good buddy Chuck Johnson…

Good buddy Chuck Johnson, an all around great guy.

Chuck is a retired US Marine Corps senior NCO, and when he wrapped up his career with the Marines, he immediately joined the Sheriff’s Department and he had a stellar career there.  I’ve known Chuck for a few years, but something I learned about him recently was a real surprise. Chuck and I were chatting at the rifle range a few weeks ago (he’s the Range Master there) and I commented that with the things he’s seen and done he could write a book.

“Well, I did write a book,” Chuck answered.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  Folks who write books are not people I get to meet every day.  Who knew? I immediately asked Chuck for the title and where I could buy a copy.   Chuck told me, I ordered a copy that day, and I couldn’t put it down after Amazon delivered my copy of Target…Cop.

Buy this book! It’s a great read.

I enjoyed Target…Cop immensely.  You will, too!

Another Tale of Two .45s…

We’ve done “A Tale of Two Guns” pieces before here on the ExNotes blog, and we’ve specifically done a “Tale of Two .45s.”  That earlier piece was on the Rock Island Compact 1911 and a Smith and Wesson Model 625.  The Rock Island Compact has become my favorite handgun and it’s the one I shoot most often.  I wondered:   How much accuracy am I giving up by shooting a snubbie 1911?

When I call the Compact a snubbie, I’m referring to the fact that it has a shorter barrel. You know, a standard Government Model 1911 has a 5-inch barrel, and the Rock Island Compact has a 3.5-inch barrel.  There’s nothing inherently more or less accurate about a shorter versus longer barrel.  What could make an accuracy difference, though, is the sight radius (the distance between the front and rear sights).  The longer barrel 1911 has a longer sight radius, and that theoretically should make it more accurate.

A Colt bright stainless steel full-sized 1911 Government Model, along with a box of reloaded .45 ACP ammo. The standard 1911 barrel length is 5 inches, and that’s what this handgun has.  This particular 1911 has been extensively customized, with a view toward extreme reliability.
The Rock Island Compact 1911. This inexpensive .45 auto has a 3.5-inch barrel. It’s become my favorite handgun.

I was taught to shoot the 1911 by one of the best. Command Sergeant Major Emory L. Hickman, a US Army Marksmanship Training Unit NCO, taught me the basics (you can read about that here). I’ve been shooting the .45 since 1973, and I’ve been reloading ammo for it about that long, too. I used to be pretty good, but I’ve slowed down a bit. Hey, speaking of that…here’s a video of me playing around at the range with the Colt bright stainless .45 auto…

The video above is real time…it’s not been modified from the video that came straight out of the camera. But I couldn’t leave it alone. My choices were to spend about a zillion hours on the range and maybe shoot up another zillion dollars of ammo to get really good, or to just use my video editing software to have a little fun. I went for Door No. 2…

Okay, enough goofing around. Let’s get serious, and get to the real topic of this blog.  I went to the range with the two 1911s shown above with two objectives in mind.  I wanted to test different loads to see which was the most accurate in each gun, and I wanted to see if there really was a difference in accuracy between a standard size 1911 and the Compact.

I brought along different loads with two different propellants (Unique and Bullseye) and several different bullets (a 230-grain moly-coated roundnose, a 230-grain plated roundnose, a 200-grain plated roundnose, and a 200-grain cast semi-wadcutter).  I fired all groups at 50 feet from a two-hand-hold, bench-rest position.   All groups were 5-shot groups.  I then measured the groups and took the average group size for each load.

Different .45 ACP bullet configurations. From left to right: A 200-grain roundnose plated bullet, a 200-grain cast lead semi-wadcutter bullet, and a 230-grain moly coated cast bullet.

I know that using a hand-held approach as I did is not the way to eliminate all variability except that due to the gun and the load, and my inability to hold the gun completely steady was a significant contributor to the size of the groups I shot.  A better approach would have been to use a machine rest (you know, the deal where you bolt the gun into a rigidly mounted support), but like my good buddy Rummy used to say, you go to war with the Army you have.  I don’t have a machine rest, so all you get is me.

Because I introduced so much variability into this accuracy assessment, I thought I would throw out the largest group for each combination of load and gun, and take the average of the four best groups.   I did that, and then I did it again by throwing out the two largest groups for each combination of load and gun.   Doing so predictably made the averages smaller, but the relative ranking of the different loads from an accuracy perspective pretty much stayed the same.   That’s good to know.

Before I get into the results, let me tell you a bit about the two handguns. The Compact 1911 is a stock handgun, as delivered from the factory, with the exception of a Klonimus extractor (which I installed because the factory extractor failed after about 1000 rounds). The Colt has been extensively customized by my gunsmith (TJ’s Custom Gunworks in Redondo Beach), with a view toward 100% reliability with any ammo.  That handgun is probably worth $2500 as it sits now. The Compact 1911 can be had for a little over $400.

Okay, that’s enough background.  Let’s get to the bottom line…

Interesting stuff, to be sure.  Most of the variability you see in the above table (and you can see that there’s a lot) was me.  A machine rest would have provided for better groups, but you get what you get, and what you get here is me.

As I expected, the 5-inch 1911 is a bit more accurate than the Compact. The best average group with the full size Colt 1911 was 2.018 inches.  The best average group with the Compact was 2.851 inches.   Okay, so at 50 feet that’s 8/10 of an inch difference, and as they say, that’s close enough for government work.  What was surprising was how accurate the Compact is.  You really don’t give up much in accuracy between the two guns.  And, look at the last row of the above table.  I fired one group with the Compact (and what is now my preferred load) that hung right in there with the Government Model.  More on that in a second.

In the Rock Island 1911, the 230-grain moly bullet was the most accurate load I tested.  After I did the five groups to get an average group size, I fired one more group with this load in the Compact and it was a scant 2.083 inches.   Yeah, this gun is accurate enough.

In the Colt, the most accurate load was with the 200-grain semi-wadcutter bullets over 6.0 grains of Unique.   This load fed flawlessly in both the Rock Island Compact and the Colt.  My Colt has been throated to feed semi-wadcutter bullets; the Rock Island has not been (usually, a 1911 requires that the feed ramp be opened up and polished, or throated as we say, to feed semi-wadcutter bullets).  But the 200-grain semi-wadcutter load failed to eject twice in the Compact.  The Compact is fussy about ejection, and the two failures convinced me that this load won’t work reliably in the Rock Island without additional work.  For now, I’m sticking with the 230-grain roundnose load.  It’s completely reliable for both feeding and ejection.

You’ll notice that one of the Government Model five-shot groups with the 230-grain moly coated bullet and 5.8 grains of Unique was a tight 0.960 inches.  The bottom line is that this load is a good one.  Yeah, the other groups with that load were larger: It’s that shooter variability thing again. Both the Compact and the Colt are capable of greater accuracy than what I could do.

The moly-coated 230-grain bullets shot tighter groups in the Colt than did the plated 230-grain Extreme plated bullets.  That’s consistent with my observations over the years.  Cast bullets seem to be more accurate than plated bullets in any of the .45 autos I’ve shot.  But, the 200-grain roundnose plated bullet did pretty well in the Government Model, too.   I didn’t test that load in the Compact.

The bottom line to all of the above:  My standard .45 Auto load is going to be 5.8 gr of Unique with the 230-grain moly coated cast roundnose bullet.  It fired the best overall group (at 0.960 inches) in the Colt, and it was the best load for the Compact.  This load functions well in both guns, with no anomalies in feed or ejection, and it’s accurate.  The only problem I may have is that moly coating fell out of favor some time ago, and I don’t know if any one is still offering moly-coated bullets. I have a stash of the 230-grain moly bullets, so I’m good for a little while.  After that, it’s back to the loading bench and the range to find the next favorite load.

Regarding the two handguns, I love them both.  That bright stainless Colt Government Model has had a lot of work done to it (a Les Baer barrel, custom fitting, porting and polishing, engine turning, and Millet Hi-Viz sights).  The Rock Island Compact can be had new for something a little north of $400.  It’s a phenomenal value.  The Compact is a lot more concealable, and surprisingly the recoil is only very slightly more than the bigger Colt.  And, as I showed above, it’s accurate.   The Rock Island is a hell of a 1911 at any price, but at it’s current price, the Rock Island is an absolute steal.  I like the look of the Compact, too.  The Parkerized finish, simple wood grips, and low profile fixed GI sights remind me a lot of the 1911s I carried when I was in the Army, and I like that.

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The 375 H&H at 100 yards…

Here’s a quick update on the .375 H&H that I promised a few posts ago.  In that post, I mentioned that I had been shooting the Remington Model 700 Safari Grade at 50 yards for my load development work, and I mentioned that I wanted to try it at 100 yards.

The Remington Safari Grade Model 700, chambered in .375 H&H Magnum.

I did, and the bottom line is that I shot the tightest groups I’ve ever shot at 100 yards using iron sights (i.e., not a scope).   Take a look.

Two 3-shot groups fired at 100 yards, with iron sights, off the bench. The first round fired through a cold and lubricated barrel hit almost exactly to point of aim (it’s a little hard to see in the photo). Once the bore was fouled, the rifle grouped very tightly a couple of inches to the right.

My point of aim was at 6:00 on the bullseye, and the groups I shot were worthy of a scoped rifle.   I may need to adjust the rear sight to bring the group over to the left a couple of inches or so (which is a bit funny, because at 50 yards the windage seemed perfect).  The elevation is perfect; the point of impact is even with the point of aim for elevation.  When I shot those groups it was overcast, and that could account for the rifle printing a bit to the right.  Our range is aligned such that in the morning the sun is to the left, and that makes the left side of the front site a bit brighter than the right side.   Because it was overcast the day I shot the target you see above, the sunlight-induced bias wasn’t present.  That could account for the groups offset to the right.  I’ll wait and shoot it again when the sun’s out to see where the rifle hits.

I am enjoying this rifle more and more.  It’s got it all…good looks, power, and it groups like a target grade rifle.

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Reloading and Shooting Cast Bullets in the Mosin-Nagant Rifle

The Mosin-Nagant 91/30. These rifles are extremely accurate.  This one is 84 years old.

I’m a Mosin-Nagant fan, as you know from reading our prior posts on these fine old Russian warhorses.  I’ve got two, one I use with jacketed bullets and one I use exclusively with cast bullets.  Today’s blog focuses on reloading and using cast bullets in a Mosin.

So what’s the deal on cast bullets?   If you reload, you can use either factory-produced, copper-jacketed bullets, or you can use cast bullets.  Cast bullets are cast of lead, lubricated with an appropriate grease, and sometimes fitted with a gas check (a small copper cap on the back of the bullet).

The cast bullets I’ve settled on as best for my Mosin.  These are 200-grain, gas-checked bullets made by a local caster. The gas check is the little copper cap at the base of the bullet. It prevents the propellant gases from melting the bullet’s base and minimizes barrel leading.

Folks who shoot cast bullets either buy the bullets or they cast them themselves.  I used to cast bullets 40 years ago, but I found it easier just to buy them from folks who know what they are doing and avoid the hassles of melting lead, breathing the fumes, etc.

Cast bullets are a lot easier on both the rifle and the shooter.  The softer metal (lead versus a copper jacket) is easier on the rifling and the lower velocities reduce recoil.   The downsides are that the trajectory is more pronounced due to the lower velocities associated with cast bullets, and generally speaking, cast bullets are not as accurate as jacketed bullets.  But that last bit sure isn’t the case here.   My cast loads in the Mosin are every bit as accurate as jacketed loads, and the Mosin I use for cast bullets is another one of my all-time favorite rifles.  It’s the rifle you see in the first photo of this blog, and in the photos below.

My Mosin-Nagant has been worked on a bit.  I stripped and refinished the stock, I glass bedded the action, and I did a trigger job to lighten the pull and eliminate trigger creep.   It’s a great shooter.
The desirable hex receiver Mosin.   The Mosin-Nagant is an extremely accurate milsurp rifle.

My cast bullet Mosin is just flat amazing.  It regularly cloverleafs at 50 yards, and when I do my part, I’ll get groups under 2 inches at 100 yards.  Yeah, I know, other folks talk about sub-minute-of-angle shooting at that distance, but we’re talking about iron sights and cast bullets here, folks, and it’s all being done with a rifle manufactured in 1935.   And wow, can that 84-year-old puppy shoot…

Open sights, 50 yards, shooting from a benchrest at the West End Gun Club.

This kind of accuracy doesn’t just happen and it’s usually not attainable with factory ammunition.  This is what you can get when you tailor the load to a particular rifle, and you can only do that if you reload.  I developed the load used to shoot the targets you see above trying different propellants and propellant charges, different cartridge cases, and different cast bullets.  The secret sauce?  It’s this recipe right here…

My Mosin load. SR4759 is a powder that works well for reduced velocity and cast bullet loads. It’s no longer in production, but I have a stash.  When I run out of SR4759, I’ll turn to a current production powder and start the development process all over again.

Good buddy Gresh suggested I do a piece on reloading, and I actually had done that already in the form of a video some time ago.   What you’ll see in the video below is the reloading process.   When you reload a cartridge, you lube the brass, resize it to its original dimensions, prime it, flare the case mouth (to accept the cast bullet), add the propellant, and seat the bullet.  With a little bit of music taken directly from Enemy at the Gates (a movie in which the Mosin-Nagant rifle was the real star), take a look at what’s involved in reloading 7.62x54R ammo with cast bullets…

Shooting cast bullets in a rifle is a lot of fun.  A good reference if you want to try loading with cast bullets is the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook (it’s the one I use).  If you never tried reloading you might think about getting into it, and if you’re already reloading, you might think about giving cast bullets a go.

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A .300 Weatherby Vanguard

My “new to me” .300 Weatherby Vanguard.

You know, there’s more to the American Pickers television show than just watching a couple of cool dudes and their delightful inked-up assistant traveling all over the world buying cool stuff.  It’s really an education on how business works. Buy low, buy quality, rarity counts, treat everybody well, and sell at a profit. I love it, and I never miss an episode.  And I’ve watched a lot of the reruns.

The other topic American Pickers handles well is negotiation. These guys view negotiation not as an adversarial endeavor, but rather, a situation in which the buyer and seller are working together to find common ground. Backing off when things aren’t moving forward, bundling things to reach agreement, gentle suggestions…it’s all there. The show could be titled Negotiation 101 (it wouldn’t be as catchy a title, but it sure would be accurate).

I love negotiating. It’s a grand game and I love playing it.  Just the other day I took advantage of a negotiating opportunity. You know I’m a firearms enthusiast. I enjoy shooting and I enjoy reloading. I’m always on the lookout, too, for a few guns I still have on my wish list. One such firearm on the “someday” list has been a 300 Weatherby Magnum. I’ve been watching the Internet auction boards for 5 or 6 years now looking for one that was priced right, realizing I’d still have to pay the transfer fees, etc., to bring it in from wherever to California.

Why a Weatherby? Well, as you already know, I once met Roy Weatherby. He was a hell of man and a personal hero. He designed his own rifles and cartridges. The 300 Weatherby Magnum is his signature cartridge. It’s why I wanted one.

So one day a few years ago Susie and I had lunch in Pasadena with a fellow from India. That meeting may someday lead to another secret mission (this time to the subcontinent, which might be interesting as I’ve never been there).

But all that’s beside the point. On the way home, the traffic was terrible (it was the Friday before the Labor Day holiday). We diverted to surface streets on the way back and, what do you know, I spotted a little gun store (The Gunrunner in Duarte). We stopped in and they had a consignment rifle…and it was the one I’d been seeking for several years. A 300 Weatherby Magnum with a scope, a sling, and a case. It looked new to me, but it was used. Used, but in “as new” condition.

“How much?” I asked.

“$500,” the sales guy replied.

Hmmmmm. That was actually a great price. It was an especially great price considering I wouldn’t have to bring it in from out of state, there would be no freight or transfer fees, its condition was stellar, and it was what I had wanted for a long time. I didn’t answer, but I kept looking at the rifle. Susie just stared daggers at me. That’s another negotiating trick. Bring your significant other with you and have her pretend to be opposed to whatever it is you want to purchase. In this case, though, I’m not so sure she was pretending…

I was just about to say okay when the sales guy spoke up again.

“How about $500 and I’ll pick up the DROS fees,” he said (the DROS fees are the fees associated with the background checks, etc., so the State of California can be certain I won’t run out and hold up a gas station with the my rifle).

“Make it $475 and we’ve got a deal,” I said.

And that’s how you get ‘r done, folks, as another one of my heroes would say.

The test target provided with every new Weatherby…this one grouped 3 shots into an inch at 100 yards

So you can see that test target above.   All new Weatherby rifles used to come with a test target like that (maybe they still do; it’s been awhile since I bought a new one).  You might wonder if these targets are really representative of what the rifle can do, and I’m here to tell you they are indeed.  Take a look…this is what I shot with one of the loads I developed for my .300 Weatherby Vanguard the week after I bought it…

An awesome rifle in every regard…awesome power, awesome accuracy, and awesome recoil. The load is the 165 gr Hornady jacketed boat tail softpoint, a CCI 250 primer, and 80 grains of IMR 7828 propellant.  That’s a 3-shot, half-inch group at a 100 yards!

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Big recoil, tiny groups: A Model 700 in 7mm Weatherby

 

The Remington Classic 700 in 7mm Weatherby Magnum: An unusual, collectible, and as it turns out, extremely accurate rifle.

A short while ago I wrote about my Dad’s left hand 7mm Weatherby Mk V, and how Roy Weatherby personally helped me select it.  Well, here’s a story about another rifle chambered for the powerful 7mm Weatherby Magnum cartridge.

About a year ago, I saw something unusual on Gunbroker.com.  It was an ad for a Remington 700 Classic rifle chambered in the venerable 7mm Weatherby Magnum cartridge. This rifle is quite a setup and, I think, quite a score for me personally. I’ve been a huge fan of Weatherby rifles ever since I was a little boy, when my father chased woodchucks in New Jersey with a .243 Winchester Model 70.  Back in the day, woodchucks were about the only thing you could hunt with a rifle in New Jersey. I grew up in a farming community (there’s a reason New Jersey is called the Garden State), and the farmers in our area gave my Dad free rein to cull the chuck population. Those little woodchucks did a lot of crop damage, and the farmers were grateful that my Dad was able send those critters on to their reward. As a little kid tagging along with Dad, it was grand fun. It was not at all unusual for him to take (and make) 400-yard shots, with his rifle resting across the hood of his ’65 F-100 Ford (there were a lot of powder burns on that old pickup truck). Like I said, it was awesome.

Just before I went to Korea, my Dad bought a 7mm Weatherby rifle for me as a going-away gift, and I loved it. I shot the barrel out of that rifle (yep, I shot it so much I wore it out) and then I had it redone with a Douglas barrel in 300 H&H. But the 7mm Weatherby Mag cartridge had its hooks into me, and they never let go. The idea is that a 7mm projectile is aerodynamically more efficient than a .30 caliber bullet (the 7mm is 0.284 inches in diameter; a .30 caliber bullet is 0.308 inches in diameter). For the same weight, the 7mm cartridge has a lower drag coefficient, so it retains more velocity downrange and it has a flatter trajectory.

All of the above is probably more theoretical than real world, but I still like the idea of a streamlined, hard-hitting, flat-shooting, hot 7mm. And that’s what the 7mm Weatherby cartridge is. It was one of Roy Weatherby’s first magnum chamberings, and it has been the fastest 7mm cartridge ever for many decades.

The 7mm Weatherby cartridge. Note the classic Weatherby double radius shoulder…the theory is the double radii act as a venturi, providing higher projectile velocities. It’s probably more marketing magic than real world measurable results, but I’m a believer.

I’ve also always been a fan of the Remington 700 rifle. They are inherently accurate, and when I used to shoot high power metallic silhouette competition back in the ’70s and ’80s, it was rare to see anything other than a Model 700 in the winners’ circle.  I’ve owned a few of these rifles, and they are indeed extremely accurate.

Remington had a run of Model 700 rifles they labeled the “Classic” for a little more than 20 years, with the idea being that each year they would do a rifle in one chambering only.  Remington stopped making the Classic series more than 20 years ago, and I always wanted one.

Recently, I saw an ad on Gunbroker for one of the rarest of the Classic series, the single year they chambered these fine rifles in 7mm Weatherby Magnum.   That was a “must have” rifle for me.  A Model 700, chambered in 7mm Weatherby.  Wow.  The rifle was advertised as new in the box, the cartridge is an awesome one, and unlike most of the Classics I had previously seen, it had killer wood. Hey, what’s not to like? I bought the rifle from Heritage Shooting Academy in Triangle, Virginia, and it was a great deal. If anything, the rifle was better than advertised, and I sure couldn’t argue with the way it shot (more on that in a second).

When it arrived, I was more than impressed.  It was indeed new in the box, it was flawless, the walnut was understatedly elegant, and as I was to learn, it shot very, very well.   The only thing that initially concerned me was that these uber-velocity cartridges generally give up accuracy for what they gain in speed.  But that sure isn’t the case with this rifle. I reloaded different cartridges trying various powder charges using two different bullets, and the groups that resulted (all at 100 yards) were fabulous.

Whoa! Out-of-the-box accuracy!

My initial testing showed that the trick here was to load toward the higher end of the powder charge spectrum to more fully fill those big belted magnum cases.   The theory is that doing so results in a more uniform pressure wave/flame front when the go-juice lights up, and I guess it worked that way for me.   More powder results in more velocity and that meant more recoil, but wowee, the Model 700 provided great results!  It shot phenomenally tight groups and the little bit of dispersion you see is undoubtedly more me than the rifle or the ammo. I am one happy camper!

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The Early Machine Guns and modern Gatlings

A scan of a photo of a photo. I handled the original while researching the Gatling gun in the Colt archives at the Connecticut State Library and Museum in Hartford.

Yeah, I know…a Gatling gun is not a machine gun.  It was a hand-cranked weapon back in the day, but it’s still a fascinating a bit of machinery and this Civil War weapon concept is the principle behind modern high-rate-of-fire systems on combat aircraft, helicopters, naval vessels, and more.  I was so captivated by the Gatling design and how it extended from the Civil War to modern gun systems that I wrote a book about it (The Gatling Gun).   You may have already known that.

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The Gatling gun and its transition from the 1860s to today’s modern combat applications is fascinating.  To get that full story, you might want to pick up a copy of The Gatling Gun.

So how did it come to be that modern high-rate-of-fire gun systems use the Gatling principle?

Here’s the deal:  Around the end of World War II, jet aircraft entered service, and the old .50-caliber M2 Browning simply didn’t fire fast enough.  With the new jets, aircraft closing speeds in a dogfight might exceed 1000 mph (two jets coming at each other over 500 mph), and what was needed was a shot pattern rather than a steady stream of bullets.   In searching for higher firing rates, the Army discovered that Dr. Gatling and the U.S. Navy had both experimented with Gatling guns powered by electric motors, and way back in 1898 they attained firing rates over 1000 shots per minute.  In 1898, a firing rate that high was a solution looking for a problem that did not yet exist.  So, the concept was shelved for the next half century.  But after World War II, it was the answer to the Army Air Corps’ jet fighter gunnery dilemma.  The U.S. military dusted off the concept of an electrically-driven Gatling, gave a contract to General Electric, and the modern Vulcan was born.

Like I said earlier, the Gatling gun and its variants are used on many different combat systems.   One of the earlier ones was immortalized by Puff, the Magic Dragon, in The Green Berets.  The Green Berets is one of my all time favorite movies and the scene I’m describing shows up at around 1:20:

The first Vietnam-era gunship used old World War II C-47s (that’s what you see in the video above).  Then the Air Force went to the C-130, a much larger aircraft, because it could carry more cannon.  Then, because they couldn’t get C-130s fast enough, they turned to old C-119s.   When the Air Force did a range firing demo to convince the folks who needed convincing at Eglin AFB, the gunship Gatlings fired continuously until they had no more ammo, and I’m told it was so impressive the project managers secured an immediate okay to proceed.  The bigwigs viewing the demo firing thought the sustained burst was all part of the plan; what they didn’t know is the control system malfunctioned and the aircrew couldn’t turn the Gatlings off.  Hey, sometimes things happen for a reason.

I know a fascination with Gatlings is unusual, and you might wonder how it came to be.   It goes like this:  When I was in the Army, my first assignment was to a Vulcan unit in Korea.   To ready me for that, I had orders to the US Army Air Defense School’s Vulcan course in Fort Bliss, Texas.  Vulcans were the Army’s 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and on the first day of class, the sergeant explained to us that the Vulcan gun system was based on the old Gatlings.  Whaddaya know, I thought.  The Gatling gun.

Then things got better.  After a few weeks of classroom instruction, we went to Dona Ana Range in New Mexico to fire the Vulcan.  I thought the Vulcan would sound like a machine gun…you know, ratatat-tat and all that.  Nope.  Not even close.  When I first heard a Vulcan fire I was shocked.  If you’ve ever been to a drag race and heard a AA fuelie, that’s exactly what a Vulcan sounds like.  I heard one short BAAAAAARRRKKK as the first Vulcan fired a 100-round burst at 3,000 shots per minute.  Jiminy!  The effect was electrifying.  We were a bunch of kids yammering away, and then the Vulcan spoke.  Everyone fell silent.  We were in awe.

At the Dona Ana range, the effect was even more dramatic…there was the soul-searing bark of the actual firing, and then an echo as the Vulcan’s report bounced off the distant Dona Ana mountains.   Then another as the next gun fired, and another echo.  And another.  Cool doesn’t begin to describe it.

A Vulcan firing at night. Think that shot pattern is impressive? Hey, you’re only seeing every 7th round (the combat mix was one tracer every 7 rounds).  This is a US Army photo included in The Gatling Gun (along with many others).

After I left the Army, my next job was on the F-16 Air Combat Fighter, and it used the same 20mm Gatling as did the Vulcan.  After that it was General Dynamics in Pomona, where I worked on the Phalanx (a 20mm shipborne Vulcan).  Then it was on to Aerojet, where we made 30mm ammo for the A-10 Warthog’s GAU-8/A Gatling.  It seemed that every job I had was somehow tied to a Gatling gun variant, and that was fine by me.  I loved working with these systems.

And there you have it.  If you’d like to more about the different systems using Gatlings today and the early history of the Gatling gun, you can purchase The Gatling Gun here.

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