Revised Nitro 100 from Accurate! - Rifle Magazine 279 par… ·  · 2012-06-14Revised Nitro 100...

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The Return of Colt’s New Frontier SAA! Revised Nitro 100 from Accurate! Loads for Oddball Rifles and Carbines Ultralight 20-Gauge Loads $5.99 U.S./Canada August 2012 No. 279 Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER Display until 08/08/2012 Printed in USA

Transcript of Revised Nitro 100 from Accurate! - Rifle Magazine 279 par… ·  · 2012-06-14Revised Nitro 100...

The Return of Colt’sNew Frontier SAA!

Revised Nitro 100from Accurate!

Loads for Oddball Rifles and Carbines

Ultralight20-Gauge Loads

$5.99 U.S./Canada

August 2012 No. 279Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Display until 08/08/2012 Printed in USA7 25274 01240 4

0 8

$5.99

AMMUNAMMUNITITIIONON REL RELOOAADDIING NG JOJOURURNNAL AL

August 2012Volume 47, Number 4

ISSN 0017-7393 Issue No. 279

4 Handloader 279Background Photo: © 2012 Vic Schendel

18 Priming and Pressures From the Hip - Brian Pearce

22 Dip or Dump? Mike’s Shootin’ Shack - Mike Venturino

24 Accurate Nitro 100 NF Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

28 How Do You Define Accuracy? Pistol Pointers - Charles E. Petty

30 New Frontier SAA .45 Colt Colt’s New Frontier revolver is back! Brian Pearce

36 A Pair of .25-06s Handloading the Quarter Bore John Barsness

44 Ultralight 20-Gauge Loads Performance without Recoil Gil Sengel

8 Steve Herrett Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

12 Ball Powders for the 7mm Remington Magnum Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

16 .455 Webley Automatic Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

Page 44 . . .

Page 36 . . .

Background Photo: © 2012 Vic Schendel

On the cover . . .Colt fans will be happy to know that the New Frontier SingleAction Army is back in production. Photo by Brian Pearce.

Page 54 . . .

Page 60 . . .

Publisher of Handloader™ is not responsible formishaps of any nature that might occur from use ofpublished loading data or from recommendations byany member of The Staff. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced without written permission fromthe publisher. Publisher assumes all North AmericanRights upon acceptance and payment for all manu-scripts. Although all possible care is exercised, thepublisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mu-tilated manuscripts.

Issue No. 279 August 2012

AMMUNAMMUNITITIIONON REL RELOOAADDIING NG JOJOURURNNAL AL Publisher/President – Don PolacekPublishing Consultant – Mark Harris

Editor in Chief – Dave ScovillAssociate Editor – Lee J. Hoots

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Contributing EditorsJohn Haviland Ron SpomerBrian Pearce Stan TrzoniecCharles E. Petty R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.Clair Rees Mike VenturinoGil Sengel Ken Waters Terry Wieland

AdvertisingAdvertising Director - Stefanie Ramsey

[email protected] Representative - Tom Bowman

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Handloader® (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Pres ident),2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301 (alsopublisher of Rifle® magazine). Tele phone: (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona,and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices:U.S. possessions – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $22.97;12 issues, $39.00. Foreign and Canada – single issue,$5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12 issues, $51.00. Please allow8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnishedon request. All rights reserved.Change of address: Please give six weeks notice.Send both the old and new address, plus mailinglabel if possible, to Circulation Dept., Handloader®Magazine, 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Hand-loader®, 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301.Canadian returns: PM #40612608. Pitney Bowes,

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6 Handloader 279

60 Oddballs Made Easy Loading for Unusual Rifles and Carbines Mike Venturino

68 Hollowpoint Bullets Without a Mould . . . and Hollowbase Too Reader Research - Roger Smith

74 The Long and the Short of It In Range - Terry Wieland

56 West Kansas Bonded Origins of Swift’s A-Frame and Scirocco Terry Wieland

Q: I am relatively new to hand-loading but have been read-

ing Handloadermagazine for aboutthree years and have learned agreat deal. Thanks for all the greatinformation.

I have been reloading for my .44Magnum and .38 Special revolversand have been happy with the per-formance and thrilled with thesavings. More recently I started re-loading the .243 Winchester andhave just purchased dies, primersand bullets for my 7mm Reming-ton Magnum. I am not sure whichpowder to use. Some say that I canonly duplicate factory load veloc-ities with stick-type powders. Ihave used these (IMR-4350 and H-4350) in my .243, but they don’tmeter well, and I end up weighingevery charge. Is there a powderthat does not need every chargeweighed, while giving factory loadvelocities and good accuracy?

– F.M., Cody WY

A: Traditionally, many of the mag-num rifle cartridges have been fac-tory and handloaded with “stick”or extruded powders. These are ac-curate and help the large-capacitymagnums reach advertised veloc -ities. From a mass productionstandpoint, ammunition factorieshave also had difficulties in get-ting these powders to meter pre-cisely. In some instances they havehad the “sticks” shortened to im-

prove metering. Ball or sphericalpowders have improved steadilyover the past several decades andare now commonly factory loadedin many magnum rifle cartridges.They meter with precision, are accurate, reach desired velocitiesand are fast to load.

In the 7mm Remington Magnum,consider Ramshot Magnum, Accu-rate MAGPRO or Alliant Power Pro4000, any of which will reach de-sired velocities and allow you tothrow charges with almost per-fectly consistent weights. You don’tspecify the type of bullet you planto use, so I cannot suggest data;however, both Western Powders(www. accuratepowder.com) andAl liant (www.alliantpowder.com)offer data.

.357 MAGNUM AND 2400

Q: First off, let me thank you andyour publications Handloader andRifle for all the great informationand articles. I just finished readingyour article in Handloader No.275, “From the Hip” on primers,and a red flag came up. I have shotthousands of .357 Magnum roundsloaded with 12.0 grains of Alliant2400 ignited with CCI 550 Mag-num Pistol primers. My worry isthat I have about 3,000 still loadedand now have thoughts if I shouldpull the bullets and reprime withstandard primers. The bullets areall 158 grains, both jacketed andcast with gas checks. I startedloading these many years ago,using the Speer Reloading Man-ual No. 7. The chart shows a 160-grain cast bullet with 12.0 grainsas the bottom load at 1,150 fps anda 160-grain jacketed bullet with13.0 grains as the bottom load,both with 2400 powder. The jack-eted bullet shows a muzzle veloc-ity of 1,170 fps.

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BULLETS & BRASS by Brian Pearce • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

BALL POWDERS FOR THE7MM REMINGTON MAGNUM

Accurate MAGPRO, RamshotMagnum and Alliant Power Pro4000 meter uniformly while offering top velocities in the7mm Remington Magnum.

August-September 2012 13www.handloadermagazine.com

Several years ago I purchasedthe two-volume set of the SierraReloading Manual (50th Anniver-sary Edition) and found that loadshave changed. The chart showsthe 158-grain JSP (.357 Magnum)loaded with 14.0 grains of 2400powder as the starting load, reach-ing 1,200 fps. At the bottom of thepage it states, “Loads less thanminimum charges shown are notrecommended.”

Back to my handloads, the casesdon’t show signs of excess pres-sure. What do I do? Do I startpulling bullets? I greatly appreci-ate your help.

– D.R., Sidney MT

A: Even with the CCI 550 SmallPistol Magnum primer, your .357Magnum handloads are safe dueto the modest charge of Alliant2400. I would not go to the time-consuming job of pulling bullets.Rather, after you have shot thoseloads, reload and prime your caseswith a standard primer. This willreduce pressure and probably ve-locities, and I would suggest in-creasing the powder charge to atleast 13.0 to 13.5 grains as min-imums. You should see an increasein accuracy with lower extremespreads.

With most standard primers youcan use up to 14.8 to 15.0 grainsof 2400 with 158-grain jacketed orcast bullets and stay within indus-try pressure limits of 35,000 psi.

.22-250 TWIST RATES

Q: I have a Mauser 98 that was rebarreled and chambered to .22-250 Remington during the early1970s by my late uncle. The cham-ber seems to be within SAAMI spec-ifications, and it seems reasonably

When handloading the .357 Mag-num with Alliant 2400, switchingto standard primers will increaseaccuracy and lower pressure.

Hornady SPSX (Super Explosive)bullets may fragment in flightdue to a rough leade, or perhapstoo fast a barrel twist.

Handloader 27914 www.handloadermagazine.com

accurate with Federal factory loadsusing Classic 55-grain softpoint bul-lets. However, my handloads areproblematic. I have been using Hor-nady 50-grain SPSX bullets with35.5 grains of H-4895. Cases areFederal and primers are CCI 200Large Rifle. Some bullets com-

pletely miss the target, and I see avaporlike trail that goes out as faras 50 yards. Bullets that do hit thetarget don’t hold anything resem-bling a group. The rifle will stayunder one inch all day long withfactory loads, with some groupsgoing into just over .5 inch.

Are my handloads too hot? I’mnot seeing any of the usual signsof excess pressure with sticky boltlift, excessively flattened primersor excess case head expansion. Myloads are within published data.Any help would be appreciated.

– T.F., Midland TX

A: It is always difficult to accu-rately assess a problem withoutbeing there and seeing first-handall the components and symp-toms. That said, I suspect that theSPSX bullet is coming apart dur-ing flight, possibly due to a fast-twist barrel of perhaps one turnin 10 or 12 inches, rather than theone-in-14-inch twist normallyencountered with this cartridge.This high bullet rotation speed,combined with the 22-250’s highvelocity, may possibly be takingthe Hornady SPSX bullet apart in flight. A rough leade will like-wise play havoc to super “thin-skinned” bullets. The SPSX is agreat varmint bullet, but its fran-gible nature is better suited toslower-twist barrels and a smoothleade.

I suggest measuring your barreltwist rate. If it is a 10- or 12-inchtwist, you can get the SPSX tostay together by reducing loadsand velocities or switch to Hor-nady’s V-MAX of the same weight.

.30-06 CASE CAPACITY

Q: I have been reloading a batchof Winchester Super-X .30-06 brasscases for many years, but aftermore than a dozen reloadings de-cided to discard them and purchase200 new Winchester nickel-platedcases at a local gun show. I thoughtthis would be a good idea to pre-vent excessive corrosion when inthe field.

I am having two problems withthe new cases. First, the nickel

plating is either scratching or isflaking off around the case mouth.Second, my standard charge ofHodgdon H-4831 fills the case to ahigher level. Should I use the samepowder charge, or should it be re-duced? Is there a way to preventthe nickel plating from flaking off?

– W.W., Chilliwack BC

A: It sounds like your new caseshave less capacity than your “old”batch of Super-X. You don’t men-tion your load, however; and un-less your charges are pushed tothe maximum, the slightly reducedcase capacity probably won’t in-crease pressure enough to be prob-lematic, but a chronograph is thebest way to duplicate your oldloads.

By the nature of nickel plating,as cases are fired and expandedthen sized again, the plating oftenstarts flaking off. Keeping yoursizing die clean will minimizescratching, but little can be doneto prevent the flaking.

* * *

BRASS RESOURCESIn Handloader No. 276, the .401Herter’s Power Magnum was dis-cussed in this column. It has cometo my attention that there are twosources for brass: Bob Hayley (POBox 889, Seymour TX 76380) andBuffalo Arms (660 Vermeer Court,Ponderay ID 83852, www.buffaloarms.com). Both outfits create .401cases from .41 Magnum brass andsell them by the piece.

Herter’s .401 Power Magnumbrass is available from newsources.

ZERO

Pistol Bulletsand

Ammunition

Pistol Bulletsand

Ammunition

Zero Bullet Company, Inc.P.O. Box 1188 • Cullman, AL 35056Tel: 256-739-1606 • Fax: 256-739-4683

Toll Free: 800-545-9376www.zerobullets.com

Brian Pearce

In 1961 Colt announced a newtarget version of the Colt SingleAction Army revolver, the NewFrontier SAA. It featured a fully

adjustable rear sight in a flattop frame,ramp front sight, walnut stocks, highpolish royal blue and case-colored finish. The revolver was intended tocompete with the successful, adjust -able-sighted Ruger Blackhawk intro-duced six years before. The lockworkremained the same as the original 1873Peacemaker. Regular production beganin 1962 with serial number 3001NF.In an early brochure, Colt referred to the New Fron-tier as a “fourth Generation Colt,” but collectors andshooters generally refer to guns produced from 1961through 1975 as “second generation” series. Standardcalibers included .45 Colt, .44 Special, .357 Magnumand a limited number of .38 Specials. Barrel lengthsincluded 4¾, 5½, 7½ and 12 inches. Production con-tinued through 1975, totaling around 4,177 revolvers(or 4,265, depending on source).

In 1976 Colt retooled for the Single Action Army andin that process changed the cylinder bushing, ratchet,hand and the barrel thread from 20 tpi to 24 tpi. Pro-duction processes changed, but externally the gun appeared the same. These guns are generally knownas “third generation” series. The New Frontier reap-peared in 1978 in .45 Colt, .44 Special, .44-40 Winches-ter and .357 Magnum. Production ceased again in1982, while the Single Action Army remained in con-tinuous production.

Beginning in 2011, Colt announced the return of theNew Frontier initially available in .44 Special and .45Colt with 7½-, 5½- and 4¾-inch barrels, but the latterlength would not become available until 2012.

In the meantime, I met with Colt engineers to discussthe New Frontier and SAA revolvers. Some of the points

New Frontier SAA .45 Colt

Colt’sNew Frontier

revolver is back!

30 www.handloadermagazine.com

New Frontier SAA .45 Colt

Colt’sNew Frontier

revolver is back!

31

suggested are cosmetic, but othersare important from a shooter’sstandpoint. In short I encouragedthem to obtain an original exampleof a 1900-era revolver and dupli-cate it. Hopefully, chambers couldbe tightened to industry minimaltolerances and throats reducedfrom current .456 to .458 inch to.452 inch for improved accuracy.

The head engineer had concernsthat doing so would increase cham-ber pressures, and with the thinchamber support where the boltnotch is cut, would be somethingof a liability. In response, I sug-gested that cutting chambers to industry minimum specificationswould increase the chamber wallthickness under the locking notchcut. (Prior to around 1915 to 1920,Peacemakers featured chamberthroats of around .451 to 453 inch.)Besides, most industry specifica-tion .45 Colt loads actually reachpeak pressures before the bulletleaves the case.

Left, the new ColtNew Frontier features adjustablesights and big-boreperformance.Below, the barrelstamping marks thereturn of a classic.

Handloader 27932 www.handloadermagazine.com

Colt has used three SAA ratchet styles in the postwarera, including (left to right): second generation, thirdgeneration and the current style. The latter features a third-generation ratchet but with a second-gener -ation style removable bushing.

The Colt SAA revolver has had several frame profiles,including (left to right): Peacemaker, Flat top Targetand New Frontier.

New Frontier SAA .45 Colt

however, when the hammer is athalf-cock, the chambers do notalign with the loading trough. Theshooter is then required to manu-ally move the cylinder to align the

chamber for loading and unloading. Cylinder end-shake is minimal at .001 inch, and lockup is good,while the barrel-cylinder gap measures .004 inch. Theforcing cone is cut at 11 degrees and is smooth anduniform. Trigger pull breaks at 58 ounces (3 pounds,10 ounces), and the mainspring pull is moderate.

The front sight is of the same configuration as pre-vious New Frontier revolvers, is reasonably straightand is without the severe overpolishing. The rear sightis the Elliason version that is fully screw-adjustablefor windage and elevation. The rear face of the sightis serrated and flat black, which offers minimal glareand is excellent for precision target work or field use.

Measurements that are critical to revolvers, and im-portant for handloaders to be aware of, include throat

My suggestions for improving theNew Frontier may sound a bit de-manding, but I am something of aColt Single Action connoisseur, witha great appreciation for the superbquality and workmanship of 1873-through 1920-era guns. If Colt wouldassemble and finish these newguns with that same degree of qual-ity, it would sell every gun thatcould be made – and would be in acontinual back-order mode.

When the New Frontier .45 Coltwith 4¾-inch barrel arrived, it most certainly had a different lookthan previous versions. The case-colored frame is bright, with a clearcoat style finish; Turnbull Manu -facturing confirmed it is case col-oring the New Frontier frames forColt. The bluing is brightly polishedand deep, almost black in color,which is a departure from the highpolish royal blue finish on earlyNew Frontiers. Thankfully, the backstrap and triggerguard are polished as one unit with the frame, pro -ducing a notably better fit than has been seen fromColt on occasion. Unfortunately, the butt is groundwith sharp corners, which dug a pretty good chunk of flesh out of the palm of my hand during long shoot-ing sessions. The rather plain walnut stocks with gold medallion are oil finished. Overall the gun is improved.

The cylinder has the first- and second-generationstyle removable bushing, but the ratchet and hand areof the third-generation type. Timing is reasonable,with the bolt dropping within the bolt approach lead;

In the past 50 years, the ColtNew Frontier SAA revolver hasbeen offered in several calibersand four different barrel lengths.

August-September 2012 33www.handloadermagazine.com

ing cone and barrel. If a bullet tiltsexcessively in the throat, it re-mains that way down the barreland downrange, so accuracy al-most always suffers, sometimesdrastically.

Ten factory loads were tried froma sandbag rest at a 25-yard target.These included cowboy-type lead,hollowbase lead, flatbase swagedlead measuring from .452 to .456inch and jacketed bullets from.451 to .455 inch. As can be seen in Table II, accuracy varied con-siderably with some loads group-ing 5-plus inches, while othersclustered under 1.75 inches. No-table accuracy came from hollow-base lead bullets measuring .455and .456 from Remington and Winchester, respectively. Overall,so-called cowboy loads with .452-inch hard cast, bevel-based bullets

generally did not fare well. Plain-base lead bullets, such as the Hor-nady cowboy load with a .454-inchbullet, shot respectably with groupshovering around 2 inches. Win-chester’s PDX1 225-grain bondedload containing .455-inch bulletsgrouped consistently around 1.75inches. This gun clearly favored

size and groove diameter. Thethroats of Colt’s latest New Fron-tier .45 Colt measure .456 inch,while the barrel slugged at .4515inch.

Most commercial cast and jack-eted bullets available as compo-nents measure .451, .4515 or .452inch, although some cast bulletcompanies offer .454-inch ver-sions. At industry .45 Colt pres-sures, 14,000 psi, jacketed bulletswill not slug up or obturate, andneither will any commercial castbullets with a BHN greater than10. Pure lead swaged bullets witha BHN of 5 to 6 will usually ob -turate but can offer problematicleading, especially if velocities ex-ceed 900 to 1,000 fps. Winchesterand Remington traditional (non-cowboy) factory loads containing255- and 250-grain lead bullets areof hollowbase design and readilyobturate at these pressures. Thisprevents bullets from tilting in thethroat before they reach the forc-

Colt New FrontierFactory Loads

advertised actual 25-yardload velocity velocity group

(grains) (fps) (fps) (inches)

225 Buffalo Bore Barnes XPB 1,000 1,044 3.50225 Winchester JHP Bonded 850 836 1.70225 Buffalo Bore cast wadcutter 1,050 1,065 2.40225 Remington SWC 960 938 1.85250 Speer GDHP 750 816 3.25250 Remington lead 860 845 1.80250 Winchester Cowboy LFN 750 758 4.80255 Buffalo Bore SWC GC 1,000 956 2.60255 Hornady Cowboy lead FP 725 704 1.90255 Winchester lead RN 860 785 1.65

Notes: Colt barrel: 4¾ inches. Temperature during testing was 65 degreesFahrenheit.

Table II

Top, the frontsight is a stan-

dard rampstyle New

Fontier, whilethe rear sight(bottom) is a

fully adjustable Elliason.

The trigger guard and frame arepolished as a single unit,

resulting in an improved fit.

Colt New Frontier .45 Colt Handloads

bullet powder charge velocity(grains) (grains) (fps)

200 Speer JHP Titegroup 7.1 853225 Speer JHP AA-5 12.0 935225 Barnes XPB Power Pistol 9.7 1,001230 Hornady HP/XTP* Power Pistol 10.0 967240 Sierra JHC AA-5 11.5 900250 Speer Gold Dot HP Power Pistol 9.0 888

AA-5 11.0 904 250 Nosler JHP VV-3N37 11.0 885250 Hornady HP/XTP AA-5 11.0 916225 RCBS 45-225-CAV cast AA-2 7.0 854225 Rim Rock DE wadcutter Power Pistol 8.5 998250 Oregon Trail RNFP .454 inch Red Dot 6.0 809

Bullseye 6.5 861250 Oregon Trail FNFP .452 inch 6.5 855250 Remington lead hollowbase Red Dot 6.0 822

Bullseye 6.5 865250 Speer lead SWC Titegroup 6.2 755255 Hornady lead FP AA-2 6.8 806

Titegroup 6.0 809Trail Boss 6.5 780

255 Rim Rock cast SWC GC Power Pistol 9.0 951255 Lyman 454190 cast .452 inch 8.2 922255 Lyman 454190 cast .454 inch 8.2 915280 RCBS 45-270-SAA cast 8.0 887

AA-5 10.0 903

* Use .45 ACP taper crimp.Notes: All loads fired from a 4¾-inch barreled Colt New Frontier. Starline casesand CCI 300 primers used throughout.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Table I

Handloader 27934 www.handloadermagazine.com

OEHLER 35PIS BACK!Oehler is making a special,limited run of the Model 35Proof Chronograph.Call or go online formore information.Phone: 512-327-6900oehler-research.com

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Barrels & Bellm Custom TC PartsMike Bellm’s TCs

Custom Barrel Work & Parts Since 1979Tel: 1-970-314-9901www.bellmtcs.com

New Frontier SAA .45 Coltlarger diameter jacketed, lead bul-lets and hollowbase bullets.

In developing more than twodozen handloads for the New Fron-tier, similar accuracy patterns wereobserved. Nonetheless, I set out to see if accuracy could be im-proved and developed loads thatwould be useful for a variety offield purposes.

Handloads with noteworthy ac-curacy, grouping under 2 inches,included the 250-grain Remingtonlead roundnose hollowbase with6.5 grains of Alliant Bullseye (865fps), Hornady’s swaged lead 255-grain bullet with 6.0 grains of Hodg-don Titegroup (809 fps) and RimRock 255-grain cast SWC-GC with9.0 grains of Alliant Power Pistol(951 fps). Lyman mould 454190with 255-grain bullets sized to .454inch, pushed with 8.2 grains ofPower Pistol yielded 915 fps andproduced improved accuracy overthe same bullet sized to .452 inchwith the same powder charge. Anotable accuracy improvementwas likewise seen with OregonTrail’s 250-grain RNFP sized .452versus the same bullet sized to.454 inch, both with the same pow-der charge.

An excellent field load includedthe 280-grain cast bullet fromRCBS mould 45-270-SAA sized to.453 inch and pushed with 8.0grains of Power Pistol (887 fps).This bullet was cast too hard (BHN15, the only ones I had on hand) toobturate at such low pressures,but it seems that its long lengthhelps prevent it from tilting exces-sively in the throat. I suspect thatif the same bullet were cast with a 10 BHN and pressure bumped to 18,000 or 20,000 psi, accuracywould likely increase. Regardless,it proved accurate enough for hunt-ing, with groups regularly hover-ing around 2 inches. The onlyproblem was that the front sightwas too short for bullets to hit

August-September 2012 35www.handloadermagazine.com

center at 25 yards, striking about3 inches high, even when the rearsight was screwed all the waydown.

Several 250-grain jacketed bul-lets were tried, including the SpeerGold Dot HP, Hornady HP/XTPand Nosler JHP, as well as the 240-grain Sierra JHC, with groups typ-ically hovering from 2 to 4 inches.Having tried these bullets in other.45 Colt revolvers with throatsmeasuring from .451 to .453 inch,they each have the potential toproduce sub-one-inch groups at 25 yards, and in exceptional re-volvers (usually custom guns withline bore chambers and matchbarrels), similar group sizes canbe obtained at 50 yards.

Top-performing, clean-burningpowders that gave low extremespreads included Power Pistol,Bullseye, Red Dot, Titegroup, Ac-curate No. 5, No. 2 and Vihtavuori3N37. CCI’s 300 Large Pistol stan-dard primer was used exclusively,which gave proper ignition withall powders. All data in the accom-panying table is within industrypressure guidelines for the .45Colt at 14,000 psi.

Starline cases were used, whichare of high quality and have provento reduce chamber pressure whencompared with other cases. Theyare available factory direct at 1-800-280-6660.

The Colt Single Action Army, Bisley, Flattop Target and NewFrontier revolvers are a part ofhistory and are useful workingguns for the outdoorsman andhunter. The New Frontier was a fa-vorite of Elmer Keith and SkeeterSkelton and has served me for

taking deer, elk, black bear andsmaller game. Its fully adjustablesights accommodate a variety ofloads and provide an excellentsight picture for hunting and fieldwork. After being dormant for threedecades, it is good to have theNew Frontier back.

Accuracy of the New Frontier was dependent onusing correct bullets and loads. These two targetswere shot consecutively, illustrating drastic accu-racy changes.

Remington’s 250-grain factory load (left) andBrian’s handload containing 255-grain cast bulletsfrom Lyman mould 454190 (center) are traditionalin profile. The 280-grain cast bullet from RCBSmould 45-270-SAA (right) offers notably improvedterminal performance on big game.