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February 2010 No. 264Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER
Printed in USA7 2 5 2 7 4 0 1 2 4 0 4
0 2
$ 5 . 9 9
7mm TCU In a Rifle!
.38 WCF inRevolvers
NEW
45 ACPLoads!
Big BoresLive On!
.38
SpecialandP Update
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
2/154 Handloader 264
AMMUNMMUNITTIONN RELRELOADINGGJOOURRNALL
February 2010
Volume 45, Number 1
ISSN 0017-7393
Issue No. 264
Background Photo: 2010 Vic Schendel
24Bull Barrels
in the 1911Pistol Pointers -Charles E. Petty
28 Load DevelopmentFrom the Hip -Brian Pearce
30 Alliants PowerPro 300-MPPropellant Profiles -
R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
32 .38 WCF inRevolversOften Overlooked,Never IgnoredMike Venturino
42King Gun
SightsColt SAAsBefore Their TimeCharles E. Petty
50 .45 ACP200-GrainPerformanceLoadsThe Middle
GroundBrian Pearce
60 7mm TCU RifleHaviland BattlesWinter in MontanaJohn Haviland
8Revolver
AccuracyReloaders Press -Dave Scovill
14 .41 MagnumLoadsBullets & Brass -Brian Pearce
18 .32 Harrington &Richardson
MagnumCartridge Board -Gil Sengel
22 MistakesMikes Shootin Shack -Mike Venturino
Page 42 . . .
Page 50 . . .
Page 60 . . .
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68 CartridgesThatSmell ofGun SmokeBig BoresLive OnTerry Wieland
78.38SpecialUpdateStandardPressureand +PMike Thomas
91 MasterIndexVolume 44 -
94 No Shortageof LessonsIn Range -Terry Wieland
Publisher ofHandloader is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of publishedloading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced
without written permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American Rights upon acceptance andpayment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility forlost or mutilated manuscripts.
Issue No. 264 February 2010
AMMUNMMUNITTIONN RELRELOADINGGJOOURRNALLPublisher/President Don Polacek
Associate Publisher Mark Harris
Editor in Chief Dave Scovill
Managing Editor Roberta Scovill
Art Director Gerald Hudson
Production Director Becky Pinkley
Contributing Editors
Associate Editor Al Miller
John Haviland Ron Spomer
Brian Pearce Stan Trzoniec
Charles E. Petty R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
Clair Rees Mike Venturino
Gil Sengel Ken Waters
Advertising
Advertising Director- Stefanie Ramsey
Advertising Representative - Tom Bowman
Advertising Information: 1-800-899-7810
Circulation
Circulation ManagerMichele Elfenbein
Subscription Information: 1-800-899-7810
www.riflemagazine.com
Hand loader (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Pres -ident), 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301 (also publisher of Rifl e magazine). Tele-phone: (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid atPrescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices.Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue,$5.99; 6 issues, $22.97; 12 issues, $39.00. Foreignand Canada single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12issues, $51.00. Please allow 8-10 weeks for firstissue. Advertising rates furnished on request. Allrights reserved.
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Page60Page50Page68
Background Photo: 2010 Vic Schendel6 Handloader 264
On the cover . . .Two Colt Single Action Army .38 WCFs(top and middle) are shown with a ColtNew Service, also chambered for the .38WCF. Photos by Yvonne Venturino.
Page 68 . . .
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
4/1514 Handloader 264
fired a single round through the
ACP cylinder until now.
After reading your articles onthe .45 ACP and .45 Auto Rim in
revolvers, I became curious and
decided to try that cylinder. It
works fine with factory .45 ACP
loads, but I wanted to try some of
the heavyweight cast bullet loads
you list . Th e problem is tha t
since the ACP headspaces on the
case mouth, I am not sure if I can
get the necessary crimp to keep
the heavy bullets in place. I tried
chambering the .45 Auto Rim
case, but the rim is too thick. Is it
possible to alter the chamber so
the Auto Rim case can be used?
L.C., Las Vegas NV
A: The headspace is too tight
to allow the unusually thick
rim of the .45 Auto Rim to fit. It
is possible to have a qualified
gunsmith turn the back of the
cylinder down, changing the
headspace and allowing it to
chamber the Auto Rim cartridge.
were obtained using 7.5 grains
of Alliant Unique with a 223-grain Hensley & Gibbs Keith-
style cast bullet 258. That load
produced 1,035 fps from a Smith
& Wesson Model 657 Mountain
Gun with a 4-inch barrel and
1,061 fps from a Ruger Black-
hawk with a 612-inch tube.
I do have on hand a 231-grain
Keith-style cast bullet by a man-
ufacturer that does not supply to
the general public. It is a some-what different design than the
235-grain bullet you mention,
but the extra 4-grain weight will
prove inconsequential in terms
of pressure and velocities, as
long as your bullet seats to the
same depth in the case. The point
being the data presented here
should be safe with your bullet.
The above 231-grain bullet
pushed with 7.0 grains of AlliantPower Pistol produced 974 fps
from a Ruger New Model Black-
hawk Bisley with a 512-inch
barrel. Increasing the charge to
7.5 grains achieved 1,015 fps,
while 8.0 grains clocked 1,065
fps. The last load gave the best
accuracy with a 25-yard group
clustering under one inch from a
sandbag rest. Extreme spread
was 15 fps for a five-shot string.
Cases were from Starline, cap-ped with CCI 300 Large Pistol
primers. You will need to deter-
mine the accuracy of the Lead-
head bullet with that powder
charge.
RUGER .45 COLT
Q: I have a Ruger Blackhawk .45
Colt with the extra .45 ACP cylin-
der that I bought new in 1972.
During the years I have fired thou-
sands of .45 Colt loads through it,
mostly handloads, but have never
Q: I have used your reload-
ing information for the .45Colt, .44 Magnum, .44 Special and.45 Auto Rim and found it veryhelpful. I am also a big fan of the.41 Magnum and have used yourload data with the Cast Perform-ance 250-grain WFNGC and am
very pleased with it. I am tryingto find some .41 magnum loaddata for Leadhead bullets, specif-ically its 235-grain Keith style andam not having much luck. I
would like to find a load some-where between 1,000 and 1,100fps to use as a general-purposeload.
G.B., Morristown TN
A: Going back through my notes
on the .41 Magnum, good results
www.handloadermagazine.com
BULLETS & BRASS by Brian Pearce
.41 MAGNUM LOADS
The Ruger Blackhawk .45 ACPcylinder can have the headspacechanged to accept a .45 AutoRim cartridge.
Alliant Power Pistol was used in.41 Magnum to push a 231-grainKeith-style cast bullet 1,065 fps.
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This alteration is easy to accom-
plish and should not be costly.
RUGER .44 SPECIAL
Q: First, I want to complimentyou on your article on the RugerBlackhawk .44 Special in the
June edition ofHandloadermag-azine. I personally feel it was way
overdue, and thank you for theinfluence you had in making it
happen. Ive had a love affairwith the .44 and Ruger single ac-tions since 1975. I started todayinquiring at our local gun shopsto put one on order. A prize suchas this will not last long.
This brings me to the secondreason for writing you. I haveasked Ruger in the past if therewas a possibility for a .44 Specialin the New Vaquero. The responsewas that there is not enough pub-
lic interest. I personally think itwould be a big hit with the cow-boy action group and would makea great all-around working gun
A: Thank you for your kind re-
marks. You may find it of inter-
est that since completing the
article on the Ruger Blackhawk
.44 Special, Lipseys managed
to convince Ruger to increase
production to 1,500 units for each
ofthe two barrel lengths (458 and
512 inch). According to Lipseys,
sales have been strong. Also I do
not take any credit for the birth
and side companion. After you
have had time to think it over
(and see that I would be correct)
maybe you, with the help of Lip-
seys, would be able to convince
Ruger to produce this little gem.
Again, I want to thank you and
Lipseys for the Blackhawk .44
Special.
E.C., Byrdstown TN
Lipseys has had many requests to chamber the New Vaquero .44 Spe-cial, the same as the medium-frame Blackhawk currently in production.
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of the Blackhawk .44 Special,
other than agreeing the gun was
long overdue and that it would
most certainly sell!
I also agree with you that
fixed-sighted single actions are
very handy and practical every-
day working guns (as long as
they are sighted correctly), and a
New Vaquero .44 Special wouldindeed be a Special sixgun! In
checking with Jason Cloessner
at Lipseys, they have had many
requests for that gun and will
entertain the idea with Ruger.
.270 WINCHESTER
Q: I am looking for .270 Win-chester load data to be used inconjunction with the Nosler 130-grain Partition. I am not neces-sarily looking to achieve thehighest possible velocity, butrather looking for consistent ac-curacy. What powder or powderswould you suggest? I am rela-tively new to handloading butwould like to know if it is neces-sary to weigh each charge, or canthey be thrown? Any suggestions
you can provide would be appre-ciated.
L.G., Kansas City MOA:I have had good results in the
.270 Winchester using IMR-
4831 powder, with 58.0 grains
pushing the 130-grain Nosler
Partition to 3,000 fps from a
22-inch barrel, which is below
industry maximum pressure
limits. Use a large rifle non-mag-
num primer, and best results
will be seen if cases are from one
manufacturer (and preferably of
the same lot number).
Not all powder measures are
created equal, but if the vari-
ance in thrown charges exceeds
1.5 to not over 2.0 grains for the
.270 Winchester, then it would
be suggested to weigh each charge
to keep loads consistent. To
speed that process, set the meas-
ure to throw charges slightly
under the desired amount, drop
that charge onto the scale, then
trickle in the remaining grain
or two to reach the desired weight.
With some practice this method
is reasonably fast.
SUPER BLACKHAWK .44
MAGNUM
Q: As a su bscriber to Ha nd-loaderand a beginning reloader, Ienjoy your articles. I want to loadfor my customized 4-inch RugerSuper Blackhawk .44 Magnum. I
like the load in issue No. 255,wherein you suggest a 250-grainKeith plain-base bullet with 24.5grains of Hodgdon H-110 cappedwith a Federal 155 primer for1,300 fps. My question is, canI use my Winchester brass, orshould I use another brand? Idont cast bullets, so can you sug-gest a source where I can pur-chase some?
D.H., Jackson KY
A: The load in question is within
SAAMI pressure guidelines for
the .44 Magnum, although it is
considered maximum. Nonethe-
less it is safe in any case (in-
cluding your Winchester brass)
that is suitable for reloading.
Montana Bullet Works (7730
Hesper Rd., Billings MT 59106;
www.MontanaBulletWorks.
com) offers high-quality, hand-
cast Keith bullets for the .44
Magnum.
16 www.handloadermagazine.com
The 130-grain Nosler Partition inthe .270 Winchester can be pushed
to 3,000 fps using IMR-4831.
The45-120-314A Guide to Reloading and
Shooting the Mighty 45-120
Find us online at:www.getagripgunbooks.com
Address your questions tothe author Steve Carpenter
Phone: 920-833-2282
E-Mail:[email protected]
HOCH CUSTOM BULLET MOULDS
COLORADO SHOOTERS SUPPLYShop 575-627-1933 Home 575-627-6156910 N. Delaware Roswell, NM 88201
www.hochmoulds.com
Tool room quality, nose-pour,most standard or custom designs
made to order. Cylindrical(straight) or tapered. Rifle &
pistol designs available.
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
7/15
Terry Wieland
C
olchester, England, is agarrison town steeped inhistory. An hours drive
from London, Colchesterwas the site of the first Roman fortin Britain, has housed army gar-risons for 2,000 years and is stillhome to a British military prison. Acombination of ancient history andmodern military might give Col-chester a rather brooding air.
Roads leading to and from are narrow, twistingaffairs, except for the odd straight line, disappear-ing into the distance, that is descended straightfrom the Roman legions. You can almost hear the
tramping of sandaled feet.
On one winding road lies an otherwise nonde-script farmhouse with a few outbuildings, a flock ofgeese guarding the yard and a rottweiler smiling as
you get out of your car. You wouldnt think theredbe much to guard but youd be wrong.
This is the home of Arthur Smith and his companyArms Restoration Services. In the outbuildings liethe equipment to produce any kind of gun barrel,from a seven-tube, .40-caliber Nock Volley Gun tothe most modern 20mm helicopter-mounted rifled
cannon.
Arthur Smith loves rifles. Most particularly, he
Why? Why these monsters instead of somethingsmaller, more manageable, more . . . civilized?
I love the big stuff, Arthur says with a wickedsmile. It does something, and theres nothing elselike it.
Nothing else like it, indeed.
This lesson has been learned by the shooting in-dustry in the U.S., over and over. Throughout the1960s and 1970s, when any bore larger than .308was distinctly pass, there lurked beneath the sur-
lovesbig rifles.
Big bores. Afew years ago, he
built an exact replicaof Sir Samuel Bakers no-
torious Baby, a four-boreshoulder cannon that sets the stan-
dard for recoil, complete with nosebleeds and dis-located shoulders. Now Arthur is building along-range, single-shot, black-powder target riflechambered for the obscure .650 Gatling. His goal isto win Englands annual one-mile target match, shotat targets on a hillside across a windy valley.
CartridgesThat Smell
Gun68 Handloader 264www.handloadermagazine.com
C
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of
SmokeBig BoresLive OnFebruary-March 2010 69www.handloadermagazine.com
Between them, Ruger andHornady have done morethan any other Americancompanies to foster interestin older cartridges, withRuger chambering its
famous No. 1 in this case,a 450/400 3-inch (Jeffery) and Hornady providing brassand factory ammunition.
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most all the great, old big bores
were consigned to the wilder-
ness, interest was kept alive by
handloaders. If you owned a big
rifle, you had to load your own;otherwise, you didnt shoot. It
was that simple.
Even today, however, with an
ever-expanding array of factory
ammunition for many of these
cartridges and brass available
from various sources, handload-
ing is still a vital part of shooting.
Sure, you can shoot only factory,
but even if money is no object,
tridges. It took off and has sold
steadily. Then, around 1993, Bill
Ruger teamed up with Federal to
reintroduce the .416 Rigby. Withrifles and ammunition once more
readily available, the .416 had
new life and has never looked
back.
Bit by bit, it dawned on rifle-
makers that there was a market
for the old American buffalo car-
tridges, for the huge British dan-
gerous game rounds and even
antique military stuff like the
American .50-70 and the British
.577 Snider.
To Americans, anything over
.40 caliber is a big bore; to the
British, the minimum is .450. So
to head off arguments over se-
mantics, lets settle on .40 and
larger. This takes in such diverse
and wonderful cartridges as the
.40-70 Straight Sharps, as well as
the .416 Rigby and .404 Jeffery.
No one can look at one of those
beasts and argue it is not big.
From 1960 until 1990, when al-
For years, any rifle chambered in.45-70 found a market. Anything.That should have been a clue.
The world really began to takenote in 1991, when Wolfe Pub-lishing produced an anthology ofits big bore articles in a bookcalled Big Bore Rifles and Car-
70 www.handloadermagazine.com
Right, as a group, the .458s arethe most versatile of the big-bore
cartridges, with a wide rangeof bullets available, both cast
and jacketed. Some of the .458diameter bolt-rifle cartridgesinclude from left: .458 Winc-
hester, .458 Lott, .450 Ackley,.450 Short A-Square, .450
Dakota and .460 Weatherby.
In recent years, .416-caliber car-tridges have gained considerablepopularity with the .416 Rigby themost popular of all, even at a cen-tury old. From left, the .416 Rigby,.404 Jeffery, .416 Remington, .416Dakota and .416 Weatherby.
The Big Three of the originalnitro-express lineup are the .600NE, .577 NE and .500 NE. Dou-ble rifles for any of them areexpensive, but there is nothingquite like them.
Left, A-Squares behemoth, the
.577 Tyrannosaur, flanked by thediminutive (!) .458 Winchesterand the .460 Weatherby. LuridInternet videos to the contrary,the .577 Tyrannosaur can behandled by an experiencedshooter, but it really serves nouseful hunting purpose.
CartridgesThat Smell of
Gun Smoke
face a somewhat embarrassed fas-cination with the old, the big, thehard-smacking with cartridgesthat smelled of gun smoke.
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powder (a discipline all its own)
or to cast your own bullets.THE FRUSTRATING .40S
There is a gaggle of cartridgesin this group, from the diminutive.38-40 for lever actions all theway up to the .416 Rigby and, at
you will be missing 98 percent of
the fun of owning a .50-110, a.577 Snider or a .505 Gibbs. Eventhe more common cartridges,like the .45-70, .470 Nitro Expressand .416 Rigby, offer a widerange of shooting but only if
you handload.
There are so many aspects to
shooting big-bore cartridges targets or game, lead or jacketed,black powder or smokeless that for now well concentrate
jus t on put tin g bi g game car-tridges to general use, withoutthe need either to load black
February-March 2010 71www.handloadermagazine.com
Left, when you get to the .500s,there is no debate. These arebig bores. Shown here from left,with a .375 H&H looking daintyby comparison, are the .500 Jef-fery, .505 Gibbs, .500 A-Squareand .495 A-Square. The .500
Jeffery was made short and com-pact in order to fit a standardK98 Mauser action.
Right, with the .375 H&H (left)for comparison, these big boresare the .510 Wells, .505 Gibbsand .585 GMA. The .510 Wells
is ballistically identical (andphysically very similar to)
the new .505 Empire.
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The availability oftop-quality new brasshas breathed new life
into many old rifles,like this restored Doug
Turnbull RestorationWinchester Model1886 .40-65 WCF,
which still have cen-turies of life left, if
looked after properly.
Starline is just one company that
has jumped into making brassfor old rifles. Its .40-65 brass is
a staple among black powdercartridge competition shooters.
Handloader 264
dozen different bullet diametersused in these cartridges, from.403 to .425 inch. So, while theremay look to be a huge varietyavailable, there really is not forany one cartridge.
For years this was the bugaboofor the .416 Rigby. It came in onebullet weight, and your onlychoice was between softs andsolids. That even applied to bul-lets for reloading. This made it
difficult to practice very much logistically and economically.
At the other end, before cowboyaction came along, you couldrarely buy either jacketed or castbullets for the .38-40 in its requi-site .403 inch diameter. About thebest you could do was buy castbullets intended for the .40 S&W,
imprint a cannelure and take itfrom there. It was a truly labori-ous business if you shot any vol-ume. Well, let me reverse that:Because it was so laborious, noone shot it in any volume. Now.403-inch bullets are widely avail-able, in bulk.
Today cast bullets in .416 diam-eter with gas checks are readilyavailable, as are a wider varietyof bullets. There is still not agreat choice in bullet weights,but at least you can buy econom-
the high-diameter end, the .425Westley Richards. Famous .40-caliber shooters include Jim Cor-bett, W.D.M. Karamoja Bell,
John Taylo r and Ha rr y Se lb y.While any of the group offersconsiderable scope for handload-ing and fun shooting, the onecommon element is that thereseems to be no common element.
Factory bullet weights rangefrom 180 grains for the .38-40 up
to 450 grains for the .416 Rigby.By my count, there are at least a
72 www.handloadermagazine.com
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CartridgesThat Smell of
Gun Smoke
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
12/15February-March 2010
ical jacketed bullets for practice
ammunition.
Recently two famous British
rounds have come back in the
U.S., courtesy of Ruger and Hor-
nady. The 450/400 Nitro Express
(314 inch) and the 450/400 3 inch
(Jeffery), aka the .400 Jeffery, are
two of the original smokeless
adaptations of black-powder car-tridges. Interestingly, both tiger
hunter Jim Corbett and elephant
hunter Karamoja Bell used 450/
400 double rifles to back up their
preferred .275 Rigby (7x57) bolt
actions.
good hit the elephant went down;without a good hit, it didnt. Ashe described it, 800 grains oflead powered by 120 grains ofCordite made no perceivabledifference in killing power, al-though I expect it made a differ-ence in recoil.
Even the books do not agree onthe correct bullet diameters forall the .40s. With the big British
Until the advent of the .375 H&H
in 1912, the 450/ 400s were con-
sidered the best all-around car-
tridges for big and dangerous
game. The Jeffery variation is a
shorter case with a noticeably
shorter neck and sharper shoul-
der, designed to overcome al-
leged case-sticking problems
with the original.
At one point Bell carried out an
interesting experiment with his
450/400. Wanting to compare kill-
rounds, it is a good idea to slug
the bore and find out the actual
diameter before shopping for ei-
ther bullets or a bullet mould.
Many American lever actions de-
pend on the bumping effect of
black powder to expand an un-
dersized bullet to fit the bore,
and without this expansion you
get either poor accuracy or out-
right bullet tumbling.
73www.handloadermagazine.com
ing power, he shot elephantswith his .275, a .256 (6.5mm) andthe 450/400. When hit in the brain,
he saw no difference. When hitelsewhere, he saw no real differ-ence. So Bell wired the triggersof his 450/400 so both barrelswould fire at once. Again, with a
Left, although it is far from cheapat about $20 per round, Normasnew line of African PH ammuni-tion makes it practical to take bigbores, like this Granite MountainAfrican Magnum .505 Gibbs, to
Africa even if you dont handload.
Right, CZ offers its 550 Magnumin some major big bores, making
a .416 Rigby, .500 Jeffery or.505 Gibbs available to the
man of average means.
For years, any riflechambered in .45-70
found a market.
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
13/15Handloader 264
Bob Hayley, a bullet caster andcustom ammunition maker, hasfound that loading Unique behindsoft lead bullets will give thesame effect as black powder not as pronounced, perhaps, butsufficient to give decent accu-racy. I have tried it with a .38-55
and a .40-65 WCF, and it workedin both rifles.
Having worked with a .38-40,
hunting feral hogs and whitetailswith big-bore rifles, just for the
practice. Nothing like prowlingriver bottoms looking for hogswith a .458 Lott or .505 Gibbs atthe high port. You grow accus-tomed to the weight and feel ofthe rifle, and after awhile its as
much a part of you as your old 94.
To do this, you need either somelighter jacketed hollowpoints orsome soft lead bullets, and the.458 has plenty of both. If I had tohunt the rest of my life with justone rifle, it would very likely be a.458 Lott.
.40-70 Straight Sharps, .40-65,
.416 Rigby and 450/400 NE 3 inch
over the years, I have reached
the conclusion that there are
cheaper and easier ways to go in-
sane, but they are nowhere near
as much fun.
For sheer madness, however,
you would have to go far to beat
Arthur Smiths current project:building a Nock Volley Gun. This
is a seven-barrel, .40-caliber black-
powder rifle, originally a caplock
but in Arthurs version it uses a
standard primer inside an ig-
nition chamber. Each barrel is
loaded with black powder and
three .40-caliber lead balls. There
is a central barrel with the other
six barrels brazed around it and
flash holes from the center to the
outer barrels. When you pull the
trigger, the primer ignites the cen-
tral barrel, which in turn fires
the others, and all seven barrels
go simultaneously. You have 21
.40-caliber balls in the air at once.
Samuel Nock made these mon-
sters in both shoulder and hand-
held models. For charging leop-
ards? Perfect.
THE DIVINE .450SCompared to the .40s, the .45-
caliber cartridges are an oasis of
sanity and calm. Whether you are
shooting a .45-70, .450 Nitro Ex-
press, .458 Lott or .460 Weath-
erby, the bullet diameter is .458
inch. Its enough to make you fall
to your knees in thanks.
Of course, one mans sanity is an-
other mans boredom, which is
why mention of the .450s, Amer-ican or British, often draws yawns
from the crowd. Personally, know-
ing I can get anything from 250-
grain jacketed hollowpoints to
600-grain lead gas checks, and any
number of mono-metal expanding
and solid bullets, makes my .458
Lotts all that much more fun. In-
stead of worrying about whether I
can get them to shoot at all, I can
concentrate on getting them to
shoot exactly what I want.
The last few years, Ive started
Nothing else in the class hasquite the same versatility. The.45-70 is shy on power, while the.460 Weatherby, .450 Dakota andsimilar cartridges are restrictedto oversized actions that makefor rather awkward rifles. TheLott (and wildcats like the .450
Ackley) can fit into a standard.375 H&H-length action and makeup into a very handy and usable10-pound rifle. Install a good
74 www.handloadermagazine.com
CartridgesThat Smell of
Gun Smoke
The only new cartridge in thisgroup of original Kynoch nitro-express cartridges is the huge.700 H&H (extreme right).
For the big British rounds,Woodleigh provides bullets thatare first-rate performers on the
heaviest game as here in .505 inchfor the Gibbs, and duplicate theshape and ballistic performanceof the original Kynoch bullets.
To Americans,anything over .40
caliber is a big bore.
7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
14/15February-March 2010 75www.handloadermagazine.com
scope in a genuine detachable
mount, and you have a rifle that
fills just about every need except
300-yard prairie dogs. And I, for
one, can live without that.
The original .450 Nitro Express,
the cartridge that in 1898 rede-
fined hunting, was eclipsed after
1905 because of a .450-caliber
ban in the Sudan and India. Oncecartridges like the .470 NE were
developed to take its place, the
.450 never recovered. Thats un-
fortunate, because the original
.450 NE is a great cartridge. The
parent of the 450/400s, the .450
can be built into a slimmer, hand-
ier rifle than the .470 class, which
are all based on the heftier .500
NE case.
A double rifle or single shot, ei-ther falling block or break action,
is a wonderful all-around big
game rifle and has all the advan-
tages of the .458 Lott with vir-
tually identical ballistics. The
Lott can be loaded hotter, but it
is really at its best with a 500-
grain bullet at 2,200 to 2,250
fps. At 2,150, the .450 NE is not
far behind. A nice .450 NE double
weighs 9 to 10 pounds but bal-
ances like a fine shotgun and isvery quick for hogs or whitetails.
For anyone wanting to venture
The lead bullet, whether pureor tempered with tin or mercury(quicksilver), was an outstandinggame bullet at black-powdervelocities. The fouling problem
was overcome by patchingbullets with paper or lubricatingthem with grease.
into big-bore shooting, there is nobetter choice than the .458 Lott.
THE BIGGER-THAN-.450S
This category takes in virtuallyeverything else. Between .450and .500 lies a number of car-tridges around .475 diameter,including the famous .470 Nitro
Express.Most of the rifles chambered for
these cartridges are either dou-bles, and very expensive, or oldsingle shots. Aside from the fi-nancial obstacle, there is the bul-let dilemma: There are simply notmany bullets to choose from.
Bores range from .476 to .489,and because many of these rifleswere made by small shops, di-ameters vary even among rifles
chambered for the same cartridge.
The .470 premium, which hasapplied to double rifle prices forthe last 30 years, still exists. Otherchamberings are now becomingexpensive as well, but .470s arenot becoming any cheaper.
On the positive side, except forthe .475 NE No. 2 and the rare,straight-cased .475 NE, all thesecartridges are based on either the
.500 NE 3- or 314-inch case, sobrass is readily available or caneasily be resized.
THE HALF-INCHAND BEYOND
Cartridges .50 caliber and uphave been around since muzzle-loading days, and in fact most aredescended directly from muzzle-loading standards. The .577, forexample, was originally a 28-bore
one pound of lead divided into28 parts, with each 28th/poundball measuring .577 inch and ex-actly 250 grains.
In America, .50-caliber car-
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7/29/2019 Rifle Sporting Magazine
15/15
tion. You can even buy an off-the-
shelf rifle, the CZ 550 Magnum.
The .500 Jeffery for many yearswas the most powerful magazinerifle cartridge, finally shaded (on
paper) by the .460 Weatherby.The Jeffery has a clouded his-tory. The cartridge is short andfat, with a very short neck and
rebated rim. It is notoriously dif-ficult to make feed from a stag-gered box magazine. This is notsurprising, since it was designedoriginally to fit into a standardmilitary Mauser 98, fed from aspecial in-line magazine thatlines up the cartridge with thechamber. August Schuler in Ger-many is believed to have de-signed the cartridge, which wasthen adopted by Jeffery and re-
named the .500. Early Schulerand Jeffery rifles have this in-linemagazine. Recent rifles use astaggered box.
A better choice, in my view, isthe .505 Gibbs, which is biggerand roomier, with no pressure
problems. The only drawback isthat it uses a .505-inch bullet in-stead of .510, like virtually everyother .500. Finding cast bulletsin .506 can be a real problem,
but once you do, it makes a riflethat is as much fun as a big borecan be.
Beyond .50 there lie the .577,.600, various wildcats in .585 di-ameter, the .700 H&H and even12-bore rifles. In England in Sep-tember, I had the opportunity toshoot a Holland & Holland four-bore double under constructionfor an American client. The rifle
weighed 24 pounds and was dif-ficult to hold, offhand, for anylength of time.
I pulled the trigger twice andlived to tell the tale, with no dis-located shoulder, nosebleeds orspinning-top performances. Ofcourse, this rifle was consider-ably heavier than Bakers Baby,so that might account for it.
The one thing I can say in itsfavor: Going back to a .505 Gibbsfelt like I was shooting a varmintrifle. Well, almost.
tridges were common in buffalorifles, and the most famous shotever made on the frontier BillyDixon knocking an Indian off hishorse at 1,538 yards was madewith a .50-caliber Sharps.
As a result, cast bullets are read-ily available from any numberof sources, and bullet moulds
abound, both old and new. Any-one with a .50 is in good shape asfar as shooting materials go.
Among British double rifles andsingle shots, there is only the.500 Nitro Express, mostly in the3-inch version. After a century ofbeing an also-ran, the .500 issuddenly in great demand. Manynew double rifles chamber it, andolder ones are suddenly sportinga .500 NE premium. It certainlydeserves it, because its a greatcartridge. But it aint cheap toget into.
If you want to try a bolt actioninstead, the two bolt rifle .50s the .500 Jeffery and .505 Gibbs have suddenly seen a renais-sance, and you can not only buybrass but also loaded ammuni-
www.getbulletsandbrass.comReloading
Supplies &Equipment
408-857-8902 408-612-7801
NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADAMoose, Woodland Caribou & Black Bear Hunts
Book now for 2009 & 2010 Tel/Fax: (709) [email protected] www.biggamecanada.com
P.O. Box 159, York Harbour, NL, Canada A0L 1L0
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