I guess I've done a lot of random thinking the last few days. These are some of my random thoughts.

Reloading New Brass Over the last 30 years I've used a lot of brass made by various manufacturers. I've found that the best way to ensure the necessary uniformity when loading new brass is to full-length size (this makes it the same as all your other ammo) and square the case mouth (as a minimum, you may have to trim...). There are almost always case mouths that are out of round and not square. While a particular lot will let you get by without doing this, there may be one case within any given lot which will give your problems if you don't. I've even had some cases in which the mouth split, even before the first firing. To me this is a quality check and assurance step which you can't avoid.

Magazines and Books I've been going through my old magazines and books this past year. A number of books on military history, etc. were given (yep donated gratis) to the 116th Infantry Regiment Library for the use of the Regiment and the library's other patrons. You'd be surprised as to how much you'll be able to write off, if you can get the institution to accept the books.

The magazines are another story. Most magazines I have subscriptions to are of the shooting and hunting variety. Several of these I keep. The question is, how do I keep them out and available and still leave my office looking as though it is clean? Easy, Walmart, and any office supply store, has these neat plastic magazine holders designed for exactly this use. WOW! Clean and neat. About 18 issues of any particular magazine will fit in one of these. I sort mine by magazine and the rotate out the oldest as the newest comes in.

Now, of course, I'm not just tossing these. Why, that wouldn't ber very environmentally responsible, would it? What I do is to clip the articles that I simply can't do without. They are filed in one of those neat see-through plastic things that goes in a 3 ring binder. Filed by caliber, gun type/model, etc. the articles are always easy to find (relatively). All the magazines then go to another shooter. Now, he might not be happy about having articles (and sometimes, parts of articles) missing, but then again, he's not paying anything for the magazine!

.38-55 Winchester Just found a new (to me) magazine called Shooting Illustrated. In the most recent news stand copy was an article by one of my favorite writers, Sam Fadala. The subject?, the .38-55 Winchester! Whoooo-hoooo!! However, one of the loads he uses in his modified M336CB is 31 gr. of H4198 with the 255 gr. Winchester jacketed bullet. The Hogdon manual shows 28 gr. as a top load, but the pressure is a very low 26,000 CUP or so. I'm not willing to endorse this load, but I might try it, it produces 2000 fps in his gun! Note please, that he's getting his bullets from factory ammo. He pulls them and reloads with H4198.

I had a great day at the range today, if one counts a lot of time wasted as a great day. Well, you know the old saying, "A bad day at the range beats a good day at work."

Anyway, I took the .22 WMRF barrel and zeroed at 50 yards. Also found how to hold when shooting the .22 WRF at that range. Good.

Chronographed the .38-55 loads:

18 gr. H4227, Leadheads 249 gr. PB, CCI 200, 1225 fps/833 fpe, AD 20, SD 24.
28 gr. IMR 3031, Cast Performance 265 gr. GC, CCI 200, 1553/1420, 13, 17.
32 gr. H322, Barnes Original .375 255 gr. JSP, CCI 200, 1768/1770, 5, 7.

My rifle has a.375" bore and weighs 6 lbs. Recoil energy for the above loads was 8.07, 15.59, and 19.40 fpe respectively. Groups were about .5-.75" at 50 yards. This is with a Williams FPRS. The front is a bit high and I'm going to file it down a bit so that I can lower the rear sight. I want to do that so that it isn't so exposed to damage.