Well, this past Saturday I received a package of 50 .375", 255 gr. jacketed soft point bullets from Mr. Dave Deering of Saint Petersburg, FL. A hobbyist maker, Mr. Deering is turning out a great product, in so far as I can tell without shooting them! They have been very consistent for weight, diameter, length, and finish. I'm personally hoping that these bullets will replace the Barnes original for my use.

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While I don't agree with all that the inheritors of Dr. Martin Luther King have done in his name, I do still have a great respect for this man. Recently, somebody on one of the forums I frequent made some negative comments about Dr. King by way of referring to the recent holiday in his honor as "James Earl Ray Day". It really pains me that some people just don't get why we have this great country and why we make the sacrifices we make (at least some of us make) to protect and preserve her. It also POs me that this fellow, by writing what he did, was working to perpetuate this myth of the gun owner as bigot. Got my goat and I had the following comments:

The Reverend Mr. King was killed by a white trash career criminal who used a Remington pump in .30-06. His birthday last Thursday was celebrated and commemorated by many people as was his holiday, yesterday. It is fitting and suitable that such people, heroes, be celebrated, remembered and honored. This is preferable to the honoring and popular beatification of people known only for drug use, mulitiple marriages/unions, and incidental creation of entertainment such as movies and music. Mr. King did more to preserve the union through his support of nonviolent civil disobedience than most who purport to support the same goals as Mr. King.

I well remember the night he was murdered. It was the night of my confirmation as a part of the body of Christ, the army of God. Our joy was completely ended when we returned home from worship to find that he had been ambushed by agents of evil in Memphis.

I served 27½ years in the military attempting to do my small part in preserving this country AND the ideals this country represents including those promulgated by the Reverend Mr. King. I take your comment, "...James Earl Ray day..." to be a personal insult. No thinking or righteous Christian person could make such a statement.

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On that same forum, a fellow was talking about wanting a good snubbie for carry and, as it turns out, to round out his collection. I had the following comments:

Years ago I got an M36, blue, 3". Of course it is .38 Special and I use the FBI Load. For a couple of years it was all I carried until...

I was threatened by some skinheads in my unit and the local PD detective recommended I be "prepared". I then got a Combat Commander in .45 ACP but switched to a M13 in .357 Mag when my wife went nuts seeing the Colt in cocked and locked mode. Sometimes I carry the very similar Ruger Speed Six 4" that was my dad's. All these guns have exposed hammers and I've experienced no problems. I feel very fortunate that my reputation saved me from actually having to use any of these in any but farm related vermin control.

I shot (as opposed to used or carried) the Ruger 101 in .357 and while it is bigger and heavier it (and its grip) handle the full-house .357 ammo better than anything else and this includes the K frames with factory grips (or factory grips and Tyler grip adapter).

I've never fired one of the new "flyweights". However, having seen other people fail to hit at 21 feet with the 2" M36 and 40, I would think that the flyweights would exacerbate control issues for many.

Even with farm use, I probably carry 6 months for every 1½ minutes of actual use. Carry comfort (and security) is extremely important and the holster makes a big, big difference but what works for each person is very dependent on body shape. For many, the rolls and folds make bigger pistols uncomfortable to carry and thus impractical. Weight is really important to some people but seems a bit overrated to me. I think an ankle holster is excellent for somebody who does a lot of driving but isn't so good if you're on foot. How you plan to carry should influence the choice of handgun. If one uses the pistol or revolver as you should, to break contact with the bad guy(s), your 640 or 649 should do for you.


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I've recently joined a new forum, AmericanLongrifles.com, which is very interesting. A recent thread titled, "Flints", has really gotten my interest. As a consequence, I'm learning far more than I expected to know about flint and gunflints.

Flint is a silicon based material that forms into nodules that settle in layers within beds of chalk. These layers are frequently disturbed by the forces of nature, such as the ice sheets and meltwaters of past ice ages - resulting in scatters of broken flints in the top soils, even outside of the chalk bed areas. Rivers, streams, and seas cut through the beds, and the broken flints are frequently rolled into the form of pebbles in the water. In Britain, the chalk bed areas are mainly resticted to the lowlands of Southern and Eastern England. Here, flint was frequently abundant. good nodules could be fond on or near to the surface, although in some cases, people would quarry and mine down to deeper layers for flint of a higher value. In areas of North-west Britain, where good flint was scarce (poor quality flint existed in the form of sea pebbles and derived nodules), it was imported, or when possible, replaced in use by igneous stone.

Flint has a slightly elastic nature, so that if it is struck hard, with a narrow point, it does not shatter - but fractures in a controlled manner. Energy dissipates in waves away from the point of impact, forming a cone. One side of this cone can be seen on the face of any flake that has been struck off the side of a prepared core of flint. The cone appears as a bulge on the new face of a flake, called the bulb of percussion or conchoidal bulb. This bulb, radiating away from a point of percussion, on a clearly defined striking platform is evidence that a flake of flint has been created by a sudden impact - usually in the hands of a human being.

The bulb itself is the best evidence of a sharp, sudden impact, but other clues can include: a bulbar scar - a scar frequently forms on the bulb of a flake, where the fracture occurred; ripples - waves of rings can sometimes be seen radiating from the bulb and point of impact. The sharper and harder the impact, the more pronounced the ripples; fissures - small scar lines can sometimes be seen shooting down from the point of percussion, over the bulb; flake scars can frequently be found on the back of the flake (dorsal surface), where flakes had previously been struck off the core; finally, utilisation - if a flake was actually used for a job, it might bear signs of wear along its edges, or even retouch.

French amber flints were an international standard. Apparently there were different knapping styles depending on regional preferences. Look in the upper left hand corner of this photo for an example of French gunflints found in Germantown, Tennessee during the late summer of 2002. Obviously, French gunflints will be found at sites of French occupation and where the natives with whom they traded lived. Another example of this is at the Gilbert, Texas site where gunflints such as these were found. However, there is a view that the English flints we think of as standard, were not. (See Buffalo Springfield's view) I tend to believe this as I've read much the same view elsewhere (and am searching for on-line documentation).

I haven't been posting here very often. My last post was on November 17 and that is about the last time I did anything shooting or hunting related (other than cruise the web).

There are a lot of things I want to do and accomplish this year and I hope to do them all.

One of the things I want to do is to get in better shape. I think this is critical especially for hunters who still hunt. Still hunting requires a lot of muscle control and uses muscles not often exercised. A very basic program can help tremendously and works for everyone because it is self regulating. That is, you automatically do only as much as you can and will develop/improve no matter at what level you begin.

The program? Push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts in sets of 3 (or 4 as you improve). In circuit take one minute timed excerise with a 45 second break between for the first push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts (in that order), then repeat but for only 45 seconds with a 30 second break between and again for 30 seconds with a 10-15 second break. Pushups move from close hand (diamond) to wide hand to standard in order to fully exercise all those related muscles. You can also vary the type of sit-up.

Primitive Seasons?

I wrote the following because of a discussion on a shooter/hunter forum. I didn't hit on all the details of the situation but it captures my visceral reaction to those who claim to have taken muzzleloading trophies when they use the in-lines.

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I remember when many states had no "primitive weapons" or "muzzleloading" seasons. This was a hot discussion item for many, hunters and biologists alike. Some thought those D@#% bow hunters and antique shooters were going to maim and cripple up all the deer (no one particularly cared about anything else!) so that they wouldn't have a deer to shoot OR they thought that these morons would pay the extra money for tags which would be available to be spent on game management without losing a single additional deer. In between, you did seem to have one or two who thought it was no big deal since their daddies or granddaddies had killed all their deer with a muzzleloader. There were big regional prejudices at work, too. In Kentucky they even had a primitive weapons only hunting AREA. Well, it was only natural, this was the "home" of Daniel Boone! What better place to have an area where you could hunt just like the old frontiersman himself! Well, after a bit the inertia was overcome and the laws written or regulations changed and muzzleloaders were allowed. Exact wording depended on the sophistication, knowledge, prejudices and politics of a whole lot of people. Now throw in the inevitable technological advances that will be made by those responsible for marketing and making money for their companies. What do you have? It sure as heck ain't primitive, it even extends to muzzleloading guns using canister grade smokeless powders! Who'da thunk it?

I can't imagine why anyone is surprised that there are hunters so desirous of extra hunting/field time that they will buy the extra license and equipment just to take advantage of the season.

Here in VA for a time, you only got one deer. Didn't matter what you used. Lots of "modern" gun hunters, a few muzzleloading and bow hunters. After all, who was going to spend that extra money for no extra opportunity, well, only the primitive nuts! Then, VA allowed hunters to harvest more of the herd and bag limits rose to 5 deer per season (even west of the Blue Ridge). Low and behold, hunters started to try bow and muzzleloading hunting. Heck, if they failed they could always get their deer during the 2 week regular season with a sure fire .30-06 (or equivalent). Then, the regular season was really crowded so a lot more hunters would show up for the one-week earlier muzzleloading season and get the jump on their buddies in the competition for those "big" bucks.

That created the market for the product improvements and it has been snowballing ever since. For the last few years the muzzleloading seasons have been more crowded than the "regular" gun season! Why not? Where long shots aren't much more than 100 yards hunters using modern in-lines and conical projectiles are at absolutely no disadvantage compared to .30-06/.30-30 shooters AND they get to start a week early. A concurrent change is in the view of this hunt by game managers who see it as a way to remove more deer from the herd and to better control regional populations.

Another interesting development here in VA is that regs prohibit the use of smoothbores (like my Brown Bess) during muzzleloading season but not during regular gun season (when I could use old Bess OR my 12 double barrel!). No, not due to ballistic inferiority, heck it's primitive... and allowed during the regular season with the pretty equivalent Foster slug loads. But we do allow in-lines (including the smokeless shooters) with any sabot and telescopic sights. So the true primitive hunter doesn't have a season unless that hunter doesn't mind competing with even more .30-30 equivalent guns. That's a big deal to the primitive shooters who originated the movement for muzzleloading seasons and are now outnumbered by the "anything to kill another deer" crowd.

Why is this a hot button for me? Well, even though I've seen this struggle since a formative part of the regulation process and even though my Dad was involved in these early discussions, I'm solidly on the traditionalist side of the fence. I'd like to be able to safely hunt deer during the ML season with my Bess even if that means that I have to get just as close as I do when carrying my stick-bow. I've never hunted to kill but to go to that place (and time) to which I'm transported. A place where a man was a man and not some product of a nagging wife and gang of 5 nutty queers.

Well, there were no deer seen today. However, I got there this evening and clearly they are in the area in the morning. Unfortunately, although there are a few rubs, it isn't yet the rut here and I've not seen any bucks at all. All deer seen, some probably more than once, are does. None have been seen at more than 90-100 yards, well within range of the .41 Remington Magnum Contender carbine.

In doing chores this morning I had to pass the public range and picked up several pounds of rifle brass. Mostly .243 Winchester and .30-30 with some .30-06 and .30 carbine. Undoubtedly, there are some similar rounds, possibly .260 or 7mm-08 Remington, as I didn't have a chance to actually sort through it on the range. About one third is in the vibratory polisher now.

This brings me to a related subject, the relative popularity of various rounds. Among the non-reloaders of the centerfire rounds #1 is clearly the .30-30, with .30-06 a close second followed by .270 Winchester, 7.62x39mm, .308 and .243 Winchester, and the .44 Remington Magnum. Also in the running is the .30 Carbine but I hesitate to include it as it is clearly being fired in "fun" guns as are HUGE quantities of .223/5.56mm ammo. While I've no need for the brass for reloading, now that I have a buyer for scrap brass I'll probably be picking every single case up for one use or the other.

Pistol rounds are represented by 9mm Luger/Parabellem, .40 S&W (police shooters practicing I think), .45 ACP, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .380 Auto, .45 GAP (Glock Auto Pistol), and even the .50 AE! I don't have any idea what I'd use them for, but I couldn't let those huge cases just sit there!

Well, finally, a post!

Today was the first day of the "regular gun season" here in VA. I wouldn't have been able to go but we had an electrical problem at work and so were closed today. I went to Mom's farmette and set up in the aptly named Doe Hollow. After about 30 minutes the squirrels and other fauna were back to their normal routine and shortly after that a mature doe came quietly up the hollow. Completely unaware of me, she moved to a slash pile in the middle of the recently cut over area and after going all the way around it she was satisfied it was safe and bedded down where she could look both ways up and down the hollow. I had several opportunities but it is not a doe day and in any case, I don't want to take does in this area. However, try as I might, I could not will a buck into following her in to my sights. After 3 hours the wind changed and I think she felt a little uncomfortable so got up and moved back down the hollow and out of sight. I didn't pursue but felt that this was a pretty good indication that there weren't any other deer there today so I went home.

I don't know about you but on the first day of the season, and a Saturday (we can't hunt in VA on Sunday), I don't really feel safe on public land. I used to and that is when there was more hunting pressure than today. However, I think there are some real bozos out there who weren't brought up hunting by their fathers/uncles and just come unglued when they think there's a deer around.

I was carrying my .41 Mag barrel, the one that has the Simmons Turkey 4X scope mounted. For some reason I can't get used to this scope and I guess one reason is the narrow field of view (compared to my other 2.5X scopes) and another is that I can see the inside of the scope when looking through it. However, the cartridge and scope were well up to taking this deer if needed as she was within 70 yards of me.

Temps got to 48 degrees (from 32 this morning) but it was overcast all day and threatening rain. Also it was sporadically windy which made it slightly uncomfortable to sit on the ground for over 4 hours. I'm not 18 any longer!

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.

210 gr. XTP over the Hogdon charge of 22.5 gr. Lil'Gun when used in the 16¼" Bullberry barrel :

For 5 shots - 1872, 1845, 1871, 1863, 1837, avg 1858, ad 13, sd 16, for 1609 fpe at 7 yards. This is better than what I get from factory Winchester 200 gr. .35 Remington ammo in my 21" factory barrel. It probably doesn't carry as well as the .35 caliber bullet but it is usable without sight adjustment to 150 yards, shooting into just under 2" at that range from sitting position. My Rynite stocked Contender weighs just 5 lbs, scoped. For our area, this is one handy little deer gun!

BTW, these were taken in 50-55 degrees and correspond very closely (as I remember it) with the velocities taken on a 90 degree day.

I also took the .25-35 out with the load of 8 gr. SR4759 under the Remington 86 gr. JFP intended for the .25-20. Avg velocity/energy was 1191/268. Using the lower vertical leg of the duplex reticule as a post it went into a cloverleaf at 25 yards, on POA. This is exactly the use this load was intended for and I'll be making up more of them.

So, now I've got time to discuss recent events.

First, I thought I'd sit down with the 7mm TCU and form some more brass. Let me digress a bit and say that I like to have lots of ammo on hand. I don't know why, but I do. Anyway, I wanted to form some more brass for the 7mm TCU and after I ran the mil surp brass through the sizing die I needed to fireform it. Looking around on the bullet shelf revealed that I had 140 gr. Nosler BTs, 139 gr. Hornady FPs, 120 gr. Hornady VMAX (the replacement for the discontinued SSP) and a cast 140 gr. FPGC from Beartooth Bullets. Due to the shortness of the 7mm TCU neck, I don't think it is suitable for the cast bullet (I don't want the lubed bullet to extend into the body of the case or for the lube grooves to be exposed).

I decided to load up some of the 139 gr. Hornady FPs over 25 gr. of H4895. These bullets were intended and purchased for loading in my 7-30 Waters (also a Contender carbine) but I was not really excited by them in that cartridge and they were going to sit on the shelf if I didn't use them now. I had my Chrony along with me and these clocked an average of about 2000 fps from the 21" 7mm TCU. Now that's not moving very fast but it was accurate, giving 1-1¼ inch groups at 100 yards. Accuracy out to 150 yards was gratifying. So...

I wanted to see if I could speed it up to forecast velocities (the manual showed 2100+ fps in a 14" barrel!), so I loaded it over H335, a slightly slower powder which might do a bit better. Velocities with the H335 did get 2100+ fps but not plus by much! Mine must be a "slow barrel" as it gets only 2400 fps with 29.4 gr. H4895 and 2450 fps with 30.5 gr. H335 under the 120 gr. Hornady OR 130 gr. Sierra SSP bullet. Getting back to this particular load, the H335 charge didn't change accuracy one iota. I think this is a pretty good bullet, but I don't know in what application I'd use it. It gets a full 400 fps less in the TCU than in the Waters cartridge. I don't even know if it matters as I've run out of those bullets, don't plan on buying more and have moved on...

To the .30 Herrett (again). My base, standard, load is the 130 gr. Hornady SSP over 24 gr. of H4227. This exceeds the manual recommendation (but I've seen it elsewhere and in an older manual) so once again I can't accept any responsibility for your use of this data or application of this information. This load gets about 2200 fps from the 14" barrel with the Choate extension (now discontinued). It will give groups of about 1-1.5" at 100 yards. I understand that this bullet has also been discontinued by Hornady. It is hard for me to understand why. Perhaps somebody can explain this decision to me.

I thought that perhaps I might find a "varmint" load which I could substitute for my all purpose load using the SSP bullet when hunting groundhogs and coyotes. To that end I bought some Hornady 110 gr. VMAX. Looking over the various manuals, I came to the conclusion that 23 gr. H110 under this bullet would provide the best ballistic performance. The first test cases I loaded up to this level were primed with the CCI 200 primer.

I must digress again to say that while it is often recommended that one use Magnum primers with the ball powders, I've found that it is not necessary but also not always the best performer. However, the recommendation is not made lightly and it was true in this case!

Velocities ranged from 2490 to 2190 fps and the SD was 121! Clearly unacceptable, I thought to improve things by switching to the CCI 250 (a "magnum" primer) and adjusting my dies to give a stronger or tighter crimp. This did the trick! Not only did the average velocity come up but the SD dropped to the lower double digits. This had to bode well and it did. A 3 shot group at 100 yards (the target fell during the string) was less than 1" and cluster around the "X". I still don't know if Hornady intends for this bullet to replace the SSP, but at least I have a load for it.

I've also been messing about with the Leadheads PN30-149G .310" bullet. Using 5 gr. of Unique gave an average velocity of 892 fps and 12 gr. SR4759 gave 1320 fps. If I remember correctly, that's 245 and 575 fpe respectively. We're talking .32-20 power, suitable for small game and that is my intent. However, it is a bit more bullet weight than necessary so I was going to order a 115 gr. bullet from Beartooth Bullets but the on-line system would not work for me today. Oh well...

I need to get out and chronograph the .38-55 and .41 Remington Magnum loads. I hope to post the results and my comments on Tuesday.

Well, we've had two (2) storms since the last. So much for the every 18 years thing!!!! However, water never backed up despite all that Isabel and the next storm 3 days later... Plus, removing everything from the floor certainly helped.

I've been to the range and shot some to check some loads. I'm hoping I'll find time to do more than hit-and-run and provide some details. However, I've been disappointed with use of H322 in the 7mm TCU and the H110/Hornady .308 110 gr. VMAX combo. All I need is more time.

This year I've got several rifles of similar performance from which I must choose one (or two) to take hunting. We'll see.

Currently, early mourning dove, goose and squirrel seasons are in. No geese taken, 6 dove and I've not been squirrel hunting.

After many months of distractions, I finally got around to trying higher velocity loads for the 200 gr. Sierra MK in the .30 Herrett. No go. Still tumbled. Not that I really expected differently, but I had to try....

I've also been rereading past posts. I must say that I saw many typos and for that I apologize. I'm often in a hurry to produce my posts, but that is no excuse for poor performance on my part.

I also discovered that 8 gr. of IMR SR4759 is the ticket for the 86 gr. Remington SP (intended for the .25-20 cartridge) in the .25-35 Winchester. Shoots to POA at 50 yards when sighted for the 117 gr. RN load. Excellent. However, rain has prevented chronographing this load for the moment.

I've also gone back and redone my ammo shelf. The Rubbermaid shelf was not rated for and would not handle the weight I was putting on it. Severe sagging made it difficult to store the amount of ammo and brass I needed to put on the shelf. The replacement shelf is made using 2x4s and a product that simplifies assembly/construction from 2 x 4 Basics. I configured mine for 6 shelves, each of which will hold 4 .50 cal ammo cans + 1 .30 cal ammo can or some combination. Interestingly, the .50 cal cans are 7" wide and 2 .30 cal cans are 7¼". A small, USPS Priority Mail cube box is 7" on the side. This made for neat storage of ammo and "ready to ship" brass. Although you can't see it in the picture (which may not be posted yet), there is room on the back side of the shelf for a second can for any particular cartridge. All the cans are labeled on the latch handle and on the top of the can with the cartridge contained therein. Cans are stored with the largest caliber cartridges on the bottom shelf in caliber order (more or less).

One of the reasons I moved so quickly to do this is that recent torrential rains had caused a flash flood in my basement. This is where ALL my shooting stuff is (other than my library and gun safes). Fortunately, this did force my wife to get rid of a large amount of junk she'd been saving for a yard sale. Some of it had been through several yard sales with no takers. Junk, now wet and now gone. One can actually walk through the whole basement, not sidle through narrow passages...

Fortunately, I had prioritized moving my good stuff up vertically and none of it was touched by the water. This seems to happen about every 18 years, we may not be here for the next occurence.

Cat Sneeze Loads

I’ve been told that I should post here more often and in greater detail. I’d like to, but I do have interests other than shooting. Yes, it is a bit sacrilegious, but true. In any case I do have several shooting projects in the works and am constantly playing about and trying new things.

One of those shooting projects is the so-called cat sneeze or silent loads.

Well, what is a “silent load” or “cat sneeze” load

What are these loads good for? Well, for me, the utility of such loads is as a companion to my deer caliber guns that I can use for small game hunting, or pest removal, when a full-power load would be inappropriate.

What are the parameters of such loads? First, of course, seems to be the necessity of silence or as near to that as is possible. This is often the over-riding concern of those interested in such loads. Often, silence or quietness has preference over terminal performance.

Second, bullet weight could be lighter than normal for the cartridge to heavier than normal for the cartridge. Using the .30-30 Winchester (aka .30 Winchester Center Fire or WCF) as an example, 100 grain bullets on the light side and 180 grain bullets on the heavy side. Both extremes are acceptable but serve different purposes. That is the lighter bullets being used for small game and the heaviest possible bullets being used to maximize terminal performance at the low velocities attained in these loads.

That brings us to the third primary characteristic of these “silent loads” (also called cat sneeze loads) and that is small charges of relatively fast powders for velocities in the 500-1000 fps range. I’d like to point out that the smaller the charge, the lower the gas volume resulting in lower sound levels (and velocity) at the shot.

So now, the question no doubt is, “What guns have you developed loads for?” and, “Hobie, what are your loads?”

Let me try to answer that. I am currently primarily interested in such loads for my Contender carbine barrels. It is here that they will have the greatest possible use. Those cartridges include: .25-35 Winchester, 7mm TCU, 7-30 Waters, .30 Herrett, .30-30 Winchester, .357 Maximum, .35 Remington, .41 Remington Magnum, .44 Remington Magnum, and .45-70. These are the cartridges for which I have chambered barrels at this time. Yes, I do carry these deer hunting and yes, I do want to be able to take squirrel, turkey, rabbit, and certain feral animals if the opportunity presents itself.

As you might have noticed, hunting season of one kind or another has arrived. Doves, geese, and who knows what else (my mom's neighbor is running dogs on coons already during the "practice" season). Life is good. We've got plenty of rain and prospects of a good season all around. Please, be safe, watch where you're pointing that gun and check your backstop.

You might have noticed that sometimes you can get the pics and sometimes you can't. All I can say is that is the way it is. I've no explanation for it and I'm not happy about it. Some pics will sometimes show when others from the same directory/folder won't. Other times none show and usually, all will show. Don't know whats up with what on that.

This year I bought a TC Custom Shop 21" .25-35 Winchester barrel for my Contender. With the factory 117 gr. RN load (2150 fps)or the European version 6.5x52R (S&B, 2000 fps) it is a mild recoiling fun cartridge. Handloading can get "improved" performance if improved performance means higher velocity but I don't see it as necessary. I am loading the Hornady 117 gr. RN to 2250 fps and this load suits me fine.

Remington's 86 gr. ".25-20" bullet comes with 2 cannelures, the one closer to the base being correct for the .25-35 and giving the correct LOA. My goal is upper end .25-20 velocity or a bit more. I've tried 14, 13, 12 and 11 gr. of SR4759 but while accurate at 50 yards it is a bit "smokey". However, as I've said before, maybe that isn't important if I bother to clean the barrel! Today, I took out the loads with Rem. 86 gr. jacketed FP for the .25-20 and 10 gr. of IMR SR4759. Shazzam! Right on at 50 yards with the same sight setting as the 117 gr. for 100. Hooorah. I keep wanting to use this powder because of the high loading density.

Then... I had to try out some more of the 75 gr. VMAX burners. What do you know, I finally found out how to hold the duplex reticule for that load. As best as I can describe, I use the bottom of the top thick leg of the reticule, sort of like an inverted post reticule. Right on at 150, a little high at 100. Heck, these might even be usable!

BIG difference in recoil and muzzle blast between the two loads (not as though there is a lot of recoil in this cartridge).

I've been doing a lot of work with this cartridge. Funny, I never expected to. It is just a fun cartridge to work with and I really like it. Now, I've got a good small game load, a good big game load and a usable coyote load! I'm chuffed.