more than 400 loads for the .308 winchester! … · 22 alliant sport pistol propellant profiles -...

.357 Magnum

.38 Special

9mm Luger

Lipsey’s RUGER VAQUEROThree timeless cartridgesOne classic revolver

HANDLOADERHANDLOADER®

Ammunition Reloading Journal

RIFLE’S

April 2018 No. 313

More than 400 LOADS for the .308 WINCHESTER!

Rise of the

Nosler PARTITION

Alliant’s New Sport Pistol

The TROPHY BONDED TIP is BACK!

6 A Half-Century of Cast Bullets Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

10 Fitting Case Necks to a Rifle Chamber Practical Handloading - Rick Jamison

14 Can Powder Reaction Split .44 Magnum Cases? Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

18 .22 Long Rimfire Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

22 Alliant Sport Pistol Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

24 Colt’s Government Model .45 Automatic From the Hip - Brian Pearce

28 .38 Super Cast Bullet Loads Mike’s Shootin’ Shack - Mike Venturino

30 6.5 Shooting Times Westerner Wildcat Cartridges - Layne Simpson

FEATURES

34 Switch-Cylinder Ruger Vaquero Loads for a Three- Cartridge Revolver (9mm, .38 Special, .357 Magnum) John Haviland

40 Trophy Bonded Tip The Reintroduction of a Prominent Bullet John Barsness

46 .308 Winchester Field Loads for a Timeless Cartridge Brian Pearce

56 From the Ground Up The Rise of the Nosler Partition Terry Wieland

62 British No. 1 Mk III & Pattern 1914 Battle Rifles in Transition Mike Venturino

On the cover . . .A Lipsey’s Ruger New Vaquero .357 Magnum with a 9mm cylinder. Chris Downs photo.

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COLUMNS

Handloader 313

70 The Thorny Business of Brass In Range - Terry Wieland

Page 10 . . .

Page 34 . . .

Page 18 . . .

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Treading the aisles of the an-nual Shooting, Hunting and

Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show is great fun, made much more so by those stops of particular in-terest to me as a handloader. One of those stops is the Vista Out-doors area, which encompasses Federal Cartridge, RCBS, Speer, CCI and Alliant Powder, among many other brands. At the Alli-ant Powder booth in 2017, friend Ben Amonette told me about Sport Pistol powder.

I was handed a new product release and several pages of load data and, later in the year, a cou-ple of canisters of the new powder. Frankly, it took a while for me to get my head around this new propellant. Not in how it is used, which was easy, but its purpose, given that Alliant already makes some of the oldest and most re-vered handgun powders on the market. I bow to no one in my re-spect for such stalwarts as Bull-

seye and Unique, but I have to admit they aren’t the cleanest burning, nor do they meter as well as they might.

A close reading of the product release and talking with Ben fi-nally made it clear. Sport Pistol is aimed at the competitive pistol shooter, whether Bullseye, IPSC, USPSA, IDPA or any of several others. Their commonality is that participants in these disciplines shoot a lot and typically use pro-gressive reloading presses. So a clean-burning powder that meters well and has a proper burn rate should appeal to them.

Sport Pistol qualifies in spades, as it burns very cleanly, meters exceptionally well, is of the right burn rate, exhibits a low muzzle flash and is stable over a wide range of temperatures. In addition to all that, the powder was formu-lated for use with polymer-coated bullets, a segment of the bullet realm currently enjoying a grow-ing popularity.

To delve more deeply into this powder, note that Sport Pistol is double base with a nitroglycerin content of 10 percent. It is extruded with a diameter of .034 inch and a length, or thickness, of .008 inch. This accounts for its exceptional metering and why it may be more properly referred to as extruded rather than flake, as one might characterize Bullseye or Unique. A medium dark gray in color, the powder has a bulk density of .680 g/cc, giving it a case-filling attri-bute when used in small-capacity pistol cartridges. Its burning rate is slower than Bullseye, on a par with American Select among Alli-ant powders and similar to Hodg-don’s Titegroup and Vihtavuori’s N320, among its likely competi-tors. To the extent such distinc-tions are possible, Sport Pistol is

a pistol powder as opposed to a re-volver powder, even though many revolver cartridges are among the early published load data. In those instances the most common pairing is with cast bullets, with plinking or recreational shooting as its likely purpose. The powder is manufactured at the Radford Arsenal facility in southwest Vir-ginia, where all other Alliant flake handgun and shotshell powders are made. Although initially de-signed as a canister powder, it is already making its mark in the OEM trade in many applications.

Sport Pistol should have the most success in pistol cartridges such as 9mm Luger, .40 S&W and

PROPELLANT PROFILES by R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

AlliAnt sPort Pistol

Alliant Sport Pistol Select Handloads

cartridge bullet charge velocity (grains) (grains) (fps)

9mm Luger 124 4.4 1,039 147 3.7 876.38 Special 148* 2.7 550 158* 3.5 723.357 Magnum 158* 6.0 1,081.357 Magnum 158 6.0 1,037.40 S&W 165 5.2 1,021 180 4.6 923.44 Special 240* 5.0 744.44 Magnum 240* 8.5 1,183.45 Colt 250* 6.3 741.45 ACP 200* 5.7 980

* cast bulletNotes: Federal 100 or 150 primers were used. Barrel lengths: .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .40 S&W 4 inches; .44 Special, .44 Magnum, 7.5 inches; .45 Colt, 4.75 inches; .45 ACP, 5 inches.Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data. Listed loads are only valid in the test firearms used. Reduce initial powder charge by 10 percent and work up while watching for pressure signs.

23April-May 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com 23April-May 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com

.45 ACP – competition cartridges all – where consistent metering, a clean burn, low muzzle flash and desirable load density are para-mount.

I began my review of Sport Pis- tol with the 9mm Luger. Alliant has load data for the standard-pres-sure cartridge with a maximum pressure level of 35,000 psi, and in its +P guise. I restricted testing to the former and enjoyed excellent performance with both 124- and 147-grain bullets from Speer.

The only disappointment came with the .38 Special and the 148- grain cast bullet. The published powder charge was 2.7 grains with a projected velocity of 701 fps from a 6-inch barrel. While I was using a 4-inch Ruger Security Six, I did not expect to lose as much velocity as I did, recording a rather meager 550 fps. The answer, of course, is a bit more powder. Accuracy was good, though. From the same gun, a 158-grain cast bullet over 3.5 grains crossed the chronograph screens at 723 fps, about what was expected given the difference in barrel length. Interestingly, the .357 Magnum, in the same gun with 158-grain cast bullets ex-ceeded Alliant’s projections with a 2-inch-shorter barrel and .2 grain less powder. I also tried a Speer 158-grain jacketed bullet with the same charge, and velocity dropped only slightly. Accuracy was, again, good in both instances. This Se-curity Six is more than 40 years old. It has been slicked up a bit and sports a fine set of Herrett stocks, but I am constantly amazed at its accuracy and how pleasurable it is to shoot.

The .40 S&W was up next with both Sierra 165- and 180-grain bul-lets. My 4-inch Smith & Wesson Sigma matched the Alliant barrel, and in both instances velocity was just a tick under published data. Accuracy was up to par with that gun and cartridge.

The rest of the cartridges were all presented with cast bullet data. In .44 Special, Alliant used a 5.5-inch Colt SAA. I used my old favor-ite Ruger Super Blackhawk with its

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www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 31334

RUGER VAQUERO

Switch-Cylinder

www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 31334

April-May 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com 35

Loads for aThree-Cartridge Revolver

(9mm, .38 Special, .357 Magnum)

Shooting a cylinder full of .38 Special cartridges in the Ruger single-action Vaquero revolver with a 45⁄8-inch barrel required raising up the front sight blade to hit targets at 25 yards.

John Haviland

Ruger introduced its New Vaquero revolver in 2005, and ever since it has been a favorite of real and wannabe cowboys – and everyone else who likes shooting a slick, single-action re-

volver. Various Vaquero models include blued or stainless steel metal, and a Bisley model, with 3.75-, 45⁄8- or 5.5-inch barrels chambered in .45 Colt or .357 Magnum. A Single Action Shooter Society two-gun set is also available.

Ruger got it right with its Vaquero. The long tail of the hammer is easy to reach with the thumb of the shooting or support hand and a smooth click, click pull cocks the hammer. It weighs a rather heavy 43 ounces. The revolver’s slen-der grip fits the palm of the hand, and the base of the thumb wraps around the backstrap to keep the gun on an even keel; it seems to point itself.

The Vaquero’s sights include a rounded blade front sight that aligns in a grooved top strap. The instruction manual for the Vaquero states “… revolvers feature a blade front sight and fixed rear sight. They are set to be on target at 15 yards.” The manual does not mention a particular bullet weight and velocity that is “on target.”

I was leery of the fixed sights the first time my son and I shot the Vaquero with a variety of .38 Special and .357 Magnum cartridges, as the revolver consistently

April-May 2018 www.handloadermagazine.com 35


shot below point of aim at 25 yards with the top of the front sight even with the top of the grooved topstrap. Groups were not tight enough to tell exactly how much the various loads hit below aim.

Wholesale firearms distributor Lipsey’s recently took the blued Va-quero .357 Magnum a step further by supplying the revolver with an extra 9mm Luger cylinder. I won-dered how a 9mm cylinder would make the handgun any more ver-satile, as the .357 Magnum cylin-der will readily shoot .38 Special ammunition.

Once I began shooting the Va-quero, it became apparent that 9mm ammunition turned in much more uniform velocities than the .38, and a check of several ammu-nition websites showed the lowest

price for a box of 50 9mms was about $5 less than comparable .38 Special ammunition.

Finding loads for the Vaquero that hit on target was part of the purpose of handloading 9mm, .38 Special and .357 Magnum car-tridges.

9mm HAndloAds

Nine-millimeter jacketed bullets measure .355-inch in diameter. The groove diameter of the Vaquero’s barrel no doubt measures .357 inch. (Although I did not drive a lead slug through the bore, as the re-volver was not mine.) There might be some concern about poor ac-curacy resulting from the slightly undersized 9mm bullets fired through the Vaquero’s bore. My CZ Model 527 7.62x39 has a .310-inch groove diameter, and the rifle is very accurate when shooting .310-inch and .308-inch bullets. Such was the case with the Vaquero, as various 9mm cartridges shot

nearly as accurate as .38 Special loads. However, experience has shown swaged lead and cast bul-lets that are somewhat narrower than a barrel’s groove diameter shoot poorly and leave massive smears of lead in the bore.

The 9mm has a relatively small case, and about 5 grains of various powders under a 115- or 147- grain bullet fairly well fills a case. Powder kept tightly together and

RUGER VAQUERO

The Vaquero comes with one cylinder that accommodates .357 Magnum and .38 Special cartridges, and a

second cylinder for 9mm Luger cartridges. These three cartridges provide a nearly

endless combination of loads for the revolver.

This 25-yard group consisted of Speer 125-grain Gold Dot bullets and 9.5 grains of Unique loaded in .357 Magnum cases.

This group was shot at 25 yards with 9mm Luger cartridges loaded with Speer 147-grain TMJ bullets and 5.2 grains of Blue Dot powder.

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against the primer flash hole aids in uniform powder burn to produce even velocities. A few of the vari-ous powders loaded with 115- and 147-grain bullets produced extreme velocity spreads of about 100 fps, but most combinations turned in extreme spreads of 30 to 50 fps.

To remove human error, I clamped the Vaquero in a Cald-well HAMMR mechanical hand-gun rest. All of the 9mm loads hit way below aim at 25 yards. Vary-ing charge weights of individual powders did next to nothing to raise bullet impact, as minimum to maximum charges for the 9mm differ by about a grain at the most.

The slower a bullet was fired, the higher it hit on the target at 25 yards. For instance, Speer 115- grain bullets fired at 1,362 fps hit 13 inches below aim, but the

same bullet fired at 1,100 fps hit 10 inches below aim. Because the slower bullet remains in the barrel longer and gives the muzzle more time to rise, the bullet hits higher.

Speer 147-grain bullets had a muzzle velocity about 400 fps slower than the lighter 115-grain bullets. The heavier bullets hit a few inches higher on targets at 25 yards, yet still far below aim. I held the Vaquero in my hands and shot some 9mm loads containing 5.7 grains of Blue Dot and Speer 147-grain bullets. The bullets hit 6 inches below aim at 25 yards, compared to the 8.5 inches below aim when clamped in the HAMMR rest.

.38 sPeCiAl HAndloAds

Some of the .38 Special loads shot through the Vaquero had such

wide velocity spreads I thought I had forgotten how to read a reloading scale and loaded in-correct amounts of powder. For instance, 110-grain bullets had velocity spreads of 227 and 251 fps loaded with Winchester 572 powder. Speer 125-grain bullets had velocity spreads approaching 300 fps when fired with Ramshot Silhouette. Velocity spreads were so great, the powder was omitted from the accompanying load table.

Rob Behr at Western Powders, which owns Ramshot and Accu-rate powders, said they had consid-ered dropping Silhouette powder from the .38 Special reloading data section in Western’s new reloading manual (www.westernpowders.com), but opted instead to increase the minium starting charge, which solved the problem. The deterrent coating on Silhouette powder, and the fact that a charge of it oc- cupies only a small portion of a .38 Special case, cause the pow-der to ignite poorly and produce erratic velocities. “There was a real concern about lodging a bullet in a barrel using Silhouette,” he said.

Behr said the wide extremes of velocity in the .38 Special are caused by positional sensitivity. The .38 Special cartridges con-tain a relatively small amount of powder compared to its case size. That allows powder to settle any which way in a case and prevents an even powder burn. A more uni-form burn can be achieved by keeping a powder charge toward

The test revolver produced this 25-yard .38 Special group with Lyman 358156 cast

bullets and 3.8 grains of IMR Target.

Left, with .357 Magnum loads the Vaquero shot this group with Sierra 158-grain JHC bullets and 12.5 grains of Enforcer.

SIG Sauer Elite Performance .38 Special cartridges

loaded with 125-grain FMJ bullets also shot well.

Right, IMR Red produced

relatively low extreme

velocity spreads with Hornady

110-grain bullets loaded in .38 Special cases.


the bottom of the case near the primer flash hole. “Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) requires us to test with powder rearward to pro-duce the maximum velocity for that bullet and powder combina-tion,” Behr said.

The SAAMI website states car-tridges are correctly handled by “… keeping the primer end in the lowest possible position until in-serted gently and carefully into the chamber. … The bolt or breech mechanism should be closed gen-tly in order not to disturb the position of the powder in the cartridge case. The object of this method of handling cartridges is to position the propellant powder at the primer end of the cartridge case …”

Behr said shooters can essen-tially do the same thing by raising a handgun’s muzzle, slowly lower-ing the gun level and firing the car-tridge. “That should reduce your extreme spreads of velocity,” he said.

I did that with the Vaquero

shooting SIG Sauer Elite Perfor-mance .38 Special factory loads with 125-grain FMJ bullets, and Lyman No. 358156 cast bullets loaded with 3.8 grains of IMR Target powder. Extreme veloc-ity spreads narrowed to 41 fps shooting the SIG cartridges, com-pared to 59 fps just shooting the cartridges without positioning the powder. The cast bullet load dropped to a narrow extreme spread of 10 fps when raising the muzzle, slowly lowering it and shooting. Extreme spread was 37 fps.

Positioning the powder is rather impractical though, unless you want to shoot at a leisurely pace, where a box of cartridges last all afternoon. A better solution is to choose a bulky powder, or a bulky powder and heavier bullet, that nearly fill a .38 Special case. “Powders intended mainly for re-loading shotshells works well in the .38 Special because they are so bulky,” Behr said.

IMR Red produced extreme velocity spreads of 32 to 72 fps shooting Hornady 110-grain bul-lets loaded in .38 Special cases and shot in the Ruger Vaquero. The powder also produced veloc-ity spreads of 23 to 75 fps when shooting Speer 125-grain bullets.

Thumbing through my .38 Spe-cial records, Bullseye and Power Pistol produced extreme spreads of 50 to 60 fps shooting 110-grain bullets. Unique and SR-4756 turned in velocity spreads of about 55 fps shooting 125-grain bullets.

My records also showed that when shooting heavier, 150-grain cast bullets and 158-grain jack-eted bullets, Unique again pro-duced velocity spreads of about 55 fps; HS-6, 37 fps and IMR-4227, 32 fps. Velocity spreads were a low 30 fps with True Blue loaded with 150-grain wadcutter bullets seated flush with the case mouth.

All of the .38 Special loads hit about a foot below aim at 25 yards. The first four loads with 110-grain bullets dropped so much they missed the large target paper. With the Vaquero in my hands, the Lyman 358156 cast bullet and 3.8 grains of IMR Target powder hit 4 inches below aim at 25 yards.

.357 mAgnum HAndloAds

The volume difference is not all that great between .38 Special and .357 Magnum cases. “But the .357 is loaded with quite a bit more powder,” Behr said. “That prevents powder from migrating as much, and there is much less velocity spread than with the .38.”

Hodgdon Lil’Gun and Alliant 2400 powders produced relatively even velocities with Sierra 158- grain bullets. Ramshot Enforcer powder provided somewhat wider velocity spreads with 158-grain bullets. However, 13.5 grains of Enforcer grouped 158-grain bul-lets only 1.5 inches below aim at 25 yards. With the revolver in my hands, the same load hit slightly above aim at 25 yards.

With a wide choice of .357s, .38s and 9mms to shoot, the Va-quero will never run dry. On a perfect fall afternoon, the Vaquero was shot with what remained of a box of .357s. With the smooth click, click cock of the hammer, a pointing aim and light touch on the trigger, I shot like a real cow-boy. MSRP $899. For more information contact www.lipseys.com.

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RUGER VAQUERO

•


7.5-inch barrel. Five grains of Sport Pistol under a 240-grain cast bullet exceeded the published velocities by only 7 fps, but overall perfor-mance was very good with an im-pressive extreme velocity spread over five shots of only 17 fps. In .44 Remington Magnum with the same revolver and bullet over 8.5 grains of powder, velocities ex-ceeded Alliant’s published data by almost 100 fps, even though Al- liant had used a Smith & Wesson Model 29 with an 8-inch barrel. Stuff happens, but this seems to suggest that as powder charges and bullet weights increase, pres-sure rises rapidly with this pow-der. It always does, of course, but the .44 Magnum performance sur-prised me.

Things were back to normal with the .45 Colt. Alliant used a 5.5-inch Colt SAA to develop the data, whereas I used one with a 4.75-inch barrel. At that, 6.3 grains of Sport Pistol lost only 14 fps to the .75-inch longer barrel. In spite of the cavernous case capacity of the .45 Colt, the combination turned out to be an excellent gen-eral-purpose load for the cartridge.

For the .45 ACP, Alliant used its Universal receiver with a 5-inch SAAMI barrel; I used an old Colt Government Model with the same barrel length. Testing was limited to a 200-grain cast bullet, my typ-ical Bullseye and Action Pistol choice. Using 5.7 grains, Alliant Sport Pistol recorded 985 fps; I clocked 980 fps. Close enough. Ac-curacy was up to par from this gun.

Wrapping up, I’m impressed with Sport Pistol in the smaller- capacity pistol cartridges – its in-tended home – and it seems Alliant has met its intended goals. As a rec-reational choice for most revolver cartridges, I suspect it will fre-quently find a home there as well. While published load data was fairly extensive for a new handgun powder, I’m sure the future will find it being used in many more catridges, both pistol and re-volver. Sport Pistol is available in one-, 4- and 8-pound containers.

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Propellant Profiles(Continued from page 23)

•

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