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December 2012 No. 281Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

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AMMUNAMMUNITITIIONON REL RELOOAADDIING NG JOJOURURNNAL AL

Background Photo: © 2012 Vic Schendel4 Handloader 281

December 2012Volume 47, Number 6

ISSN 0017-7393 Issue No. 281

30 Quest for the Perfect BPCR Silhouette Bullet Some moulds work, others don’t. Mike Venturino

38 Crimping Pistol and Revolver Cartridges Accuracy and consistency are in the details. Brian Pearce

46 Chamber Pressure Revelations Scientific Findings in Clear Language Terry Wieland

52 Rifle Bullet Stability The Lowdown on Twist Rates and Accuracy John Barsness

60 Handloading Shotshells for Turkeys Less Recoil, Better Patterns John Haviland

8 Case Trimming Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

10 Ruger No. 1 .45-70 Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

12 Custom Mould Suppliers for BPCR Silhouette Mike’s Shootin’ Shack - Mike Venturino

16 The Strange Story of the .222 Remington Magnum Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

20 Before the .44 Magnum (Part 1) From the Hip - Brian Pearce

24 Ruger SR22 and More about Accuracy Pistol Pointers - Charles E. Petty

28 Alliant Power Pistol Propellant Profiles - R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

Page 30 . . .Page 24 . . .

Issue No. 281 December 2012

AMMUNAMMUNITITIIONON REL RELOOAADDIING NG JOJOURURNNAL AL Publisher/President – Don Polacek

Publishing Consultant – Mark HarrisEditor in Chief – Dave Scovill

Associate Editor – Lee J. HootsManaging Editor – Roberta Scovill

Assisting Editor – Al MillerSenior Art Director – Gerald HudsonProduction Director – Becky Pinkley

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

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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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Wolfe Publishing Co.2180 Gulfstream, Ste. APrescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124© Polacek Publishing Corporation

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.

Background Photo: © 2012 Vic Schendel6 Handloader 281

66 Smith & Wesson Governor A New Three-Caliber Option Charles E. Petty

72 MTM Case-Gard Shooting Gear Product Tests - Lee J. Hoots

78 Nothing to Fear but Fearlessness In Range - Terry Wieland

On the cover . . .Smith & Wesson’s 23⁄4-inch barreled Governor will shoot .45 Colt, .45 ACP and .410 21⁄2-inch loads.Venturino’s Lone Star Rolling Block BPCR Silhouette rifle is shown with a few cast bullet designshe’s tried in the last quarter-century. (Photo by Yvonne Venturino) Inset: Ruger’s SR22 Automatic.(Photo by Charles E. Petty)

Page 66 . . .

Handloader 28112 www.riflemagazine.com

Elsewhere in this issue, I’vegiven an overview of the evo-

lution of cast bullet designs for the NRA’s Black Powder CartridgeRifle (BPCR) Silhouette game. Theactual makers of those moulds got minimal mention, because Iwanted to cover some of them inmore detail than space allowedthere. I wish my mid- to late-1980scatalogs from major manufac-turers, such as Lyman, RCBS andRedding/SAECO, had been kept tovalidate what I’m about to write.That is, when the NRA conceivedthis fascinating rifle competition,unique perhaps because it is lim-ited to lead alloy projectiles only,there were very few suitable bulletmoulds available.

Those three major mould manu-facturers were completely recep-tive to ideas about BPCR Silhou-ette bullet designs, and avid com-petitors were not bashful aboutsubmitting ideas to them. (In myfeature article in this issue someof the mould numbers that derivedare listed.)

The designs cataloged by biggercompanies, however, are just a

minute number of the ideas con-ceived collectively by BPCR Sil-houette competitors. Some of thoseideas, such as boat-tail cast bul-lets, went nowhere. Other morerecent ideas, such as the “MoneyBullets” designed by Dan Theodore,have taken hold and appear as op-tions on various custom makers’websites or in their catalogs.

Another change has been in what

competitors see as suitable bulletweights. To keep matters short,only .45-caliber bullets are cov-ered here. In the 1980s, a 500-grain bullet was considered “heavy.”Nowadays most BPCR Silhouetteshooters consider 500 grains as“light.” However, Mike Pattersonwon the 2007 iron sight nationalchampionship with a 500-grainbullet, Steve Morris won it in 2009with a 517-grain design, and BradRice won it in 2010 with a 504-grainbullet. Many competitors were

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amazed those shooters could doso well with such “lightweights.”

Most competitors are shootingbullets weighing 530 grains andup, as evidenced by 2003 nationalchampion Dave Gruhler with a545-grain bullet. In 2006 DavidBarnes used a 540-grain slug to win. Then in 2005, 2008, 2011and 2012, Brian Chilson used a558-grain bullet for his wins. My good friend Ted Tompkinshas to be an extremist in that he has won numer-ous state and regionalchampionships when shoot-ing 580-grain roundnosesfrom his .45-90.

Since the heaviest .45-caliber designs listed inLyman, RCBS or Redding/SAECO catalogs are 535grains, where do these ex-tra heavy options comefrom? Most of those mouldsare being cut by custommakers. Three of the most

dreams up, because each mould islathe bored individually. Mass-pro-duced bullet moulds are cut by thecherry method and their designsare standardized. By lathe boringeach mould, custom makers canvary grease grooves in number,width and depth. There can befront bands of a diameter that willbe engraved by a barrel’s riflingupon chambering, or that bandcan be eliminated entirely so bul-

lets can be seated out in order for a case to ac-commodate more pow-der. Bullet nose shapesand diameters can bemade to fit individualbarrels. Plus there canbe nearly unlimited com- binations of all those fac-tors.

Primarily a proponentof very heavy bullets, Ihave had the above mak-ers craft moulds drop-ping bullets from 550 to560 grains of 1-20 (tin-

This 10-shot group was fired by Mike using the PaulJones 555-grain Creedmoor design in his originalSharps fitted with a Krieger barrel with a one-in-17-inch twist.

December-January 2013 13www.riflemagazine.com

recognized names among themare Hoch, Brooks and Paul Jones,all of whom have made moulds for the BPCR Silhouette nationalchampions mentioned above. (Hochis actually the name of a style ofmould made by Dave Farmer atColorado Shooters Supply.)

The attraction offered by custommould makers is they will makejust about any design a customer

Handloader 28114 www.riflemagazine.com

to-lead) alloy. The Hoch mouldhas four grease grooves and weighs550 grains with a rounded noseending with a small meplat neces-sitated by the nose-pour design.There are two Brooks moulds: a555-grain design has four greasegrooves with the Government-style roundnose and a 560-grainerthat has five grease grooves witha Creedmoor-style nose. My heavyPaul Jones Creedmoor bullet de-sign weighs 555 grains with fourgrease grooves. Their lengths are1.43, 1.41, 1.45 and 1.48 inches inthe same order as listed above andstabilize well from the one-in-17-and 18-inch twists of my .45-cal-iber rifles.

A relative newcomer to bulletmould making is Idaho-based Buf-falo Arms Company. Although itscatalog lists standard designs, thecompany has been known to addnew ones at customers’ behests if they appear practical. For in-stance, I had bullets from a bor-rowed custom mould on my benchwhen Buffalo Arms’ proprietorDave Gullo recently visited. (Hehas many state, regional, nationaland even world BPCR champi-onships to his name.)

Contrary to my general prefer-ence, those were lightweight 512-grain bullets with a Creedmoor-style nose and no front drivingband, so it can be seated out of the case, and only three greasegrooves. This allows a .45-70 caseto actually hold a full 70-grain pow-der charge. Buffalo Arms makes asimilar bullet in weight and nosestyle but with four grease grooves.Gullo took along a couple of sam-ples of the three-groove bullet, andI suspect I’ll see one of his mouldsso cut in the near future. (It ar-rived just as this column was sub-mitted but has not seen use yet.)

One of the captivating aspects of BPCR Silhouette is that onemust produce his own black-pow-der handloads. For us bullet cast-ing enthusiasts, having our bulletdesign ideas become realities is just more icing on an already finecake. •

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HandloadingShotshells for Turkeys

John Haviland

The trend in shotshells in-tended for turkeys is to-ward heavier amounts ofshot. A shotshell firing a

hatful of shot, however, is no guaran-tee a dense enough pattern will arrivedownrange to fatally paste a gobblerupside the head. In fact, heavier shotcharges can actually produce thinnerpatterns than loads assembled with alighter shot charge and componentsthat help keep that shot flying true.

Such components include hard and round shot,buffers to cushion shot, wads that absorb the shockof powder gases and wraps around the shot columnthat shield pellets from grating against the bore. To determine how each of these parts contributes to agood turkey load, they were included in a variety of12-gauge, 2¾- and 3-inch shells and shot at 40 yards.Then I drew a 10-inch diameter circle around the dens-est portion of the pattern and counted the number ofpellet holes inside the ring, using those numbers tocalculate the percentage of the total number of pelletsin the load.

A flying cloud of shot is really controlled chaos. Al-though every pain was taken to aim precisely, thethickest part of the patterns often shifted up to a footvertically or horizontally from one pattern to the next.

Some burly readers may wonder why the 3½-inch 12gauge was omitted. After years of experimenting withthese long shells, their only “advantage” over the 3-

60

Less Recoil,Better Patterns

HandloadingShotshells for Turkeys

inch shell is superfluous additionalshot and recoil that will dislocateshoulders and detach retinas. Ifsomeone thinks a 3½-inch shell isrequired for turkey hunting, theymay want to instead consider a.338 magnum rifle cartridge.

Lead shot with 6 percent antimonycontent was used to shoot most ofthe results listed in the accompa-nying table. That relatively highamount of antimony hardens pel-lets to resist denting against eachother when the shell is fired andwhen rubbing against the barrelbore and choke to retain their roundshape and fly truly.

Nickel-plated shot is even harder.Ballistic Products (ballisticprod

ucts.com), purveyor of all thingsshotgun, states its nickel-platedshot starts with a hardened lead/antimony core that is copper coated,and then heavy nickel plating is applied. “This thick exterior layerserves as the hardening catalystfor the entire pellet,” BP states, in-creasing pattern efficiency by anaverage of 4 percent.

From the patterns I fired, BP’snickel-plated No. 5 shot increasedpellet numbers in a 10-inch circle

by 4 percent with 13⁄8-ounce loadscompared to 6 percent antimonyshot with the same load of IMR SR-4756 and WAA12R wads in Win-chester 2¾-inch cases. A 1½-ounceload of nickel-plated shot, however,placed 4 percent fewer pellets inthe circle compared to another loadwith 11⁄2 ounces of 6 percent anti-mony shot. With the 3-inch Rem-ington shell, 15⁄8 ounces of nickeland 6 percent antimony shot placedthe same percentage of pellets inthe circle. Those results show nickel-plated shot and high antimony 6percent content lead shot performsimilarly. Nickel shot costs nearlytwo and a half times more thanhigh content antimony lead shot.

Tungsten-based shot costs in theneighborhood of seven times morethan nickel-plated shot. From shoot-ing in the past, I know some ofthese tungsten products patternvery tightly, but not enough to justify their price over high anti-mony lead shot. A turkey huntershooting tungsten loads is onlysupporting China, which controls85 percent of the world’s tungsten.I’ll stick with high antimony leadshot, because I want to kill turkeysnot anoint their heads with pre-cious metals.

No. 5 shot was used for all the

61www.riflemagazine.com

A hatful of shot is not necessaryto kill a turkey at close range. GailHaviland used 11⁄2 ounces of No.5s in a 23⁄4-inch shell in her Rem-ington 12 gauge for this gobbler.

Handloader 28162 www.riflemagazine.com

Shotshells for

Turkeys

Shotshell Handloads for Turkeysshot shot no. powder charge wad pellets in circle percent of load’s total pellets comments

(ounces) (grains) (percent)

Winchester 12-Gauge 2¾-Inch High Strength Shell

13⁄8 5 SR-4756 30.0 WAA12R 40 17 30.0 65 28 plastic around shot 5* 30.0 48 21 5 28.5 58 25 plus 16.0 grains buffer1½ Blue Dot 30.5 59 23 petals glued 30.5 51 20 5* Longshot 26.5 WAA12R 41 16

Remington 3-Inch 12-Gauge Plastic Game Shell

15⁄8 5 Blue Dot 36.0 SP12 71 26 SR-4756 35.0 WAA12R** 54 20 5* 35.0 55 20 5 35.0 60 22 plastic around shot17⁄8 Longshot 30.5 73 23 29.0 76 24 plus 24.0 grains buffer13⁄4 6 Winchester Supreme 3-Inch factory load 61 16

* nickel-plated lead shot** plus 0.1-inch card in bottom of shotcup

Notes: All patterns were shot at 40 yards with a Remington Model 870 Express 12 gauge with a 3-inch chamber through a Remington Turkey Extra Full choketube. The pattern circle was 10 inches in diameter. All other lead shot contained 6 percent antimony. Buffer was Ballistic Products Original Shot Buffer. Card isa .1-inch thick 16-gauge nitro card. Winchester 209 primers were used with all loads. Winchester Supreme shells were loaded with “Copper Plated Hard Shot,”according to Winchester Ammunition.

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

listed loads. I’ve used it for decadesto shoot turkeys, and it has alwayspenetrated well. Other hunters pre-fer 4s for deeper penetration in atom’s skull, while others favor 6sand even 7½s for denser patterns.Take your pick.

If you want to increase pellet en-ergy, go with a larger shot size, notan increase in velocity. A lead No.5 pellet starting out at 1,255 fps retains only about a 40 fps advan-tage at 40 yards compared to thesame pellet fired 100 fps slower.

The faster No. 5 carries 3.3 foot-pounds (ft-lbs) of energy at 40yards compared to 3.0 ft-lbs of theslower pellet. In contrast, a No. 4lead pellet with a muzzle velocityof 1,255 fps carries 4.5 ft-lbs of en-ergy at 40 yards. The same pelletwith a muzzle velocity of 1,155 fpspacks 4.0 ft-lbs at 40 yards, or 0.7ft-lbs more than the No. 5 pelletthat started out 100 fps faster.

Most 12-gauge wads intended forlead shot contain a shotcup that is too short to surround a shot col-umn that weighs much more than1¼ ounces. For example, the top0.3 inch of 13⁄8 ounces of No. 5s is

exposed above the shotcup of theWAA12R wad. Those uncoveredpellets are exposed to the bore,which can flatten the pellets andcause them to fly askew. BP sellssheets of Mylar and Teflon wrapsin .010 and .003 inch thickness thatare inserted into the shot cup tofully surround the shot column.I’ve always gone the cheap routeand cut sheets of the correct di-mensions from plastic holders forcolor slides.

The average with no wrap around13⁄8 ounces of high antimony shotin a WAA12R wad was 40 pelletsin a circle at 40 yards. That aver-

Adding buffer to shot significantlyraises pressure; consequently, theamount of buffer added shouldadhere to handloading manualrecommendations.

Properly made nickel-plated shotis hard, which helps pellets retaintheir shape during the rough tripthrough the bore, but it costs upward of $4 per pound.

Lead shot containing a high con-tent of antimony is sufficientlyhard to retain its shape and shotcolumn as it passes down thebore and through the choke.

December-January 2013 63www.riflemagazine.com

age jumped to 65 pellets with aplastic wrap. That’s 17 more pel-lets than the same load with no

wrap and nickel-plated shot. Aplastic wrap around 15⁄8 ounces ofshot in the WAA12R shotcup loadedin the Remington 3-inch shell in-creased pellet count an average ofsix pellets compared to the sameload without a wrap.

The Remington SP12 wad per-formed even better because itsshotcup is 0.3 inch deeper thanthe WAA12R. That extra protec-tion resulted in 71 pellets, on aver-age, in a circle at 40 yards with the

Remington 3-inch shell shooting15⁄8 ounces of shot. That was 17more pellets than the WAA12R wadshooting the same shot in the 3-inch shell. A wrap in the WAA12Rwad did increased pellet count bysix. Cutting these shot wraps waswell worth the scissor time, becausethey increased pellet counts morethan any other loading technique.

Wads with no front petals thatpeel back to pull the wad awayfrom the shot is the trend in many

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The depressions in the bottom ofthe wad are from pellets set backby the force of powder gases.Buffers and wads with shock-absorbing legs help reduce this.

Many wads have short shotcupsthat do not enclose the entireshot column, like this 11⁄2 ouncesof shot in a WAA12R wad. Awrap around the shot columnhelps keep pellets from scrapingagainst the bore.

A tight crimp keeps buffer fromdribbling out of a shotshell. Adrip of candle wax helps sealcrimps with a slight opening.

Handloader 28164 www.riflemagazine.com

sulting in tighter patterns. Thistype of wad is not available tohandloaders, but to see if some-thing similar could be made, I gluedthe petals closed on a WAA12R

wad. The result was an average of eight more pellets in a circle at40 yards with 1½ ounces of shotover the same load with a regularWAA12R wad. One of the gluedwads was recovered about fiveyards farther downrange than other

wads. Surprisingly, the glue hadheld the petals together. Furthertesting will be required to deter-mine if the trouble of gluing myfingers together and wads to thebench top was a waste of time.

A few loads listed in the tablewith the Remington 3-Inch 12-Gauge Plastic Game Shell containa 0.1 inch thick 16-gauge nitro cardinserted as a spacer into the baseof the shotcup of Winchester andRemington wads. Loading manu-als do not include this spacer inloads for the Remington case. Ifound the card was necessary, how-ever, to raise the shot column of15⁄8 and 17⁄8 ounces of shot to theproper height for a correct crimp.

Buffer acts like tiny pillows tohold pellets in place in the wadand keep them from smashing intoeach other and deforming dur-ing their trip down the bore andthrough the choke. Adding bufferto my turkey loads significantlyimproved the number of pellets ina circle at 40 yards. Buffer added

commercial turkey and waterfowlshotshell loads. This type of wad,like the Federal FLITECONTROL,keeps the shot inside the wad forup to 10 yards past the muzzle, re-

Shotshells forTurkeys

(1) A thick cloud of lead in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards from13⁄8 ounces of No. 5s was pro-tected with a plastic wrap. (2) This pattern with 17⁄8 ouncesof lead No. 5s was not protectedwith buffer or a wad around theshot column; pellet count in a10-inch circle was not muchgreater than 13⁄8 ounces of pro-tected shot. (3) Another patternat 40 yards was shot with 13⁄8ounces of lead No. 5s and bufferadded to the shot column. Pelletsaround the outer edge of the 10-inch circle provide some aim-ing leeway. (4) Remington’s SP12wad has a deep shotcup that protects most of the shot columnfrom the bore, providing a highnumber of pellets in a 10-inchcircle at 40 yards.

1

4 3

2

December-January 2013 65www.riflemagazine.com

to 13⁄8 ounces of shot increased pellet count by an average of 18compared to the same load with-out buffer. Buffer provided lessimprovement when added to the17⁄8-ounce load in the Remington 3-inch shell, but it still added a fewadditional pellets compared to thesame load without buffer.

To add buffer to shot, I weigh outthe necessary amount of bufferthen slowly pour it into the shotwhile tapping the case head on thebench top so the buffer sifts downamong the pellets. Some loadingmanuals suggest placing a cardover the shot to keep the bufferfrom dribbling out of shells thatmight have an incomplete crimp.Overshot cards have increased pat-tern spread, probably because acard mixes with the shot columnand spreads it. So instead I put adab of candle wax or paper glueon the center of any crimp with asmuch as a pinprick of a gap.

Adding buffer to loads signifi-cantly increases pressures. Pres-sures rise probably not because ofthe buffer’s additional weight, butbecause it does not allow the shotcolumn to swage down as easilyas it passes through the choke.The Lyman Shotshell ReloadingHandbook 5th Edition lists a pres-sure of 8,600 pounds per squareinch (psi) for a load of 15⁄8 ouncesof shot and 36.5 grains of Blue Dotin a Remington 3-inch shell. Pres-sure increased 1,500 psi by adding24 grains of buffer to the shot,even though the Blue Dot chargewas reduced one grain. The lessonhere is to use load data specifi-cally for buffered loads.

A look at the patterns shot withthe loads in the table show they allcarried plenty of pellets to kill agobbler at 40 yards and even far-ther. Hard and round shot, buffersto cushion shot, wads that absorbthe shock of powder gases andwraps around the shot columnthat shield pellets from gratingagainst the bore all helped pro-duce those lethal patterns.

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