Lesson 2: Cast Bullet Accuracy:
Lesson 3: Greasing Bullets p. 109 (76)
ONE of the most serviceable bullet lubricants is a mixture of mobilubricant, graphite and beeswax .Before giving the proportions most desirable, it is well to analyze the subject a bit.
Bullets are lubricated to cut down or prevent leading and metal fouling of the rifle barrel, to make cleaning of the barrel easier, and to make bullet resistance to powder gases more uniform.
They are lubricated also to reduce friction and wear on the barrel, to increase bullet velocity, to lessen barrel flip slightly, and in some cases to secure marked increases in accuracy. Some of these points are frequently overlooked by shooters.
The grease first of all must be of such a nature that heat will not “break it up” chemically and release elements in it which are not of a lubricating nature. It so happens that very many materials commonly thought of as greases will not conform to this test. In fact, some of them give free carbon when subjected to the high temperature of small-bore rifles, and this carbon acts in the barrel like sand or powdered emery instead of a lubricant.
Other greases simply disappear under high temperature. To a large extent tallow does this. It is a lubricant, all right, for big-bore, low-powder bullets, where the temperature is low, but in more modern cartridges is nearly worthless. The melting point of tallow and other similar greases is so low that when a cartridge is loaded into a hot barrel it quickly becomes liquid and unless the base of the bullet fits the shell neck very tight, may drain back into the powder.
Mobilubricant is all lubricant, even at the highest temperature. In itself it would be an ideal bullet grease if it were not so soft, but it rubs off too easily for most convenient reloading and melts too soon for best results in cartridges. Graphite, a dry powder, is another good lubricant, since it never changes under the highest temperature—but it cannot be made to stick to the bullets without mixing it in some carrier. Beeswax belongs to the class of lubricants which largely evaporate at high temperature, but it does not melt easily, and is stiff enough to carry the other materials to the point where they are needed before it goes off the job. The combination of the three is extremely effectual.
The manufacturers state that five to ten per cent of graphite should be added to ordinary cup greases, for use in bearings. For bullets the maximum can be used-—that is, the quantity should be at least 10 per cent of the weight of the other elements, and well may be 10 per cent of the mobilubricant alone. Usually it will take almost as much beeswax as mobilubricant to make the mixture stiff enough, though if less than this can be used all the better. The beeswax is of no value except as a carrier.
The best way of lubricating cast bullets is with a machine that forces on the grease at the same time they are sized, as the Ideal does. Metal-cased bullets must be lubricated by hand just before they are put in the rifle, and the box of grease with a bullet-sized hole in the top cannot be beat as a help, though many shooters simply use a finger. Cast bullets can be lubricated by hand by taking a lump of grease on a finger and rubbing it over the grooves, about as satisfactorily as by dipping them and wiping or cutting off the surplus.
Other materials to take the place of beeswax, especially, and of mobilubricant have been available, but are not now, on account of the war. One caution necessary is to be sure that every bullet is lubricated equally all the way round. If one side is dry, or nearly so, the result almost surely will be a falling Off in accuracy. Another important point for owners of high-power rifles is to shoot as few dry bullets as possible, since one such will reduce the life of the barrel as much as several well and properly greased.
Lesson 4: Sizing of Bullets pg 9 Nov 19, 1918 pg 129
JUST how important it is to size cast bullets with all the care possible, can be understood by replacing them in reduced loading of high power rifles with good metal-cased bullets. The target attached was shot at 50 yards, and contains 10 consecutive holes. The group measures less than an inch, and at that it is only an average group. Better ones are easily made with the Springfield, Krag and good 30-30 rifles, using the 150-grain service bullet and from 8 to 17 grains of No. 75 powder or equivalent charges of No. 80 powder.
One—inch groups with cast bullets at 50 yards are rare. The reason is that slight differences in length, diameters, weight and dents and air flows that usually are disregarded cause a falling off in accuracy of bullet flight. For instance, if the bullet is not smooth and full, its axis almost certainly will be off-center. The same result follows when the mold is out of true, or when mold happens to be open one or two thousandths of an inch as the bullet hardens in it. Hot bullets dropped on any hard surface almost certainly will “upset" enough to reduce their accuracy.
It is impossible altogether to correct any faults in bullets by sizing them, but sizing works wonders when properly done. The first care should be to see that the die is true round. It also should be checked for diameter in connection with gauging of the bore of the rifle. The bullets must be two to three thousandths of an inch larger than the bore, and the only reliable way of determining die and bore diameter is to upset a soft lead plug in them for micrometer calibre measurement. It is not enough to rely on a published statement of rifle calibre, and, as for the sizing holes in reloading tools, they may be five or six thousandths off from what you require.
The bullets should be sized base first, and should be driven through the die in a true straight line, starting squarely and evenly. The reloading tool sizing arrangement can not possibly give very accurate results, for with it the pressure moves in the arc of a circle, the bullet may be forced in crookedly, and the plunger makes a dent in the metal. The Ideal lubricator and sizer is good in this respect. It takes the bullet in base first, and applies the pressure by means of a cap plunger fitting the point of the bullet. It is a profitable tool to buy, but, lacking it, a press easily can be rigged up to hold a bullet die and to force the bullet through it base first with a hickory or brass plug. Such an arrangement works just as well as the Ideal tool, except that it will not lubricate the bullets. Whatever press is used, the operator should satisfy himself that the plunger or head comes down precisely over the center of the die. If it is a little off center, the bullet will be spoiled.
When bullets are sized point first, the lip left extending backward from the edge of the base likely will cause inaccuracy. When the base goes in first, however, and particularly when gas check cups are used, the edges of the base are perfectly true.
By taking all precautions to cast and size bullets absolutely right, the results at the target should be almost as fine as with the harder metal cased bullets. During casting the metal should be kept at the right heat, well mixed, and covered with charcoal. Each fluid moldful of it should be tapped and settled before it sets, and the bullets should be laid gently on cloth. Only such bullets will justify all care in sizing and only such are fit to use in serious target shooting and hunting. Certainly when the 50-yard groups regularly begin to measure an inch, or an inch and a quarter, the extra trouble taken will be paid for.
Lesson 5: Seating Bullets pg 114 (149)
THE usual manner of determining how deep to place the bullets when loading rifle shells is to observe a factory cartridge, or to insert a factory cartridge in the reloading tool and adjust the chamber and bullet plug up against the crimp of the shell and the point of the bullet, respectively. This generally is safe, but it may be varied now and then with much profit.
The rifle in which the cartridges are to be used, and the manner and purpose of the shooting, should determine the depth. For instance, if the rifle is a Winchester, Marlin, Remington or other make with tubular magazine and the purpose is hunting, where the cartridges will be subjected to all sorts of pressure, particularly on the points of the bullets, the bullets should be seated deeply and should be held tightly by crimp or friction. Cast bullets usually have a crimping groove marking the place for the end of the shell. But if the rifle is a Savage, Newton, Springfield, Krag or Ross, with box magazine, the bullets need not go any deeper than will pass through the respective action. Further, if the ammunition is to be used for target shooting without working it through the magazine, the bullets may project just as far as you like, or even may be seated in the barrel ahead of the shell, schuetzen fashion.
Accuracy often is affected by depth of seating, particularly with worn rifles. The greatest accuracy is secured when the bullets project forward into the lands as the bolt is closed behind the cartridge; consequently for target shooting it often pays to let them project. In single shot rifles there is no limit to how much, but in most magazine rifles there is a very definite limit.
An important point is to make sure that the bullets are seated in a true line with the bore. When deep in the shell neck, they are not so likely to be canted as when in only an eighth of an inch or so. If the necks are expanded, and not resized, bullets may lean off to a side no matter how tight the shells are crimped, and this feature should be given attention in reloading straight shells like the .45-70 and .38–55, as well as bottle necked ones.
Ammunition intended for hunting or other rough usage should have lubricant covered. To do this is not important with strictly target ammunition, to be handled from box to rifle chamber at the firing point. Finally, all the bullets should be seated and secured with the same crimp or friction. To put it another way, all should require about the same amount of force to push them free from the shell. When some are tight and some loose, the reaction on the burning pressure of the powder will be great enough to cause bullet variation up and down.
As with every other feature of loading, the
seating of bullets in itself is capable of making ammunition
satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and care and exactness is
essential for good results.
Lesson 6: ?
Lesson 7: Selecting Rifle Powder When Reloading page Nov 30, 1918 189-190 (132-133)
THE makers of powder make one I serious mistake in their advertising of rifle explosives, particularly in the canister labels and in leaflets giving charges. They indiscriminately tell of all the possible cartridges and charges in which every powder can be used with out indicating where and when each one ceases to be better than others. The result is that though all the modern powders are well known by name or number to informed shooters, few shooters really understand exactly which particular powder to use for the finest and most reliable results with a particular shell and bullet.
The man who reloads his own full power ammunition, with regular metal cased bullets, is in a position to use newer and better powders than. he can get in factory ammunition. The factories buy their powder in large lots, and accept no innovation until long-drawn-out tests force them to do so. The newer powders are easier for the individual to get from dealers than older ones—the makers see to that.
Some of the points to be worked for - in the selection of the powder are accuracy, velocity, absence of damage to barrel, easier cleaning, suitability to shell shape and calibre, weight and nature of bullet. The wrong powder will erode the metal of the barrel lands seriously, may leave unburned grains in the barrel, may scatter the bullets in large groups, and, most frequently, may burn too fast or too slow for the conditions of chamber, bullet and barrel, causing excessive metal fouling on the one hand, or a falling off in velocity on the other.
These are details impossible to develop m a clear manner in any space short of many pages. What can be given is specific recommendations for the different Classes of cartridges.
Before proceeding with them, however, It is well to state that the writer believes all nitroglycerin powders to be obsolete on account of their excessive erosive action in the rifle barrel. This at once does away with the long series of powders that includes Lightning and Sharpshooter and 1908 Military. On the principle that a good thing should be displaced by a better, even such excellent powders as No. 20 (1909 Military) must give way to newer products that have advantages over them.
No. 1 Smokeless powder. though old, still has an unquestionable place in “black powder” cartridges of the larger sizes, notably in .45-90, .45-70, .38-55 and .32-40. It absorbs moisture readily, and does not give any higher velocities than black powder, hence should be used only when the cartridges are to be handled with discretion. It displaces only black powder.
No. 80 powder is best for normal full charges (to give standard velocity) for ordinary hunting use in practically all “black powder” cartridges in calibres from .25-20 to .45-90. It also may be used to give slightly higher than usual velocities in the smaller calibres, such as .25-20 and .32-20, .38-40 and .44-40. It is particularly good in short-barreled rifles and in carbines, for these cartridges, and gives satisfaction in revolvers. It displaces black powder, No. 1 Smokeless and Sharpshooter.
No. 18 powder can be used with much success in practically all black-powder cartridges, but particularly when the barrels are more than 24 inches long and the charges are heavy enough to give more than standard velocity. Thus it is excellent for loading the so-called “high velocity” .32-40, .38-55. .45-70 and .45-90. In the “high velocity” .38-40 and .44-40 it succeeds, but gives less fine results. For these purposes it displaces Sharpshooter and Lightning and some special powders used only by the loading companies.
The main use of No. 18, however, is in cartridges of the .30-30, .32 Special, .35 Rimless, .25-35 and .303 Savage class. This is the use it was designed for, and in which no other powder will quite equal its results. In this it displaces Lightning, as well as Du Pont No. 21, though the latter is an excellent pyro powder that well may be used in case No. 18 can not be secured. No. 18 also often is used in .22 High Power and .250-300, as well as in .35 Winchester Model ’95 and .405 Winchester, though it is not usually considered best in them. When so used, however, it displaces Lightning, 1908 Military, Sharpshooter, the so-called “.35 calibre powder,” W. A. No. 20 and 21, all of which have been loaded into one or another of these cartridges.
No. 16 powder is pre-eminently suited to the .30-40 and .30-06 class of cartridges with the 150- to 170-grain bullets, particularly the former weight. It is not so good for 180- to 220-grain bullets, unless in slightly reduced charges. It does wonderful work in the Mauser series and in the .303 British, and gives excellent results in the .303 Savage, .30-30 and .25-35 class, and the .405 Winchester class when heavily loaded. Time may show that it is better than No. 18 for them. It also is unquestionably the best powder for .22 High Power and .250 3000. It’ thus becomes the one best powder for the standard Springfield .30-06 ammunition, as well as for the 3,000-foot charge in the same shell. For these cartridges it displaces, mainly, W. A. .30 calibre powder, No. 20, 21 and 1908 Military and Lightning. (Substitute No. 20 or No. 15 when No. 16 can not be secured.).
No.15 powder is suited to the .30-1906, .30-40 and other similar cartridges when loaded with heavy bullets to be driven at high velocity. Thus it is the best powder in the .30-o6 Springfield behind the 180 grain target bullet. It also has a place in the extra large shells, such as the Newton series and the .280 Ross, when light bullets are used. For the former use it displaces No. 20 and I908 Military, for the latter No. 10.
No. 13 powder is particularly suited to the Newton series of cartridges and the .280 Ross, and displaces No. 10. It is better than No. 15 in them when standard and heavy bullets are used.
From these notes it will be seen that the field of no one powder overlaps that of another so long as strictly first-class results are desired, though two or three different ones often can be used in one cartridge with fair results. The manufacturers know this better than any one else, and the chances are that they will try to educate shooters gradually to the proper selections. As the facts become better understood, we may look for the older pyro powders, at least, to disappear from the market, and almost the entire nitroglycerin class may go. Nos. 20, 21 and 10 likely will not be made, though it takes nerve at the present day to call these three powders obsolete. When the war ceases we likely shall have a complete new series of nitrocellulose powders that will duplicate the 80, 18, 16, 15, 13 series.
The correct charges for each suitable cartridge usually are given on the label of the powder canister, or may be learned from the powder makers. The individual never should attempt to learn them by taking apart a factory cartridge. The factories often use special lots of powder tore concentrated than normal, and taking abnormal charges. They can do it, because they have the means of testing pressures and velocities.
With the powders named can be loaded ammunition giving the finest possible normal results, or other ammunition giving the highest velocities so far possible with any rifle, such as are so often discussed. Care is necessary to use the right powder in the right cartridge and charge, however, or the results will not be what are expected. Careful selection is vital.
Lesson 8: Powders for Reduced Loads in Rifles, No.11, 7 Dec 1918 – pg 209-210 (152-153)
THOUGH all the powders named below are well known to most shooters, there is a good deal of misunderstanding throughout the land about their real value, and especially their relation to one another, and their best use.
For all charges lighter than standard in rifle ammunition, only smokeless powder can be used. Even those rifles designed for black powder, such as the .32-40 and .44-40 for instance, can not burn black powder properly except in full charges. The most important fact to understand about the kind of smokeless powder to use is that no one kind can be used successfully in all calibres and under all conditions. The next important fact is that reduced charges require a different kind than full power charges. The powders on the market that can be used are mainly these: Du Pont Nos. 18, 80, 75, 1, 3, Bullseye, Lightning, Sharpshooter, and various bulk shotgun powders.
Du Pont No. 75 used to be called Marksman, and was the standard reduced charge powder for .30-40, .30-06, .30-30 and also similar cartridges for many years. Where adapted it gives accuracy never yet surpassed. Its only faults are a limit to the amount that can be used per charge while retaining uniformity of burning and safe pressures, and liability to absorb moisture from the air.
Sharpshooter and Lightning are not limited by these considerations when used as reduced-charge powders, yet their use brings up the old question of excessive erosion from hot gases. They are nitroglycerin products, consequently burn hotter than nitrocellulose powders. The truth about the erosive properties of the nitroglycerin powders likely is that they do their chief damage when in full loads that burn under high pressure, and do far less in light loads. In the humble opinion of the writer, however, their “far less” is more than enough, and a good deal more than is done by equivalent charges of proper nitrocellulose powders. It must be noted that Sharpshooter and Lightning do more damage in .22, .25, .28, .30 and .32 calibres than in .38, .40 and .45.
Du Pont No. 80 powder is comparatively new and belongs to the nitrocellulose type, hence is cool-burning and nonerosive. its granulation and character is such that it burns at about the same rate as No. 75. or perhaps a little slower. It has a wide range of usefulness, since it can be used wherever No. 75 is used as well as in charges considerably heavier. About one-fifth more of it (by weight) is required to develop similar velocities. In high-power rifles it can be loaded to give all the velocity that can be secured with cast bullets in front of Lightning powder. In “black powder” rifles it can be used for any charges up to full power. It does not absorb moisture nearly so quick as No. 75, though it is not free from this fault to the extent that Lightning or No. 1. A characteristic that should be understood is that in considerable charges it sets up high pressure in the shell without developing very much in the barrel. Thus in a .32-40 or .38-55 shell not a very heavy charge is required to flatten the primers and to swell and make tight the shell close to the head.
No. 18 was not designed with any idea that it might be used in reduced charges, but experience shows that it can be used with much satisfaction wherever Lightning is used. In the .30-40 and .30-06 cartridges, for instance, it perhaps is the best powder, for bullets of I75 to 200 grains are to be used at velocities between 1,200 and L800 or 2,000 feet. It also is useful in case the ultra-high velocity cartridges, such as the .22 High Power, .250-3000, .30-06, the Mauser series. the Newton series and others are to be loaded to give the “reduced” velocities of i,800 to 2,200 feet with metal cased bullets. In charges as light as 15 grains in .30-calibre rifles it burns complete enough for all practical purposes. Du Pont No. 21 will give great accuracy in similar light loads, but burns so poorly that many hard grains are left in the barrel and chamber, interfering with the seating of subsequent shells. No. 18 has the immense advantage of being a nitrocellulose explosive, and is easy on the barrel.
Du Pont No. 1 powder can be considered obsolete for reduced-charge purposes. Even though it mainly gives excellent results, it takes up moisture so quickly as to become unreliable under damp conditions. and the purposes it serves are accomplished by other powders that do not have this fault.
It will be seen, therefore, that Du Pont No. 75, No. 80, and No. 18 serve almost every purpose of reduced charges better than any other powders. They do the least possible damage to the rifle barrel. Their accuracy is unsurpassed. Each one has its distinct place, which does not overlap the places of the others. No. 18 is suited for mid-range loading. No. 80 is suited for all short-range loading, and -is at its best in charges typified by the 154-grain plain base cast bullet in .30 1906 cartridge, with about 15 grains. No. 75 is suited for use in the strictly high-power, bottle-necked cartridges. and its particular application lies where required charges are between 6 and 15 grains, where shells are clean and cartridges are not to be exposed much to dampness or kept many months after loading, and where the small saving in powder used due to smaller charge required becomes an appreciable item be cause the number of cartridges loaded is large.
The only addition to these three powders that is of any advantage is in the case of extremely short-range shooting, as for gallery work or shooting at objects in the air when an extremely light bullet is used. For such loads du Pont pistol powder No. 3, a nitrocellulose explosive, or Hercules Bullseye, a nitroglycerin explosive, can be used with much satisfaction. They are very dense, hence exceedingly small charges are required, which makes their cost per thousand cartridges next to nothing. The shotgun powders invariably are more expensive to use than the correct rifle powders named, and never have been known to deliver equal accuracy. Their only standing for reduced-charge rifle loading is based on the fact that they give fair results under proper conditions, and sometimes can be found in stocks of dealers when rifle powder can not be.
Lesson 9: Fine Points of Measuring Powder, No. 12, Dec 14, 1918 pgs 229-230 (172-173)
One big factory at present is allowing a tolerance of 2 grains either way, making a total of 4 grains in the powder charge for the .30 Springfield ammunition. With a lot of pyro powder requiring 48 grains to develop the standard 2,700 feet velocity, the permitted charges range between 45 grains and 50 grains. Actually most of the charges vary only within about half a grain, but the man who knows the target game will under stand what sort of a score could be made with this ammunition.
I believe such a large tolerance is more than is usually permitted in the loading of ammunition for high-power rifles, but even if the usual is only half as much, a serious error is introduced in accuracy. Ammunition for the .30-40 Krag, .30-30, .303, .22 High Power and .250 Savage, .303 British, .32 Special, .25-35, .32-40 and .38-55 High Power and other similar rifles is loaded in the same manner and with similar or proportionate tolerances.
With a dip measure or scoop it is possible to secure charges accurate to within 6 to 8 per cent, but no closer. This means that a 50-grain charge will vary about as described above; and a 30-grain charge about 2 1/2 grains. With the Ideal No. 5 machine, the variation is much smaller. In it, Government pyro powder, or its equivalent, du Pont No. 20, one of the hardest powders to measure accurately, in a 48-grain charge will vary about one fifth of a grain on the average and the maximum will not be more than one-half grain (less than 10 per cent). With fine grain bulk powders like Marksman or Du Pont No. 80 the maximum variation will be only one-fifth grain, and the average less than one—tenth grain (one-fifth of one per cent). Shotgun powders and revolver powders measure almost as well, except that certain of them with very thin grains persist in getting between the cylinders of the machine and its sleeve and in consequence give greater errors. Ballistine and Infallible powders, for instance, in a recent test in an Ideal machine set to throw 100 grains of the former, varied 6/10 to 2 1/2 grains. In shotgun loads, the variation of course would have been proportionate, or about one-fourth of these amounts. The variation always follows the size of the charge in proportion.
No other type of measuring device (aside from this revolving cylinder Idea type) works to within anywhere near the accuracy mentioned. As the Ideal measures are hard to get now, it is to be hoped other makes of similar principle will be placed on the market. If reloading is to be done in comfort and with proper success, certain equipment must be provided —and one vital point is a pair of scales that will weigh to within a tenth of a grain. Another, little less vital where the reloading runs into the hundreds of cartridges, is this powder measure; To the man who reloads, these tools are like the micrometer calibre to the machinist. Loading can be done with the powder measure alone, by using the Ideal equivalent weight tables, but when accuracy closer than 1 to 2 grains is required, the scales must be used to check adjustment of the measure.
There is a knack in operating the No. 5 type of measure by which its accuracy can be increased. The lever should not strike against the back-top on the machine at the end of the upward stroke, but against a felt pad or spring fixed to the bench separately, or lacking such a stop, slowed and stopped gently by hand when far enough up. The length of time the lever is up influences the exact sizing of the charge, as does the speed with which the downward motion is started and completed. The reservoir should be kept nearly full. The jarring weight should not be used unless necessary to shake out the crumbs of each charge. A swift but gentle upward motion of the lever, followed promptly by a quick, complete downward motion, without hesitation, knocking or catching, will in sure accuracy. Any jarring introduced in any one movement must be induced in all without variation.
The bulk powders are the easiest to measure; the dense, tubular-grain powders the hardest. No. 80, Marksman and other bulks measure exceedingly well; Nos. 18 and 21 excellently; No. 20 good; Nos. 15 and 16 should be weighed, but may be measured with fair satisfaction in charges not the maximum. Lightning and Sharpshooter measure fairly well. Du Pont No. 13 and No. 10 are too coarse-grained to measure at all.
The extent of inaccuracy caused by a variation of 4 grains in the Springfield standard powder charge is indicated by the accompanying target. Here there is a difference of 2% inches per I00 yards. These groups were shot on purpose to establish the amount of variation, and were made with carefully loaded ammunition and fine holding. They prove the reason why bullets sometimes drop out of the bull when the hold is dead at six o’clock——and why we sometimes get some hair off of the back or belly of our deer or bear instead of the heart shot in tended. They also may make clear why some of our bullets smacked into the sandbags over in France, instead of braining the Boche at his loophole.
Lesson 10: Manipulating Velocity, No. 13, Dec 31 1918 – pg 249 (192)
SPECIAL loads for rifles frequently are more desirable than regular loads, and the man who prepares his own ammunition should understand when and how he can vary bullet velocity from the standard of factory ammunition with profit. The labels on the powder cans may give the powder charges required (they likely will not give it insufficient detail), but many other considerations enter.
The standard velocity with the regular bullet has the one great virtue of maintaining the striking point of the bullet where the sights are set. If the reloads are made up of the usual powder and bullet re-lining of sights is not required. The general feel and performance of the ammunition also is the same—recoil is identical, and killing powder is no different.
Higher velocities, however, often offer advantages which outweigh the change of elevation or windage in sighting that they usually make necessary. For instance, the .30-30 cartridge can be speeded up from about 2,000 feet to about 2,600 feet, with the result that the bullet has less fall, has a flatter trajectory, consequently can be sighted for a longer point blank range, requires less lead ahead of running game. The fast bullet also is less drifted by the wind, has longer range and more killing power. Other examples of increases in velocity possible are the .30-40 Krag, from 2,000 feet to fully 2.700 feet; the .30-1906, from 2,700 feet to nearly 3,000 feet. All the long list of hunting cartridges can be speeded up more or less. The only factory ammunition in which this speeding up is done is the “high velocity” .45-70, 38-55, .32-40, .38-40, .44-40, and two or three others, and in some ways the individual loading even these cartridges can improve on the factory product by using a less destructive powder giving the same results, using a bullet better suited to his particular purpose, or otherwise modifying the fixed stuff.
Lower velocity, on the other hand, sometimes is advisable. For instance, if a person wants to do a large amount of shooting at target with a fine rifle, it is worth while to consider the saving in wear on the barrel of light, cool burning low-speed loads. Low—velocity loads are safer in settled districts. In target shooting, they give about the same results at 200 to 300 yards in respect to fall and wind drift that the standard charges give at 500 to 1,000 yards, hence give valuable practice. They make less noise and give less recoil and may have ample power for the purpose used for. Finally, they cost less. Throughout big game hunting districts it is the practice among many of the less well-to-do hunters to buy only three or four boxes of full power cartridges a year, and to use for all target shooting and on all small game cheap low-velocity ammunition they prepare themselves. "
It is entirely practicable to send a bullet from a rifle at any speed desired, from about 800 feet up to the limit for the cartridge. Smokeless powder must be used, and in most cases a different kind is required for each two or three hundred foot step up. Thus the powder correct to give 2,000 feet velocity in the .30-30 with the standard bullet (du Pont No. 18, 21 or Lightning) can not be used to give up the 2,600 feet maximum. No. 18 and possibly No. 16, is required for that. Again, Lightning, or No. 21, would give inferior accuracy in charges only sufficient to give 1,600 feet with gas check cast bullets. For this and lower velocities. down to light charges for shooting indoors a series of powders are required, ranging from No. 18 through Sharpshooter (possibly), No. 80 and one of the pistol powders. The bullet also can be manipulated. The highest velocities can be obtained only with the lighter standard bullets. In the .30-30 this is the standard 150-grain army bullet or the soft point of the same shape. For best killing power heavier bullets often are advisable, as for instance the 175-grain Newton copper-jacketed bullet in .30 caliber.
The change of sight required is small, but important. The changed striking point of the bullets may not be noticed in one or two shots, but may be ample to miss game at I00 yards. For the rough and ready individual who does not want to be bothered the standard ammunition is best; but for. the man who is willing to take pains, the higher and lower velocities will raise the possibilities of any rifle. The most can be gotten out of a rifle only when special ammunition is used.
Lesson 11: “Split Necks” and the Cleaning of Shells, No. 14, 28 Dec 1918 pgs 289-290 (212-213)
THE man who reloads his own | ammunition, and uses only shells he shoots in one rifle for each calibre, very often will find that full-length resizing is of little advantage. An occasional shell will be expanded enough in the body to stick when chambered, but such can be discarded. No short cuts are practicable in regard to resizing of necks of the shells, however. Everyone who reloads must prepare to do that operation to some extent.
The important points to watch are to use dies of the right sizes for the bullets to be used, and to reduce the shells accurately. Regarding the former, cast bullets invariably demand larger, or looser, or less sizing down than metal-cased bullets. For instance, the .30-calibre cast bullets measure .311 when properly sized, and .30-calibre metal-cased bullets .308. In addition, the cased bullets are hard enough to withstand deformation and scraping if pressed into shell mouths several thousandths smaller than their own diameter, while cast bullets in many instances are not.
I remember loading .30 Springfield ammunition with three bullets one fall. The regular 150-grain pointed metal cased bullet required very tight resizing —in fact, one die that came from the Ideal Company would not reduce shells enough. The gas-check bullet, when sized to .311, could be seated in shells equally reduced, but with a falling off in accuracy. They did much better when put through a die five thousandths enlarged. A specially soft 172-grain cast bullet would not seat without scraping or off-centering even in these slightly reduced shell mouths. For them the shells already resized were worked over with an expanding plug measuring .312, and the rest were not resized at all. It will be seen that no one die can be used for all kinds of reloading. It is regrettable, but true, that two or more are required. If full-length resizing is done, the full die can be employed to size necks only of shells by inverting it and inserting the shells at the small end. The regular neck resizing dies, however, are so cheap that two or more easily can be bought, of smallest size, and one or more enlarged with reamer, drill or revolving shaft, and powdered emery or automobile valve grinding compound. Great care is necessary to keep from enlarging the hole too much, and to keep it absolutely round. The size should be determined as the enlarging progresses, largely by trial with bullets, but a check should be kept on it with a micrometer in some manner, to avoid possibility of spoiling the die. One or two thousandths taken out at a time are enough between careful trials and measurements, and the original size should be well recorded by putting through it a bunch of shells, and, if possible, by a solid metal plug of exact fit.
The second point to watch is to get the shells reduced equally all round—not just on one side, leaving the other side without change. Unless the reduction is concentric, the bullet will be held out of true with the rifle bore, and inaccurate shooting will result. The shells also must go into the die squarely, or at exact right angle with its mouth. If they go in crooked, particularly toward the last eighth inch of their travel, the neck may be tilted slightly out of line with the rest of the shell.
The best means of resizing necks there fore is a bench press having straight line movement. Home presses can be rigged up without much work to hold the dies and to extract the shells. Lacking one, however, the regular reloading tools can be used both for resizing necks and expanding them. When this is done the die should be screwed in just far enough to allow the shell to be forced into it as required. If the chamber near the shellhead permits the shell much play, accurate straight-line resizing will be impossible, and the ammunition a failure. The only way to use a tool having a chamber or hole in the frame larger than the shell to be sized is to put in a bushing that will just fit the shell.
By making certain of uniform reduction of the shell neck all round, of exact straight-line insertion in the die, and reducing the neck as little as possible to hold the bullet used, very accurate ammunition can be loaded. Those who have not been getting results possibly may trace the trouble to one or another of these points.
The writer had been reloading rifle ammunition for fifteen years before he realized the desirability of resizing fired shells their full length. One day he loaded with the greatest care a hundred .30 Springfield 1906 cartridges for use at a match at our club. The powder charges were weighed to within a tenth of a grain. The shells were cleaned and their necks resized. In spite of all this attention those shells scattered the bullets over an 18-inch group at 200 yards. They chambered freely in the one rifle, but fit tight in another. The same shells then were sized all the way to the heads, and reloaded as before—and made groups as small as 3 inches at 200 yards.
When shells are resized on necks only, the bullets often are not held concentric with the rifle bore, because one side of the neck of a shell may reduce more than the other. Many low-pressure charges and reduced loads do not expand shells enough to make resizing necessary, but high-pressure loads do, and the higher the pressure the greater the need for full resizing. Again, a lot of shells all fired in the same rifle sometimes may be used in it again and again without resizing, but any lot fired in two or more rifles likely will have to be fully resized before they can be loaded to give satisfaction again in any one of them. Of course rifles having very close chambers largely prevent shell expansion, but practically every military and hunting rifle has any thing but a close chamber.
Variations in temper and thickness of walls cause variation in expansion of shells, with the result that fired shells differ in outside dimensions. The necks always expand, and sometimes the bodies swell to a tight chamber fit just in front of the head. Such expansions are easily corrected. Some rifles have short chambers, causing the shells to protrude back toward the action a sixty-fourth of an inch or less. Others have bolts that are much longer than usual, which results in crowding the shell forward. The resizing must reduce the shells to escape any such pinching, as well as to hold the bullets uniformly.
The resizing can not possibly be done satisfactorily with a tool held in the hands, because of the force needed. Nor can it be done at the same time the bullet is seated. It must be a separate operation. It can be done by hand, using the die, a hammer and a couple of hickory blocks, but it is done much faster, easier and better in a press that gives power enough to force the shell into the die or the die over the shell, and to pull them apart, and that is operated by a hand lever without undue exertion.
The dies are made for all good cartridges. At the present time they are hard to get, but there are indications they may be made and marketed by more than one firm before long. They wear out quickly. Putting about 2,000 shells through a Springfield 1906 die, for instance, will cut away the metal from the inside of the neck so much that the die is useless. It pays to give any die special treatment before it is used. One of the troublesome points in the resizing is the buckling or wrinkling of shells near the necks when given a little too much oil. To prevent this, ventilate the die with a hole one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter through the wall at the base of the neck. The die must be annealed before it can be drilled. Afterward it should be retempered just as hard as it is within the knowledge of the operator to accomplish.
The neck sizes of the dies should vary according to the kind of bullet to be used. Metal-cased bullets demand close resizing. or most reducing. Cast bullets usually are three-thousandths bigger than standard or bore diameter, and the dies should be that much bigger in the necks for resizing shells to be loaded with them. '
In hand resizing, use a big block of hard wood for an anvil, and another piece, say about three inches through and cube-shaped, with true faces, between the hammer and the shell head. Not more than 50 shells can be resized by hand in an hour. Everyone who shoots much should have an arbor press. Any straight-line press will do which provides a multiplying leverage of ten to fifteen power, and has means of fastening the die and withdrawing the shell from it. To extract the shell, its head may be grasped by a suitable flanged base, or (better) a straight punch. may extend through the die and up against the head of the shell inside, and be anchored in such a way that the return movement of the lever will push the shell out.
The shells must be oiled. If they are not, they surely will stick and delay operations, while many will tear in two. Too much oil, however, will cause the wrinkling mentioned before. The best oil is a light automobile-engine grade. To oil them properly and quickly, cover a board a foot or more square with two or three thicknesses of cheese-cloth. Dampen this with oil, then roll the shells tightly on it under the hand.
Whether working by hand or with a press, be careful to apply all pressure or force on a line with the axis of the shell. Remember that a shell in a die is almost putty under the force used, and is easily bent or otherwise distorted. Careless pounding may ruin shells. Avoid closing or reducing the flash-hole or primer pocket.
The Krag is one of the easiest shells to resize, because the walls are thin. All the medium power or 2,000-foot second class of cartridges are easily handled. The .30-06 Springfield is harder (takes more power), but can be resized with complete success. The .280 Ross, .30 Newton and other large shells are too heavy of wall and too big to be sized successfully in any hand press. Ease of resizing should be kept in mind in selecting a calibre of rifle.
The man who never has resized can not realize how much there is to be gained by doing it——in accuracy and in satisfaction in loading. Once you do get to resizing your shells full length, you will wonder how it was possible to load any rifle ammunition without it.
Lesson 12: Resizing Necks and Full length, pg 289, Jan 4, 1919
THE man who reloads his own | ammunition, and uses only shells he shoots in one rifle for each calibre, very often will find that full-length resizing is of little advantage. An occasional shell will be expanded enough in the body to stick when chambered, but such can be discarded. No short cuts are practicable in regard to resizing of necks of the shells, however. Everyone who reloads must prepare to do that operation to some extent.
The important points to watch are to use dies of the right sizes for the bullets to be used, and to reduce the shells accurately. Regarding the former, cast bullets invariably demand larger, or looser, or less sizing down than metal-cased bullets. For instance, the .30-calibre cast bullets measure .311 when properly sized, and .30-calibre metal-cased bullets .308. In addition, the cased bullets are hard enough to withstand deformation and scraping if pressed into shell mouths several thousandths smaller than their own diameter, while cast bullets in many instances are not.
I remember loading .30 Springfield ammunition with three bullets one fall. The regular 150-grain pointed metalcased bullet required very tight resizing —in fact, one die that came from the Ideal Company would not reduce shells enough. The gas-check bullet, when sized to .311, could be seated in shells equally reduced, but with a falling off in accuracy. They did much better when put through a die five thousandths enlarged. A specially soft 172-grain cast bullet would not seat without scraping or off-centering even in these slightly reduced shell mouths. For them the shells already resized were worked over with an expanding plug measuring .312, and the rest were not resized at all.
It will be seen that no one die can be used for all kinds of reloading. It is regrettable, but true, that two or more are required. If full-length resizing is done, the full die can be employed to size necks only of shells by inverting it and inserting the shells at the small end. The regular neck resizing dies, however, are so cheap that two or more easily can be bought, of smallest size, and one or more enlarged with reamer, drill or revolving shaft, and powdered emery or automobile valve grinding compound. Great care is necessary to keep from enlarging the hole too much, and to keep it absolutely round. The size should be determined as the enlarging progresses, largely by trial with bullets, but a check should be kept on it with a micrometer in some manner, to avoid possibility of spoiling the die. One or two thousandths taken out at a time are enough between careful trials and measurements, and the original size should be well recorded by putting through it a bunch of shells, and, if possible, by a solid metal plug of exact fit.
The second point to watch is to get the shells reduced equally all round—not just on one side, leaving the other side without change. Unless the reduction is concentric, the bullet will be held out of true with the rifle bore, and inaccurate shooting will result. The shells also must go into the die squarely, or at exact right angle with its mouth. If they go in crooked, particularly toward the last eighth inch of their travel, the neck may be tilted slightly out of line with the rest of the shell.
The best means of resizing necks therefore is a bench press having straight line movement. Home presses can be rigged up without much work to hold the dies and to extract the shells. Lacking one, however, the regular reloading tools can be used both for resizing necks and expanding them. When this is done the die should be screwed in just far enough to allow the shell to be forced into it as required. If the chamber near the shell head permits the shell much play, accurate straight-line resizing will be impossible, and the ammunition a failure. The only way to use a tool having a chamber or hole in the frame larger than the shell to be sized is to put in a bushing that will just fit the shell.
By making certain of uniform reduction of the shell neck all round, of exact straight-line insertion in the die, and reducing the neck as little as possible to hold the bullet used, very accurate ammunition can be loaded. Those who have not been getting results possibly may trace the trouble to one or another of these points.
The writer had been reloading rifle ammunition for fifteen years before he realized the desirability of resizing fired shells their full length. One day he loaded with the greatest care a hundred .30 Springfield 1906 cartridges for use at a match at our club. The powder charges were weighed to within a tenth of a grain. The shells were cleaned and their necks resized. In spite of all this attention those shells scattered the bullets over an 18-inch group at 200 yards. They chambered freely in the one rifle, but fit tight in another. The same shells then were sized all the way to the heads, and reloaded as before—and made groups as small as 3 inches at 200 yards.
When shells are resized on necks only, the bullets often are not held concentric with the rifle bore, because one side of the neck of a shell may reduce more than the other. Many low-pressure charges and reduced loads do not expand shells enough to make resizing necessary, but high-pressure loads do, and the higher the pressure the greater the need for full resizing. Again, a lot of shells all fired in the same rifle sometimes may be used in it again and again without resizing, but any lot fired in two or more rifles likely will have to be fully resized before they can be loaded to give satisfaction again in any one of them. Of course rifles having very close chambers largely prevent shell expansion, but practically every military and hunting rifle has anything but a close chamber.
Variations in temper and thickness of walls cause variation in expansion of shells, with the result that fired shells differ in outside dimensions. The necks always expand, and sometimes the bodies swell to a tight chamber fit just in front of the head. Such expansions are easily corrected. Some rifles have short chambers, causing the shells to protrude back toward the action a sixty-fourth of an inch or less. Others have bolts that are much longer than usual, which results in crowding the shell forward. The resizing must reduce the shells to escape any such pinching, as well as to hold the bullets uniformly.
The resizing can not possibly be done satisfactorily with a tool held in the hands, because of the force needed. Nor can it be done at the same time the bullet is seated. It must be a separate operation. It can be done by hand, using the die, a hammer and a couple of hickory blocks, but it is done much faster, easier and better in a press that gives power enough to force the shell into the die or the die over the shell, and to pull them apart, and that is operated by a hand lever without undue exertion.
The dies are made for all good cartridges. At the present time they are hard to get, but there are indications they may be made and marketed by more than one firm before long. They wear out quickly. Putting about 2,000 shells through a Springfield 1906 die, for instance, will cut away the metal from the inside of the neck so much that the die is useless. It pays to give any die special treatment before it is used. One of the troublesome points in the resizing is the buckling or wrinkling of shells near the necks when given a little too much oil. To prevent this, ventilate the die with a hole one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter through the wall at the base of the neck. The die must be annealed before it can be drilled. Afterward it should be retempered just as hard as it is within the knowledge of the operator to accomplish.
The neck sizes of the dies should vary according to the kind of bullet to be used. Metal-cased bullets demand close resizing or most reducing. Cast bullets usually are three-thousandths bigger than standard or bore diameter, and the dies should be that much bigger in the necks for resizing shells to be loaded with them.
In hand resizing, use a big block of hard wood for an anvil, and another piece, say about three inches through and cube-shaped, with true faces, between the hammer and the shell head. Not more than 50 shells can be resized by hand in an hour. Everyone who shoots much should have an arbor press. Any straight-line press will do which provides a multiplying leverage of ten to fifteen power, and has means of fastening the die and withdrawing the shell from it. To extract the shell, its head may be grasped by a suitable flanged base, or (better) a straight punch, may extend through the die and up against the head of the shell inside, and be anchored in such a way that the return movement of the lever will push the shell out.
The shells must be oiled. If they are not, they surely will stick and delay operations, while many will tear in two. Too much oil, however, will cause the wrinkling mentioned before. The best oil is a light automobile-engine grade. To oil them properly and quickly, cover a board a foot or more square with two or three thicknesses of cheese-cloth. Dampen this with oil, then roll the shells tightly on it under the hand.
Whether working by hand or with a press, be careful to apply all pressure or force on a line with the axis of the shell. Remember that a shell in a die is almost putty under the force used, and is easily bent or otherwise distorted. Careless pounding may ruin shells. Avoid closing or reducing the flash-hole or primer pocket.
The Krag is one of the easiest shells to resize, because the walls are thin. All the medium power or 2,000-foot second class of cartridges are easily handled. The .30-06 Springfield is harder (takes more power), but can be resized with complete success. The .280 Ross, .30 Newton and other large shells are too heavy of wall and too big to be sized successfully in any hand press. Ease of resizing should be kept in mind in selecting a calibre of rifle.
The man who never has resized can not realize how much there is to be gained by doing it——in accuracy and in satisfaction in loading. Once you do get to resizing your shells full length, you will wonder how it was possible to load any rifle ammunition without it.
Lesson 13: To Crimp or Not and Oiling the Shells, No. 16, Jan 11, 1919 pg 329 (232)
THOSE who reload will find a great many minor details that are apparently insignificant, but that often become the very points on which hinge results. One such detail is the opening of the mouths of shells that have been crimped at the last loading.
All factory ammunition has the shell crimped tightly about the bullet to keep it from coming out or from seating too deep. Back of this turned-in front edge, the shell neck is large enough so that the bullet fits easily, without any play, to be sure, but still without any friction or tension. The reason the neck is not made small enough to grip the bullet tight is because experience £ shown that the brass “fatigues” or crystallizes, and splits of its own accord when subjected for a period of months or years to tension about a bullet.
The abrupt crimp, which is sharp on its inner edge, will not shoot out, even though the shell behind it is greatly expanded when fired. Nor can it be pressed out satisfactorily. Efforts to do so will take more out of one side than another. The only satisfactory way of doing away with it is to cut it out with a reamer, such as one of the regular fluted revolving type, or with a sharp knife. The bevel of the cut should not be too short nor too long—about 60 degrees is right—and the cutting should stop before the outside edge of the mouth is made sharp.
It will be seen that if the reaming is done evenly all around the shell mouth, the bullet is bound to start in correctly. On the other hand, if the crimp is not reamed out, or is pressed out unevenly, the bullet likely will start in slightly tilted, or perhaps out of true with the axis of the shell. When not removed at all, the bullet will be shaved so much as to destroy accuracy, or the edge of the shell will be buckled, with the same effects on shooting. Into reamed shells bullets, metal cased or cast, can be started lightly with the fingers, then the cartridges can be handled through the bullet seating tool at the rate of one to two thousand an hour.
The special Ideal shell reamer is excellent for hand use, though no better, except for the wood handle, than any fluted reamer of the right size to be found in all good hardware stores. What is needed is a tool that has a non-cutting end to extend into the shell mouth a quarter inch or more. The end acts as a bearing and keeps the reamer true with the shell. Such a tool can be shaped from a taper reamer in five minutes on any emery wheel. The size to buy is the size nearest to and larger than your caliber. Grind off the cutting edges for a quarter inch, and have them begin with a 60 degree bevel. If there are many shells to ream, it is worth while to mount this reamer on a geared spindle run by crank, pedal or light power. A thousand or more shells can then be worked over in an hour. A small emery wheel gear will do, and the tool can be attached to its shaft after the grinding wheel is removed, by using pieces of shells or other metal tubing, or a block of hard wood properly bored. New factory shells, when fired, should be kept separate from old shells until they have been reamed.
Nearly everyone who has tried to reload any lot of empty rifle shells in a number of rifles, has found cartridges sticking in more ways than the user of any one rifle would think possible. Even an occasional owner of one rifle will find it has an abnormal chamber which requires him to give the empty shells special treatment. The reason is that shells expand according to the chamber they are fired in, and chambers vary in half dozen ways.
Manufacturers of rifles bore and finish the chambers within certain tolerances. Some permit less variation than others, but there always is a certain error. The tight chamber permits little expansion of its own shells, but will not take in those fifed in looser guns. The ideas of manufacturers differ also, as to the fit desirable, hence one make of rifle regularly may be several thousandths of an inch smaller in the neck of the chamber or elsewhere than another. How much the variation amounts to it is not the purpose here to explain—it is enough to point out that differences exist.
The chief points where shells rub or stick are in the necks and about three eights of an inch from the heads. The former is caused by trying to force expanded shells into a tightly bored chamber neck. The latter often is the result of an incident of the rifle making, in which the chambering cutter is not forced quite home, leaving the whole chamber short; and, in the case of tapered shells, the body diameter too small. In such a chamber the shell usually is pinched near the head before the neck slope is against the neck of the chamber. If forced on in, the head still projects enough to prevent the bolt from closing freely. Incidentally it may be said that such guns should go back to the factory for attention, though they can be used satisfactorily if the shells are reduced sufficiently in resizing.
It will be seen that when shells stick the remedy is now one kind of resizing and now another. An individual reloading only his own shells can diagnose the trouble and provide the one thing needed to correct it, but for miscellaneous lots of shells, as when they are gathered up at club shoots or among hunters, the only sure remedy is severe full length resizing.