Cents

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e

t

The

Dave Wolfe Editor and Publisher

Maj. Goorge C. Nonte Jr. Supervising Editor

Roger T. Wolfe. Ph.D. Associate Editor

Edward M. Yard Technical Editor

Homer Powley Ballistics Adviser

John T. Amber Editorial Adviser

EDITOR OF G U N DIGEST & HANDLOADING DIGEST

James D. Carmichel Cast Bullets

Parker 0. Ackley Wildcats 6. Gunsmithing

GUNSMITH COLUMNIST GUNS & A M M O MAGAZINE

John Wootters Shotshells

ASSOCIATE EDITOR G U N W E E K

Les Bowman Rifle Loads

Harvey A. Donaldson Historical Adviser

Ken Waters "Pet Loads"

ASSOCIATE EDITOR GUN DIGEST

Ted Smith

Bob Hagel

A. Robert Matt

Bullet Swaging

Hunting Adviser

On Gun Laws EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NATL. RELOADING MFG. ASSN.

John Buhmiller African Cartridges

Bob Wallack Field Editor

Barbara Killough Advertising Director

Tina Taylor Circulation Manager

Otto Schofield Production Manager

Walter Schwarz Photo 6 Art Director

Handloader Magazine

March-April, 1968 Vol. 3-No. 2 Rt. 4-Box 3482, Peoria, Ill. 61614

Features: Weatherby's New 2 4 0 Magnum .............................. Maj. George Nonte Cartridge of Month-.220 Swift ............................................................ Staff

Loading the .35 Whelen .......................................................... Steve Miller

My 2 0 Caliber Wildcats ................................................ Edward M. Yard Manuals Ain't Gospel ............................................................ Capt. B. Frits

Company Profiles-Speer, Inc ............. bob Hagel Loading Berdan Casest ............................................ ..Maj. George Nonte Homemade Powder Measure .............................. Richard V. Underwood 7mm's-Past & Present (Part 11) ................................................ Bob Hagel

Pressure Excursions Explained .......................... Prof. Lloyd E. Brownell

Ultralight Loads for 12 Gauge ........................................... John Wootters

Pet Loads-.35 Remington ....................................................... Ken Waters

14 17 18 22 24 28 31 32 34 38 41 42

Departments: . . Editorial ...................................... 4 Book Reviews .............................. 56

Lock, Stock & Barrel .................. 7 Answers, Please ........................ 56 LAW-MATTers ............................ 9 ProducTests ................................ 61 Reader By-Lines ........................ 10 Harvey Donaldson .................... 66

SHOOT1 N G i SPORTS I - 7

The HANDLOADER, Copyright 1968, i s published bimonthly by the Dave Wolfe Publishing Company, R t . 4-Box 3482 (1406 Hendryx Place), Peoria, Illinois 61614. Telephone (309) 691-2169. Second Class Postage paid at Peoria, Illinois, and additional mailing offices. Single copy price of current issue-75c (back issues priced at $1.00 from publisher). Subscription price: six issues $4.00: 12 issues $7.00; 18 issues $9.50. (Out- side U.S. possessions and Canada $5.00, $9.00 and $12.50). Recommended foreign single copy price, $I.@). Advertising rates furnished on request.

Publisher of The HANDLOADER ii not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published loading data, or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permissiop from the editor. Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied by stamped self-addressed, envelope and the publisher cannot accept re- sponsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

Change of address: Please give one month's notice. Send both old and new address, plus mailing label i f possible, to Circulation Dept.. The HANDLOADER Magazine, Rt . +Box 3482 (I406 Hendryx Place), Peoria, Illinois 61614.

Your March-April Cover Here i s Roy Weatherby's latest rif le and cartridge-the ,240 Magnum. Staf f reports a t The HANDLOADER Magazine indicate the entirely new case i s a "natural" f o r reloaders, and shows high versati l i ty of load combinations. (See story by Mai . George Nonte in th i s issue.) Due t o increasing popular i ty o f the 6mm bul let , and the fac t t ha t th i s part icular car t r idge wi l l be adequate fo r most Nor th American b i g game, your Staff predicts an immediate success for Roy. Another "smashing" cover transparency b y Photo & A r t Director, Wa l te r Schwarz.

6 Handloader-Mmch-April. 1968

Roy Weatherby’s New M A X I M U M

CARTRIDGE

0 240 t-t ^r By Moj. George Nonte

1.992 2.190

2 . 5 0 0 3.000 R E F .

T ISN’T TOO OFTEN that we’re intro- duced to an entirely new case when

:I new cartridge comes along. It does happen occasionally, as with the ,224 Weatherby, .222 Remington, and .284 Winchester - but more often than not, new cartridges are simply based on a shortened or lengthened and otherwise reshaped version of something already in existence, As examples of this prac- tice (and we don’t mean to imply there’s anything bad about it), we have the 6mm Rem. based on the old .257 Roberts necked down; .243 Winchester, ditto on .308 case; 6.5mm and ,350 Rem. Mags. from the 7mm Rem. .Mag; and, of course, the Winchester belted magnum series based on the old .300/.375 H&H case.

There are good reasons for doing things this way -namely cost and con- venience. Tooling up to produce a case that is new in a l l its dimensions is tre- mendously expensive - much more so than to change length, shoulder angle and head markings on yomething al- ready being turned out. In spite of all this, we like to see new cases. Perhaps it’s because they make life more inter- esting and present new handloading challenges.

And so it was when we saw the first samples of the new .240 Weatherby

I Magnum cartridge almost a couple of toolroom production of special cases. years ago. W e liked it all the more Using the British belted .240 Apex cart- because it wasn’t merely a rehash of ridge as a guide, which has essentially an existing basic case. It was belted, of the same head diameter as the .30-06, classic Weatherby shape and style, but belts were swaged on new arsenal ’06 with head and belt diameter midway cases. More correctly, the portion of the between the existing Holland Pi Holland case ahead of where the belt was dc- size and the much smaller ,224 Weath- sired was swaged down, leaving the or- erby of a few years back. iginal ’06 head to form the belt. Necked

to 6mm caliber, these cases became the basis for the first rounds of .240 Weath- erby Magnum to be loaded.

MY Personal interest was even more intense since I had been contacted ear& er by Weatherby’s and asked if I could, by means of the methods outlined in my Eventually, well over a year ago, we book on case forming, turn out a acquired a sample of the .240 cartridge small lot of belted cases in which the in its final form, along with a half- first .240 test rounds could be loaded - dozen fired cases - hardly enough to without the cost and delay involved in accomplish anything, especially since

.240 Weatherby Loading Data (Recommended by Weatherby)

Bullet Wt. Powder wt. Velocity Pressure - 90 N205 55.2 3,444 53,700 - 100 N205 54.2 3,346 53,140

Nosler 85 N205 55.1 3,480 53,480 Nosler 100 N205 54.0 3,345 53,540 Hornady 70 N205 58.4 3,790 53,830

Note that all the a b o v e pressures run well over 50,000 psi a v e r a g e , indicating individual rounds may r u n as high as 60,000 psi, or greater . Approach all loads from 10 per cent below the c h a r g e s stated a b o v e .

14 Hrmdloader-Murch-April, 1968

there were no .240 rifles to be had. All the same, we wanted to find out what the cartridge would do.

A sample round was shipped off to Clymer Grinding Co. (14241 West 11 Mile Road, Oak Park, Michigan) with a request that the sawy lads there grind us a chambering reamer - which they did with alacrity. Reamer and two M- 1909 actions (with Timney triggers in- stalled and bolt handles altered by Badger Shooters Supply) were dispatch- ed to Frost Arms Service (then Engle & Frost) for fitting and chambering of medium weight 24-inch barrels with 1-10 twist. The barrels were rifled and contoured by Small Arms Manufactur- ers, Inc., Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. This outfit, by the way, supplies barrels of all sorts to the arms industry - turning out more in a year than any other U.S. bar- rel-making firm.

In due time we received the “custom” .240 Weatherby Magnums back at the office. One was stocked by Fajen, and the other stuck in an altered Mauser military stock. While all this went on, Fred Huntington, out at the California headquarters of RCBS, Inc., made up case forming and reloading dies from sample .240 empties we’d sent him.

Other people had had the headaches up to this point, but then we had to go to work. It took a weekend of prime Handloader-March-April, 1968

When factory rifle arrived, author braved snowdrifts to test fire it.

drinking time to make a hundred .240 cases from new, unprimed Federal .270 cases (.30-06 works just as well, but we had more .270’s). Three operations were required to belt the cases, then five more to bring them close enough to fi- nal dimensions for loading and fire- forming. Finally, after firing, cleaning and resizing, they were ready to be call- ed “.240 Weatherby.” Our forming loads were simply heavy 6mm Reming- ton loads with 100-grain bullets,

That all the people involved in mak- ing up guns and dies had done a careful job was evident, for the formed cases chambered with just a wee bit of pres- sure on the bolt handle. There were, incidentally, no failures in fire-forming the 100 cases. Only the 1909 in the military stock was used for the shooting tests.

Our formed cases had slightly less powder capacity than the sample fac- tory brass (produced by RWS in West Germany). While the factory case ha5 a thicker head, ,270 and ’06 bras5 has thicker walls, resulting in an overall reduction in capacity.

The reformed cases weighed 190 grains, as oppoced to 176 grains for the Weatherby tactory brass.

Initial shooting with one test rifle was with the fire-forming load of Sierra 100- grain spitzer bullets and 40.0 grains of

The 240 Weatherby flanked on the left by the .30-06, and by the ancient ,240 Apex to which it bears a close resemblance.

15

The two test rifles above were made up for The HANDLOADER long before cartridge specifications or factory guns were available. Redfield 4X-12X big game/varmint scopes and mounts did yeoman service in staff tests.

IMR 4350 powder-which is a top 6mm Remington load. No check was made of velocity, but this load deliver-

. , ed 1% to l%-inch five-shot groups at 100 yard$. Not bad for a scratch case-forming load, though well below the capabilities of the cartridge.

Since this is a hot magnum car- tridge in typical Weatherby style, it requires slow-burning powders for best performance. We’d heard that factory loads were being assembled with Nor- ma 205, so this seemed the logical powder choice. Filled to the mouth, factory cases held 62 grains of this propellant, while our formed cases (after fire-forming and full-length re- sizing,) held 59.5 grains.

Based on this evidence, we consid- ered about 46 grains of N205 a good place to start with 100-grain bullets and formed cases. This load appear- ed mild and did nothing at the tar- get to distinguish itself. Progressing upward with Sierra 100-grain spitzers, we got to 52 grains without signs of excessive pressure. Extraction was easy, primers were only slightly flattened, and there was no measurable case head expansion. This load produced 3,250 fps, with five-shot groups run- ning slightly under 1% inches. Sub- stituting the Nosler 100-grain 6mm bullet produced essentially the same results, still without any indication of

excess pressures.

Factory cases, obtained later, took a full two grains more powder without excessive pressure signs and produced slightly more velocity, though not enough more to brag about.

Since the 100-grain 6mm bullet isn’t generally considered in the varmint class, we dropped down to the 70- grain Hornady, one of the lightest

available in this caliber. Again in formed cases, N205 was used, pro- gressing upward from 50 grains. At 57.5 grains, sticky extraction was encoun- tered, so we backed down to 56 grains, which produced 1% to 1’/2-inch groups without any indication of undesirable high pressure. At this level, velocity was just a shade under 3,700 fps-

(Continued on Page 52)

Reading left to right: .270 case: first belting operation; second belting and first form opera- tion; second form and trim; neck ream; full length size; loaded for fire-forming; fire-formed;

Weatherby Factory .240 Magnum.

2 4 0 Weatherby Magnum Factory Ammo Data Mid-Range Trajectory Velocity Energy

Bullets fps Foot Pounds In Inches 100 200 300 100 200 300

Wt. Type Muzzle yds. yds. yds. Muzzle yds. yds. yds. yds. yds. yds.

2304 1788 1376 1038 0.3 1.5 3.9 2444 1960 1559 1222 0.4 1.8 4.5 2554 2150 1804 1495 0.4 1.8 4.4

100 200 300

70 Pt. SP 3850 3395 2975 2585 90 Pt. SP 3500 3135 2795 2475

100 Pt. SP 3395 3115 2850 2595 Handloader-March-April. 1968 16

3 u u ! ‘

Zeuiecud History of Modem US. Military

Small Arms Ammunition by F . W . Hackley, W . H. Woodin and E . L. Scranton, published by the MacMillan Co., $25.00.

W e have available today a plethora of books devoted to the subject of mil- itary small arms. Unfortunately, most of those books give only the most cur- sory treatment to the ammunition without which those arms would be, at best, very poor clubs. So, it was with considerable anticipation that we waited to receive a copy of History of Modern U.S. Military Small Arms Ammunition. W e were aware that this book had been in preparation for many years, and that the information it would contain was being drawn from the extensive collection and mas- sive records gathered by William H. Woodin of Tucson.

This book is not intended for casual reading. It is a serious work for the ammunition student and collector. You don’t find any risque stories or infor- mation on how to con an elderly widow out of rare specimens. However, you will find extensive information and data on U.S. Military small arms am- munition of the period 1880-1939, be- low 37mm caliber.

Part I refers only to pistol and re- volver ammunition, to include adap- tions thereof intended for submachine guns and special purposes. Information presented on individual calibers and models include headstamps, quantities manufactured, bullet and case types, box labels, and a great deal more. 11- lustrating these various characteristics of individual rounds are extensive drawings and tables of dimensions. Material is not restricted purely to “ball” ammunition, but includes var- ious special purpose types such as shot and blank cartridges. Also, various ex- perimental components which never saw field service are described in con- siderable detail.

Part I1 is the most extensive in the book, comprising nine chapters devot- ed to rifle and machine gun ammuni- tion. This section begins with the various forms of the .236 (6mm) U.S. Navy cartridge, and finishes with S O Browning machine gun ammunition. A vast amount of hitherto-unpublished data on experimental bullets, cases and loadings is included.

Part I11 is devoted to “Miscellaneous 56

All ’Round Gun?

I’ve had my Model 700 Rem. 7mm Mag. throated out and I am now able to seat my 175-grain Noslers with bul- let base flush with bottom of case neck, as you advocated. I am now loading 67 grains of No. 4831 and 175-grain Nos- ler. Would it be wise and feasible to increase the powder charge, as I now have considerable air space in the case and I am sure I could increase another two grains, coming right up to the 7mm Mashburn ballistics.

Also, what do you think of the 700 Rem. in 7mm Mag. as an all around

Ammunition of Conventional Cali- bers.” This section deals not only with ammunition per se, but with items such as the caliber .22 Hoffer cartridge holder which was used to fire .22 rim- fire cartridges in the 1903 gallery rifle. Other items covered are the military loading of the .25 Remington cart- ridge, which was used in tests to de- termine the suitability of semi-auto- matic rifles for military use, and also in various bullet effectiveness tests. Al- so of interest are the various foreign military calibers (7.62mm Russian, 7.9mm Mauser, etc.) which were load- ed specifically for U.S. Government use, either for testing foreign arms or for use in foreign arms pressed into domestic service during emergencies.

The last part of the book is devot- ed to experimental and unidentified ammunition, beginning with the cali- ber .22 experimental M1895-which appears to be the Krag case lengthen- ed to 234” and necked down to .22 cal. Various U.S. experimental rifle and machine gun cartridges in calibers .25, .276, .28, etc. are covered in de- tail and illustrated with fine line drawings, accompanied by tables of dimensions. Even the Gerlich-type “squeeze-bore’’ bullet models are dis- cussed in detail.

A fairly extensive list of appendices contains information invaluable to the collector of military cartridges.

In this reviewer’s opinion, no serious student of either arms or ammunition can afford to be without this, the first truly useful and accurate reference work on U.S. military ammunition. Maj. George C. Nonte, Jr.

U gun? I also use the old Model 70 .375 Magnum, which I like very much. I killed an 8-foot Kodiak Bear at 275 yards, one shot with 300-gr. factory Silvertip this last spring. I was going to sell the .375 and use nothing but the 7mm, but somehow I just can’t seem to get rid of the old .375. Intend in the next year or so to hunt the Yukon, probably in the MacKenzie mountains and figured the 7mm should be the ticket for this. I have Weaver top mounts and Leupold 2 x 7 power scope which I like very much. Am also us- ing CCI primers with this 175-67 gr.- No. 4831 load. Pressure seems mild. Do you think or would you yourself in- crease powder charge? This load is very accurate.

One more thing, how do you sug- gest sighting at 100 yards? Three inch- es high? You have done a lot of long range shooting at big game, so I will sight in as you suggest.

B. M., Taylor, Mich.

It i s impossible to say just what the max- imum load would be in your rifle with the 175-grain Nosler bullet. Some barrels will take a grain or two more powder than an- other exactly like it, yet give the same pres- sures. However, I believe that you can use 68-69 grains of 4831. Would suggest that you go up ‘/2 grain a t ~ a time and check for pressure signs until the maximum load i s reached.

If you have a micrometer caliper you can check the diameter of the belt after each firing (also check the same case prior to firing to get the average diameter). When the average reading shows any read- able head expansion-say, .0002-,0003, drop the charge at least one grain. Such a load normally gives good accuracy, but you can drop back I grain at a time until you find the right load for your particular rifle. These loads should NOT be worked up i n cold weather and then fired in hot weather, as pressures may be increased somewhat.

I recently had a M / 7 0 0 7mm Remington Magnum that would take only 66 grains of 4831 behind the 160-grain Nosler and that load chronographed 3,003 fps from the 24” barrel. After throating it to take the same bullet with .base seated flush with base of neck, it would handle 70 grains of 4831 and clocked i n at 3,129 with no head ex-

pansion.

I believe that you may do better by using H-870 with the 175-grain bullet. The new

Handloader-March-April, 1968

No. I .3&W Loads

.4S ACP Varmint Shotshells

Know Your Powder

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OKH Cartridges .37S H I H Magnum

I No. 8 New Wanda Shotshells .NO H6H Pet Loads Do's L Don'ts

Reloading Principles Clay Bird Loddinq 222 Remington Bullet Friction Study

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