I like Mike Venturino's articles. Mike is a crank who likes to shoot the same sort of rifles as me. However, in his latest piece in HL319 on shooting cast in MILSURP long arms he states he shoots linotype only now in these rifles as he was gifted a large amount (lucky man). My concern is that statements like this help the continuation of the perpetuation of the 'harder is better' doctrine that catches out so many newbie casters; myself included many years back. Increasingly my alloys are getting softer rather than hard. I shoot air cooled clip on WW in my .223 Rem at 2300fps and 40-1 GCd bullets in my bolt .30-30 at 1750fps both with very good accuracy (1.5 MOA when I do my bit). Likewise his BP revolver loads are 20-1 alloy which are a lot harder than they need be. I would like to see the mainstream writers do more on alloys of hardness at both ends of the spectrum.
Not to nit pick further, Terry Wieland in his column "In Range" talks about the transitional period from black to smokeless powder. He mentions "Black powder ignition causes soft lead bullets to 'bump up' in diameter to fit the rifling; smokeless does not". Terry is not 100% correct there however. My .310 Cadet would beg to differ as 5gr of Unique bumps up that heel perfectly.
I guess we have the luxury of sitting here with a wealth of knowledge but such material in the mainstream literary sector can do as much harm as good.
Cheers from New Zealand