My load development started with the Rapine bullet and two powders, Unique and IMR 4759. Cautious progression in one grain increments showed the following two loads to be safe and in the right velocity range: 14gr. Unique for 1489 f.p.s. and 19gr. 4759 for 1410 f.p.s.

These loads were developed using rifle primers. When I substituted pistol primers unacceptable cratering of the primers ensued with the Unique loads.

Some of the items used in load development.

With a starting point established I selected 5 comparable loads from 358 Winchester data and loaded 5 rounds of each. The day I tested these loads it was below 25 degrees, which may have marginally affected the velocities I obtained. The loads and results are shown to the left:

Green Dot appeared pointless and I decided to save my supply of 4759 for calibers that clearly preferred it. Friends with more PB expertise than me advised me to keep velocities below 1400 fps. With the addition of one slower burning powder which has worked for me in pre-vious projects – Rx7, I proceeded.

By now I had my Lyman 366408 mold in hand. I cast a supply of bullets using a 2/1 ww/lino alloy. I also mixed up a fresh batch of Darr lube. A week later I was back at the range testing these three loads to the right:

Subsequent testing has confirmed that my rifle likes IMR 4198 and the Lyman bullet. It is an accurate and mild load. Actually it performs better than any load I had hoped to find.

The Hunting Load:

The ultimate goal for this rifle has always been to be a cast bullet deer rifle. The tract of land I hunt is a mix of timber and lowland with a few small fields thrown in. Most of my shooting needs will be met with a rifle/cartridge combination that is adequate out to 125 yards. A 275 grain bullet at 1800 fps would duplicate the stout 38-55 loads listed in Wolfs Big Bore Rifles and Cartridges. I felt this should be adequate for my needs.

I wanted a gas check bullet when trying to reach this velocity. Initially I did not expect to be able to obtain a gas check .366 inch mold. While it subsequently turned out that I was quite wrong, I reasoned that the next best thing would be swaging a readily available .375 bullet down to the proper diameter. Lee Precision is willing to provide their push through lube/sizing die in custom dimensions and at a price that is most reasonable. I ordered a .368” die which arrived just short of 4 weeks later.

Sizing a .375” bullet down to .368” is not ideal as we all know but I was committed to the plan. I had three dif-ferent .376” bullets on hand. One was a 315 grain single diameter spire point which sized down beautifully but was much heavier and longer than necessary for the task at hand.

The other two were bore ride designs. The heavier, blunter 300 grain bullet simply could not be swaged down satisfactorily. The second is a 260 grain bullet which roughly resembles an oversized Lyman 31141 or a Lyman 375296 with one fewer lube groove. I am sorry that I don’t know the mold number but I purchased this box of bullets a number of years ago. The exact bullet is not important here other than to say the smaller the bullets diameter, the better. My specimens started at an actual .375 and they sized down to .368 quite well. I found that adding some lube to the top band helped.

Once I had secured a supply of gas check bullets I started carefully testing loads. Initially my primary interest

The other two were bore ride designs. The heavier, blunter 300 grain bullet simply could not be swaged down satisfactorily. The second is a 260 grain bullet which roughly resembles an oversized Lyman 31141 or a Lyman 375296 with one fewer lube groove. I am sorry that I don’t know the mold number but I purchased this box of bullets a number of years ago. The exact bullet is not important here other than to say the smaller the bullets diameter, the better. My specimens started at an actual .375 and they sized down to .368 quite well. I found that adding some lube to the top band helped.

(l-r) 30-30; 308; 30-06; 9.3x57 with Lyman 366408; 9.3x57 with NEI #174; 45-70

Once I had secured a supply of gas check bullets I started carefully testing loads. Initially my primary interest was keeping all of my body parts attached in their proper positions. My starting loads produced velocities in the 1250 f.p.s. range. Eventually I did work up four hunting level loads that are safe in my rifle. They were:

During this phase of my testing, I bought an NEI 25 caliber mold on EBay. The mold was “new in the box”. When it arrived there was an NEI mold list also in the box. NEI shows two .366” gas check molds among their offerings. I called NEI and an incredible four days later I received a brand new .366” mold in the mail. If there is better customer service than this, I have never encoun-tered it. Thanks to the kind folks at NEI.

The mold (#174) was listed at 260 grains. Using the same 2 to 1 ww/lino alloy, my bullets weigh exactly 280 grains including gas check. By the way I am using 35 caliber gas checks (as NEI specified) and seating them with my Lee custom die. I lubed these bullets with Darr lube the same as I had done with the Lyman 366408 PB.

Even though IMR 4198 shot extremely well in my rifle with the PB bullet, I was uncomfortable pushing the charges much farther than 30 grains. I felt that moving up to a heavier 280 grain bullet indicated that the prudent course was to opt for the slower burning powders. Hence I left IMR 4198 out of the final testing.

The weather on the day I tested the remaining three loads for accuracy was far from ideal. It was quite cold and the wind was moderate to strong. I don’t know if this impacted accuracy much but I did get some unexplained fliers, particularly with Varget. All three loads grouped under four inches at 100 yards, including fliers. IMR 4895 produced the most felt recoil and the loosest group. The Varget load put four of six shots into 1-1/2 inches. The remaining two were fliers, one high and one low. If I wanted a hotter load for this rifle, I would work more with Varget. It may be the right powder in some rifles.

The Rx7 load gave the least felt recoil and a nice round 2-1/2 inch group for seven shots. Actually this rifle may not be capable of much better accuracy than this. I am not sure that I am. Recoil becomes quite noticeable at 1750 fps. In any event, I am satisfied that 33 grains of Rx7 is a serviceable hunting load in my rifle. I will probably test a softer alloy next fall as I am not sure that this fairly hard (2/1) alloy will expand.

These are my experiences to date. Now that I have two good molds on hand, I am sure that more rifles of this bore diameter are in my future. If any of the readers have information to share, or observations, I would enjoy hearing from you.

Initial experiments sought a subsonic load with minimum noise, but 100-yard groups with M2 Ball bullets loaded subsonic were not as good as when they were driven a bit faster. Nor did I find any benefit to using pistol primers, case fillers or enlarged flash holes with Bullseye powder in these .30-’06 gallery loads. Once-fired LC military cases were full length resized, primer pockets swaged, trimmed to length and primed with standard Winchester Large Rifle primers.

Label on original box of Guard Cartridges.

Bullets used in the tests: 150 grain Ball, 163 gr. NEI #63, Lyman #311291 and 130 gr. NEI #82

I settled on a charge of 8 grains of Alliant Bullseye as the best compromise with pulled Ball M2 150-grain jacketed bullets. Bullets were crimped using the Lee Factory Crimp die. Velocity from my 22” Mauser sporter with European style, long tapered throat is 1080 f.p.s. and from a Sako A2 silhouette rifle with 24” Douglas Premium barrel with tight-necked target chamber and SAAMI throat 1160 f.p.s. Report and recoil are very mild, like shooting a .32-20.

The average of five consecutive 5-shot groups fired at 50 yards from the Mauser sporter with 4X scope was 1.2 inches. The point of impact at 50 yards was 3.5” below that of normal Ball M2, which enabled using the heavy duplex reticle as a short-range post, using my normal zero for 180-gr. hunting ammunition. The Sako with 10X scope shot very consistent inch groups at 50 yards. So it was time to go to out to 100 yards and stop “fooling around.”

The Mauser sporter struck much, much lower at 100 yards, and would require re-zeroing, but accuracy was fairly good, averaging 2.6” for ten consecutive 5-shot groups at 100 yards. This compares to firing full-up Ball M2 ammunition. The Sako with 10X scope averaged 2” for ten consecutive 5-shot groups, also typical of M2 Ball ammunition in that rifle.

While I was at it, I decided to load and test cast bullets, fired without the GC, to compare their performance against the Ball M2 pulled bullets. The cast bullets were not of match quality, but highly satisfactory as practice, training, small game and utility loads usable in any sound .30-’06 rifle. Cast bullet groups were equal to or better than the M2 pulls, an inch at 50 yards and 2 inches or less at 100 yards. Bullets were cast in gang moulds of wheel weight alloy, sight culled only, tumbled in Lee Liquid Alox or Rooster jacket and loaded as-cast without sizing. Velocities with the lighter cast bullets were around 1400 f.p.s. with 8 grains of Bullseye, so it may be advantageous to reduce the charge by a grain or so if leading impairs accuracy over longer strings of fire.

The M1919 Gallery Practice cartridge used a 140-grain, plain-based, round-nose lead bullet shaped very much like the Ideal #308241. Prior to WWII it was reclassified as the Cartridge, Guard, M1. This lead bullet reduced load was originally intended for indoor and outdoor short-range practice. It was alternately used as a Guard cartridge around defense plants and military installations in non-combat areas which didn’t require the FMJ bullet of the M1906 Guard cartridge for compliance with the 1905 Hague Convention.

Ed’s brother Rick testing Guard loads in a 1903-A3 Springfield

Gallery Practice cartridges were loaded with a charge of Sporting Rifle No. 80 powder to attain about 1100 f.p.s. Guard units commonly reloaded indoor practice ammunition. Ideal Reloading manuals prior to WWII and Phil Sharpe’s Complete Guide to Handloading (1937) featured data for assembling gallery centerfire rifle loads.

Cast loads which approximate the M1919 Gallery Practice cartridge are shown in the table. These light loads do not cycle the action in semi-automatic rifles, but can be fed from clips in the Garand if the action is worked manually. These charges can be used in the 7.62x54R Russian cartridge with similar results. To produce similar loads for the 7.62 NATO, 8mm Mauser, 7.65 Argentine, 7.7 Japanese or .303 British, maximum charges should be reduced by one full grain.

When using reduced charges of dense, fast-burning pistol powder it is absolutely necessary to visually inspect 100% every case for correct powder fill using a pen light to positively prevent missing or double charges or spilled powder. Another solution is to use a bulky pow-der which would obviously overflow the case if inadvertently double-charged. The late Col. Townsend Whelen’s favorite small game load for the Springfield used a charge of 18 grs. of SR-4759 powder, which bulks up nicely in the case.

I wrote an article in the Handloader’s Digest, 10th Edition in which I reported results using a charge of 13 grains of Red Dot in a variety of military rifles. “The Load” with Red Dot gives results almost identical to the Whelen small game load, about 1600 f.p.s. These approximate the energy of the .32-40 Winchester and are more accurate at longer ranges, but are louder than the M1906 Guard and M1919 Gallery Loads.

Roger Billington testing Guard loads in a sporterized Springfield

If low noise and minimum danger space are the goal, carefully load 8 grs. of Bullseye in the .30-’06 or 7.62x54R Russian, or 7 grains of Bullseye in the 7.62 NAT0, 8mm Mauser, 7.65 Argentine, 7.7 Japanese or .303 British with any jacketed bullet or cast bullet of the same weight or lighter than the military service one appropriate for the caliber. Do not reduce charges further with jacketed bullets because much below 1000 f.p.s., you may “stick” a bullet in the bore.

You may substitute lubricated lead cast bullets of a weight similar to or less than the service bullet with good results and reduce the charge in typical military rifles to as little as 4 grains of Bullseye, Clays, 700-X, Red Dot, Unique, W231 or TiteGroup. Lead bullets will exit the barrel reliably down to about 600 f.p.s. and accuracy is reasonable to about 50 yards. Do not reduce charges any further as ignition is erratic. I don't recommend extreme reduced loads with other powders. 􀀁

For a flatter shooting load in the Ruger I bump charges up to 3.5 grs. of SR-7625 for 1035 f.p.s. in the 4-5/8” Ruger and 1087 in the 6” Colt. You can also use up to 3.0 grs. of Bullseye or 3.5 grs. of W231 to approach 900 f.p.s. A charge of 3.5-4.0 grs. of Unique has similar ballistics and shoots well in strong guns, but don’t exceed 2.8 grs. of Unique in pre-war solid frames.

If your chosen .32 trail gun will shoot under 2-inch 25-yard groups with a 100-gr. flatnosed lead bullet at velocities from 800 to 1050 f.p.s., the basics of a crackerjack trail gun are there. If the particular revolver weighs about 2 pounds or so, so much the better. A 4” barrel is enough, if you have good eyesight. The Ruger 4-5/8” barreled .32 Magnum Single Six is just about ideal. The effect of barrel length upon accuracy is insignificant for field use, if you can see the sights.

A nice vintage box of Remington-UMC .32 S&W Long cartridges.

The most noticeable innovation is the very shallow grease groove on the bullet. From studies by Mann and computer models by Andrew Bar­niskis, we know how a bullet expands in the leade. Deep grease grooves have always looked like a potential weakness to me, and the nearer they are to the base of the bullet the greater the potential for problems. Deep grooves near the base may allow an unsupported area to collapse non-uniformly, caus­ing out of square bases and subsequent flyers. It would seem that if you must have deep grooves they should be near the front third of the bullet where they will do the least harm.

A 16 lb .. 357 Herrett Rifle built on a Thompson Contender pistol action

Not everyone agrees with this theory. Bob Sears and other notable experts have told me that a sizable groove near the base is necessary as a gas seal With a bullet that is not a snug fit in the leade that may be true. Early cast bullet designs such as the Lyman 311284 have deep grease grooves; perhaps with the lubes used in 1905 they were neces­sary. Over the years shooters have come to expect deep grooves in cast bullets and that is how the manufacturers make them Deep lube grooves are not necessary. Experiments run by Tom Gray show that most cast bullet shooters are using was too much lube. He has shown that with modem lubes, loads in excess of 2,200 :fps can be shot with as little as 3/10 of a grain of lube. More is not always better. Lets face it, bullet lube is a contaminate and we wouldn't be using it if it wasn't absolutely neces­sary.

I don't believe there is any reason for lube to remain on the bullet past the end of the barrel. While scoring I 00-yard targets I have seen blue lube spattered around bullet holes and have occa­sionally seen the same thing on targets fired at 200 yards. Obviously the lube stayed on the bullet all the way to the target. True, this did not appear to do any great harm, but it is hard to believe that lube on the bullet contributes anything good to its external ballistics. We would not have any grease grooves on our bullets if they were not needed. In my research I encountered a couple of interesting failures of non-­grooved bullets. One, In the NRA Publication Cast Bullets, deals with the development of paper patched bullets and the other with bullet lubes un­der the base of the bullet.

Author and his rifle

The latter experiment failed when bullets without grooves were used. While neither experiment was directly related to what I was trying to do, and no one was even willing to venture a guess as to why they failed, I took this information under advisement and decided to use a lube groove of bore diameter (.350").

I used a rather simple method to produce the mould. A half ­reamer with the bullet nose form and base on it was made in a lathe. A junk, small block Lyman 6mm mould was indicated in a four-jaw chuck and roughed out using common drills. The reamer pro­duced the main form of the mould cavity, and a second band was added using a small boring bar. The half-reamer cuts very well on its side, but doesn't like to bore with its nose. My reamer cut beautifully until it started to make a full cut.

Bullets cast of 12 BHN scrap alloy measure .3585" on the base band, .3570" on the middle band and .3515" on the nose. I meant to make the nose .3505" but, with the soft alloy, engraving another .0015" with thumb pressure is not a problem. The other dimensions are just about perfect for the leade.

I have never used a mould that drops its bullets as easy as this one does; probably because of the shallow grease groove. Usually the bullet drops when I open the handles. Initially I used the original Lyman sprue plate but was plagued with rounded bases and tears in the sprue cut-off. After casting about 100 bullets I made another sprue plate with a .125" pour hole out of W' aluminum stock. This solved the problem, producing sharp base edges and clean cutoffs. I would like to say the modification produced a big increase in accuracy - it did not - but it make me feel better.

I anticipated that, using the small Lyman blocks for a 295 gr .. 35 cal. bullet, the blocks would soon over-heat. This is not the case. In fact, the blocks tend to run cold and have a very small "casting window". You have to cut the sprue about 3 to 31/z seconds after it changes color. If you wait longer the next bullet is sure to have a rounded base. The sprue sets up rather quickly. There is just enough time to inspect the last bullet cast and throw the cut-off sprue into the pot before the next sprue hardens. This precludes casting with two moulds.

left- 295 grain .35 cal. bullet as-cast; right- fired bullet recovered

When shooting this bullet the first thing that became apparent was that bullet hardness had little to do with accuracy. Remember the bullet is seated in the leade, not in the rifling. rm not a single shot shooter but, from what I've read, I ex­pected bullet hardness to be critical. Sure, I tried linotype bullets; I tried pushing them fast and promptly leaded the bore. If I held the velocity un­der 1400 fps, 8 to 22 BHN bullets produced about equal accuracy with a slight adjustment of the pow­der charge. I don't know if this effect is produced by the bullet design, seating the bullet in the leade, or an idiosyncrasy of this particular barrel.

I tried Red Dot powder at first but had erratic flyers. From previous experiments I knew that Blue Dot worked well in this type of application and had immediate success when I tried it. I have not done much experimentation with different powder, there very well might be a better choice.

From the bullet design you might think lube would be a critical factor. For years my standard of comparison has been the NRA beeswax/alox for­mula. Of course it was the first thing I tried simply smearing it over the bullet with my finger tips. I also tried Lee Liquid Alox, Tom Grays experimen­tal #24, and several other commercial lubes I had on hand. All of the lubes left a neat lube star on the muzzle and accuracy was about the same, as was bore condition. Very thin coats of lube were used, in fact you could not see the color ( except for the Lee) on the bullet. There were no appar­ent failures due to in­sufficient lube. There were some accuracy failures generated by applications of two different lubes ( chassis lube on top of Lee Alox) and over lubing the bullet.

As I stated, I was trying to build a 2 MOA off hand rifle. From the very start it was evident the rifle was going to shoot better than that. We have all heard about problems with two-piece stocks. Well, my rifle not only has a two piece stock but also a two-piece action. Its not just twice as bad, its more like a squared function. Cranky? It's crankier than my wife two days before payday.

I had just shot a 10-shot group at 200 yards that was round and measured 21h11 and thought I would try the free-recoiling method. Five shots free recoiling went into more than 12". I then fired five shots using the heavy cheek and shoulder pressure used for the first group; those shots went under 2". Evidently the heavy hold on the rifle forces the ac­tion and barrel into the same alignment every time. Doubt this? Take your favorite TC, clamp the frame in a vise, then move the barrel. Depressing isn't it? The frame of my action is old and worn and has seen many rounds and barrels. Seeing how much movement there was, I gave the frame a judicious squeeze in an aluminum jawed vise and removed about 95% of the play. Still, the rifle has to be held hard to shoot well.

Despite what might be considered rough han­dling, the rifle shows signs of amazing accuracy. Late evening testing at 200 yards has produced many five to seven-shot clusters in the .5 to .75 MOA category. Unfortunately they were part of ten-shot groups that ended up being around 1 to 1 Vi MOA More often than not these extremely small partial groups were successive shots.

Because the rifle is heavy and recoil light, if the light is right you can often watch the bullet in flight for the last 20 yards or so. It is an exhilarating ex­perience to watch the bullet drop into the last hole. You become convinced that if you held your mouth just right they would all go in. Even when you think you are holding the rifle the same way you can sometimes feel a difference in the recoil. You can rest assured that if the recoil felt different, the shot opened up the group.

In a large part my experiment was generated by expedience. The .357", 1-16" Douglas barrel was what I had in the shop. The .357 Herrett reamer was also what was on hand. Given a choice I think the .357 Max would have been better. Nevertheless, I deem the project a success as it caused me to work on bullet design. This is a field that has been sadly neglected until the last few years.

I consider my efforts successful. The rifle is twice as accurate as I had hoped it would be. I have learned that because of bullet design, a plain base and a shallow grease groove, the mould throws the bullets out like popcorn. Also, for whatever reason, it appears the bullet has a high tolerance for both different lubes and varying degrees of hardness. I don't think that I've proved that my design is vastly superior to more conventional bullets, however the design does work, proving that some of the princi­pals held dear for almost a hundred years are not necessarily carved in stone. @

.The powders used with jacketed bullets then worked well with somewhat reduced cast loads. Cast loads outshot factory ammo in most hunting rifles, though the economy of cast loads was the big factor. I think the reason we did so well with them was that the moulds were really much better than we realized, while the quality of jacketed bullets was more variable then than it is today.

The top choice among woods-wise hunters was the .35 Remington, praised in many fireside accounts as a ‘real meat and potatoes gun.” Ammo was scarce and “meat in the pot with one shot” was the goal.

Around the turn of the century, the fine performance of the 9x56 Mannlicher on boar and other tough native species did not go unnoticed by the U.S. gun makers. Remington introduced its Model 1908 semi-automatic rifle for the .35 Remington in that year, and the cartridge remains a strong seller today. It should remain so, since it is probably the best deer and bear cartridge for woods hunting that we have. The old Remingtons still survive and have lots of company in the large numbers of Marlin lever guns, Savage pumps, Remington pumps, and a few bolt actions like the Mohawk 600 and old Winchester Model 70’s.

Among my circle of cast bullet purists, though, we frowned on semi-autos and pumps, but we sure liked that .35 Remington! The .35 had a certain anchoring effect on deer and black bear. There is indeed some-thing about the bigger bullet—perhaps its larger frontal area helps it expand more easily, or its weight helps it penetrate better without being deflected as much on heavy bone—can’t say for sure. Those who have never used the .35’s on game won’t be convinced by this, I know. But, those who’ve used the medium bores for hunting don’t need any convincing. The flat trajectory and higher retained energy of the .30-’06 class cartridge would clearly be superior for longer range hunting, but you have to remember we were looking for a clean one-shot kill and never had any need to shoot past 150 yards, and usually not over 75. Folks in the thick woods of the Appalachians, the Ozarks, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula or Washington’s coastal rainforests, know exactly what I mean.

Not many years ago I lucked onto an old hunting rifle which would have been a true “grocery gettin’ gun” 50 years ago. It’s a Lee Speed (Lee-Metford pattern, originally made as a sporting rifle, though similar to the military rifle). It has express sights, and all the typical British appointments, though as I received it the bore was nearly smooth from long neglect. The immediate cure, of course, was a rebore, which I had done, to the .35/.303. This required opening the chamber neck only, and rerifling. I specified a 16” twist with lands half as wide as the grooves, as I had been witness to the grand success of this form with cast bullets in the .35 Rem. The .350 British, as I call it, holds a wee bit more powder than the .35 Rem., though with today’s powders this gives the advantage of being able to get the same range of velocities at lower pressure. Ed Harris gets equal ballistics with his .35 on the .30-30 case ‘though he admits to be running higher pressures in his Remington 788 bolt action than I’d want to shoot in my Lee Speed.

Thanks to Alox lubricant and the 16” twist, I can get 2000 f.p.s. with good accuracy using the proven#358315 bullet, cast of wheelweights with 2% tin added. This is equal in hardness to our old 95-3-2 alloy which gave excellent mushroom effect at average striking velocities at woods ranges of 40-75 yards, assuming muzzle velocities of 1850-1950 f.p.s. The effect I often witnessed on deer back in the 30’s when that bullet was used by other hunters in their slide-action Remingtons is duplicated exactly in my rejuvenated Lee Speed .350.

Using 36 grains of IMR-3031, the #358315 hits dead on at 100 yards, using the-original standing bar open sight intended for .303 British 215-grain cordite cartridges. It took a bit of experimenting, of course, to find the right load, but that was half the fun! Accuracy wise, the .350 wasn’t fussy at all; nearly any reasonable load shot well.

The 16” twist and soft alloy are favorable for a hunting load, since the faster 12” twist of the .358 Win. often requires a harder alloy for optimum accuracy, which will not expand at moderate velocities. Hotter loads push you into the non-mushrooming, nose fracturing arena.

Another advantage of the .35 caliber is that you have access to a variety of small game and plinking bullets: all the .38 Spl. and .357 Mag. pistol bullets and even 000 buckshot (.36 cal.) for inside-the-barn, rodent busting with 1 gr. of Bullseye. Soft swaged or cast pistol bullets shoot well with 4-5 grains of Unique, or not over about 1000 f.p.s. With harder cast Keith types you can go up to about 1450 f.p.s., using up to 10 grains of Unique, but these will require Alox lube. They are quite accurate even at 100 yards for plinking purposes. A very accurate load is to use the old factory 200-grain blunt nose bullet for the .38 Special, the one they used to call the ‘Super Police.” I don’t know if the bullets can be had any more as loading components, but the Lyman 195-gr. #359430 is almost identical to it. Anyway, I lucked into a whole mess of these a few years back

when a local police department switched to a light bullet+P load. They shot great when smeared with a little Alox and loaded with 10 grains of Unique, for about 1400 f.p.s. These charges are based on cartridges like the .35 Rem. or my .350 Brit., but you wouldn’t get in any trouble using them for a .358 Win., .35 Whelen or .350 Rem. Mag.

Lyman’s #359430, show in its 150 grain variation.

A long time, highly respected “woods wizard” friend of mine from “back up the hollow” is one of the last Eastern mountain man types who has a .35 Rem. Marlin carbine with what he calls “Micro-pope” rifling. He was highly impressed by the couple of shots at game he’d witnessed with my .350 British in heavy brush, using that #358315 at around 2000 f.p.s. He got all fired up to try the same in his Marlin, his enthusiasm further kindled by the rising cost of factory loads. The .35 Remington is not a reload problem, and as Andy Barniskis has shown in the last several issues, Marlin lever actions can be made to shoot cast bullets well if the bore isn’t too rough, nor the chamber too sloppy, and if the twist is suited for the bullet and the velocity level. My friend’s barrel was fairly smooth from long use with jacketed loads, and had a close, reasonably concentric chamber. In reloading the .35 Rem. the chief caution is not to set the shoulder back or to size the neck back excessively as you’ve only got a minimal shoulder to headspace on. Partially size cases in a full-length size die, to assure easy chambering afield, backing the die off a half turn, so as to stay off the shoulder. This works fine, provided you have cases originally fired in the rifle you’re loading for. I use loads that are 5%below those advised for 200-grain jacketed bullets, and seat them to the base of the neck, which is expanded to .001”, under the bullet diameter. The bullet should be .001” over groove diameter. Marlin Micro-Groove barrels usually slug .358” groove in a .35 and .308” in a .30, but the bore runs oversize, typically .303” in .30 and .352” in .35 caliber, because of the shallow grooves. This requires bumping up the bullet nose to fit and is a big factor in getting satisfactory accuracy. At the same time I flatten the noses of the bullets for safety in the tube magazine and also to improve their expansion. This occurs partly because of the flat shape, but also because it works the nose slightly and seems to give it a precondition which aids expansion. Dennis Marshall explains this as recrystallization, caused by the deformation. I don’t go into the big scientific explanations, I just know it works better that way.

Once he was instructed in the basics, my friend was busy making up his own cast bullet loads. He settled on a load of 37 grains of IMR-4064, which gives him perhaps 1900 f.p.s. with the #358315 bullet. The bullets from this load have proved to mushroom well without breaking up using current wheelweights plus 2% tin. He feels no need whatever for those expensive “store bought-en” cartridges again.

The beauty of the .35 caliber for hunting, I feel, is that you are already starting with an adequate diameter in a cast bullet to give good killing power, even with minimal expansion, though the large frontal area and flat nose definitely seem to help expansion at low velocities. The .30 caliber cast bullets never expand to get as big as the .35’s, and their faster twists usually require harder alloys which are less forgiving of low striking velocities for effective game performance, like the larger bullets.

Having successfully made one convert, who had never used a cast bullet on game until recently, and who now has no intention of going back to jacketed loads, even if the cost were the same, I think we have a strong case for the cast game bullet. My mountaineer friend tells me nobody has ever gone hungry in that hollow, even in the stark days of the 1930’s, and he lives a long mule ride from the Safeway or Winn Dixie. The woods are his grocery store and his rifle is a charge card. He needs only two loads; the #358315 for deer and bear and a 148-grain wadcutter with 7 grains of Unique for turkey, squirrel, ’coon, groundhogs, etc. He gets 1000 rounds and lots of good chow from a pound of powder with that load. Now that’s a one-gun man. If I were completely honest with myself I could dispose of a lot of other guns and just use that .350 Brit., though I have to admit it’s fun to have that tack driving .30-’06 Winchester Model 70 lead slinger around when it comes to serious shooting, like getting Sears or Harris to buy Sunday breakfast before our next match. 􀀁

So how do I stop my bullets without damaging them beyond recognition? Many places in the west are surrounded by vast areas of public lands with exten­sive deposits of clay soil. Southeastern Arizona where I currently reside is no exception. The dense clay soil turns to glue when wet and powder when dry, and stops bullets without major damage to them When the clay is dry and loose, a long pointed bullet fired into it, at velocities between 1100 and 1200 fps, tend to turn sideways upon entry, bending the nose, usually coming to rest against one side. 1bis leaves the other side clean and undamaged. Flat nosed bullets fired between 1300 and 1500 fps tend to mush­room, leaving the base and a portion of the body useable for observations.

Fig. 1 SAECO bullet No. 645 fired 'Mth charges of AA 57 44 (left) and H4198 (right) exhibiting powder dented bases.

Fig. 2 Gas cutting around the base band can be seen on the bullet on the right, fired over a charge of AA 5744.

Clay is great, but if you don't have it, bundles of newspapers or damp phone books can be used. I\re read of shooting into snow banks and waiting for the spring thaw to recover bullets; however, there is a bit of a wait involved with this method.

Recently my focus has been primarily on plain-based bullets for the .38-55 and .45-70, and launched by black powder. I am also in­terested in smokeless powder loads for straight cases. I like loads that are economical, accurate, and easy on my shoulder.

Reduced powder charges have been used for years, for modest velocity from straight walled and bottle necked cartridges. I've been using Accurate Arms #9 for target velocity loads in both the .38-55 and .45-70 with good results. Accurate Arms 5744, Hercules 2400 and RL-7, Unique, IMR 4227, 4759, 4198, 4759 and similar Hodgdon powders are all suit­able. They are a bit pricey, however, so when I see a bargain on powder, I take advantage of it and enjoy the challenge of assembling efficient, safe, loads with it.

Powder in stick or kernel form is hard on plain-based bullets. Prim­ers blast the small charges of powder against the bullet base before the powder can ignite. The recovered bullets shown in Fig. 1 exhibit this damage; clear impressions of the powder granules can be seen. Inter­estingly, the powder dents are al­ways at the top portion of the bullet base as it lies in the chamber. Release of gas across the bullet base cannot be equal at the muzzle if the base is heavily or unevenly textured. Use of flake or ball powders minimizes this problem.

Fig. 3 Lyman bullet 375248 protected by a com meal filler and fired over a charge of H4198.

The flame temperature of the burning powder can contribute to poor bullet performance by gas cutting the base band (Fig. 2 ), resulting in uneven gas release around the bullet base as it leaves the muzzle. In addition, vaporized lead is blown past the bullet and up the barrel; this is generally believed to be a cause of lead­ing. Even ball powders with cooler flame temperatures can cause this problem.

BULLET BASE PROTECTION - The next fix, after I've selected the best pow­der, is to protect the bullet base. A gas check you say? Sure, but I want to use plain base bullets. I've tried wads of tablet backing, disks cut from milk cartons, and low density plastics. Paper wads suffer partial shredding from the firing blast and, for some reason, plastic did not work.

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I feel the best protection in smokeless loads is enough com meal between bullet and powder to yield a compressed column of powder and filler. Stick powders do not damage the bullet base with a protecting layer of filler in place; ignition is improved and recovered bullets exhibit a finely textured base with clean sharp edges (Fig. 3). Remember, this is for straight walled cases. You might want to refer to Ken Molohan's write up in TCB-122, for successful filler of use in bottle necked cartridges, and check TCB-125 for his warning on the danger of fillers.

I have also successfully used gas check bullets without the gas check. I simply leave the gas check heel covered with lube after sizing. With the 375449 Lyman bullet and 14 grains of AA #9 in my .38-55, the lube provides just enough protection to prevent gas cutting and yields a serviceable load.

Fig. 4 Lyman bullet 457483 fired without a gas check, using black powder.

ALLOY SUITABILITY - Optimum bullet perform­ance results when bullet hardness is selected to suit rifling depth, width, pitch, and velocity. My alloys are typically soft lead/tin mixes and vary from 40: I to 20: 1. My guns with shallow grooved barrels need a bit harder bullet than those with more substantial lands. Recovered bullets easily show if they are the proper hardness for the velocity. The width of the rifling marks begin to widen at the bullet frontal portion as the alloy strength is exceeded. A harder alloy or less powder is the solution. If pressure data is available for a load, the alloy suitability can be checked using the formula, chamber pressure equals Brinell Hardness multiplied by 1422.

Fig. 5 SAECO bullet no. 645 exhibiting rough textured bases after being fired unprotected over black powder.

BULLET QUALITY - I have been able to improve the quality of my bullets as a re­sult of examining them after recovery. One particular batch of Gould 457122 hollow­point bullets, cast using a bottom pour fur­nace, looked good but did not shoot well Examination of the recovered bullets re­vealed voids near the surface of their bases. The pressure of the powder igniting exerted sufficient force to collapse the thin layer of lead hiding the imperfections. I've gone back to the dipper and air bubbles rarely occur now.

BLACK POWDER LOADS - Selection of black powder is not as complicated as smokeless; for traditional black powder users the choice is between Elephant Brand and GOEX. Black powder is always used by the case full; granulation regulating the burning rate and pressure, needed for the caliber, bullet weight, and intended use. FFF g granulation is most often suggested for calibers under .45. Forty-five and larger calibers use FFg and Fg to advantage. However, it is not uncommon to use FFF g in larger calibers or larger granulations in smaller bores.

The best advice I've read is from Ned Roberts ( The Muzzle Loading Cap lock Rifle) who said " . . . it should not be an extremely rapid burning powder - such as is best for shotguns - as this causes too much upsetting of the lead bullet and results in poor accuracy." Robert's statement tells us that undesirable things can happen if we do not match powder granulation and bullet hardness. And, sure enough, recovered bullets fired with black pow­der do exhibit dramatic changes. Longitudinal com­pression is very evident, with lube grooves compress­ing and undersize nose sections slumping and expanding. A test of the 457483 bullet fired without a gas check resulted in the gas check heel expanding enough to be touched by the rifling (Fig. 4 ). A test of the 64 5 SAECO bullet, cast of pure lead and paper patched, had the lube grooves to­tally compressed, appearing only as lines on the recovered bullet.

Fig. 6 Recovered SAECO bullet 645 fired over black powder with base protected with a milk carton wad.

BASE PROTECTION - Impact of the powder during ignition causes a battered surface across the bullet base (Fig. 5 ). Shooters of the late 19th century commonly used wads of some sort to protect their bullets. A wad of cardboard or soft, porous blotting paper was used over a case full of powder; although, I feel that a blotting paper wad was used primarily by target shooters, who breech-seated their bullets, to keep the powder from dribbling from the case as it was chambered. ­

Many shooters, myself included, use wads to protect the bullet base from powder cratering and gas cutting. A .020 inch-thick wad cut from a milk carton does a good job (Fig. 6). The bullet base is still affected to some degree when using a wad, but it re­mains fairly smooth and clean.

An added advantage of the protected base is that identifiers, written on the base of my bullets with indelible pen, are still readable after recovery. I can identify various alloys used and bullets fired for a particular test.

Recovered wads also have a tale to tell. I have found them directly in front of the firing position to as far as fifty meters down range. Most are recovered flat but some show the results of side forces that compress and wrinkle them (Fig. 7). I have not yet ascertained if the wrinkle occurs during firing or after the bullet leaves the barrel, but the wrinkling strikes me as a negative condition. Although many black powder cartridge shooters use wads, there are excep­tions.

Fig. 7, Milk carton wads recovered after firing. Several exhibit the wrinkling problem.

Paul Matthews states in his book, How To's for the Black Powder Cartridge Shooter, that Master Class shooter Adrian Filer does not use wads, prefer­ring to "keep it simple". BULLET QUALITY - Bullets need to be good to take advantage of the burning characteristics of black powder that produce very low standard deviations in velocity. I only perform a visual inspection of my bullets - all dipper cast. If it looks good, it is good! The lack of imperfections observed after recovery confirm the validity of this approach. After I switched to dip­per casting I haven't noticed any imperfections re­vealed by firing.

I can remember being too young to accompany my dad on the yearly deer hunting trip. One year I asked him to bring me back a fired bullet. He shot a Model 94 Winchester in .30-30, so recovering a bullet was a bit of a chore for him He brought me one, but it was not the cylindrical form with rifling on it, that I expected. It was squashed out of shape and exhibited the knife marks it suffered on removal from a dead tree stump. This was my first encounter with a spent bullet.

I admit to still having a fascination for discover­ing what has happened to my fired bullets; I've learned a great deal from them There is one last benefit to recovering fired bullets: recycling. After shooting sev­eral pounds of expensive lead/tin alloy it is nice to return home after a range session with a significant portion to reuse. @