Running up a pot of 40-1 lead/tin alloy I cast off a batch of the baby Minie bullets but was disappointed to find the 130gr bullet measured only .396 on the driving bands something I surmised would not suit the .400 bore of the Colerain barrel. What to do? How about a paper patch to increase the girth of the bullet to better fit the bore of the rifle? On hand I had some 9lb, 25% cotton content paper so established the correct dimensions for the patch (feel free to Google how to do this). Allowing the paper patch to dry and shrink tightly around the bullet the finished result registered .402-.403 on the micrometer. Perfect for the Colerian barrel. The bullets had a light coat of Neatsfoot oil applied took a trip to the range for accuracy testing. Shooting Swiss 3Fg powder the rifle and bullet decided 30gr was the right charge clustering 3 shots into a near cloverleaf group at 50m/55y and producing 1500fps. Outstanding result all round.

So how does one go about paper patching a bullet? I am by no means an expert but this is what works for the Wesson and me.

Using a paper cutter (guilliotine) I cut strips of paper of the correct width then with a craft knife and the template cut trapezium shaped patches. I made a ‘patching board’ from hardwood creating a small trough running across it in which to lay a bullet. A moistened patch is set lengthwise on the board with the end nearest the operator extended over the trough. The bare bullet is placed in the trough across the patch, the tip of the patch wrapped up over the bullet then the bullet and patch rolled together down the board until the patch is fully encasing the bullet. Starting the rolling process with the tip of my index finger I roll until the bullet reaches the base of my finger where the hand starts. Take the patched bullet and very carefully twisting the excess of the patch into a tail which is then tucked into the hollow based of the bullet prior to being set aside to dry. Once dried the patch will have shrunk tightly around bullet and can have a light layer of lubricant applied. For fully paper patching instructions I recommend “The Paper Jacket” by Paul Matthews.

Paper patching the baby Minie took a bullet that was 4 thousandths of an inch undersized for my barrel and unlikely to shoot well and produced an end result that makes for match grade accuracy. In addition the bullet is an awesome small game projectile as the local wallaby population of South Canterbury found out.

Thought about gift wrapping your bullets? Give it a try. It is a labour of love but the results can be very rewarding.

Jeff

The NEI bullet, desig­nated the .30 Hornet, while a “wasp-waist” design, unlike the Herter bullet, has consid­erably more bearing surface.

Never having used a wasp- waist design, I heated up some linotype and immediately gave the mould a try.

The Hornet has no lube grooves, only a long gas check shank which leaves approxi­mately .105" of the shank for­ward of the gas check to carry lube. The absence of lube grooves greatly facilitates casting, with the bullets literally dropping from the mould. Casting at my normal rate I produced 125 good bullets in just over thirty minutes. As cast, the bullets weigh 180 grains with a .310" groove riding rear section, and a .303" nose bearing section. I couldn’t determine the width of the forward section which is best described as a ridge. Bullet length is 1.205". Well pleased with the mould, my next concern was bullet design.

My first attempt to check the Hornet’s capabili­ties was with my heavy class bench-gun which has a 1-14" twist, eight-groove Shilen barrel. I didn't ex­pect good accuracy from such a long bullet and a 14" twist, but I was curious to see whether the bullet would stabilize in the barrel at velocities around 2200 feet-per-second sized (.309"), gas checked, and lubricated twenty-five bullets in the normal fashion, and then ran them through a Gray forming die to bring the base section down to .3085" and the nose to .302". Normally I set the Gray die up to shape the bullets to fit the throat of my rifle, using sufficient force to flatten the gas check. Fearing that such force would cause the mid-section of the Hornet to buckle, I elected to only size the bullet, leaving the base unchanged.

After setting up the chronograph and tacking up my targets I loaded my single case with 28.5 grains of Re- Loder-7, a charge that has worked well with bullets of similar weight, and sent the first Hornet down range at a CBA group target. Even with the thirteen pound rifle, recoil was substantial. I checked the chronograph and saw 2150 fps. I checked the target through the rifle's 36X Tasco scope and saw zilch. No hit

Puzzled, I loaded the case again and switched over to the larger CBA score target. Holding near the center of the target, at the designator on the number four bull; a “4” about ³/_g" high, I let the round go. A hit. The next round hit it again. The fourth shot hit almost six inches to left. Twenty more shots, with velocities hovering around 2150 fps produced similar results, with wild flyers ruining potentially beautiful groups. Subsequent tests with different powders, charges, and lower velocities produced no improvement. Either the bullet was too long for the 14" twist, or the shallow rifling did not offer sufficient purchase on the bullet's small bearing area.

Next the bullet was tested in a new Remington 700V, in .308 Winchester, with a composite stock and a 1-12" fluted barrel. Using conventionally sized (.310") and lubricated bullets, and 19 grains of 4759 for velocities around 1700 fps, I encountered no wild flyers, but couldn’t get groups smaller than 2.5". The poor accuracy in this instance I attributed to the newness of the rifle (tight throat) and the Hornet's .303" nose section which required the bullets to be seated well in to the body of the case so that the rounds could be chambered.

Thinking to overcome the tight throat/. 3 03" nose prob­lem, I tried the Hornet in my wife Lois's .308 Remington 788. Lois has over 20,000 rounds through her rifle and the throat is well worn.

Chambering rounds loaded so that only the gas check was in the neck of the case proved no problem. Again, using 19 grains of 4759 and bullets sized .310", I went to the range with twenty-five rounds. Groups improved, averaging around an inch and a half. Considering the condition of the rifle this wasn't half-bad. Encouraged I decided to try the Hornet in my 03 A3 Springfield.

I have three barrels for my Springfield 03A3, a four-groove Remington and two two-groove Rem­ingtons, all shoot very well. The threads on the bar­rels have been chased to facilitate removing and in­stalling them, and changing barrels is a matter of minutes. I decided to try the Hornet in the four- groove barrel and one two-groove barrel.

The neck on the .30-06 case is long enough to allow a round to chambered without the base of the Hornet dropping into the body of the case, but then the short rear portion of the bullet is entirely within the case neck. The only support the bullet has is that provided by the case neck on the rear, and the top of the lands on the .303" ridge near the front of the bullet. An iffy proposition. I finally wised-up and went to something softer, adding some wheel- weights to the linotype to produce an alloy with a BHN of 18. The softer alloy allowed me seat the bullet out so that only the gas check and a bit of the rear of the bullet were in the case neck. With the softer bullets, the rounds chambered easily even in the two-groove barrel. Using a Lyman 48 receiver sight and a Redfield hooded front sight with a post, both Springfield bar­rels produced excellent results using 19 grains of 4759. They shot the Hornet as well as any bullet that was ever put through them. The results were so good, I decided to use a scope.

Switching back to the four-groove barrel, I removed the irons sights, and mounted a 24X Tasco scope on the re­ceiver and went to the range with twenty-five rounds. I used eight rounds getting the rifle zero-ed and, without cleaning, fired the remaining seventeen for group. The bullets tore the center out of the CBA score target's 9 and 10-ring, with seventeen shots grouping into 1.606"; fifteen of the shots went into 1.018".

Would I recommend the NEI Hornet to other shooters? Yes, but, with reservations. From the shooting I have done so far, I am uncertain what the bullet will do in barrels with shallow rifling. I found it shoots best in the 03 A3 when seated out as far as possible (overall cartridge length is 3.472"), but, in other rifles, getting the front-end of the bullet to engage the rifling may require sizing the nose of the bullet to a smaller diameter, or using an alloy softer than linotype..

The NEI .30 Hornet, unlike its Herter predeces­sor, is a design capable of excellent accuracy. I have given it a lot of casual use in the Springfield since first testing it and it has performed very well, with longer, accurate shot strings being the norm; proba­bly because of the bullet's small bearing surface.

There is something to say for not having a lot of lead rubbing up against the bore. Walt Melander has applied the concept of supporting the bullet forward and aft to some of his other designs. He cuts some moulds with a forward section slightly under bore diameter adding a ring, called a DD band, a bit larger than bore diameter, near the nose of the bul­let. Even with its minimal amount of bearing surface the bullet is well aligned in the barrel. Ellis Lea claims the DD bullets shoot great.

Powders for gallery loads favour the very fast end of the burn rate spectrum; Bullseye through Unique though not limited to said. Plain base light for calibre (eg: 90-130gr for .30cal) bullets are the norm as velocity and pressure will be in the very low range precluding the requirement for a gas check. Bullet alloy can be very soft again due to very low pressures involved in gallery loads; increasingly I am shooting a lot of 40-1 binary lead/tin alloy with a nominal 8 BHN. Minimal amounts of lubricant are required, in the case of the Lee 311 or Lyman 311008, just one lube groove was filled or a single, thin coat of liquid Alox. Powder coating does away with need for any lube and thus reduces any smoke which is a bonus should your gallery load be used indoors.

Shooting on the Carcano on my home range the SeeAll proved to have been a worthy purchase. Initial use in Indiana had been purely gong ringing and whilst immensely enjoyable the real accuracy potential had yet to be explored. Shooting at 50m/55y using a proven load of a NOE 269 145 in 13 BHN alloy over 13.8gr 2400 the little rifle printed 5 shots into just over one inch and demonstrated that the sight is plenty precise for most applications. One disadvantage was the low light conditions in the shooting bays required artificial illumination so is something to consider for potential users.

Pros and Cons?

Pros: Light weight 6160 aluminum body, low profile, no sight relief consideration, economical with entry level USD69.95, two options of reticle (triangle/pyramid or cross hair), Picatinny/Weaver compatible, easy elevation and windage adjustments, no batteries, suitable for all types of firearms.

Cons: Not well suited to poor light conditions, adjustments are no click controlled or graduated, non magnifying, reticle not well suited to ‘hold over’ sighting though no worse than open sights, not super precise for fine target shooting.

Would I recommend the SeeAll? Absolutely. It’s a little gem. That it is so affordable and versatile makes it a winning combination. Better than a good aperture and bead front sight? Probably not but then not all shooting irons are suited to such. In the case of my Carcano the SeeAll fits the bill.

https://seeallopensight.com/

Jeff.

At the time I owned a model 92 Winchester in .32-20. The bore resembled a dry river bed but with the right cast bullet is shoot really well though I never shot particularly well with the rifle itself. I believe the length of pull was a bit short for my gorilla dimension arms and I didn’t warm to it. What I liked about the rifle was the flat nose 115gr cast bullets at rimfire velocity absolutely levelled small game yet with limited tissue damage and while wondering around the pines I decided subsonic .32-20 would be the answer to my problems. I began considering best way to achieve the goal and it seemed a single shot action would be the least complicated and with the prevalence of Martini action rifles available in my neck of the woods this was the logical place to begin. In short order I sold the Anschutz rimfire and M92 to fund the new project and acquired a BSA model 12 rimfire target rifle. The BSA was converted from rimfire to centrefire by my local, trusted gunsmith who also fitted a spare .303 British SMLE barrel I had on hand. The barrel was sleeved into the cut off section of rimfire barrel after being trimmed to my specified length of 18 inches. Once chambered I now had a rifle that could not only perform well with not only the traditional .32-20 bullets but would stabilise bullets up to 240gr due to the rifling twist of 1-10 inches of the .303 barrel. In essence I invented the .300 Blackout, albeit a rimmed version, 15 years before everyone else. The new rifle was then taken to the local suppressor specialist for barrel threading and ‘can’ installation. Woodwork was the next project and over time I added a raised cheek piece and shortened and shaped the foreend even adding a top wood to fit the lines of the suppressor. The rig was topped off with a 2-7 Leupold variable with retro fit target turrets allowing for range adjustments but more importantly a wide selection of bullet weights and loads.

Load development commenced with the Lyman 311008 that would for many years to come provide the base load for small game hunting. The quintessential .32-20 bullet the 311008 boasts a .200 inch meplat that I found to be vastly superior in knock down power to a round nose bullet of the same weight. Even at subsonic velocities the 311008 dropped hares and rabbits on the spot with chest shots propelled over 3.8gr of Unique for 1030fps. For longer ranges the Lyman 311316 FNGC bullet was used and loaded with 14gr of H4227 would depart my company at 1800fps though this load became obsolete when I was able to borrow a vintage Lyman 31133, the hollow point version of the 311008, and cast a thousand or so bullets. The 31133 loaded over the same 14gr charge with its base protected by a LDPE (low density polyethylene) wad clocks 1850fps at the muzzle of the 18 inch barrel and is fantastic hare/wallaby bullet out to 100-120m when cast in clip on WW alloy. It was with the 31133 load my eldest daughter at the age of 11 years shooting from prone with the Harris bipod on the Martini dropped a rabbit cleanly at a full 100m. Other bullets of interest that have been used in the Martini have been the Lyman 311466 in Loverin style RN loaded over 8.8gr of H4227 for 1050fps that served my wife very well one club Christmas shoot where she dropped 4 out of 5 bowling pins at 100m offhand using that load. An altered version of the 311466 cut to a truncated cone FN loaded over 8.9gr of H4227 for 1035fps and delivering a lot more knock down on than the light weight .32-20 bullets. CBE’s 314 220 bullet loaded with 8.5gr H4227 for 1080fps affording even more momentum. For good measure I have experimented with jacketed bullets also and have had great success with the 100gr Hornady XTP running full house, a Remington 180gr .311 bullet designed for the .303 British at subsonic velocity and also staying under the speed of sound pulled COMBLOC 7.62X39 FMJ projectiles loaded over 5.1gr of 800X. It goes without saying that the .303 bullets and pulled FMJs were not suitable for hunting but they sure shot well and the FMJs are wonderful plinking fodder. All bullets stabilised in the 1-10 inch twist.

Both the Lyman 311008 and 311316 has since been replaced by a 5 cavity NOE mould that Al based on the 311008 but increased the FN diameter to .220 inch and driving bands to .314 nominal. My mould has 2 x PB cavities, 2 x GC cavities and 1 x GCHP cavity. The extra girth producing .314 inch or slightly larger bullets in 40/1 binary alloy suits the .303 British donor barrel on the Martini better than the original Lyman bullets and as a result accuracy is spectacular. The plain base bullet loaded over 4.1gr Green Dot with a slight crimp into the top grease groove put 5 bullets into 0.58 inch at 50m with a muzzle velocity of 1030fps average, ES 25fps.

To test the theory of extra knock down power for visual effect I conducted an experiment with some 14 inch long blocks of bakery shortened I happened upon. Sitting them atop a fence post at 50m a subsonic, hollow point .22RF was fired into one block and a subsonic 311008 into the other. The 311008 completely penetrated the full 14 inches of shortening then lodged itself in a pine post a full 100m beyond the experiment site and was recovered! The .22RF bullet penetrated 6-8 inches of the block. Plaster casts of the bullet cavities were taken for comparison and showed not only did the .32-20 bullet pass completely through the block but also generated a wound channel of approximately 3 times the volume of the .22RF round.

In the field the little rifle soon proved its worth and the first animal, a European hare, I took appropriately enough on the back flat at ‘Ribbonwood’ not far from whence I had designed the rifle. The Martini also lends itself well to left handed shooters and my wife Sheryl has used the rifle extensively and exclusively when we have hunted. Her first hare was with the .32-20 the same day I blooded the rifle and she has since taken many hares with it shooting both the subsonic loads and full house rounds for further out. My good friend Mike took up shooting only very recently and on his first wallaby hunt carried the .32-20 Martini as his only rifle at the time was a .22RF. The afternoon we arrived he took a hare to begin with at an honest 80m then the biggest buck wallaby I had ever seen at 50m shooting the 31133 HP bullets. Being a short and well balanced rifle and a mild round the rifle really does lend itself to learners especially with the subsonic rounds. Taking small game with the suppressor is a hoot as often the loudest noise is the THWOP of the FN bullet connecting with the animal. At best upon firing we hear, CLICK, WHOOSH, THWOP. Shooting steel is even more entertaining. And of course being a single shot is a great feature for novice users also as only one round is being carried at the time and can be dropped into the chamber very easily when required.

From what began as a very undesirable situation where my chosen small game rifle combination was failing to bring home the proverbial bacon a most satisfactory situation has arisen. Funny how things work out.

Keep your powder dry. Jeff.