.35 Remington

I profess a love and long abiding respect for the .35 Remington. The cartridge has been around a long time. It was originally chambered in the Remington Model 8 rifle in 1908. It's probably the last of the line of mid-powered rimless cartridges that were designed for early autoloaders of that period. Framk Hamer used a Remington Model 8 in the ambush that ended the career of outlaw Clyde Barrow.

When I was a tender youth, my buddy shot a .35 Remington and propounded on the advantages of the cartridge as a dense woods deer rifle. I couldn't afford a centerfire rifle, but I listened to my buddy and dreamed of the day I could put cash down on such a masterpiece of engineering. Then, one day when I was in college I was walking through a hardware store and saw a Marlin 336 in the rack. I asked to look at it and saw that it was chambered in .35 Remington. The price tag, new in box, was $87.50, still more than I could afford, but the counterguy told me that they had a layaway plan. So, I plunked down $10.00 to hold it, and started saving my pennies to buy the rifle. In ninety days it was mine, paid in full, and I realized I didn't have enough hard cash to afford ammo, so I waited another 30 days to afford $8.00 for a box of Remington ammo.

A friend of mine went with me to a convenient pipeline and we set up a target and sighted the rifle. I still had 10 rounds of ammo left at the end of that exercise and no more money in my pocket.

Several weeks later I was walking down a logging road with Joe Duhon, a classmate, in the Kisatchie Forest just south of Provencal, LA. We were late getting to the woods, Joe having stuck his Volkswagen in a mud hole. As we walked down Kisatchie creek, a deer stepped out of the trees and started across that tiny road. I threw the rifle up, snapped a shot and Joe and I were surprised to watch the animal spin around like he was pole-axed and drop into the dust, dead as Het. The deer kicked twice and lay still. Joe and I looked at each other, then started pacing the distance. Eighty-seven long steps. When I examined the deer, the reason for his demise was apparent. The big 200 grain bullet had entered at the point of the right jaw, traversed the neck and come out on the other side of his head. He was a middling spike buck, but for two starving college students he represented a lot of meat. Getting that deer into Joe's Volkswagen is another story. Suffice it to say that the front luggage compartment was covered in blood before we unloaded it.

The .35 Remington is considered a rather anemic cartridge. It throws a 200 grain bullet at about 2000 fps. It's long been overshadowed by other cartridges, but every deer I've killed with that rifle has exhibited much the same tendencies. They fall over, kick once, and die. There's something about putting a 200 grain slug into play that seems to end the discussion. The old slow-moving cartridges do a magnificent job when used the way the old-timers intended them to be used.

I use just one bullet in the .35 Remington. The Remington Core-Lokt 200 grain bullet. Pushed by IMR 4895, it trundles along and hits the target with surprising accuracy. Marlin still makes the 336 in .35 Remintgon. At 38 inches and 7 pounds, it's pretty much a perfect woods rifle. I suspect they cost more now than when I bought mine in '74. At some point, I put a 2X Simmons scope on my rifle and it's taken several deer over the past 38 years.

Several years ago, I passed that rifle down to my son, who also has sons. We were talking about an upcoming shooting trip and he mentioned that he was thinking about bringing the Marlin. I rummaged around on my bench and found some Winchester brass and a few old left-over Core-Lokt bullets. We'll see next week if the rifle can still shoot.

Yeah, there are faster, flatter shooting cartridges out there, but there's something special about the .35 Remington.

Online Gun Buying

I'm not an early adopter of things.  As a matter of fact, I normally wait until someone tells me that a new something-or-other is worth doing before I try it.

Last week I was browsing through my favorite retail gun seller, looking for another cowboy revolver.  He didn't have what I was looking for, so he told me about an online site, Grabagun.com. "I get two or three transfers from them a week." he said.  "They seem like a good outfit."

When I got home later that afternoon, I looked on their site and saw a gun that I'd been looking for.  It's made by Uberti and marketed by Taylor's and Company.  The basic Cattleman revolver, but it has a brass grip frame.  I'm a fan of brass grip frames.  My main, go-to cowboy revolver is the Uberti Hombre, a basic, black single action revolver.  I've been shooting it for the past year and it's my favorite.  Grabagun had a Cattleman with a brass grip frame, and the price was a few dollars below MSRP, so I clicked on it and got out my debit card.

In just a few minutes, I had completed the transaction.  They even had a pull-down menu of local gun shops, so I selected my favorite retailer as the place to ship the gun.  Within seconds, I had an email from them, detailing the order and telling me, apologetically, that the gun would ship in 5 to 7 days.  So there it was, I had to wait.

Back in 2011, I put up a post about an obsolescent cartridge, but one of my favorites, the .35 Remington.  It's a great old cartridge, and I notice in my stats that that post is one of the most viewed over the years.  Evidently, people looking or wondering about the .35 Remington are directed to this little blog, and that's fine with me.

Last week, shortly after I posted my order, I found an email from a reader, looking for a rifle in .35 Remington.  Normally, they're found on used gun racks next to the hen's teeth.  Marlin, as far as I know is the only manufacturer who regularly chambers for that cartridge, and they only make a limited run.  But, before I finished reading the eamail, I had opened another tab and gone over to Grabagun.  Lookee here!!  They've got them in stock.  I told my correspondent where he could find one, and he replied to me that he was thinking about closing the deal.  Well done!

So, I continued to spend the next several days looking for a shipping notice.  Sure enough, right on time, I got the notice that my gun had shipped.  Yesterday the retailer called me and told me it was in.  After work, I went to pick it up.

Just as ordered, a Uberti Cattleman with the case-hardened receiver and the brass grip frame.  After the 4473 and the background check, I walked out with my new revolver.  After a good cleaning and a screw-tightening (which I do with all new guns), it will go in the bag as a spare to my normal race gun.  I like the looks and the feel, and it is almost identical to the Hombre that I've used this past year.

If anyone is looking for a gun and can't seem to find it locally, give Grabagun.com a look.  This outfit has the PawPaw seal of approval.

Marlin's 1894C

Several years ago I got in on a group buy at the Castboolits forum.  A bunch of us ordered a special, .35 caliber 180 grain bullet cut for a gas check, with tumble lube grooves.  The bullet was designed for the .35 Remington cartridge, but we speculated that it could also be used in .357  magnum thumper loads.  At .35 caliber and 180 grains, it was designed by a fellow who does business as Ranch Dog.  He makes bullet designs with wide flat noses and has the molds cut by Lee Precision.  It's a good looking bullet.

  Because it was designed for the .35 Remington, you've got to seat it a little deeper in the .357 magnum case.  If you crimp the case into the crimp groove, the assembled cartridge would be well out of SAAMI specs.  However, with a goodly load of Hodgdon L'il Gun, and the bullet seated to SAAMI specs, and a good crimp with the Lee Factory Crimp Die, I can flirt with 1600 fps from my Marlin 1894C.

I've never shot anything but paper with my little Marlin levergun, but a 180 grain wheelweight bullet traveling at 1600 fps  will, at 100 yards, still be traveling better than 1200 fps and carrying about 700 pounds of energy.  Not a lot, but at close yardages, certainly sufficient.  One of the stands I'm putting up this year will be a close-range stand with the shots under 50 yards.

The Marlin 1894C is a dandly little carbine.  Mine weighs 6.2 lbs and measures just 36 inches as it came from the factory.  It's got an 18" barrel and I added a Williams aperture sight.  It's light, handy, comes to the shoulder quickly and turns the .357 magnum pistol cartridge into quite a contender from the carbine-length barrel.

Some folks say that they're finicky about feeding, but I haven't found that to be the case.  Mine feeds .357 magnum and .38 special just fine.  Bullet shape doesn't matter much, it'll feed wide-flat, semi-wadcutter, jacketed bullets, heck I've even fed full wadcutters through mine, although it didn't like them much.  Any other bullet design it feeds just fine.  I don't know what those other folks are doing to their rifles, but mine feeds just fine.  Maybe I got the good one.

Surplus 4895

There are a couple of powders that reloaders like to have on their bench. These powders are univerally recognized as having a wide range of applications in various cartridges.

Unique, manufactured by Alliant, is one of those powders. It has a wide range of applications in pistol calibers, and is also one of the standbys of cast bullet loads. Most data in the Lyman Cast Bullet handbook includes a load that uses Unique.

These powders may not be the best, the most efficient, the fastest, or the designer powder for a particular cartridge, but they are effective in a wide range of calibers, giving good performance with each load.

Last spring I bought a jug of surplus 4895. The jug came labeled as IMR 4895 with the understanding that it was surplus, not canister grade powder. I started using it for cast bullet loads in the .30-30 Win and found that it gave good accuracy. Particularly, that 27 grains of that powder launches the Lyman 311041 bullet at an average 1927 fps with no leading. The load shoots into the bead of my front sight, which covers just under 3 inches at 50 yards. The group at that distance is just about an inch and a half. This is excellent hunting accuracy. My ballistic calculator shows that sighted 2 inches high at 50 yards, it will be on target at 125 yards and down two inches at 150 yards. At 150 yards it will still carry 843 foot pounds of energy.

Stepping up to the .35 Remington cartridge, I learned today that the same 4895, 34 grains, drives a 200 grain Remington Core-Lokt bullet at about 1850 fps. This load prints on the target at 1.1 inches at 50 yards. This is also excellent hunting accuracy. It has the trajectory of the .30-30 load above. Sighted an inch and a half high at 50 yards, it is down two inches at 150 yards and carries 863 fpe. No deer sized animal could tell the difference between the .35 Remington load and the .30-30 load. 90% of all deer are shot at ranges under 100 yards, so these two loads will take care of most of the hunting I do.

Well, okay, you say. How about a real cartridge? One that can reach out and touch something. How about the .30-06? With a 150 grain Hornady SST bullet over 52 grains of that same surplus 4895, the bullet leaves the barrel at 2925 fps. Sighted in to be a little over an inch high at 100 yards, it is close to target center at 175 and only 4 inches down at 250 yards. At that same 250 yards, it is carrying over 1700 lbs of energy. Did I mention that particular load gives great accuracy from my rifle, putting 4 shots into 0.75 of an inch at 100 yards.

These figures come from actual shooting, by the way. The velocity figures are out of my guns. I used a ballistics calculator to give the long range figures because I have no where to shoot past 100 yards.

Surplus 4895 is an extremely versatile powder, one that should be on every reloaders bench. Unfortunately, the supply seems to have dried up. When I burn through the eight pounds I have on hand, I might have to buy the canister grade 4895, either from IMR or from Hogdgon. IMR has a lot of data on 4895 in a wide range of cartridge sizes. I've only used it in the above three cartridges, each with a particular niche. 4895 has proved to be very useful in each of them.

As an aside, I'm told that Alliant Reloder 22 is singularly versatile in magnum cartridges. I have no experience with it, but I know one reloader who won't use anything else in .270 Win and .300 Win Mag. He's sold on Reloder 22 for large cases.

At the Range

It's been a while since I had any trigger time and my eldest two sons told me that they needed some recoil therapy, so we sneaked off to the range this morning. Some folks play golf, some folks go to the range.

Speer makes a little bullet for the .30-30. It's a 130 grain flat nosed job with a cannelure. I had a bunch of them and over the winter loaded them in the .30-30. I took them along this morning to try them over the chronograph. I loaded one in the Handi rifle and let it fly. Then another, then another. I looked at the chronograph screen and saw that they were averaging 2420 fps. This little bullet is loaded over 33.5 grains of Reloder 15 powder with a Winchester Large Rifle primer. When I looked through the spotting scope I saw a triangle that later measured 1.5 inches. Not bad for an inexpensive Handi-rifle and the .30-30 cartridge. Recoil is very mild. I think that this is the load I'm going to settle on for this rifle. It might need a little tinkering, but not much.

This past year I hunted with my .30-06, Savage 111. I had worked up a load this past summer that featured the 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet and 61.0 grains of Reloder 19 powder. WLR primer. I knew that this load was very accurate, but I had never put it over the chronograph to see how it compared with the factory ballistics. The Nosler guide tells me that I should be getting 2900 fps from the load, so after tinkering with the .30-30, I fired three rounds of this particular .30-06 hunting load. I was amazed to see the first shot hit three inches over the bull, as I have this rifle sighted dead on at 100 yards. Then, I remembered the clean barrel, breathed a sigh of relief and bolted another bullet into the chamber. At the end of the string I had one bullet high and the rest clustered, cutting each other in the bullseye. I looked at the chronograph and saw an average 2907 fps. Real close to the published tables.

In late 2008 I bought a used rifle from a pawn shop. An early Ruger Model 77 in .25-06. I settled on the 117 grain Sierra Gameking bullet and Reloder 22 powder. The rifle's got a really crappy scope on it, and I've always been convinced that it would do better with better glass, but like it's set up now it'll put five into an inch at 100 yards. All I did to this rifle is float the barrel, and shortly after I got the load settled, I gave it to my second son. He's a whole lot better shot than I am, but he can still stack five into an inch at 100 yards. We had never put this load over the chrony, so after I was done playing, we set his rifle on the bags and fired a few for velocity. Average was 2921, which is nothing to sneeze at. I wonder how that rifle would shoot with better glass?

Elder son shot his Marlin 336 in .35 Remington and his Remington 760 in .30-06. The Remington displayed the same tendency it's always displayed. The first two shots cut each other, about 2" above the bull. The rest wandered down the page. There's something about this pump rifle that the shots wander down as the barrel heats. Go figure. Still, it's a hunting rifle, plain and simple. The first two cold-barrel shots will cut each other before accuracy starts to degrade. There's not a thing wrong with that, and having a pump rifle is very very cool. The only one on the line. For the record, that rifle likes the 155 grain Hornady SST, with IMR 4895 powder. It shoots the bullet at 2781 fps, a good medium range load in that caliber.

I had a good time this morning.

Oh! There was one shooter at the range with a silenced .308. Seriously. It sounded like a .22 when it fired, and you could hear the bullet hit the paper downrange. Very strange. I asked him about the cost. He told me that the stamp cost $200.00 and the silencer cost twice as much as the rifle, a Remington 700.

You never know what you're going to run into at the range.

Are Some Cartridges More Accurate Than Others?

Dave Petzal explores this question over at Field and Stream, and comes to basically the same conclusion that I've come to. No, basically, a cartridge is just a container for powder and bullet.

Some cartridges seem to shoot more accurately than others, but that's because some cartridges are made into accurate rifles, and some companies make really fine match components. Careful attention to detail, both in assembling the rifle and assembling the ammo, makes an accurate combination, but sometimes it's impossible to assemble match ammunition from over-the-shelf components. When's the last time you saw match-quality .30-30 brass, or match quality .35 Remington brass? I don't believe that Lapua or Hornady make much of it. On the other hand, match .308 brass is fairly ease to come by, and I'd bet that each and every piece of 6BR brass is match quality. If your brass isn't consistent, you'll probably not get stellar accuracy, although many of us get great accuracy from the .30-30. I've shot some groups with a bone stock M94 that would make tactical competitors proud. I've got a Marlin 336 that will put a 200 grain .35 caliber bullet into two inches all day long at 100 yards, and that with a 2X scope. If I could see the target and had a match barrel on the rifle, it might do very well indeed.

The most important part of accuracy is the nut behind the trigger. If the ammo is carefully assembled and fired through a good barrel, the difference in the target will be the difference between the riflemen. A guy that shoots 1000 rounds a year will probably shoot better than the guy who shoots 20 rounds per year.

In 1989 I found myself commanding a SWAT team as an additional duty at Fort Polk, LA. Our marksman was issued two rifles, one built on a Remington 700 action, and another built on a Winchester 70 action. The shooter's name was Williams. One day we were out shooting and he was making bug-holes at 100 yards with his Remington. He complained to me that the rifle wasn't right. His bug-holes were bigger than they should be. In the nature of SWAT teams, I told him to quit complaining and shoot the equipment he was issued. But, after the exercise, we boxed-up the rifle and sent it to the AMU at Fort Benning. Sure enough, something was wrong with the rifle. They fixed it and sent it back.

The point of that whole story is that Williams was a very good shooter with lots of rounds through his rifle and he knew exactly what to expect from it. I doubt that Williams cared what caliber he was shooting. A good rifle with good ammo and lots of opportunity to practice, and Williams could probably have cared less if he was shooting a .308 or a .30-30.

The Golden Age

I've said this for several years and I believe it now more than ever.  We live in the golden age of rifle shooting.  Never before in our history has the American gunner been better equipped.  When I began hunting in the 1960s, scoped rifles were the minority (at least locally).  My first rifle was a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.  If one showed up in a deer camp in the late '60s, you might see a variety of lever rifles in .30-30 or .35 Rem, and a smattering of bolt guns in .30-06 and .270.  Ammo was likewise limited.  Winchester, Federal ad Remington made soft-point hunting ammo.  If you were a handloader, good luck finding bullets.  Oh, Siera and Hornady and Nosler made them, but you had to order them unless you were lucky enough to have a good handloading shop nearby.

Scopes were atrocious, fragile, and expensive.  The less said abut them, the better.  Oh, there were a few premium scopes out there, but the best were made by Weaver or Leupold, and were generally fixed 4X scopes.

In 1979, if my memory serves, Winchester came out with something called the Silver-Tip, a premium hunting bullet to compete with the Nosler Partition.  The Partition was a very good hunting bullet, but suffered from a reputation for poor accuracy, although most off-the-shelf rifles of the day were only capable of 3-inch groups at 100 yards.  If you wanted a super-accurate rifle, you went to a competent gunsmith to build the rifle.  The mythical 1-inch group was the holy grail.  It was often talked about, but rarely seen.  I had one rifle, a Remington in 7mm-08 that turned in bug-hole groups with standard Core-Lokt ammo.

In 1984 (again, if memory serves) Nosler came out with the Ballistic Tip, a premium match bullet that turned the shooting world askew.  It was superbly accurate, but fragile, with core separation a common complaint.  Bullet manufacturers were learning to make better bullets, and at the same time, optics were getting better and less expensive.

In the '90s, the internet was coming of age, and online gun communities came into being.  It was much easier to share information and the shooting companies began learning to use computers to design rifles, optics and ammo.  It may have been Savage Arms who led the way, producing the fist out-of-the-box rifle that would routinely shoot into MOA with any degree of regularity.  By the turn of the century, the gun companies had caught their stride, and were turning out rifles, ammo, and optics that let the American shooter take advantage of accuracy that we had never seen.

Nowadays we have better rifles, bullets and optics than we've ever had before, at prices that generally make it affordable to the large population.  Just three yeas ago, I picked up a new rifle (Ruger American), a new scope (Leupold Rifleman) and put together a box of ammo using new components.  The first group out of it hovered around that magical one-inch mark, and with with subsequent shooting got much better.  For less than $600 I had put together a combo that was simply much better than anything that was obtainable 50 years ago at thee times the price.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  We are living in the golden age of rifle shooting.

Trigger Time

Qualifications are coming up, and I've carried this pistol for a year and I've been remiss in my practice, so today I carried it to the range to make sure the grease hasn't hardenend and frozen the slide shut. So, I set up a target at 10 yards and loaded some magazines with range ammo.

That's 35 rounds total. 32 of them gouged the 10-ring out. 3 flyers in the nine-ring. That'll do.

Then, I got out the Remington 760. I wrote about it earlier. I've mounted a Simmons red dot sight on it. You can see the first three shots on the 10-yard target in the upper right quadrant.

After getting the sight roughly aligned at 10 yards, I went out to 25 yards and fired three shots, adjusted again, then moved the target out to 50 yards.



That's three groups at 50 yards. The top one was the sighter group, the middle one is the adjustment group, the bottom one is five shots, offhand, as fast as I could recover.

First impressions - If you've ever loved a pump shotgun, you'll love a pump rifle, and there are very few examples available. The Remington 760 is a fine rifle for hunting or patrol and it should be extremely accurate. The barrel is floated from the chamber all the way out to the muzzle. It comes in serious calibers. Mine is the ancient and honored .30-06. Yet a good number of calibers are available in some fairly serious chamberings.

The load functioned just like I wanted it to. I used the Lyman 311041 bullet in a standard Remington case over 2.2 cc's of my surplus 4895. I didn't put it over a chrony, but I estimate that it is moving somewhere about 1600 fps. If those figures are accurate, then sighted dead-on at 50 yards, it'll be down 3" at 100 yards. That gives it a Taylor KO of 12, which should be good deer medicine out to 100 yards. It's virtually recoil free, inexpensive, and fun to shoot. It'll make a good qualification load, and a good kids load.

The Simmons red dot sight worked just as advertised. The 42 mm tube was like looking through a barrel and the red dot just hung out over the end of he muzzle, pointing the way for the bullet. The dot was sufficiently bright that I didn't feel the need to use the highest settings, even in the bright Louisiana sunlight. The simple 4 MOA dot wasn't obtrusive in the sight picture, but was plainly visible. Adjusting the point of aim to the point of impact was simply done. It adjusts just like any other scope. Click detents were easily felt and counted. I need a couple more of these sights. I can see having one on a .22 pistol and I can see having one on a .22 rifle. It'll help in teaching the grandkids.

So, now a slide-action rifle is about to become qualified as a patrol rifle. I think it'll make a good one. The only hesitation about the rifle I have is the lack of magazine capacity. The normal capacity is 4+1, even for Remington's newest, sleekest cop rifle, the Model 7600 in a law enforcement variety, but the magazine capacity is limited. I've gotta admit that five rounds of .30 caliber goodness should be plenty, it'd be comforting to have a couple of 10 round magazines at hand. Remington made one rifle, the 7615 to take M16 magazines. It would be nice if the 7600 series took BAR magazines. Or M14 magazines, or some other magazine that had additional capacity.

Still, this will make a fine patrol rifle.

On Scopes

Over the past several years I've come to have some opinions on scopes that are out of the mainstream. I like optics on some rifles, but the trend toward ever more complicated scopes baffles me. I'm a big fan of the Weaver brand of fixed-power scopes, like the K4 and K6. There's less to fiddle with, less to go wrong, less to worry about. They either work or they don't. Mostly, they work and work well for years.

So, I'm reading Field and Stream and I go over to Dave Petzal's blog and read what one of his correspondents has to say.

“In regard to optics I have had a lot of scope problems for a long, long time, regardless of make. When I’m asked what my favorite make of scope is, my reply is ‘I hate them all equally.' I have crippled and destroyed dozens and dozens of them. Between loose erector systems, separated lens elements, parallax adjustments going deep-six and flash dots blinking their last, I’m amazed we haven’t all gone back to Lyman 48s.

“Bum optics come in all shapes, right out of the factory box, usually within 50 rounds or after several hundred rounds, the latter being the worse case as it always happens when the client is standing in the middle of the Moyowosi Plain—or at the bench or a shooting editor.

“The one exception to this is the lowly fixed-power scope. I have a 3X that I’ve used for 30 years to break in rifles, and it’s probably survived 5,000 rounds of .375, .416, and .458 with never a hiccup. But the optics companies are giving the public what they think they need, which is variables. I understand it’s not easy to make a scope; that a lot of crap has to fit inside. But I am the guy who has to wring the whole mess out, and I don’t believe in Santa anymore. When asked to try out the latest optical marvel I feel like sitting in the corner and puking on my shoes.”

My feelings exactly.

That's not to say that I don't own variable scopes. I own variable scopes because what I want in a fixed power scope is hard to find or overly expensive. I believe that I could do all the shooting I want to do with a good fixed 10X, a good fixed 6X and a good fixed 4X.

I've got an old Burris 2.5X fixed power scope mounted on a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. That scope was sighted in sometime about 1980 for the Remington 200 grain factory load. Today it still shoot true with that load. I reload for it now, but I've found a load that duplicates the factory fodder. At 100 yards, you can still cover the group with the edge of your fist.

My .30-06 carries a fixed power Weaver K6 and that has always been enough scope for that rifle.

I'm not saying that a high-dollar 12-36X variable doesn't have a place on a rifle. I'm saying that those are scopes for precision uses. I'd venture that there aren't a thousand people in the US who uses scopes like that. I don't see that I need to buy one.

I really wish that someone (Burris, Weaver, Swift! You listening?) would make a decent 10X fixed power scope and market it at about $250.00. I wager they'd sell a lot of them. I know I'd buy a couple.

Iron Sights Sunday

I went to the range this afternoon with three rifles, all centerfire and all iron-sighted. First up was the Marlin 1894C, in .357 Magnum, with a handful of the Ranch Dog loads. This load consists of a standard primer, 12.0 grs of Alliant 2400 and the Ranch Dog TL-358-180-RF gas check bullet. It's potent medicine in the little carbine, and it shoots to nearly one ragged hole at 25 yards. At 50 yards it opens up a little bit, but I'm shooting into the front sight, so I really can't complain about the accuracy of that little rifle. The bullseye I use has a 6 inch bull and at 50 yards the bead on the front sight completely subtends that 6" bull.

Then, we switched to the Winchester 94 in .30-30. This rifle is one that I use as a loaner and grandkid rifle. I mounted a Willams FP sight, with a firesight front. It shoots okay, but I'm not satisfied with the load for that rifle. I've been trying to work up a 170 grain load, and the old standard, with 30 grains of IMR3031 and a Remington 170 grain round nose bullet, just doesn't shoot well in that rifle. I get groups in the neighborhood of 5 inches at 50 yards, centered on the bull. For any of these rifles, I eschewed the sandbags today, being content with resting my elbows on the bench and shooting them like I hunt. The sight on this rifle, again, completely subtends the bullseye, but I'd like to think that this load/rifle combination would do better than 5 inches, but alas. It would certainly knock a deer over, but I'm not happy with the accuracy of that rifle. More work is necessary.

The third rifle today was the Handi-Rifle in .45-70. It likewise sports a Williams peep sight and a front Firesight. Like the other two rifles, that Firesight subtends the 6" circle at 50 yards.

With my Sharps, I'm able to keep a 500 grain bullet inside two inches at 100 yards. For some reason, the Handi-Rifle doesn't like that load combination, so I went down to the 405 grain soft lead bullet that I cast from a Lee mold. I load it over 2.5 ccs of IMR 4895 with a tuft of pillow Dacron betwixt the bullet and the powder.

I haven't put this load over the chronograph yet, but I will soon. Recoil is stiff in the little Handi-Rifle, almost punishing. I hadn't sighted the little rifle with this load, indeed, this was the first time I've tried IMR4895 in this caliber.



The more I use IMR 4895 the more I am amazed at the versatility of the powder. Originally designed as a military powder for the .30-06, it is one of those sleeper powders that you turn to when you want a versatile, reliable powder. I've used it in .30-06, .308, .243, .25.06, .30-30, .35 Remington and now in .45-70. It may not be the best powder for every application, but it is a good powder in a lot of applications. Before supplies of surplus powder ran out, I bought an eight pound jug. I've got a little over half of it left.

I should have bought five of those jugs. At any rate, I'm pleased with the .45-70 load in the Handi-Rifle and I'm through with load development for that rifle. Next time I take it to the range, I'll take the chrony so that I can get some figures, but with the little rifle shooting into 1.5 inches, I'm satisfied with it as a deep-woods rifle. Did I mention that the recoil of this load is fairly stiff?

Field Trials

My sons and I took the Target Hanger (ver 2.0) out to the lease today to give it a field trial. We set it up down a logging cut, about 150 yards from the firing point, as far as we could see in the summertime woods.  It worked great. There are a few little glitches, but I think that it's ready for installation at my private berm at Momma's house.

I didn't get any pictures of the gongs, but I did manage a couple of snaps of my daughter-in-law, Kim, trying her hand.  Below, she's lining up using my Ruger 77 in .25-06.

Then, just after she pulled the trigger.

Yeah, she hit it.  There were several of us there, including step-grandson Jeffery, who did really well with a Remington 700 in .308.    We ran the gamut of centerfire deer cartridges this morning, from .35 Remington, to .243 Winchester, .25-06, .30-06, .308 and 7mm Rem Mag.  We even function tested a 12 gauge shotgun and a .40 cal SW Sigma.

Hot out there this morning, and yes, we sprayed everyone down for chiggers.  It was a great morning, although a hot one, to be in the woods with family.

Niche Cartridges

I've always had a fondness for niche cartridges. My very first centerfire rifle was a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.  I preferred the 200 grain Remington load, and I carried that rifle for two decades.  It was my go-to choice for whitetail deer in central Louisiana. That rifle wore a 2.5 scope and was hot medicine for deer in our piney woods and hardwood bottoms. I never had to shoot a deer twice with it.

Ron Spomer talks about another niche cartridge, the 338 Federal.  It's nothing more than a .308 Win necked up to 0.338.  It throws big bullets.  Not far, but hard. It's not in the same category as the .338 Win Mag, nor the .338 Lapua, but it is not meant to be.  It's a cartridge for inside 200 yards.  Truth be told, that is where most North American game are taken.

Before Junior Doughty died, he and I talked about the 338 Federal.  At that time it was a new cartridge.  We thought that a good 200+ grain cast bullet would be the bees knees in this thing.  With hard linotype metal and a gas check, you could push it to 1900fps and get plenty of thump on the other end. In a short action, light bolt gun with a low powered scope, it would take anything we might point it at.

I'm glad to see that Ron highlighted this cartridge.  It is not for everyone, but niche cartridges never are.

New Bullets

As many of you know, I am a fan of cast bullets. In the slower range of cartridges, most don't travel downrange much faster than 2000 fps. They use the weight of the bullet and the design of the projectile to impart shock, rather than the velocity.

Lots of game has been killed by a big cast bullet. Until the late 1800's all game was killed with a slow-moving cast bullet.

The guys over at the Cast Boolits forum have learned that Lee Precision will make a custom cast bullet mold and the members there usually have a couple of group buys going. These bullet molds are not "off the shelf" but are custom cut based on the wishes of the customers. We find that they make very good bullets.

Recently, the guys there have been doing a group buy on a .35 caliber, 180 grain bullet. It has tumble-lube grooves and uses a gas check. It is designed for the .35 Remington, one of my favorite calibers. This mold will let me make ammo for about half as much money as I spend now, which is to say about 1/4 as much as factory ammunition. It might even be good for heavy bullet loads in the .357 magnum.



It's a design with a wide flat nose. Pushed to 1900 fps, it oughta hit like the Hammer of Thor. I've already got a .358 sizing die, which I use for my pistol cartridges.

I mailed my check this morning. Working up loads for this bullet ought to be a lot of fun.

New Bullet

Some time ago, I ordered a bullet mold from a group order at the Cast Boolits forum. Those guys decide on a bullet design, take orders and have custom molds made by Lee Precision.

The mold in question is a .35 caliber, tumble lubed, gas checked, 180 grain, round-flat tip. It's a hoss, a big ole bullet for either the .35 Remington or the .357 magnum.

When the mold came in, I put it on the shelf and forgot about it. Yesterday I took it down and cast some bullets. I tumble lubed them in Lee Liquid Alox and today I installed the gas checks by running them through a .358 sizer.

The picture below is four of them, with a standard 158 semi-wadcutter for scale.



Another shot, from the top, shows the big meplat of this bullet.



This ought to be one great bullet for the .357 magnum, especially when shot through a carbine. We learned a long time ago that part of the killing power of a cast bullet is the shock effect from the tip (meplat) of the bullet and that basically, a wide, flat meplat worked to make a cast bullet more effective. Junior talks about meplat effect in this article.

I'm really looking forward to wringing out this bullet.

Range Day

Today I took three hours and went out for a range day. I used the LDWF range at Woodworth.

I know that many of you notice that every rifle that the gun rags write about is capable of minute of angle accuracy. Well, that's true, most rifles built today are capable of MOA accuracy. However, most gunners are not. Accuracy is indicative of practice time. Most recreational gunners can get in the three to four minute range and stay there until they get training, then their groups start shrinking. Equipment and technique are important, but they can't take the place of regular practice. Shooting scores are very erodable. If you don't get enough trigger time and learn from each shot, your groups expand.

In short, you won't see any MOA targets here today.

The first rifle out of the bag was the Winchester 94. This rifle has a Williams FP sight with a standard bead. My ammo was my own blend of the incomparable Lyman 311041 cast bullet, lubed with Lee Liquid Alox, loaded over 27.0 grains of surplus 4895. This load is a game-getter. I decided to get off the bench and do some position work with this rifle, to replicate game shots.



I scattered them all over the page at 50 yards. Three rounds each from prone, sitting, kneeling and standing. Still, seven of the twelve are in the nine ring or better. This is the type of shooting that I need to do more often. It's time to load a bunch of these and devote an afternoon to position shooting. This ammo is cast bullet ammo, which means I make the bullets in the garage. The powder is the Surplus 4895 that I have found so versatile, and it launches those cast bullets at an average 1729 fps with no leading.

After I ran out of ammo for the .30-30, I broke out the Savage 110, in .30-06. I have made some changes to this rifle since the last report. I have added a better recoil pad and changed the way the scope was mounted.

I did forget to boresight the rifle, so the first half-dozen shots were off the paper and it took another half-dozen to get it into the target area. I wanted this ammo to shoot two inches high at 100 yards. Sighted like that, it'll be dead on at 200 yards and down just three inches at 250 yards. I didn't bring much ammo to the range, and the last three rounds gave me this target.



This load uses the same 4895 powder that I used in the .30-30 load. It's surplus powder and was originally developed for .30-06 military ammo. 4895 has been around in three guises over the years. IMR 4895 and Hogdgon 4895 are both canister powders that are available today. This surplus powder is off the market right now, but has proven very versatile in medium rifle cartridges. I use it in .30-30, .35 Remington, and .30-06.

That isn't too shabby and it shows that I haven't been getting enough trigger time. The rifle is certainly capable of better accuracy than that, and I have only myself to blame for not taking advantage of it. It's time to load some more ammo and make myself get out to the range more often. I need more trigger time.

Variables

Variable power scopes, that is.

There is a lot to like in a fixed power scope.  One of my favorites was a Weaver K6 that I had for a while, mounted on my old Savage 110 in .30-06.  A good fixed power scope is a joy, but unless you're searching online, you just don't see them.  I was in the box store yesterday browsing scopes, and I don't believe I saw a classic fixed-power at all on the racks.  I don't know if folks seem to buy variables, so the stores stock them, or if folks buy variables because that's all the stores stock, but the box stores seem to stock a bunch of variables. 

I have an old Burris 2.5X fixed scope on my Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.  It's been on that rifle since about 1980 and it has accounted for its share of venison.

I have a nice little Nikon 4X scope on my .22 rifle.  It's a joy to shoot, never a lick of problem.  And, that Weaver K6 is a real good scope.  But, the fact is that there are a lot more variable scopes on the market than there are fixed scopes, so we've got to learn to live with them.

Anonymous asks in Comments:

What power do you normally keep it set at ? I have a 2.5-8x on my .308 but keep it set at 5x nearly all the time. 

That's a good question.  And, the answer is; it depends.    If I'm still-hunting through the woods, slipping from tree to tree, that scope will be set low.   If I'm in a box stand somewhere, I might set it a little higher for the best view of wherever I expect the game to cross.   If I'm shooting paper or steel on the range, I might crank it all the way up to best see the target.

Back in the day,  a shooter might experience a change of impact while switching the power on a variable.  That was pretty common.  But, things have gotten better lately, and if the POI changes, it's often not enough to matter when your game is minute-of-deer.  The simple fact is that optics are a lot better now than they were when I stated paying attention to them way back in the last century.

The .357 Revisited

The younger generation is learning what we learned twenty-or-so-years ago.  The .357 magnum is a hoss when properly loaded and shot from a carbine.

Out of a Marlin 1894, the bullets shoot into the front sight (a 6-moa dot) with boring regularity, and they hit the steel plate hard enough to foul it on it's chains, necessitating going downrange to unwind the target from it's stand.

That bullet is a custom, 180 grain, tumble-lube, gas-checked, wide flat nose bullet that a bunch of us designed on the Cast Boolits forum several years ago.  It was designed for the .35 Remington cartridge, but several of us stuffed it into a .357 magnum case with a stiff dose of L'il Gun powder.  And something magical happened.

That bullet runs out of the Marlin at something over 1600 fps and that wide flat meplat hits like the hammer of Thor.  You'll note that the boy said they'd have to walk downrange to un-foul the target from its stand.   I know that particular range, and it's about 80 yards from the firing line to the gong.

It's a great load, out of a light, handy, short carbine that gives sufficient energy out to 100 yards for whitetail deer and hogs.  The .357 magnum and the lever carbine are a great woods-cruising combination.

.350 Legend?

I got my American Rifleman today and saw a picture of a new cartridge from Winchester, the .350 Legend.  I'm a big fan of .35 caliber cartridges, ad I must say that my curiosity is piqued.  Evidently, it's based on the .223 Remington cartridge, blown out to .35 caliber, and is a straight-walled case.

It was designed, evidently, as a niche cartridge for those folks who cannot use bottleneck cases for deer hunting, but it throws a 300 grain, .35 cal bullet at 1800 fps.  My first thought was ' "Big Deal!  I have a 45-70 load that throws a 405 grain bullet at 1800."

But then I started thinking; This is based o the .223 case.  It might fit through an AR.  Or, a really small bolt gun.  Either way, it would make a dandy cast-bullet rifle.  If Junior were still alive, he'd be on this thing like a duck on a june bug.

Right now, it's a new, niche cartridge, but I can see the potential.

Recoil Therapy.

Od NFO talks about recoil therapy and I'm in the mood for some. I got a pound of Lil'Gun powder off the freight truck yesterday and this afternoon I loaded some of the Ranch Dog bullets (Lee's designation would be TLC358-180-RF) over a max charge of powder. It's a big ole honking bullet, 180 grains, gas checked with a wide, flat meplat. I intend to shoot it my Model 28 and my Marlin 1894. This is a bullet that Ranch Dog designed for the .35 Remington, but some of us have adapted it to the .357 magnum.



I had tried this bullet with Blue Dot but wasn't happy with the velocity. It was running about 1100 fps and recoil was easily controllable in that big revolver. Some folks recommended Lil'Gun and Junior sings rave reviews on it. I'm just under Hodgdon's max charge and I'm going to compare the velocity from the 6" Model 28 and the velocity from the 16" Marlin carbine. It should be an interesting experiment.

This is my first time out with Lil'Gun powder and I'm excited to see what it'll do. The Hodgdon data center tells me that I should expect velocities in the 1400 fps range out of the pistol. What it might do from the carbine is yet to be seen.

I'll shoot them on Saturday morning.

Overall Length

When reloading, it's important to pay attention to overall length. It's important when you want ammo that works. For example:

I'm a fan of the .357 magnum cartridge. All of my revolvers are chambered for either .357 magnum or .38 special. Recently, a bunch of us from over at the Cast Boolit forum made a group order for a special bullet mold. The mold in question is a custom Lee 6-hole mold that throws a tumble lube, .358 inch, 180 grain, flat point, gas checked bullet. It's a big ole bullet with a wide flat meplat. It was designed for the .35 Remington rifle cartridge, but I thought it might be the bees knees in the .357 cartridge.

It's a good looking bullet and last week I finally got around to loading some. I used Alliant 2400 powder and a CCI primer, trying to get a load that would fly at about 1300 fps out of my revolver. After I had loaded a couple, I thought they looked a bit long, so I picked up my SW Model 66 and loaded a couple into the cylinder. They fit fine, and weren't too long for the cylinder. Great! I loaded the remaining brass and set them aside.

This morning, I took another revolver, My SW 27 6", my Marlin 1894C, that loaded ammo, and went to the range. Imagine my surprise when I loaded a cylinder and had the cylinder lock up as soon as I closed it into the frame. A quick survey of the problem showed me that the ammo was too long for the cylinder. Of course, you can click on the picture for a bigger view.



I was considerably surprised at this development. The ammo fit fine in my K-frame Model 66, but wouldn't fit in my N-frame Model 27. I figured that SW chambers would be the same length, but I'd obviously be wrong about that. So, while I thought about how to get my cylinder un-stuck, I tried to run a few rounds through the Marlin lever action. The ammo was too long for that action, too. It wouldn't feed. Some more reloading was obviously in order, with the bullets seated more deeply in the cases.

The rangemaster at the range carries a K-frame SW Model 13, which is a close cousin to my Model 66. I asked him to try the ammo in his revolver and it fit just fine.



He ran a cylinder through and it shot surprisingly well in his revolver, turning in tiny groups. So, I gave him about 30 rounds, rather than having to pull the ammo down. He can shoot it and he'll return the brass at some point in the future. He says he might do some late season deer hunting with it, and it'll be perfect for that role.

Afterwards, we took my locked-up revolver to his shop and I whacked the cylinder with a rubber mallet. It opened and we got the ammo out. Again, I was considerably dismayed at this development.

I came home and measured the cylinders of those two pistols for total length. Both the M66 and the M27 cylinder are recessed and both barrels are pinned. The Model 66 cylinder length measured at 1.672 inches with my calipers. The Model 27 cylinder measured at 1.623 inches. That's almost five-hundredths difference in the two revolvers, and the small K-frame has a longer cylinder than the larger N-frame. The loaded cartridge, interestingly, measured at 1.662, which is over the SAAMI length, but it fit and functioned in the K-frame. I'd have thunk that all Smith and Wesson .357 cylinders were the same length, but I'd have been wrong. That's not a mistake I'm likely to make again soon.

I'll reload some more and pay attention to my OAL. This is a lesson I don't intend to repeat.