Wildcat Cartridges

I recently picked up a set of the Handloader Magazines on DVD.  The set covers 40 years of Handloader, from the first issue on up. There is a wealth of information buried in these old magazines and the DVD’s take up far less space on the shelf than 40 year of old magazines.   Aside from that you can search the entire collection from one file which is located on all the individual disks.

Say you want to know more about Rocky Gibbs…  Just put his name in the search window and all instances of his name from the first issue to the last will be listed.

By trial and error you can adjust your searches to be more accurate and return more useful information.  I should warn you though, it’s a little like when you pulled an encyclopedia out as a kid to do a report for school and find yourself reading about casting bullets in stead of reloading tools, etc.

Before I picked up these DVDs I had a pretty strong collection of magazines going.  I have already eliminated my Rifle and Handloader collection.  Now somebody needs to do the same thing for American Rifleman. 

If you have not read many old gun magazines you would probably be surprised to find that much of the material was more technical in nature in years past.  Some data may be outdated by new technology but its valuable from the stand point of reminding us how much can be accomplished with very few tools.  Frankly, many magazines today would do well to return to more technical articles, that broaden our knowledge of ballistics an the mechanics of shooting.   Either way, this collection of classic material on disk is highly entertaining for the gun buff and educational for any wildcatter.