Research Resource for the Avid Wildcatter

Categories:  Uncategorized, Wildcat Cartridges, books
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dvd-boxed-set1I 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  Some data may be outdated by new technology but its valuable from the stand point of reminding us how much can be accomplished with very few tools.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.

30 Remington AR (30 AR)

Categories:  Cartridges, Firearms, Wildcat Cartridges
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Remington will offer 3 loadings to introduce this new cartridge.
Remington will offer 3 loadings to introduce this new cartridge.

Remington announced at the Shot Show 2009 that it would introduce a new cartridge for it’s AR platform. 

This cartridge is a 30 caliber on a shortened version of the 284 Winchester case, so it has a slightly rebated rim.  The rim diameter will be the same as a 308 or 30-06 as it appears now.  When asked about introduction a Remington Rep stated that the goal to have guns and ammo in stores is June of 2009.

It’s hard to come up with a new idea for a cartridge and even though Remington is in new territory here it is not unprecedented.  Frank C. Barnes, author of “Cartridges of the World” came up with the 308×1.5″ in the 1960’s.  This concept became the BR series of cartridges.  Remington has simply come up with a way to rework the BR concept to work in an AR-15 platform.  The advantage of the 30 AR is the increased case capacity allowed by the 284 case design.  By the way, the 450 Bushmaster is the same basic case based on preliminary information.

Factory load data for this short case indicate a 125 grain bullet at 2800 fps at the muzzle of a 24″ barrel.  It looks like case capacity will fall about half way between the 308×1.5″ and the 308 Winchester.  I have already started drawing my wildcats on this case.  Lets see what you guys can come up with?