Wildcat Cartridges

Handheld Wind Meter for Shooters.

“The effects of wind and weather play a huge role in our sport. Not only does the wind affect the flight of the bullet, but differences in altitude, pressure, and temperature can also change the bullet’s impact,” said Emil Praslick III, Head Coach of the National / Palma® Team. “Tools like the Kestrel Pocket Weather Tracker can often mean the difference between being a winning team, or being at the weather’s mercy.” The Kestrel family include the Kestrel 1000 ($99), which measures solely wind speed, probably the most valuable information for shooters.

A complete hand-held weather station, the Kestrel 4000 NV measures every major environmental condition: barometric pressure, altitude, density altitude, temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind chill, dewpoint, wet bulb temperature and heat stress. This pocket-sized unit is more than just a weather meter for checking the current conditions; the Kestrel 4000 NV is a tracking device that allows users to log the environmental data for entire expeditions or flights. The Kestrel 2500 NV and 3500 NV operate similarly, but sample some (but not all) of the same information as the 4000.

http://www.nkhome.com/

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  Some data may be outdated by new technology but its valuable from the stand point of reminding us how much can be accomplished with very few tools.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.

Ammunition Accountability Legislation… Sounds like a good idea right?   Like most anti-gun laws the name is misleading.  The plan is to make guns illegal through the back door.  In the summer of 2008 when the Heller v. Washington D.C. decision was handed down by the Supreme Court the liberals knew they had to take a new route because they have lost on the issue of the Second Amendment, and private ownership.

Remember how Obama said that he wasn’t going to take your guns?  Well, it seems that his allies in the anti-gun world have no problem with taking your ammo! The bill that is being pushed in 18 states (including Illinois and Indiana) requires all ammunition to be encoded by the manufacture a data base of all ammunition sales. So they will know how much you buy and what calibers. If  it passes nobody can sell any ammunition afterwards unless the ammunition is coded.

Any privately held unencoded ammunition must be destroyed as a part of this proposed law. (Including hand loaded ammo.) They will also charge a .05 cent tax on every round so every box of ammo you buy will go up at least $2.50 or more!  That is just to start, how long do you think it will take for that tax to rise to the point that plinking and soon hunting are simply too expensive for the average person to participate in.  If they can deprive you of ammo they do not need to take your gun!

Reloading and therfore wildcatting would be a thing of the past.  You will not be able to buy bullets, cases, primers, powder.  All components will be gone because they would violate this law.  If you love reloading, if you love shooting, if you like wildcats, this is a death nail to your sport!

This legislation was active in 18 state legislatures in 2008 and will be reintroduced in 2009, call you state legislators and tell them to fight this bill when it pops up, don’t even let it out of committee!  The Following states considered this bill in 2008; Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington.

To find more about the anti-gun group that is sponsoring this legislation and the specific legislation for each state, go to: http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm

Explanation of the technology: http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Technology.htm

Alan Korwin and David D. Kopel have colaborated on this 448 page tome on this all important Second Ammendment decission from the U.S. Supreme Court.  Designed as a refference guide to the Heller case and all the related materials.  Summaries of the 67 Amicus briefs filed with the court.  Statements from groups both sides of the argument both pro and anti.  A collection of reviews form news media and politicians who not only disagreed with the decision but down right hated it.  Bonus material includes High Court decision summaries for 96 gun related decisions from the court sarting in 1820. 

If you interested in the ongoing Second Ammendment debate this book is a great resouce.   Be informed, the next few years are going to be pretty tough for pro-gun forces and we all need to be vigilant of our God given rights.  Can be ordered from:  GunLaws.com

The next new Item I saw in the Lapua booth at the Shot Show was a 300 grain Hollow Point Boat Tail Scenar bullet.  Intended for the 338 Lapua, reloading data is supplied on the technical specifications sheet for this new bullet.  Max velocity listed for the 338 Lapua with a 27.5″ barrel is 2746 fps.  They are available either loaded in Lapua ammunition, or in boxes of 100 as components.  According to the charts supplied, this huge 300 grain bullet when launched at 2700 fps still retains 1000 Ft. Lbs. of energy at a little over 1500 yards.

While we are talking about long range Lapua has also introduced new Drag Coefficient Data for QuickTARGET Unlimited TM.  Utilizing Doppler radar Lapua has collected data for all their bullets at various velocity levels.  Such data allows you to calculate trajectory more accurately that with simplified B.C. numbers.  The data is also available at the Lapua web site, WWW.Lapua.com

300 Grain Scenar Bullet alongside Lapua's new 222 Rem. Match brass.

That’s right!  We will be having guest Bloggers, folks who are experts in their fields will post items of interest here for your edification and enjoyment.  It’s always better to hear it straight from the person who worked out the details than second hand from a writer.  

If you have a subject you would like discussed here be sure to leave a comment and we will find an expert to answer questions or teach about a subject.  Wildcatting is complex, we can discuss anything from ballistics, case design, history, on to things like tool design, making dies, or building rifles.

If you have an area of expertise and would like to blog for the crowd here at Wildcat Cartridge, just let us know.

From the Loading Bench, FDZ

Here we are a totally new web site just for Wildcaters.  It’s tough enough to be a “gun nut” but if you have the disease bad enough; you become a wildcatter. 

This blog will contain commentary and information about wildcatting, gunsmithing, tools, reloading and much more.  I have contacted many of my acquaintances in the gun trade and many have agreed to be guest bloggers.  That means you will have access to folks who normally would not have time to blog.

Our parent web site, www.wildcatintel.com contains a huge amount of data for wildcatters.  We start off with a data base of cartridge dimensions, we will be adding drawings for each cartridge based on the dimensions so you can visually compare them.   We will continually add articles to our archive, both new and historical, we are always looking for letters and historical documents to add to our archive, so long as they add to the knowledge base for wildcatting.

If you have ideas about where this site should be headed, speak up!