Wildcat Cartridges

Hornady fans have some new bullets to look at this year.  The ballistics boys at Hornady are in the process of building their line of expanding monolithic solid bullets, known as the GMX® Bullets.  This year they introduced the 6mm GMX®, weighing in at 80 grains. 

Constructed of Gilding Metal these bullets have been tested at a wide range of velocities for expansion.  Velocities from 2000 to 3400 feet per second have been tested the bullets expand up to 1.5 times their original diameter and still retain 95% of their original weight.

So why is this news?  Well, if your one of those folks who just has to use your 6mm for deer or antelope, this kind of bullet will penetrate deep and still shed energy in the target.

There are a few more of these bullets in the R&D phase right now.  The .257, .264 (6.5mm), and a .308 bullet for the 30-30 are expected to be the next in line to hit the market.  These are lead free bullets, so they will be good news for the left coast.

Patrick Ryan at Redding told me that one to items that Redding is making a standard stock item for 2010 is dies for the “260 Imp. 40”.  That translates as the 260 Ackley Improved to you and me.

We talked about popular wildcats they had made dies for recently.  The 6mm SPC was one that had seen some strong interest.  I am a firm believer that the pendulum has begun to swing away from huge cartridges with super case capacity.  Economics may enter into the change but more likely it is shooters learning that they don’t like recoil, and smaller cases are the easiest route away from recoil.

Ballistics from the 6mm SPC will fall right between the 6mm BR and the 6mm PPC so it is in a good family.  Accuracy should be awesome in a well built gun.  It’s not as short and fat as it’s cousins but that should not hinder result too much.  Like many things in life, its more about having faith than anything else.

Recent additions to the NoslerCustom line of brass are the 25-06 and the 7mm-08.   For those of you who may not know the differences that Nosler brass offers, here is a quick run-down.

Nosler carefully checks thier brass, case mouths are chamfered adn deburred, flash holes are deburred and check for alignment.  The brass is all sorted by weight so that you get uniform brass in each box.  Considering the difference in price, its a pretty good deal and saves you lots of time at the loading bench performing tedius tasks.

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

Painciples and Practice of Loading Ammunition, By Earl Naramore

This book was first published by Samworth in 1954, my attention was drawn to it by a mention in P.O. Ackley’s books as a good resource.  I figured if it impressed Ackley it was worth a look.  Obviously a book this old is in some ways out dated, however, this book centers more on mechanical design, strength and processes than on reloading data.  So it is still a very interesting read.

Many writers today cater to the reader who wants to know just a little bit about a lot of different subjects, so their explanations lack detail and fail to make the subject fully enlightened.  Naramore spent 914 pages on the process of loading ammunition, as you might imagine this allowed him to go into great detail about many aspects of the reloading precess.

Because this treatise was written over 50 years ago it includes some information that might not be found in too many other places today.  Are you going to learn something that will put you way out in front of the pack, probably not, but you will likely pick up some useful ideas that modern reloaders are forced to learn on their own by trial and error.  All in all an enjoyable read, sometimes it’s just fun to see how things used to be done, or how much they have changed.  I would have to say this is a must have book for reloaders and wildcatters alike.

FDZ