Big Bore Cartridges Designed for the AR-15 Platform

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted.  Time flies when you're constantly inundated with high profile IT projects... Anyway, on to the topic at hand!

Unless you've been ignoring the gun market in the past decade (or more), you probably noticed a large jump in popularity of "Modern Sporting Rifles" or MSRs, which generally refers to AR-15 and AR-10 style rifles.  I'm about as strong-willed as the next gun nut when it comes to new toys, so I couldn't help but become interested in MSRs, too.  I assembled my first one a couple years ago in the oh-so-typical 5.56/.223 chambering.  Now I'm looking at the other options that promise to take this rifle beyond its "mouse gun" stereotype.

Whenever a certain action type gains enough popularity, cartridge design tends to follow.  This happened with the .308-sized "short" action, the .30-06-sized "standard" action before it, and many others before that.  What I'm going to look at in this post is three cartridges that push the little chamber to its limit: the .450 Bushmaster, .458 SOCOM, and .50 Beowulf.

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The Economics of Handloading Part 1 (The .30s With 180 Grain Bullets)

***DISCLAIMER***

This post contains handloading data.  These loads are derived from maximum published data provided by powder companies and should not be used as "starting" loads.  I cannot be held responsible for misuse of this data or for typographical errors.  Use at your own risk!


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Belted Magnums (and why I welcome their eventual demise)

Time for an opinionated rant...

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Check out what showed up today

Time to paraphrase something I read once: "How to convince someone to try something:  if he's American, tell him it's new."  I don't recall exactly where I saw that, but it generally rings true with me.  I convinced myself that I needed to try these powders because they're new and they seemed interesting, even though there's not a whole lot of data out there for them yet.

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.357 Magnum Handloading (158 grain plated HP + Lil' Gun) Part 1

***DISCLAIMER***

This post contains handloading data.  It was created for my firearms and may not be safe for general use.  I cannot be held responsible for misuse of this data or for typographical errors.  Use at your own risk!


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Smith & Wesson Model 66-2 .357 Magnum

This is my Smith & Wesson model 66-2 in .357 magnum with a 6" barrel that I bought used almost 2 years ago along with the original box, but not the original grips.  After doing some serial number research, I found that it was likely manufactured in 1983.  This gun will be my main test platform for my .357 magnum loads, and had been my hunting handgun last year, though I never got a shot at any game.  It's certainly not a new gun, but I do like it a lot.

.45 Colt Handloading (250 grain LRNFP + Trail Boss) Part 1

***DISCLAIMER***

This post contains handloading data.  It was created for my firearms and may not be safe for general use.  I cannot be held responsible for misuse of this data or for typographical errors.  Use at your own risk!


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Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt (and .45 ACP)

So I walked into a local gun store and ordered a blued Ruger Blackhawk with a 5.5" barrel in .45 Colt.  In a few weeks I received a blued Ruger Blackhawk with a 5.5" barrel in .45 Colt....and .45 ACP!  They apparently ordered the model with the conversion cylinder.  I have no complaints, having more cartridge options is a good thing.

This will be my test vehicle for all of my .45 Colt handloads and some of my .45 ACP loads, I'm sure.  Depending on how well I can shoot with it, it might also become my primary hunting handgun.

(Re-)Re-introduction to reloading

A little background:

My first introduction to reloading was my father's progressive shotshell press he kept in an outbuilding on our farm.  My dad is a pretty damn good trap shooter and the press was setup accordingly for 12 gauge shells, #8 shot, and some modest load of IMR PB, if I remember correctly.  At some point in my teenage years, a couple of friends and I decided to see if we could figure out how it all worked.  After a few failures, we got the system down and were soon loading shells for target and small game shooting.

Fast forward to my early twenties and I started getting more interested in handguns and rifles.  This naturally (at least to me) led to handloading of those cartridges.  I started off with the .243 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, and .303 British primarily with IMR 4064 powder.  This was kind of a casual and experimental hobby, especially since the equipment was housed at my parent's farm and I was now several hours away.

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Here's what this is going to be about...

This blog is intended to be something of a journal for one of my favorite hobbies: guns. It will include information and my personal opinion about various firearms that are in my possession. It will also detail my re-introduction to handloading and my experimentation in that arena.

If you find any of these topics interesting, feel free to follow along!