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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