HANDLOADING

As this is written, the United States is perhaps experiencing the worst ammunition and reloading component shortage since World War II.

Today’s latest idea in bullets is powder coating. Several companies offer powder-coated bullets and it’s pretty easy as a do-it-yourself project.

The U.S. Military used the 1911 through two world wars and then in 1947 the Army began looking at the possibility of adopting a smaller, lighter .45 ACP pistol.

As this is written we are at the apex — hopefully — of the Corona Virus Lockdown.

In 1905 John Browning designed a semi-automatic pistol firing a new .45 cartridge the style of which we now label “rimless,” even though it does...

Every range has them — Range Rats. They’re not beady-eyed, long-tailed rodents, but die-hard shooters who frequent the range almost daily

I load and shoot large amounts of cast bullets of several types in my 1911s. As outlined in the first installment of this series, all of my .45 ACP rounds —

I’ve been the Lord High Protector of the GUNS realm for a couple of years now and it’s finally time to fess up to both regular readers of this corner...

As this is written we are at the apex — hopefully — of the Corona Virus Lockdown. This has had many negative results including businesses that will...

I could happily end my shooting days with the .45 Colt cartridge and never feel cheated. With handloads, the .45 Colt offers a versatility many cartridges lack.

Reloading the .38-40, more commonly known as the .38 WCF, is not quite the same as loading, say, the .44 Special or .45 Colt.

Well, it’s 2021 and despite assurances from every major ammunition manufacturer they are working 24/7 to churn out new ammunition, industry insiders have...

The .45 Colt arrived in the early 1870s mostly due to the fact the military would not accept the ’71-72 Open-Top .44 Colt had submitted for the trials.

The lure of the lever gun is a contagious one. Once bitten, the symptoms rapidly progress. Cures include names like Marlin, Winchester, or Rossi.

Big-case .22 centerfires such as the .220 Swift, .22-250 Rem. and .223 WSSM aren’t in big demand at present.

What I hate is the .41 Colt is not exactly a handloading sweetheart. When I first started handloading for a nice Colt SAA .41 in 1982, factory ammo was...

Handloaders are frugal by nature. We enjoy bargains and freebies so we can load as much ammo as cheaply as possible, so we can shoot more.

Like so many readers of my age I grew up on Skeeter Skelton’s great articles. One that has influenced me unto this day came out in the late ’60s or...

In part one of this series we saw the history of .45 Colt leverguns, which turned out to be quite recent, beginning in the early 1980s.

The levergun that never was, is. It took over a century, however it finally happened. Why did it take so long?

Today we have a large choice when it comes to .44-40 (.44 WCF) leverguns. Replicas are available patterned after the Model’s 1860, 1866, 1873 and 1892.

There are several factors involved when choosing a cast bullet for use in the .44 Magnum levergun. First is Overall Length (OAL). If the bullet makes the...

The first issue of GUNS Magazine arrived in January 1955 when I was a junior in high school. It was notable as the first magazine ever dedicated to articles...

In 1860, B. Tyler Henry received a patent for a truly landmark rifle. With a lever-operated action using a copper cartridge case, the Model of 1860 (or...

It seems everyone is always talking about .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum leverguns but what about .38 Special and .44 Special loads in leverguns which were...

When the .32 Magnum first arrived I did not take it seriously. My friend Joe Penner, who takes all the pictures of me shooting, changed this as he acquired...

More shooters handload the .38 Special and .357 Magnum than any other handgun cartridges, despite the .38 being 108 years old.

In the early 1960s sixgun manufacturers began searching for better varmint hunting cartridges than the big magnums.

The Acme Bullet Company itself labels these as “Lipstick” Bullets, due to the bright red coating.

My copy of the Oxford Dictionary defines “Acme” as “the highest point; the peak of perfection.”

I spotted what looked to be a pre-Remington Marlin levergun on the used gun rack in a local shop.

I have found the 7.62x39mm cartridge quite intriguing over the years, however I never spent time with much serious reloading for two reasons:

The first John M. Browning-designed Winchester arrived as the Model 1886. Browning then basically reduced the size of the action to come up with the Model 1892

In 1935, Smith & Wesson introduced the .357 Magnum. It was not long before Winchester Model 1892s originally in .32-20 were converted to .357 Magnum.

Even though I’m stuck here in the second decade of the 21st century, my shooting soul still goes back to the couple decades before and after the turn of...

The .44 Magnum has now been around for well over 60 years and it seems like a good time to look back at this excellent — perhaps even all around —...

The .44 Magnum has now been around for well over 60 years and it seems like a good time to look back at this excellent — perhaps even all around —...

It’s a whole lot easier to remove metal than to replace it. This is especially true when working with firearms — particularly in the sad case of the...

Fifty BMG. Say it out loud. Let the words roll off your tongue. Now can you feel it? The tingly rush you inevitably got is a tiny surge in serum...

America and Great Britain have been tied together in many ways. It did take two wars to convince the Brits we were going to be independent, but since then...

In the early 1960s there was a great deal of interest in long-range, small-bore handgun cartridges. Remington introduced the radical (at the time) XP-100...

Short-action leverguns were the high-capacity “assault rifles” of the frontier period. The .44 Rimfire and .44-40 lever actions were necessary equipment...

There was a time not too many years ago when it was possible to find small gun shops every few miles. There’s still one about 20 miles south of town and I...

When the .26 Nosler cartridge was announced in late 2013, some older hunters wondered why we needed a hot 6.5mm, when America’s other “magnum” 6.5...

When you shoot jacketed bullets, barrel fouling can occur and there’s not much we can do except just keep shooting — then clean. Cleaning has been made...

When a visitor recently asked me, “Which gun would you sell dead last?” I couldn’t give an answer.

Many rifle shooters remain semi-stuck in the British mists of 1879, when a math professor named George Greenhill developed his famous formula for...

You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Fliiiinch...!” Dr. Seuss nails it with this Christmas favorite when describing the...