Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters THE BIG BOOK OF GUN GACK has arrived

JB,

I no longer have any RP from that time frame. My father and I used RP 308's nearly exclusively in those days and a bit before, so I don't recall us ever weighing any for comparison. They very well could have been heavy.

m

I've also acquired some small batches of .308 brass from fired factory ammo in recent years, so checked them out. These rounded-off average weights include spent primers, which as I recall weigh about 5 grains:

Black Hills Match: 157 grains
Winchester: 164 grains
Remington: 173 grains
RWS: 177 grains

This confirms that brass can vary considerably in weight, and also my recent experience that the weight of Remington and Winchester brass usually isn't all the different anymore.

The other factor is many companies make brass for each other, far more often than handloaders realize. Usually this occurs when one company needs to fill a contract so doesn't have time to make, say, .243 brass. So they buy it from another company that has some on hand, or has time to make a manufacturing run. Which explains the major weight differences often seen in brass supposedly of the same brand.

I just weighed three RP's with spent primers in place and the average was 170.3 grains. These had been neck turned and trimmed, so that's a grain or two worth of brass, and we're seeing about the same thing.

This is what I would be most concerned with. For hunting loads, small changes in brass weight - and subsequently internal volume - don't really change things too much. Target loads fired from a specialty rifle will show bigger differences when changing cases.

MD - the 257 and the 35W are built (by my father) on 1909 Argentine Mauser actions, the 6.5x55 on a VZ-24. My father has a thing about Mausers, but sadly his hands have begun to shake pretty bad as he's gotten older (he's 77 now) and now he can't build rifles anymore. He built the 257 and the 6.5x55 for my two daughters, which have used them to take their first deer. I've got two 30-06's, a 220 Swift, a 270, and a 7mm-08 that he made on Mauser actions too.

The Marlins are pre-safety models with the exception of the 45-70, but it is an JM stamped early safety model with a 22" barrel.

They sound like very nice rifles! And it must be great for your family to hunt with rifles he made.

I'm a Mauser loony myself, so can appreciate his passion. Sorry to hear he can't build them anymore.

Thank you, yes it's very rewarding to know that my daughters hunt with rifles that their grandfather built. I wish I had his patience and skill, but at least I can reload for them

On another thread discussing photographing guns - I wish I had good pictures of all the guns he has made, ones that really would do them justice.

Together, we have a decent collection, but the ones he built could never be given a $$ value, as they have too many memories attached to them. I would assume you feel the same for the 257R that was your grandmother's. People ask me why I have so many rifles, but most of them have sentimental value that just can't be bought, and they would never be for sale.

Yep, and aside from my grandmother's .257 there are several others in my safe like that. As a matter of fact I sighted-in her rifle for the first time in a 2-3 years, in order to hunt with it this fall. I find myself hunting more with several of my heirlooms as I grow older.

It sounds like a rifle loony gene may run in your family. We recently encountered such a gene in a father and son, both members of the Campfire. The father sent a check for a copy of the new book, and shortly after the check arrived the son paid for one by credit card, saying he was buying it for his father for Christmas. I told the son his father had already bought, and in a few hours got a PM from the son, saying he'd talked to his dad, and they'd bought them as gifts for each other!

Good luck hunting with your family rifles this fall.

Thanks and good luck to you and Eileen this fall as well.

BTW - I ordered 2 of the new books - one for my father and one for me He won't get his till Christmas, but I'm reading mine now! Must say I have already finished it, but I continually pick it back up and re-read chapters (I do that with all your books).

Thanks! That's very nice to hear.

Hi John. My copy arrived this morning. I will start reading it later. The weather is great here for Nov. Sunny and close to 70 degrees, so I want to install a new weather station this afternoon.

I want to publicly thank you for the plug in Chapter 44 - Great Britain's Great 303, on pg. 333 and 334. I can recommend the book because it covers the world's greatest military and hunting cartridge, the 303 British. You were nice enough to include some also rans, the 30-06, the 308 and others. What a guy!



The Canadian Rangers are finally getting a replacement for the Lee Enfield rifle. It is a bolt action 308, based on Sako's CTR (compact tactical rifle). Here we are in late 2015, and they are still carrying and shooting 303s in the north. Huzzah!



Burma Shave!

That Ranger looks pretty well decked out, extra mags in the belly band and all.

"I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any."

Steve, did you ask a young salesperson for those "trousers". They probably didn't know you meant "pants"

Geno

It's funny you should mention that. Just before I retired, I talked to my students about the Americanization of Canada through the media. Specifically, the bombardment of television, musical and Internet effects on CDN youth.

I used the example, trousers, to prove my point. When we were still getting television signals from roof mounted 'aerials', the British influence on the English language in Canada was strong. Trousers were what almost everyone called men's and boy's 'pants' up here. Even the word 'antenna' was not in common use for television receptors. We used 'aerials' until the CB craze hit in the mid 1970s.



The British influence is strong in this one.

Steve,

Glad to plug your .303 book. Please let me know when the new edition of your .308/7.62x51 book is ready!

Will do. That's my winter project. I've only done the preliminary stuff. No range work, pix or playing around on the bench.

I have to take advantage of the weather. 70 degree temps are expected all week. Except for the leaves, everything is green and warm. Unlike other years where we were up to our butts in snow.



I just took this with my smellphone camera thingy. It's the side of the house looking towards the back field. Granted, the septic system is under the lawn, but everything is sunny and green.

Wow!

Our fall was like that until this past weekend. It rained all day today, with a high just above freezing. Supposed to snow tonight, which isn't a bad thing with our rifle season for deer and elk just getting serious.

So, been reading a little at each chance. Just wanted to state the obvious... It's very clear whom the real Rifle Looney is!

Very much enjoying the Gack, especially the nuances of different rifles, their twists, history and origin, why they came home or went down the road, what components worked or didn't, optics choices etc etc... It's got me wanting at least a dozen more rifles already and not even past the 22s!

Glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for the comments! We wanted to make it something more than a "here's the loads" manual.

A few of my friends call me The Bull Goose Rifle Loony, a reference to the main character in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

I think that beats elkhunternm's title of "Chief of the cabal of dysfunctional squirrels".

Or even Sir Ingwe's "Poobah"

Geno

Steve, do folks up there use "aluminium" and do they still put a "u" in color?

Geno

PS, you had students? Did you let them get close enough so some of your "wisdom" would "rub off" on them? Were they capable of absorbing it if it did?

PPS it's hockey season, and I have the joy of listening to "Oh Canada" when I watch a game with a Canadian team. I always knew it was real hockey growing up when I got to hear two anthems!