Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Maybe I am dreaming about a "pet loads" magazine?

Are there any gun magazines or books-other than the standard reloading manuals-that publish reloading data, including “pet loads” for specific cartridges, and also the factory ammo ballistics tables for the older rifle cartridges starting with the .270 and ending with the.375H&H?

I subscribe to gun magazines, and after reading though a couple of issues I find them extremely boring because the cartridges I am interned on are those calibers mentioned above, specifically the .338WM. For example, I just received the last issue of Handloader, but there was not a single article nor reloading data that I was interested on, and the magazine has been getting quite thin lately.

I see all these gun magazines, not necessarily Handloader, publishing articles about supposedly “new” cartridges, which by the way aren’t really new since the same caliber-size bullets are being used. Take for example all the posts I see in these forums abut the various “new” 6.5 calibers. What is so new other than the case dimension change and the designer’s name? The end result is just a bullet coming out the barrel a little faster or slower, depending on the case design, but nothing else. I wonder why has the cartridge’s name become more important than the bullet?

Just wondering…

So go buy one of those new chamberings, and work up a pet load. That should fix your lack of interest. If it doesn't, then you're done.

See...the thing is that what interest me are the "chamberings" I posted above, not the new ones. I am just asking just in case some gun writer, or anybody else in this forum for that matter, has any ideas about books or magazines that contain reloading data and ballistics tables for the cartridges I like. For example, I used to by the Peterson's Annual because it had the factory ballistics tables for all the commercial cartridges. I certainly hope that my post would be of help to some people in this forum. I really mean well, not to argue.

Handloader magazine has become just another outdoor rag since many of the writers who made it what it once was are no longer with us. Pet loads and their author Ken Waters are a prime example of this. Ken undoubtedly had the most experience of any handloading author/expert of his era, we lost a truly great one with his passing.

Wolfe Publishing offers a subscription to Loaddata, an online collection of data from all kinds of sources, including the stuff published in their magazines. You can print to your heart's content and put the result in the binder they give you when you subscibe. Lots of articles too, IIRC.

Otherwise, the web is loaded with info, good and bad, and you can always buy books, including Ken Waters' Pet Loads, and the one I just got, JB's Big Book of Gun Gack. Gun Digest used to include factory load tables, but I haven't bought one of those in decades. Might have to resort to catalogs or the web for that.

Very good replies that I appreciate. I was looking at Wolfe's LoadData, but I didn't subscribe because I had no idea what it was, at least not by reading about it since they don't explain in detail. I will have to look into it further. I remember reading a gun article by Wayne van Zwoll about the .338WM long ago, but I lost the magazine. Maybe I should buy ken Water's "Pet Loads," just his hand-loading insights.

If you subscibe to Handloader and Rifle you will find that over time, they get back around to most popular cartridges with loads for new powders and bullets. Brian Pearce has taken over the Pet Loads job, and is very thorough and meticulous I think. JB alternates between classic rifles and cartridges and the latest stuff like the Barrett Fieldcraft, as well as doing pieces on general trends like the piece he did on lightweight rifles, with loads included, of course. Those mags have gotten thinner, a trend in the business it seems, but if you go electronic, you get both for about $20, and they throw in the crappy hunting mag as well. I enjoy Haviland and Wieland too.

I've no dog in this fight whatsoever, except that I've found these to be the best available for my purposes. You can't expect a .270 article every month.

Ray,

Dunno what cartridges between .270 Winchester and .375 H&H you call "older," but a book published in 2015 has plenty of handloads for the 7x57 Mauser, .280 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester, 7.5x55 Swiss, .30-06, .300 H&H, .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .303 British, 8x57 Mauser, .338 Winchester Magnum, .348 Winchester, .35 Remington, .35 Whelen, and 9.3x62 Mauser.

Of course, it also includes the .270 and .375 H&H, as well as older cartridges of smaller caliber than the .270, and larger caliber than the .375, including the .22 Hornet (both standard and K), .222 Remington, .22-250, .220 Swift, 6mm Lee Navy, .243 Winchester, .25-06, 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, 6.5x55, .264 Winchester Magnum, .400/.450 Nitro-Express 3-inch and .416 Rigby.

There's also plenty of background information on each round, and the handloads listed are often shot in more than one rifle. Right now the author is planning a second book for 2018 that will include a number of other older cartridges.

As for ballistics of factory rounds, there's plenty of information on that elsewhere, including right on the Internet, where you posted your question.

I've been using loaddata.com for many years and I find it one of the better, if not the best, handloading resource on the net. Of course with any source one must certainly verify with other sources. Loaddata.com, various online manuals and my shelf full of manuals all get a good looking over before I purchase or try something new. That being said a typical key word search in any forum or in the google search header will generally lead you to something of interest or at the very least, a rabbit hole of many interests.

Yes and no. A lot of the powders and bullets that Waters used have been discontinued, a lot of new products have been introduced, and many others (like the Nosler Ballistic Tip) have been substantially upgraded. His books offer a lot of insight into the problems of loading for specific older cartridges like the 35 Remington, but they're a lot less useful now than they were 10-15 years ago.


Okie John

If it had fold outs I would subscribe. Need Pet load of the month calender's.

OP,

John's Big Book of Gun Gack would be a worthwhile purchase for you. Tons of good info.

I would also suggest an article he wrote a few years ago (for Handloader??) entitled "Loads That Work". That article has pointed me in the right direction many times. It's worth finding a copy of it. My copy resides with my loading manuals, and provides an excellent cross reference.

I found that article online. By the way, that's the magazine that I misplaced a few years ago.
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Godogs57,

I also found the book you mentioned above, and it seems that it's a good one because it is loaded with very useful hand loading information.
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Thanks to all of you, including Mule Deer (and not only the posters I am responding to, but to all of you).

This is a site, shooters report loads that shot the best for them. BWARE of typos' and hot loads, Always check reported loads against reloading manuals, Strart low and work up:


http://centerfirecentral.com/viewer.html