Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ken Water's "Pet Loads"

2002, 2010 Oh well maybe something can be learned........we see.

Don Martin, the 358 is my favorite caliber, I have a Savage 99 in 358 the first year they made one, I also had MRC make my first custom rifle in that caliber.
So far my favorite load for both rifles is 50.6gr. of Win 748, Hornady 200SP and CCI primer. 2.65OAL in original Win. Brass.
May I ask what's your favorite load?

Since his last post was in 2003, you may be waiting awhile for an answer.

It was mentioned Ken Waters wrote the Pet Loads article on the 358 Winchester for the July 1969 issue of Handloader. If you will look at other Pet Loads articles from this era and competing reloading articles from the same era you will find them quite similar.
I remember the high regard riflemen of the 1960�s had for the Mannlicher rifles. I was a senior in High School when I read the 358 Winchester Pet Loads article and I remember my disappointment at Ken�s troubles with this rifle.

If you read the Pet Loads series chronologically, starting with Shooting Times magazine from the 1960�s you will see Ken Waters hand loading tools, accessibility to a chronograph, testing and data reporting methods mature. Ken Walters�s ability to communicate his thoughts and results matured as well.
To put my thoughts in perspective read the original Pets loads article on the 30-30WCF from the July 1966 issue of Hand loader (Issue No. 2) and compare it with the Pet Loads Update on the 30-30 from the March 1977 issue. The Update is a far more in-depth article reporting on the use of more component bullets, powders and several different rifles.
The December 1996 update to the 30-30 Pet Loads series is an excellent article with new thoughts on loading the cartridge for modern rifles. This is pone of the better articles written on hand loading the 30-30 cartridge for lever-action rifles.

I can think of other cartridges which benefited from time and �updating,� the 7-30 Waters is another cartridge which expanded our knowledge of the cartridge and its hand loading possibilities with each update.

Your specific complaint is with the original 358 Winchester article but you do not mention the 358 Winchester Update from the September 1992 issue of Handloader. The 358 Update article covers more appropriate bullets of modern design and devotes more attention to the cartridge and its loading possibilities.

For the astute reader there is a great deal of information presented in each installment of the Pet Loads articles, even if you don�t have an interest in the specific cartridge.

Please be careful to keep 'em separate � Ken Waters, Ken Howell, Ken Walters, and Ken Warner.

Count all the Pet Loads articles, divide the total by six, and you'll see how many years it took Ken to write 'em all. Long time! Lotsa rounds! Ken wore-out a husky old loading press along the way (I gave him a new one).

Man I should look at the date, here I thought this was all done over the past couple of days. My Bad.

I had not looked at Pet Loads in terms of How Many but rather Too Few. I count 204 articles for Handloader over 34 years. My understanding is Ken was a �free-lancer� the whole time.
Was Ken a free lancer when he wrote for Shooting Times? His last year with ST featured regular articles under the banner, Pet Loads.

Someone mentioned his continued use of PRE when others argued the system was of little more use than guessing. Most - but not all - who take this point have not studied Ken Waters two articles on the subject;
�How To Develop Good Handloads� Shooting Times August 1967.
�Developing Pet Loads� Handloader September 1982
Handloaders who grew up reading J.R. Mattern, Phil Sharpe and Earl Naramore understand PRE is not about �Pressure Guessing� or �Pressure Comparisons� but rather a �judgment of pressure indications.�
It was well known there were difficulties duplicating CUP measurements between different technicians working in the same laboratory using the same equipment. These differences were highlighted in the 1968 Gun Digest article �Breech Pressure breakthrough� by Dan Cantrell and Michael York. This article was an eye opener to me and I have read and re-read it many times.

I thought Ken Howell was an alias for Ken Warner?



Greetings from Montana, Mr. Howell!

Jim

Ken Howell is none other than Ken Bowel.

After 3 years of trying different loads for my Ruger No.1 .405 and not being completly happy I bought "Pet Loads" and used Ken Water favorite load with RL-7 powder.Now it's my favorite load.My .405 shoots like a varmint rifle.

Don't blame him.

Blame me.

I consider Pet Loads to be one of the most valuable and informative handloading books I own. I have quite a few.

I don`t read Pet loads for the info,although it is sometimes useful.

Ken Howell - Bravo!

rosco1, you say Mr. Martin's last post was in 2003? Aw, shucks.

Have you tried Win. 760?

A couple of years ago, I bought my first 38-55. Guess where I went to find some loading info? My 2 1/2" thick Pet Loads had loads for several pressure levels.

The thing I liked was that KW didn't go through the tedium of "Yesterday, I tried primer X and this morning I tried primer Y; then this afternoon I tried primer Z", etc. KW generally boiled it down the basics of what worked best in his rifle ((I guess that's where he (or KH?) came up with the name "Pet Loads")) and in later articles gave examples of those that didn't and some idea of WHY those loads weren't acceptable so the reader didn't waste time trying them.

Ken's "Pet Loads" series began as articles about his pet loads and somehow got changed into nearly encyclopedic coverage of his experience with each specific cartridge in each specified gun. His earlier "Pet Loads" articles and his later "Pet Loads" articles are therefore hard to compare fairly.

Ken, how long since KW wrote an article? Your book (Custom Cartridges), Pet Loads and Wildcats (something....a Wolfe Pub. book) are my three favorites.

Oddly enough, I was looking at Hornet data today, in my copy of Pet Loads.

The powders Ken Waters used aren't always available today, like Winchester 680, from that issue, anyway, but it was still useful in many ways, comparing .223" vs. .224" bullets, etc.

I still find a lot of that stuff useful, just like JB's very practical and useful tips we still get. I am always hoping to learn something new, or relearn something old.
I often refer to the book when answering questions from others about rifles/cartridges I have no experience with, too. Some stuff you can't get easily from other sources, where in hell am I going to find a Speer #4 nowadays?

Ken used his own guns, not a test barrel. I have always liked Ken Waters pet loads