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.257 Roberts: Low Recoil, High Performance!
Kimber
.45 AUTO
SHOOTOUT!
USFA SingleActionArmy
$5.99 U.S./Canada
April 2009 No. 259Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER
Printed in USA7 25274 01240 4
0 4
$5.99
.357 SIG
BrowningHi-Power
4 Handloader 259
AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNALAL
April 2009Volume 44, Number 2
ISSN 0017-7393 Issue No. 259
Background Photo: © 2009 Royal Tine Images
Page 52 . . .
32 A Trio of .45sFull Size andCompactsStan Trzoniec
42 USFA SingleAction ArmyRevolverQualitySixgunsMade inthe U.S.A.BrianPearce
52 .357 SIG. . . andOtherBottleneckPistolCartridgesCharles E. Petty
58 One MouldPer CaliberWell . . .Almost.MikeVenturino
8 Stuck Case?Reloader’s Press -Dave Scovill
12 Freedom ArmsModel 97Bullets & Brass -Brian Pearce
16 ReloadingPressesMike’sShootin’Shack -MikeVenturino
20 6.5x55mmSwedish MauserCartridge Board -Gil Sengel
24 CH Tool & DieCannelure ToolFrom the Hip -Brian Pearce
26 AutoloadingPistolsPistol Pointers -Charles E. Petty
28 Hodgdon H-110Propellant Profiles -R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.
Page 42 . . .
68 .257 RobertsLow on Recoil - Highon PerformanceJohn Haviland
76 BrowningHi-Power andthe 9mm21st CenturyPerformanceBob Campbell
83 CatalogCornerSpecialAdvertisingSection -
84 What’s New inthe MarketplaceInside Product News -Clair Rees
86 Lyman ReloadingHandbook, 49thEditionBookReviews -R.H.VanDenburg, Jr.
Publisher of Handloader™ is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of publishedloading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproducedwithout written permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American Rights upon acceptance andpayment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility forlost or mutilated manuscripts.
Issue No. 259 April 2009
AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNALAL
Publisher/President – Don Polacek
Associate Publisher – Mark Harris
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Managing Editor – Roberta Scovill
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Contributing EditorsAssociate Editor – Al Miller
Brian Pearce Stan TrzoniecClair Rees R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.Gil Sengel Mike VenturinoRon Spomer Ken Waters
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Handloader® (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Pres -ident), 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301 (also publisher of Rifle® magazine). Tele -phone: (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid atPrescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices.Subscription prices: U.S. possessions – single issue,$5.99; 6 issues, $22.97; 12 issues, $39.00. Foreignand Canada – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12issues, $51.00. Please allow 8-10 weeks for firstissue. Advertising rates furnished on request. Allrights reserved.Change of address: Please give six weeks notice.
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Page 42Page 76Page 32
Background Photo: © 2009 Royal Tine Images6 Handloader 259
Page 68 . . .
On the cover . . .The Kimber Super Match 1911-style.45 ACP is shown in a Ransom PistolRest. Photo by Stan Trzoniec.
16 Handloader 259
Reloading presses: They are
an item everybody readingthis magazine has one or moreof, yet they are perhaps the toolleast discussed among us. Unlessthe handloader relies on one ofthe old-fashioned nutcrackerkits, such as Lyman’s 310 Tool,then a press of some sort is theactual heart of his operation. Per-sonally, I have four mountedright now, which we’ll talk aboutshortly.
Back in 1966 when I joined thehandloading fraternity, it waswith a Lyman All American turretpress, which I still have. Knowingvery little about reloading ammu-nition, I relied on an older fellowat our gun club for advice, andthe big Lyman press was his rec-ommendation. That was fine ex-cept for one thing. He told me to
mount all three of my .38 Specialdies plus the Lyman 55 powdermeasure in the All American’sfour stations. Then he told me torotate the press head througheach die’s function, so I ended upwith a finished cartridge everytime I started one in the shell-holder. The old press’s turretedges show the wear inflicted bymy left thumb from that proce-dure, and that’s probably the rea-son that particular appendage“complains” so much now. After acouple of years, it dawned on methat processing cases in batcheswas a much better method. Ofcourse, then a simple single-stagepress would have served as well.
Actually in those days the sin-gle-stage reloading press was byfar most common with the sim-ple C-type predominating. C-typepresses weren’t considered strongenough for case forming opera-tions but perfectly adequate fornormal full-length sizing of riflecases and all other reloadingchores. If a heavier duty presswas needed, then there were O-type presses, with the grand-daddy of them all being the hugeRCBS A2. Other than a few turretjobs, that pretty much covered allbases circa the mid-1960s.
How things have changed! If a
reloading toolcompany todaymakes a basicC-type press, Ican’t find it inany catalogs.And if I had toguess at today’s
most popular press type, generi-cally speaking, it would be theprogressive. Actually progres-sive-type reloading, wherein afinished cartridge falls from thepress with every stroke of thehandle, is what my old-time ad-viser was aspiring toward withthe turret press. It just wasn’tpossible with such tooling.
However, today’s reloadingpress assortment, speaking col-lectively from all the manufactur-ers, certainly is not limited toprogressives. There are pressesdedicated to reloading very accu-rate cartridges and others aimedat reloading very long ones.There are still turret-type pressesand a vast assortment of O-types.There are tiny presses and bigones with lots of leverage thathave words like “Crusher” and“Boss” in their names. There areeven monster size presses forloading the .50 BMG.
A common feature today thatwasn’t seen often in my start-upera is the kit. Such would havebeen a great aid to me, becausein my ignorance I knew littleabout such things as case lubepads and deburring tools. Thekits available today likewiseshow the variety of handloaderneeds in the marketplace. Look
www.handloadermagazine.com
MIKE’S SHOOTIN’ SHACK by Mike Venturino • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
RELOADING PRESSES
Mike considers this RCBS RockChucker press his “special chorespress,” such as using it withShiloh’s inline bullet seating system or case forming/trimming dies.
The Redding T-7 turret press isMike’s “every-day workingpress.”
Handloader 259
at RCBS kits, for example. At thelow end for beginners or space-conscious reloaders there is thePartner Kit. The little PartnerPress comes with a scale, caselube pad, Speer manual, primertray, deburring tool and so forth.The 2008 retail price for that kitis a couple of pennies under$211. Then at the big end, RCBShas the .50 BMG Pack that con-tains everything one needs tostart loading for that huge car-
tridge: press, dies, trim die, etc.That kit’s 2008 retail price is acouple of cents under $701.
In the four-plus decades sincebecoming a handloader, I’ve trieda wide assortment of reloadingpresses. Dozens have passedthrough my hands. When the pro-prietor of a movie theatre, Imounted one of Huntington DieSpecialties (PO Box 991, OrovilleCA 95965) Compac presses in theprojection room, so I could prepbrass while the movie played.When the benchrest rifle bug bit,I used a Bonanza Co-Ax press(now Forster) with its floatingshellholder for perfect case/bul-let alignment in the benchrestseating dies.
As with most shooters, my in-terests have evolved as yearshave passed. Nowadays I load afew thousand match-quality car-tridges every year fueled withblack powder for BPCR Silhou-ette competition. Also I’ve put to-gether a collection of World WarII firearms, including standard in-fantry rifles, sniper rifles, car-bines, pistols and revolvers, andmost recently submachine guns.And of course, there are stillplenty of Colt SAAs, N-frameS&Ws, Winchester and Marlinleverguns and more in the vault.
As said earlier four presses han-dle my needs now. The mainstay
is a Redding T-7, meaning a turretpress with seven die stations.Mounted permanently in it is anRCBS Universal Decapping Die.The other six stations see a vari-ety of dies come and go. I call itmy “everyday working press.”Nearby is also mounted a single-stage Rock Chucker press. Some-times it is fitted with Shiloh RifleManufacturing’s inline seating diesystem for .45-70. Other times itis used with case forming/trim-ming dies. I call it my “specialchores press.”
For many years I felt no needfor progressive presses becausegun writers are forever loadingsmall batches of different loadsinstead of big batches of oneload. Then I bought those above-mentioned submachine guns,which include two 9mms andtwo .45 ACPs. Therefore I set uptwo of the smallish Dillon SquareDeal B presses dedicated per -manently to each of those car-tridges. They are mounted sideby side on the end of a bench,and all the paraphernalia thatgoes with them is stored under-neath.
With those four presses I’mcurrently loading for about 50cartridges from .30 Mauser to.45 Colt and .223 Remington to.50-70 Government with totalsatisfaction.
18 www.handloadermagazine.com
When Mikedecided toamass a collection ofWorld War IIsubmachineguns, he setup two DillonSquare Deal Bpresses. Oneof these isdedicated to9mm Lugerand the otherto .45 ACP.
•
52 Handloader 259www.handloadermagazine.com
.357 Charles E. Petty
One of my very favorite in-cantations has somethingto do with inventingwheels and the fact that
if we don’t pay attention to historywe’ll have to do it all over again.This came to mind because of a re-cent letter from a reader who won-dered why we hadn’t done anythingregarding the .357 SIG.
In 1994 SIG and Federal brought out a new car-tridge that was similar to a .40 S&W necked downto take a 9mm (0.355-inch) bullet. The claims for itssuperiority were that you got the ballistics of a .357Magnum in an automatic pistol with less recoil. Theaccuracy of both depends entirely on your point ofview. One of the claims that is accurate is that asimple barrel change would let you switch from .40S&W to .357 SIG – or the other way. Magazines areinterchangeable.
SIG and a couple of prominent writers told us thatthe bottleneck design would make it “more reli-able.” Reliable would be a big deal if modern pistols
Bottleneck cartridgedesigns include (leftto right): .30 Mauser,8mm Nambu, twoversions of Petty’s10mm Centaur (verysimilar to the later.400 Cor-Bon), .38-45and .357 SIG.
O
53www.handloadermagazine.com
. . . and OtherBottleneck Pistol
Cartridges
SIGweren’t already. Now I’m the first to admit that theshape would feed well, and I’ll even agree thatthere was a time when autoloaders had some relia-bility issues; but I challenge them to show me anunreliable pistol made by any major maker todaythat fires a typical straight pistol cartridge like9mm, .40 S&W or .45 ACP.
Now if we go back, say to 1896, we will find thatthe first really successful autoloader, the C96Mauser (Broomhandle), did indeed fire a bottle-neck cartridge. The historical record provides nu-merous examples of bottleneck pistol cartridgesthat have one thing in common: They are obsoleteor nearly so. There are some others of that vintageworth mentioning like the 7mm and 8mm Nambu,the 7.62x25 (aka the Communist .30 Mauser), .30Luger and a few others. Today, bottleneck handguncartridges are few and the SIG by far the most suc-cessful, although there are small niche markets forthe .32 North American Arms (a .380 ACP neckeddown to .32) and the .400 Cor-Bon (a .45 ACPnecked down to .40).
That hasn’t stopped wildcatters, including myself,from experimenting with necking down existingcases to see what would happen. Perhaps the bestexample is the .38/45 of the early 1960s. Back thenthere was a need for a mild .38-caliber cartridge forNRA centerfire competition. While there were .38Special conversions of the 1911, they were cantan-kerous beasts, and it took a really good gunsmith tomake them work. The idea was to neck down the.45 ACP to shoot a 148-grain lead wadcutter. Obvi-
Charlie used an S&W M&P .357 SIGfor the majority of testing.
Handloader 259
As I’m sure you know, there aretwo very different points of viewwhen it comes to defensive hand-gun cartridges. One group favorslarge-caliber, heavy bullets mov-ing at velocities consistent withtheir caliber and weight. Perhapsthe most notable example is thevenerable .45 ACP’s 230-grainbullet at 800 to 850 fps. This wasthe approach taken by the FBIthat, based on its extensive am-munition test program, chose a180-grain, 10mm bullet loadedfrom 950 to 1,000 fps for its firstissue autopistol.
On the other side of the fencewere the light/fast advocates ledby Evan Marshall and Ed Sanow,
ously the theory that bottleneckcases would feed better was inplay here. And it worked to a de-gree, but progress interferedwhen gunsmiths got better andboth Colt and Smith & Wessonoffered factory pistols that shotthe .38 Special wadcutter ammu-nition.
Some writers, most notablyDean Grennel, thought that per-haps the cartridge had hot-rodpotential, and he published someloads using light 9mm bullets atremarkable speeds. Back thenonly gun writers had chrono-graphs, and I was a simple butenthusiastic shooter and re-loader. As luck would have it –you can decide whether it was
good or bad – a bullseye shooterI knew had tried and abandonedthe .38/45 and sold me a set ofform and loading dies along witha barrel at what must have surelybeen a bargain basement price.
I loaded a few rounds each ofseveral of his recipes and went tothe range. The first wasn’t bad,but the next one was incrediblyenthusiastic if the trajectory ofthe empty case was any indica-tion, and when I picked it up theprimer didn’t even have a dent init. The case showed evidence ofadvanced pregnancy in the area
of the feed ramp. In law enforce-ment we call those things clues.
The radical re-form led to quitea few ruined cases, and I quicklygrew tired of the whole thing. Itwould be decades before I triedanything like that again. Thistime I was the gun writer, had achronograph and was intriguedby the popularity of .41 and10mm cartridges like the .41 Ac-tion Express and 10mm Autofrom Norma. Necking the .45ACP down to those diameterswas much easier. The .41 reallynever got off the ground, but in1990 I published a story aboutthe 10mm, which was known asthe 10mm Centaur for CentaurSystems that made the barrelsfor me.
It isn’t hard to argue that thesole purpose of a wildcat is to in-crease speed. Then we must de-cide whether or not that is a good
thing. In handgun cartridgesnecking down to a lighter bulleteffectively increases the powdercapacity and, with proper pow-
der selection, pushes the bulletfaster. In the case of the .357 SIG,factory loads use 125-grain bul-lets at published velocities of1,350 fps. This puts it in therealm of the 9mm +P+ but withpressure levels considerablylower. The industry standardmaximum pressure for the car-tridge is 40,000 psi.
54 www.handloadermagazine.com
.357 SIG
The .357 SIG factoryloads use 125-grain bullets at published
velocities of 1,350 fps.
Above, the SIG P-229 caliber ismarked on the barrel. Right,markings on S&W M&Ps are
stamped on the slide.
The SIG P-229 was thefirst pistol chamberedfor the .357 SIG.
A variety of.357 SIG
ammunitionwas used in
the test.
April-May 2009
handgun velocities. We’ve seenarguments accompanied by somegood science, some pseudo-science, as well as hysterical fist-pounding hype, in support oflight/fast; but to this day it stillboils down to a matter of opin-ion. Sadly very few dirtbags getshot under controlled conditions,so while we can get impressionsfrom anecdotal reports, they arefar from scientific evidence.
Perhaps the biggest opinionissue is penetration. Based onanalysis of FBI shooting in -cidents, the bureau concludedthat 12 inches was the minimum
55www.handloadermagazine.com
who held that the temporary cav-ity produced by high-velocity bul-lets made them superior. Nowwhen we talk about rifle car-tridges, that is accepted gospelbut by no means clear at typical
acceptable degree and declaredthat rounds penetrating less had“failed.” Its testing, as well asmine, showed that past a certainpoint, increasing velocity reduced
penetration. One of the law en-forcement buzzwords was “over-penetration.” The FBI addressedthat with comments suggestingthat since most rounds fired bylaw enforcement missed any-how, perhaps it should not letthat influence its decision. Ofcourse, there is another side tothat coin: Some agencies – per-haps the Secret Service and SkyMarshalls – might find it a properconcern, because if these folkshad to shoot, they would almostcertainly do so in a crowd. Tests Idid when the cartridge was new
showed penetration of 7 to 9inches with sizable temporarycavities in 10 percent gelatin.
When the .357 SIG first cameout, there was some confusionamong handloaders who tried tomake brass by sizing .40 S&Wcases. The cases come out tooshort, and the only practical wayis to just buy the correct brass.Another difference is that theround headspaces not on theshoulder as one might expect fora bottleneck case, but on thecase mouth as is typical for auto -pistol ammunition.
When I first started loading the.357 SIG, I quickly learned that theshort neck is a real potential trou-ble spot. It is only about 0.15 inch
Testing was done using an Outers Pistol Perch and Chrony chronograph.
Left, the .40 Smith& Wesson and .357SIG are shown sideby side. If the S&Wcase is simplynecked down, thecase would be tooshort to form theSIG. Right, thislineup includes(left to right): 9mmLuger, .40 Smith &Wesson, .357 SIGand .357 Magnum.
Perhaps thebiggest opinion
issue ispenetration.
so even allowing for the typicalflexibility of factory publishedvelocities, 1,350 = 1,450 doesn’tlook quite right. Actually it gets alittle worse when we try to trans-late from the perfect barrelsand controlled conditions of thelaboratory to the real guns youand I own.
In simple terms the .357 SIG is ahopped-up 9mm. It uses the .355-inch bullets that are so commonand achieves a little more speedby virtue of the case that hasroughly 30 percent more powdercapacity. The skeptic in me won-ders if this isn’t an example of“diminishing returns,” where weburn a lot more powder for a rel-atively small increase in velocity.The most direct comparison isprobably a 9mm +P+ load, butjust using factory published veloc-ities, Table I lists a few to look at.
Now it is easy to pick realworld examples of thoseand see what the chrono-graph says. The goodnews is that the lengthof the test barrels usedin the factories and thereal guns I have areclose. I chose to useM&Ps so we could havethe same pistol in thevarious calibers. S&Wsays that the M&P bar-rels are 41⁄8 inches (Ac-tual measurement was4.4 inches on those I
have.), whereas the test barrelsare 4 inches. For the revolvercomparison, I used a 4-inch S&WModel 686. I also used an earlySIG P-229 in .357 SIG for an addi-tional point of reference. Its bar-rel really is 4 inches. The testresults are listed in Table II.
I guess the first thing we learnedwas that ammunition catalogsmight not be our best source ofvelocity information, but the SIGresults are actually close to thepublished data and certainlywithin the difference I’d expectbetween test and real barrels.The .357 Magnum results wereconsiderably below the pub-lished numbers, but frankly it hasbeen so long since I even shotone that I had to dig throughsome old data to see how these
Tim Burke helped with the shooting.
56 www.handloadermagazine.com
deep, so getting adequate bulletpull can be an issue. While it iscertainly possible to load goodammunition with conventionalseat/crimp dies, I took the extraprecaution of using a separatetaper crimp die after a roundloaded for a feeding check pushedthe bullet into the case as it fed.
Let’s go back to the claim that itduplicates the ballistics of thefamed .357 Magnum. The fullcharge 125-grain jacketed hol-lowpoint (JHP) load is shown ashaving 1,450 fps muzzle velocity,
.357 SIGFactory Velocitiescartridge bullet velocity
(grains) (fps)
.357 Magnum 125 1,450
.357 SIG 125 1,3509mm +P+ 115 1,3009mm +P 124 1,18040 S&W 155 1,205
.357 SIGM&P P-229 S&W 686
cartridge load velocity velocity velocity(grains) (fps) (fps) (fps)
.357 Magnum 125 Remington GS 1,307125 Federal JHP 1,313
.357 SIG 125 Speer Gold Dot 1,292 1,269125 Speer Lawman TMJ 1,300 1,304124 Hornady JHP/XTP 1,328 1,320125 Remington FMJ 1,315 1,296
9mm Luger 115 Federal 9BPLE +P+ 1,263124 Federal P9HS3 +P+ 1,180124 Black Hills JHP +P 1,254124 Remington GS 1,085124 Remington GS +P 1,145
.40 S&W 155 Winchester Silvertip 1,113155 Federal Hydra-Shok 1,074
Table II
was an excellent law enforce-ment cartridge, it was often per-ceived as having too much recoiland muzzle blast for many cops,and departments issued .38 Spe-cial ammunition. Today there are“medium velocity” .357 loadsfrom Remington and Winchester
that are a bit hotter than+P .38s but still below fullcharge magnums. The .45ACP is dismissed by many
agencies as having too much re-coil, but both Tim and I placed itbelow the SIG in our subjectivetest. There is no doubt that themuzzle blast is pronounced, andthe recoil is much sharper thanthe others. In a low-light setting,it was pretty spectacular.
This latest effort has definitelyimproved my attitude about the.357 SIG. It won’t change the gunI carry, but at least I’ll stop throw-ing rocks at those who do.
fled the order of the guns on thebench and, without looking,picked each one up and shot acouple of rounds and tried toidentify the caliber based on ourperception of recoil. Both of uschose the SIG as having the mostrecoil and muzzle blast and putthe .45 in second place, and Timcorrectly got the 9mm and .40,but I missed those.
This is where we have to look atpluses and minuses. While all thegurus said that the .357 Magnum
results compared. The only di-rect comparison I could find waswith the Remington, and it hadclocked 1,380 fps from a 6-inchbarrel back in 2003. I’d bet thesample tested herein is from thesame lot, since factory revolverloads don’t get shot too mucharound here.
Based on these results Ihave to say that the .357SIG is indeed comparableto the revolver. The ammunition Iused was all current production.My recollection of earlier testsmay be flawed and the originaldata apparently did not survive acomputer crash; so based on cur-rent data, I’m changing my mind.
This time around I chose to usethe S&W M&P as the test vehiclebecause it presents a unique op-portunity to shoot a variety ofcartridges in a pistol that has ex-actly the same grip. S&W kindlyleant me an M&P .357 SIG, and I
already own guns in 9mm, .40S&W and .45 ACP. My friend TimBurke and I loaded all four gunswith ammunition from this test.The .45 ACP loaded with 230-grain ball was thrown in for com-parison, since everyone knowshow bad the .45 kicks. We shuf-
April-May 2009 57www.handloadermagazine.com
I have to say that the .357 SIG isindeed comparable to the revolver.
•
