NEW! - Jeffersonian

HANDI.OADING
DAN COTTERMAN
BIG BORE ACCURACY SUFFERS AT
MAXIMUM EXPANSION VELOCITIES
Reproduced from actual target
sent by Mr. Reelles
writes -
"I Have Never Before Been
Able To Do This - !"
Harold is excited with the results he had
after using .38 caliber Zinc-Base Bullet
Swage Dies (available only from C-H).
Write us for full information, or better
yet -
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Equipment catalog. We'll give you
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Dept AH, 106 North Harding Street
Owen, Wisconsin 54460
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EAST HARTLAND, CONN. 06027
TEL. 203-653·3901
-- High Quality Contemporary
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1-512-494-3063
28
!~"~S~in~ce 1937
. tools &:
• Reloading
accessont~ tools &:
~7 Lanark Ave.
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Ii)." 1449H Blue Crest Lane San Antonio. Texas 78232
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Lanark, IL 61046
"I also use an RCBS taper-crimp die. I
set it by running it down nice and snug on
a military hardball round and I haven't
had to touch its setting since. That had to
be 10 or 12 years ago, and it works per­
fectly."
necessary for this amount of expansion. Continued on page 30
Rough-stuff components and straight
• talk abound. The straight talk on reloads
and components continues to hail in
from reloaders all over the country, Meanwhile,
there is an endless succession of reloading
products received for testing. My
objective is to provide a maximum amount
of information, based upon personal
experience and data samples supplied.
Among the most interesting of components
received is a supply of 192-grain .44
caliber Man Stopper bullets, made by Man
Stopper Products Corp., RT 3, Box 401,
Continental Road, Warwick, NY 10990.
The maker says these bucket-nosed, soft
lead bullets will expand to diameters that
exceed ,80 caliber, and that they will yield
this remarkable expansion at low velocities.
Since Jerry and Mark Alberts, of
Alberts Bullet fame, are credited with contributing
their knowledge, expertise, and
counseling to the development of these
bullets, I was anxious to see how well they
performed.
Ten rounds were assembled in oncefired
.44 Special brass, using five grains of
W-W 231 with standard primers. The bullets
were seated flush with the case mouth,
and a moderate crimp was applied. This is
the load suggested by Frauke Rosenthal of
Man Stopper Products. Velocities for the
loads I put together averaged 840 fps from
a Charter Arms Target Bulldog with a
four-inch barrel. This is quite a moderate
load, but my objective was to determine
bullet expansion at relatively low
velocities, .
Lacking, at the moment, a more formal
test medium, I used a couple ofvolumes of
the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, thoroughly
water-logged after soaking about 30 minutes
in a bucket of water, The first three
shots mutilated the front volume, but did
not penetrate completely. Switching the
positions of the volumes, I fired another
three shots before destruction rendered the
soggy pulp useless for further testing.
Average bullet expansion was ,79 inch; the
largest was ,82 inch. Understandably, less
expansion occurred as the test material deteriorated,
so that the final bullet fired expanEled
to only .69 inch.
Rosenthal reports expansion of .90 inch
when one of the .44 bullets is fired into
water, at a somewhat higher velocity, from
a Ruger Super Blackhawk, He says,
however, that accuracy suffers at velocities
The factory also furnishes loaded ammo
that uses cavity-nosed 142-grain .357 bullets,
and factory loads with the awesome
heavyweights we're examining here, the
latter being loaded into .44 Special hulls.
The .357 is said to expand to .60 inch, with
.44 to .70 inch when fired into Duxseal, a
dense, clay-like materiaL
There's no disputing the fact that Man
Stopper slugs expand according to plan,
By all plausible theory (and recorded practice),
a highly-expandable bullet is superior
to a bullet oflow expansion. However,
the dispute arises when we realize that, in
using artificial test media, we're dealing in
subjective comparisons.
Straight-talk from Terry Murbach of
Maumee, Ohio, reveals some interesting
experimental work with the .45 ACP
"My personal .45 ACP;' he writes, "is a
1962 Colt National Match pistol. Everybody
calls it a Gold Cup, but those words
appear nowhere on the gun. It has Accro
sights, a solid-beveled bushing, arched
mainspring housing, a Bar-Sto buffer and
a Wolff hardball spring, I've shot nothing
but hardball equivalent or hotter handloads
through it. My standard loads are
WCC 66 or 71 brass, 6.5 grains of Unique,
452374 lead bullets or 230-grain jacketed
bullets; seven grains of Unique, 452460
swaged .452 inch, and eight grains of
Unique, 185-grain Sierra JHC. CCI 300
primers were used for all loads. This pistol
will shoot the center out of any target you
turn it loose on and has never
malfunctioned-providing I use Colt
magazines. Most all .45 magazines, except
Colts, are junk in my opinion. They've
given me nothing but trouble-including
those expensive stainless steel Laka magazines.
I bought three Laka magazines,
none of which would feed correctly, nor
drop from the gun when released, I sent
two back. Their R&D must be slow, It's
been five years, at least, with nary an answer.
The idea of stainless magazines
however is very appealing.
AMERICAN HANDGUNNER . JANUARYIFEBRUARY 1983