Guns 2011-02.pdf - Jeffersonian

• M I K E “ D U K E ” V E N T U R I N O •
Time Well Spent
A life of handloading.
ecently on a cold rainy morning I was trying to
Ravoid doing anything productive. While dallying, for
some reason this odd thought popped into my mind, “I
wonder how many different calibers I’ve handloaded for
since starting in December 1966?” So I sat down with
Cartridges Of The World and began tallying them. To my
surprise the total was about 120 different ones. They
divided up into about 90 rifle and 30 handgun types but
nary a shotgun gauge.
For rifles, they ranged from the .17
Remington to the .50-90 Sharps. I’ve
never actually owned a .17 Rem rifle,
but a friend loaned me his decades
ago along with the reloading dies
and components. He forgot to factor
in a powder funnel, therefore I had
a heck of a time getting powder into
the few dozen .17 Remington rounds
assembled. At the other end, I have
fired several thousand rounds of .50-
90 Sharps in the two Shiloh Model
1874s, which have passed through my
hands. In fact, upon getting the first
one in 1981, I went at shooting it so
avidly that when Yvonne spotted the
huge, deep purple bruise on my right
shoulder she asked me to give it a
break for a while.
In handgun cartridges, my small
end one has been the .32 Auto with
my first pistol, so chambered, also
coming in 1981. It was a Walther PP.
My most recent one is a Colt Model
1903 purchased mid-year of 2010.
(Actually I’ve reloaded for several
other cartridges that on the surface
sound smaller than the .32 Auto.
Such would be .30 Luger, .30 Mauser,
7.62x25mm Tokarev and 7.65mm
French Long. However they all will
take the same cast bullet as the .32
Auto and it has the smallest case
capacity of all.)
This partial view
of Duke’s gun
vault shows why
he is still actively
handloading
for no less than
47 different
cartridges. Photo:
Yvonne Venturino
Because he has always favored very heavy
bullets in his BPCR (Black Powder Cartridge
Rifles), Duke estimates he has fired more than
3-1/2 tons of lead through that genre of firearm
since starting in 1981. Some of his favorite .45-
70s include (from left) the 520-grain roundnose,
513-grain roundnose, 555-grain roundnose and
560-grain Creedmoor. Photo: Yvonne Venturino
On the big end, I’ve handloaded a
couple hundred rounds for a Freedom
Arms .454 Casull, but freely admit
never enjoying a single pull of the
trigger on that cannon.
When my handloading career
began at age 17, so too did I become
a bullet caster. In reviewing that list
of 30 handgun cartridges for which
I’ve assembled handloads, only one
did not get loaded with home cast
and/or commercially cast bullets.
That was a .357 SIG, a pistol I
had on consignment specifically to
write about. The other 29 handgun
calibers of my experience were either
predominately or exclusively loaded
with lead alloy bullets. For my own
pleasure shooting, even nowadays,
seldom is any other type of projectile
used in my own handguns.
The reverse is true of rifle cartridges
of .30 caliber and below. Although
I’ve fired many thousand cast bullets
in rifles from the .222 Remington up
through .300 Weatherby Magnum,
the majority of my rifle shooting
for those bore sizes has been done
with jacketed bullets. Get above .30
caliber and then the table reverses
once again with home poured lead
alloy bullets dominating. In fact, I
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • FEBRUARY 2011