A Trip Down Memory Lane For Us Older Hand Loaders

[Professor Mawla]

Back in the 1970s , it was either these or Barnes bullets ( then known as “ Colorado Custom Bullets “ ) for us hand loaders . Today , the choices are endless . I recall hand loading so many .458 Winchester Magnum rounds with those 500 grain full metal jacket and soft nosed bullets and IMR3031 gunpowder , it almost seems just like yesterday . Hornady was not even offering any of their factory loaded sporting ammunition , at the time .

 

[Major Khan]

It is a bit intriguing that the " Copper Clad Steel Jacket " description on the solid metal covered bullets ... Is no longer there .

 

[Wyatt Smith]

A neat old ad. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Professor Mawla]

A neat old ad. Thanks for sharing.

@Wyatt Smith
Thank you very much .

 

[lwaters]

Remember Frontier ammunition. They loaded Hornady bullets but don't remember if they were part of Hornady.

 

[sestoppelman]

Hornady uses Frontier brass in some loadings still.

 

[Professor Mawla]

It is a bit intriguing that the " Copper Clad Steel Jacket " description on the solid metal covered bullets ... Is no longer there .

@Major Khan Sir ,
This is a Hornady advertisement from 1961 ( the time when you were a professional hunter in Nagpur ) .

As you can see , Hornady was still using copper clad steel jackets in their full metal jacket bullets until 1961 . Then , they used a cheaper cupronickel jacket from 1962 to 1981 . This explains why both you and Mr . Terry Irwin recorded such excellent performance with the early Hornady full metal jacket bullets . Because both of you saw the early copper clad steel jacketed ones in use .

 

[Ridgewalker]

My two oldest reloading books. Still interesting info.

 

[mdwest]

My two oldest reloading books. Still interesting info.
View attachment 366917

Thats one of my biggest reloading regrets... Not keeping my old manuals from back in the late 80's and early 90's when I first started reloading..

Truthfully, 90% of all of the data I use today comes out of the 8th edition nosler manual, regardless of whose projectile I am using.. But I enjoy having other references like the 4th edition Barnes manual and the 10th edition Hornady manual on hand in my library..

I'd love to get back the old 1st edition Lee manual, and the old Lyman manual I had (I cant remember which edition it was.. but I think maybe it was a 45th?) if I could..

 

[Ridgewalker]

The Lyman was from the 1950s. My neighbor gave it to me after I showed interest in helping him reload in 1960 when I was a freshman in high school.
The Speer I got when I received my BS in 1970.

 

[Dirtdart]

I love the old manuals.

 

[Dirtdart]

 

[nztimb]

Whilenot as old as some these four very well thumbed editions were the bedrock of my reloading information from the 70's on

 

[bruce moulds]

those nick harvey manuals have always been good.
some of the older speer manuals had some max loads you REALLY needed to work up to, and might not reach.
bruce.

 

[Nhoro]

Because both of you saw the early copper clad steel jacketed ones in use .

At least they have gone back to the steel jacket with the copper coating now with their solids. I picked up a 458 cartridge in my back yard about a year ago. Very corroded old Hornady round that someone had dropped in times gone by.It was in a pile of old junk so maybe it was a victim of spring cleaning. It has a steel jacket and that same shape. Interesting when my son pulled the bullet from the very corroded case by hand, a stream of perfect powder poured out no clumps or caking at all. I would guess it is a post 81 round. Does anyone know when they went to the flats nose solid ?

 

[Professor Mawla]

At least they have gone back to the steel jacket with the copper coating now with their solids. I picked up a 458 cartridge in my back yard about a year ago. Very corroded old Hornady round that someone had dropped in times gone by.It was in a pile of old junk so maybe it was a victim of spring cleaning. It has a steel jacket and that same shape. Interesting when my son pulled the bullet from the very corroded case by hand, a stream of perfect powder poured out no clumps or caking at all. I would guess it is a post 81 round. Does anyone know when they went to the flats nose solid ?

@Nhoro
It was 2007 when Hornady released the DGS ( Dangerous Game Solid ) line and and replaced their older round nosed solids with meplat nosed solids .

In regards to the steel jacketed controversy , I believe that this is an accurate time frame of things :
* Until 1961 , Hornady used copper clad steel jackets in their solids ( which were round nosed and available in .308 , .375 and .458 calibre ) .
* From 1961 to 1980 , Hornady replaced the copper clad steel jacket with a cupronickel jacket . Their solids were still round nosed and .338 calibre solids were now added to the line up .
* From 1981 to 1990 , Hornady again replaced the cupronickel jacket with a copper clad steel jacket . The solids were round nosed and .416 calibre was not added to the lineup .
* From 1991 to 2006 , Hornady replaced the steel jacket with a copper jacket . The solids were still round nosed .
* In 2007 , Hornady released the DGS / DGX line . Their DGS solids were now all featuring meplat noses and all had copper clad steel jackets .
* In 2011 , Hornady began to offer 480 grain .458 calibre bullets with meplat noses ; in addition to their already existing .458 calibre 500 grain Hornady DGS solids .

 

[Nhoro]

@Nhoro
It was 2007 .

Ok so I reckon that round must have been lying around in rain for at least 13 years or so.

 

[Dirtdart]

These have been around longer than I have for sure.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Speer was the available bullet to me as a kid in the late 70s. I recall my first handloads (out of need-as the .300 Win Mag factory ammo was $32/20 and I could make 100 more accurate loads for less! 73 gr IMR 4350/165 gr BTSP and 79 gr of same /w 100 gr HPs for varmints. Super accurate and deadly. Sold the gun after accidentally collecting 2 deer w/ one shot at 150 yds (they were lined up-i did have 2 tags,) but as a 30 y/o deemed it too powerful for closer range PA woods hunting. ('Should've considered lighter, lower SD bullets and a lighter load but the gun was set up for longer field shots. It did work, a little too well.) And, of course, that was a mistake and now both my Son and I have .300 Win Mags (still using same loads, although heavier 200 gr bullets for Africa.) Did bag a nice black bear one year and my son went on an Oryx meat/cull hunt with his and had a blast! I did manage to find 6 boxes of the Barnes original SP (.338/300 gr!) which I used to good effect on a huge L. Eland years back (after getting old load data from Barnes). As most of the calibers I like are either wildcats and/or factory ammo is hard to come by, I handload for nearly every gun, still. Once in awhile I'll cheat and buy factory ammo for the .300, 30-06, 22-250 and my Son's 7mm/375 Mags when pressed for time...

 

[lwaters]

My older manuals. The Hornady manual had some pretty hot loads for max.