beloved but useless

[olafhardt]

Who else has a load that they love but they know it is not only usless but rediculous? Years ago for some reason I bought some 85 yes 85 sjhp 357 j things. I loaded them over 8,5 grains of Unique in a 357.They make a hearty roar, have almost no recoil and no reasonable purpose but I kind of like them. My son used one to knock a coke can the futherest I have ever seen one knocked.

[303Guy]

Not so useless then. They also set a benchmark for real boolit loads!:smile:

[MBTcustom]

Hey, the Fourth of July is coming up, any cartridge that sends a projectile downrange is more useful than wasting perfectly good powder just to watch it burn. (I'm not realy that cynical, God Bless America!)

[Guesser]

I have never seen the 85 gr. but I bought a couple cases of the 95 gr. SJHP with concave base, probably 20 years ago. I load them over 4.0 gr. of Bullseye for use in a S&W M37 Airweight. Makes the little revolver easier to shoot, 158 gr are painful. Remington loaded the 95 under the Peters name for use in small revolvers. The last loading data I know of is in Lyman #46. I've still got about 3000 of them left, they were designed for 38 Special pressures and velocities, don't hold up under 357 conditions.

[Doc Highwall]

I have a Hopkins and Allen 38 extra long shotgun that I made wooden bullets for out of dowels for shooting pigeons in the city. The object was to have a bullets that had very little sectional density and would not go far from the muzzle and would be less dangerous then a acorn falling from a tree.

[Freightman]

Hey, the Fourth of July is coming up, any cartridge that sends a projectile downrange is more useful than wasting perfectly good powder just to watch it burn. (I'm not realy that cynical, God Bless America!)
Must be nice, we have a fireworks ban and they are going to enforce it. It will be a class B misdemeanor unless you set a fire then it will be bumped up to a felony, we haven't had any rain for over 250 days and just a piece of metal falling from a PU will set a fire. We have burnt off over 2,000,000 acres (larger than some states) here. We need rain bad! there has been over 100 houses burned to the ground just in the Amarillo area.

[Rocky Raab]

I came across a few dozen of those little .38-cal 95-gr HP whizzers and loaded a few. I'm hoarding the last few because they are so much fun to shoot.

My most fun yet useless load has to be two-ball loads for the .45 Colt. Seeing two holes appear on the target with every trigger pull is a hoot, but I cannot think of a single really practical use for such.

[9.3X62AL]

Been a while, but I also recall the 90-95 grain J-words for the 38/357. Great velocity, and when they managed to hit something (jackrabbit, ground squirell) the results were spectacular. But they were woefully inaccurate for me. Ah, the glib hucksterism of Super Vel--almost as facetious as the Facklerites with their respective Magic Bullet Mantras.

[Centaur 1]

Don't worry about saving those 95 grainers, you can use the Ranch Dog 100 gr rn in a .38. Mine come out of the mold between .359"-.360" and I size to .358". They work great for their intended use in a .380, but I load them in 9mm and the .38 spl as well. So far no leading in my Glock with them. If shooting cans or putting holes in paper, that little boolit does just as good a job as a 158 gr will, but use a lot less lead and less recoil. I was just about ready to try one on an armadillo a few months ago when my phone rang, that'll be the last time I forget to shut my ringer off in the woods.

[Jack Stanley]

Our department used to have a three gun compitition that included handgun shooting . In qualifying for the team some thought it funny their autopistols three cases at the competitor right next to them . I got squadded to the right of a guy with a match master that had me zeroed in before I even got off a shot .

I calmly opened the cylinder of the model twenty-nine and emptied the wadcutters there . I was still under the time limit for slow fire after I had sent ten two hundred grain jacketed hollow-points downrange . I forget the powder charge but it was enough Unique to get your attention and still hold the ten ring .

After paying his money for a challenge and losing he was so shook up he was wobbling pretty good when we lined up for the timed fire relay . I fired the rest of the match with wadcutters but he still shook everytime I brought the "N" frame Smith up :lol:

Maybe they had a use after all huh?

Jack

[onondaga]

I used to make shooting stars to shoot out of a muzzle loading cap-lock pistol.

Just dampened BP with a little wood glue and water and pressed and rolled them by hand into balls and let them dry. Load them over a few grains BP and shoot them in the dark. They leave a fiery tail in the dark.

Gary

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Sounds like a good boolit to go bunny hunting with. That would also make a dandy for popping groundhogs in the head.
Mike in Peru

[mdi]

Similar to Rocky's favorite, I loaded up some .432" balls for my .44 magnums. I've only loaded single balls so far and haven't worked up a load, but they are nearly useless. Well, maybe not totally useless; With each little "experiment" I learn a little more about my guns and handloading...

[XWrench3]

well, i dont know how useless they are going to be. i just bought at a yard sale some .490 round balls (muzzleloader) that i will run through a sizer to .460" and shoot out of my 45/70. just something to play around with. seems to me i read an article about shooting two of them out of the same cartridge, but unless i could find that article, i would be pretty hesitant to do it. i have also paper patched 230g rn boolits (45acp) with post it notes paper, and shot them out of the 45/70. those actually work quite well. definitly a way to clean the barrel ! and accurate @ 50 yards. i plan to shoot a few of the .490's out of my inline ml also. just to see what they will do. i have never shot a patched round ball before. i know the twist rate is to fast, but what the heck. and now that we are on the subject, maybe i will try a 38 spl 108g boolit p.p.ed through my 44 mag. playing around is fun. i have just been into this accuracy kick for so long, i have forgotten to do it.

[Rocky Raab]

Just for the sake of discussion, a round ball weighs just about half the "normal" weight of a regular bullet, so two of them does not make for an extra heavy payload. The difference in is air/powder space. Two round balls take up a LOT of case room, so you have to reduce the charge to be safe. Start loads are usually okay.

You can LLA them or rub a bit of lube atop the bottom ball before you seat the top one. Seat the top one just to its equator and crimp lightly.

Useless beyond 25 yards or so, but seeing those two holes appear is priceless.

[TRX]

My favorite "beloved but useless" load was a 71-grain .32 ACP bullet in a 7.65x53 Argentine case.

Shooting 2-liter plastic bottles of water at 25 yards, 5 grains of Unique would blow them to weirdly twisted shreds and explosions of water.

Accuracy was no better than "minute of Coke bottle" even at that range; on paper, at least half of them printed sideways. Something on the twist / velocity / weight / aspect ratio equation was way off. I didn't care, they were fun to shoot.