ohland
06-26-2015, 07:40 PM
OK, some folks are out there running with scissors. Put them down.
For those unable to understand, I am slowly posting period articles that reference significant cast bullet shooters, articles on specific cast bullets, or other intruiging things of a plumbous nature.
Before you put up a post that accuses me of throwing away all this hard learned cast bullet lore that is trapped in your head, why not write up your diamonds of wisdom and post them here for the benefit of all?
Iif you are of the opinion that merely posting a historical article is somehow going to confuse folks, then you should not be reloading, handling weapons, or wandering about without adult guidance.
PM me if you require a more direct answer.:dung_hits_fan:
For everyone else that is looking to figure out what a bullet was designed and used for, the latest snapshot of history talks about the Squibb, Pope, Squibb-Miller, and two bullets by Gebhard. My apologies, images are not included.
Arms & The Man, vol 69, no. 23, pages 6,7, 21. August 15, 1922 (American Rifleman, vol 69)
https://books.google.com/books?id=gJkwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA639&dq=hudson+ideal+bullet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RsGNVa_lO4vcoASilZWgCg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=hudson%20ideal%20bullet&f=false
New Bullets I Have Met
By Ernest Coler
Sometimes I am wondering whether the latter-day rifleman’s emancipation from the lead pot, the dipper, the hot stove and the profanity that goes with the capers of a recalcitrant bullet mold has been an altogether unadulterated blessing.
Those were great days when we were regular customers of the junk man in the purchase of lead and tin; when the wife, on seeing us come home with the box of chocolates interpreted the thoughtfulness as meaning that her immaculate, shining kitchen stove was due for another violation that night. The next morning we picked leaden spatters out of our office pants and our hands bore a collection of blisters where the hot lead had landed at unguarded moments.
But in those days we at least knew what was what and when the boys in the pit stuck the marker way up into the three rings we didn’t blame the ammunition, be cause, forsooth, we had made it ourselves, prayerfully and with loving care.
When the Krag, and later the Springfield, came into the hands of many enthusiasts those who had been in the habit of “rolling their own" encountered the problems that go with ranges located in or near settled communities, where hills were seldom available to serve as bullet stops and where the dangers of the jacketed missile traveling at high velocities made themselves unpleasantly felt when the bullet, as it sometimes happened, cavorted into somebody’s attic or clipped the tail off somebody’s cow. Besides, many of the early N. R. A. clubs possessing only 100 or 200-yard ranges were not merely loath to abandon them but unable to find more suitable facilities. The whole-souled cooperation which army authorities give to civilian rifle shooting at present did not exist, even the “milish” regarding the civilian as an interloper who deserved scant attention and was given few courtesies.
Thus the early Krag and Springfield users in many localities turned their attention to the cast bullet which had done and still did valiant service in many of the older arms and in Schuetzen outfits, and old man Barlow of blessed memory did a thriving business cutting molds and selling the paraphernalia that go with the arts of bullet making and hand loading. The copper gas check came into vogue, affording a fairly efficient compromise between the jacketed bullet and the lead-tin-antimony combination that had to be propelled with care to keep it from going to pieces in the rifling.
The chief difficulty encountered in the use of cast bullets of conventional design has its basis in two factors. The first of these is the rapid twist of the modern, high-power rifle barrel; the second is the uncertainty of seating a fairly hard alloy bullet in the cartridge shell in such a manner that it will enter the throat of the chamber in the same way for each and every shot.
Yet it is true that with certain cast bullets excellent accuracy may be obtained at ranges up to—and in some cases far beyond—200 yards, with practically negligible wear on the barrel and at an ammunition cost so attractively low as to leave no comparison between factory-loaded and hand-made cartridges.
A thousand bullets can be made from 25 pounds of metal costing 8 cents a pound or $2. A thousand primers cost $2.36; 2 1/2 pounds of powder, such as No. 80, figure $6.50. Total cost of 1000 rounds of ammunition $10.86. Nothing has been allowed for shells because few riflemen purchase them for reduced loads. Besides, low-pressure charges work better in shells that have been fired previously in the same rifle, preferably with full service charges.
To continue this story it is necessary to mention names and to resort to personalities that are connected with the old Cypress Hills Rifle and Revolver Association, some years ago rechristened the Brooklyn Rifle Club. The Cypress Hills range, though now only a remnant and recollection of its former self, is a landmark in American rifle shooting, a heritage of the days of black powder and the Schuetzen rifle. Harry Pope, Arthur Hubalek, Kaufman, the late Dr. Hudson and many others did their shooting here and were succeeded by a younger generation with new shooting ideals and ambitions.
When the high-power rifle began its ascendency even at Cypress Hills, early recourse was had to the cast bullet for use in Krags and Springfields because the range, being located in a settled locality, made the use of service ammunition dangerous. There was, moreover, the knowledge that the first smokeless powders of the “Lightning” variety were leading barrels to an early destruction. And there were of course those who held to the belief that ammunition of desirable accuracy could be manufactured by the shooter himself from less destructive components, that is from cast bullets and powders that did not act on barrels with the ferocity of an acetylene blow-torch.
As far as cast bullets as such were concerned, there was no scarcity of them even in those days, quite a variety of Ideal bullets being available of which the good old 308241 was perhaps the most popular.
The fact that the shooting with the military arm followed closely upon the vogue of the Schuetzen rifle brought it about that there was no prone shooting at Cypress Hills, all shooting being done offhand, on the 8-inch bull. And let me add here that perfect scores were neither few nor far between. As was natural under the circumstances, several of the members of the old Cypress Hills outfit took to experimenting themselves, employing tool makers and machinists and purchasing blank molds and spoiling them until they had evolved something they considered of value.
Perhaps one of the earliest experimenters among the club’s members was Sam Squibb —he is still at it, by the way—-who in a desire to obtain greater velocities than were obtained from the ordinary cast bullet developed a series of gas-check bullets, trying each in turn and making improvements as time went on. The design finally determined upon as showing the sought-after accuracy is that shown in Fig. 1, a spitzer bullet which when cast of 90% lead and 10% antimony weighs 170 grains including the gas check and accommodates itself satisfactorily to a variety of powder charges from 11 to 16 grains of No. 80. The bullet is 1.060 long and in the specimen before me is sized to .309 even the portion immediately above the topmost lubrication groove being of that diameter. A 100-yard machine rest target, printed elsewhere within this article will give an idea of the remarkable accuracy of this bullet while additional details concerning it are given in later paragraphs.
If you, dear reader, should decide to delve into the mysteries of bullet designing, take my advice and go slow. You enter on a formidable undertaking. Whatever notions you may have as to what a regular bear of a bullet should be like are apt to be grievously upset and the first cutting cherry is likely to be followed by many others ere you arrive at something that will make the flight from muzzle to target without tumbling all over itself in its hurry to get there. The length of the bullet and its shape and weight, the speed at which it is propelled toward the target are factors that cannot be given in books and tables but are found only in painstaking, laborious tryouts in which machine rests, sulphur casts, whiskey barrels filled with water and oodles of targets play their successive parts. It is a fact with which every body who has dabbled with reduced Springfield loads is familiar that a short-range bullet, particularly that which is cast, is very sensitive to variations in powder loads. In other words, such bullets will be found to do their best work with a given load which has to be determined in trials; when this load is diminished or increased less accuracy is usually secured.
It is scarcely necessary to say that no bullet anthology can be complete without the introduction of something done by Harry Pope—this by way of calling attention to the bullet illustrated in Fig. 2.
Years ago both the late Dr. Hudson and Pope developed bullets in which the conventional ideas were disregarded by giving the bullet several diameters, the plan being to make the bullets’ forward bands not of groove diameter, or slightly over it, but of the diameter of the lands. The lower bands, on the other hand, were given a diameter several thousandths of an inch larger than the depth of the grooves of the rifling. One advantage which a bullet of this sort possesses over older models is that it centers itself in the bore without deformation and in addition affords a pressure-tight fit which is so necessary with smokeless powders that do not upset the bullet as black powder will upset them.
New_Bullets_Fig_10.JPG
New_Bullets_Fig_01-05.JPG
No. 1 – The Squibb bullet comes with a gas check. This bullet is used with rather light 200-yard loads and its designer proves that the gas check is an important factor in safeguarding the bullet’s accuracy.
No. 2 – This is H. M. Pope’s new .30 calibre cast bullet, an exceedingly accurate affair. The tapered bottom band measures .315 inch at its widest portion. This bullet shows no fins after passing through the barrel.
No. 3 – Here we have the so-called Squibb-Miller bullet, modeled on the Pope Idea and, like the latter, having several diameters. The very narrow shoulder on the bottom band is meant to serve as a stop in loading.
No. 4 – An experimental bullet by Charles Gebhard. The center band has forced upon it an anchored ring of pure copper to prevent the side slip in the rifling which, according to Gebhard, seems to be a factor inseparable from all cast bullets shot through rapid twists.
No. 5 – In the Gebhard bullet we seem to have an admirable coincidence in the centers of gravity and mass and excellent wind-bucking qualities due to its rather sharp point. This has proved a fine bullet for 200 yards.
While several bullets of this description exist in the Ideal line the one that concerns us here is the Pope taper-bottom .30 caliber bullet illustrated in Fig. 2. It is .980 long, weighs about 170 grains and has seven bands. The first four of these bands measure .301; the fifth band is .3025 in diameter; in the sixth band the diameter is increased to .304; and the bottom band measures at its widest portion close to .315. The bullet is seated in the shell so that all but the narrow tapered portion protrudes. This affords a bearing of generous length and causes the front bands to ride on top of the lands of the rifling. The fifth and sixth band engage the rifling part of its depth while the seventh and last gives a tight seal from the moment the bullet begins its travel.
The tapered bottom band is not merely, as might appear at first glance, meant for a more convenient seating of the bullet in the shell but has an additional, deeper significance. When a cast bullet has passed through the rifling under the impulse imparted to it by the exploding charge it emerges from the muzzle with as many tiny fins or vanes as the rifling has lands; these vanes are often irregular in shape and length and they to a very considerable extent limit the accuracy of cast bullets that enter the barrel from the breech; indeed, it is the absence of such vanes from bullets that have been loaded from the muzzle that gives the muzzle loading rifle the greater accuracy for which it is famed.
New_Bullets_Fig_08-09.JPG
Above-These groups were shot with the Gebhard bullet, at 100 feet, muzzle and elbow rest.
Below-—An exceptionally close 100-yard group shot on the machine rest with the Squibb gas check bullet Illustrated In Fig. 1.
In Pope’s taper-bottomed bullet these vanes are practically absent because since they are shaved off the wider portion of the broad bottom land the metal of which they consist passes over to the taper, increasing its diameter without permitting the vanes to extend beyond the bottom as would be the case with a bullet the bottom land of which is straight. It is also easy to see that a bullet like Pope's is not nearly as touchy as the fiat-base cast bullet whose sharp bottom edge must be guarded against the slightest injury during casting as well as in loading.
What the Pope bullet is capable of doing is ‘shown in Fig. 6 a photographic reproduction of two targets taken from a collection of possibles made by John W. Hession in a recent 100-yard indoor competition of the Metropolitan Rifle League of New York.
These targets, and many more like them, were shot in the regulation prone position, with a Pope barrel 32 inches long, glass sighted and mounted on a Springfield action. The twist is 14 inches. During the earlier stages of the match Hession used a load of 12 1/2 grains of Duponts No. 80 which he later increased to 15 grains, the latter load apparently giving the better results.
A modification, in some ways an elaboration of the Hudson-Pope idea of giving the bullet different diameters appears in what has come to be known as the Squibb-Miller bullet illustrated in Fig. 3. In similarity with the Pope bullet the Squibb-Miller secures its central placing by having its forward portion made of land diameter. Consequently the first four bands measure .301, which causes them to ride on the lands of the rifling. With the fifth band the bore-sealing process begins, its diameter being .310 or .002 larger than the grooves. The sixth band is still larger, namely .312 and the last or bottom band measures a full .314 inch.
While a superficial examination of the Squibb-Miller bullet would show the bottom band to be straight, in reality this band has near its upper edge a narrow ridge which serves as a stop beyond which the shell does not extend in loading and which bears the forward thrust of the shell when the cartridge is pushed home in the chamber. Many trials of the Squibb-Miller bullet, on the machine rest as well as in actual competition firing have established a load of 12 1/2 grains of Duponts No: 80 as the most accurate at distances up to 200 yards.
That this bullet must be counted among the star performers is shown in Fig. 7 representing two of a number of possibles made by one of the bullet’s fathers, L. J . Miller, president of the Brooklyn Rifle Club in this year’s 100-yard Metropolitan Handicap. The rifle used consisted of a No. 3 Winchester barrel mounted on Springfield action, the twist of the rifling being 12 inches—telescope sights.
Another very early bullet experimenter of the Cypress Hills aggregation was Charles Gebhard, he whom they call “Pop" —-not on account of advancing years which seem to sit lightly on him but because Gebhard is an oldtimer in the shooting game who combines theory and the skill of the tool maker and machinist with patience and an enthusiasm so youthful that it requires more than the cost of tools to prevent him from going after a new bullet bug that may bite him.
Some ten years ago “Pop” came to the conclusion that store bullets and missiles made with the molds then available possessed certain incurable shortcomings. Therefore he set himself the task of finding something better. The path of the bullet crank being no primrose affair, as mentioned earlier in this narrative, Geb’s ten years of experimenting have netted him a young museum of cherries and tools, molds and machinery and a collection of bullets of all sizes, shapes and ballistic properties that are much too formidable for exhibition in the columns of ARMS AND THE MAN. The Gebhard bullet shown in Fig. 4, for instance, shows to what length the designer went in his attempts to endow the cast bullet with a behavior which the conventional cast bullet does not always possess.
This is a bullet which in the process of casting is armored with a guide ring of pure copper by means of which groove slipping is prevented. For it is safe to say that practically every cast bullet—except that provided with a gas check-—when fired from a barrel having as rapid a twist as ten inches, fails to hold the rifling without at least some side slip.
I do not think I am spilling any beans in saying that Gebhard’s shop is more than likely to produce something very interesting along these lines very soon.
The present Gebhard bullet, illustrated in Fig. 5, is regularly used by quite a number of riflemen in the East; it is a rather clean-cut, pointed bullet provided with three lubrication grooves and weighing about 165 grains. Sized to .311 it shows remarkable accuracy with a load not exceeding 12 1/2 grains of No. 80. The bullet itself will easily stand a load of 15 grains of No. 80 though with no noticeable gain in accuracy at 200 yards. Good results are also obtained with 12 grains of Duponts Smokeless Shotgun powder, the elevation in the latter case being exactly the same as when 121/2 grains of No. 80 is used.
Earlier in this dissertation reference was made to the care with which cast bullets have to be handled to preserve the perfect roundness on which their gas-tight fit depends. _ This care naturally extends to the seating of the bullet in the shell, an operation during which the bullet is easily disfigured unless great care is taken.
Of the bullets described only one, the Pope, is seated in the shell with the aid of a tool. The Squibb-Miller, the Squibb gas check and the two Gebhard bullets are better for being seated loosely in the neck of the shell by hand. The Squibb-Miller is peculiar in having on its bottom band the narrow ridge beyond which the bullet will not pass into the shell. The taper of the Pope bullet also provides an efficient stop while the Squibb and Gebhard bullets perform best when seated in cannelured shells.
No doubt there are other meritorious bullets which though used successfully are unknown to the fraternity; if so, it would make good reading and afford means of comparison if the designers would come forth with details of their particular pet.
For those unable to understand, I am slowly posting period articles that reference significant cast bullet shooters, articles on specific cast bullets, or other intruiging things of a plumbous nature.
Before you put up a post that accuses me of throwing away all this hard learned cast bullet lore that is trapped in your head, why not write up your diamonds of wisdom and post them here for the benefit of all?
Iif you are of the opinion that merely posting a historical article is somehow going to confuse folks, then you should not be reloading, handling weapons, or wandering about without adult guidance.
PM me if you require a more direct answer.:dung_hits_fan:
For everyone else that is looking to figure out what a bullet was designed and used for, the latest snapshot of history talks about the Squibb, Pope, Squibb-Miller, and two bullets by Gebhard. My apologies, images are not included.
Arms & The Man, vol 69, no. 23, pages 6,7, 21. August 15, 1922 (American Rifleman, vol 69)
https://books.google.com/books?id=gJkwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA639&dq=hudson+ideal+bullet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RsGNVa_lO4vcoASilZWgCg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=hudson%20ideal%20bullet&f=false
New Bullets I Have Met
By Ernest Coler
Sometimes I am wondering whether the latter-day rifleman’s emancipation from the lead pot, the dipper, the hot stove and the profanity that goes with the capers of a recalcitrant bullet mold has been an altogether unadulterated blessing.
Those were great days when we were regular customers of the junk man in the purchase of lead and tin; when the wife, on seeing us come home with the box of chocolates interpreted the thoughtfulness as meaning that her immaculate, shining kitchen stove was due for another violation that night. The next morning we picked leaden spatters out of our office pants and our hands bore a collection of blisters where the hot lead had landed at unguarded moments.
But in those days we at least knew what was what and when the boys in the pit stuck the marker way up into the three rings we didn’t blame the ammunition, be cause, forsooth, we had made it ourselves, prayerfully and with loving care.
When the Krag, and later the Springfield, came into the hands of many enthusiasts those who had been in the habit of “rolling their own" encountered the problems that go with ranges located in or near settled communities, where hills were seldom available to serve as bullet stops and where the dangers of the jacketed missile traveling at high velocities made themselves unpleasantly felt when the bullet, as it sometimes happened, cavorted into somebody’s attic or clipped the tail off somebody’s cow. Besides, many of the early N. R. A. clubs possessing only 100 or 200-yard ranges were not merely loath to abandon them but unable to find more suitable facilities. The whole-souled cooperation which army authorities give to civilian rifle shooting at present did not exist, even the “milish” regarding the civilian as an interloper who deserved scant attention and was given few courtesies.
Thus the early Krag and Springfield users in many localities turned their attention to the cast bullet which had done and still did valiant service in many of the older arms and in Schuetzen outfits, and old man Barlow of blessed memory did a thriving business cutting molds and selling the paraphernalia that go with the arts of bullet making and hand loading. The copper gas check came into vogue, affording a fairly efficient compromise between the jacketed bullet and the lead-tin-antimony combination that had to be propelled with care to keep it from going to pieces in the rifling.
The chief difficulty encountered in the use of cast bullets of conventional design has its basis in two factors. The first of these is the rapid twist of the modern, high-power rifle barrel; the second is the uncertainty of seating a fairly hard alloy bullet in the cartridge shell in such a manner that it will enter the throat of the chamber in the same way for each and every shot.
Yet it is true that with certain cast bullets excellent accuracy may be obtained at ranges up to—and in some cases far beyond—200 yards, with practically negligible wear on the barrel and at an ammunition cost so attractively low as to leave no comparison between factory-loaded and hand-made cartridges.
A thousand bullets can be made from 25 pounds of metal costing 8 cents a pound or $2. A thousand primers cost $2.36; 2 1/2 pounds of powder, such as No. 80, figure $6.50. Total cost of 1000 rounds of ammunition $10.86. Nothing has been allowed for shells because few riflemen purchase them for reduced loads. Besides, low-pressure charges work better in shells that have been fired previously in the same rifle, preferably with full service charges.
To continue this story it is necessary to mention names and to resort to personalities that are connected with the old Cypress Hills Rifle and Revolver Association, some years ago rechristened the Brooklyn Rifle Club. The Cypress Hills range, though now only a remnant and recollection of its former self, is a landmark in American rifle shooting, a heritage of the days of black powder and the Schuetzen rifle. Harry Pope, Arthur Hubalek, Kaufman, the late Dr. Hudson and many others did their shooting here and were succeeded by a younger generation with new shooting ideals and ambitions.
When the high-power rifle began its ascendency even at Cypress Hills, early recourse was had to the cast bullet for use in Krags and Springfields because the range, being located in a settled locality, made the use of service ammunition dangerous. There was, moreover, the knowledge that the first smokeless powders of the “Lightning” variety were leading barrels to an early destruction. And there were of course those who held to the belief that ammunition of desirable accuracy could be manufactured by the shooter himself from less destructive components, that is from cast bullets and powders that did not act on barrels with the ferocity of an acetylene blow-torch.
As far as cast bullets as such were concerned, there was no scarcity of them even in those days, quite a variety of Ideal bullets being available of which the good old 308241 was perhaps the most popular.
The fact that the shooting with the military arm followed closely upon the vogue of the Schuetzen rifle brought it about that there was no prone shooting at Cypress Hills, all shooting being done offhand, on the 8-inch bull. And let me add here that perfect scores were neither few nor far between. As was natural under the circumstances, several of the members of the old Cypress Hills outfit took to experimenting themselves, employing tool makers and machinists and purchasing blank molds and spoiling them until they had evolved something they considered of value.
Perhaps one of the earliest experimenters among the club’s members was Sam Squibb —he is still at it, by the way—-who in a desire to obtain greater velocities than were obtained from the ordinary cast bullet developed a series of gas-check bullets, trying each in turn and making improvements as time went on. The design finally determined upon as showing the sought-after accuracy is that shown in Fig. 1, a spitzer bullet which when cast of 90% lead and 10% antimony weighs 170 grains including the gas check and accommodates itself satisfactorily to a variety of powder charges from 11 to 16 grains of No. 80. The bullet is 1.060 long and in the specimen before me is sized to .309 even the portion immediately above the topmost lubrication groove being of that diameter. A 100-yard machine rest target, printed elsewhere within this article will give an idea of the remarkable accuracy of this bullet while additional details concerning it are given in later paragraphs.
If you, dear reader, should decide to delve into the mysteries of bullet designing, take my advice and go slow. You enter on a formidable undertaking. Whatever notions you may have as to what a regular bear of a bullet should be like are apt to be grievously upset and the first cutting cherry is likely to be followed by many others ere you arrive at something that will make the flight from muzzle to target without tumbling all over itself in its hurry to get there. The length of the bullet and its shape and weight, the speed at which it is propelled toward the target are factors that cannot be given in books and tables but are found only in painstaking, laborious tryouts in which machine rests, sulphur casts, whiskey barrels filled with water and oodles of targets play their successive parts. It is a fact with which every body who has dabbled with reduced Springfield loads is familiar that a short-range bullet, particularly that which is cast, is very sensitive to variations in powder loads. In other words, such bullets will be found to do their best work with a given load which has to be determined in trials; when this load is diminished or increased less accuracy is usually secured.
It is scarcely necessary to say that no bullet anthology can be complete without the introduction of something done by Harry Pope—this by way of calling attention to the bullet illustrated in Fig. 2.
Years ago both the late Dr. Hudson and Pope developed bullets in which the conventional ideas were disregarded by giving the bullet several diameters, the plan being to make the bullets’ forward bands not of groove diameter, or slightly over it, but of the diameter of the lands. The lower bands, on the other hand, were given a diameter several thousandths of an inch larger than the depth of the grooves of the rifling. One advantage which a bullet of this sort possesses over older models is that it centers itself in the bore without deformation and in addition affords a pressure-tight fit which is so necessary with smokeless powders that do not upset the bullet as black powder will upset them.
New_Bullets_Fig_10.JPG
New_Bullets_Fig_01-05.JPG
No. 1 – The Squibb bullet comes with a gas check. This bullet is used with rather light 200-yard loads and its designer proves that the gas check is an important factor in safeguarding the bullet’s accuracy.
No. 2 – This is H. M. Pope’s new .30 calibre cast bullet, an exceedingly accurate affair. The tapered bottom band measures .315 inch at its widest portion. This bullet shows no fins after passing through the barrel.
No. 3 – Here we have the so-called Squibb-Miller bullet, modeled on the Pope Idea and, like the latter, having several diameters. The very narrow shoulder on the bottom band is meant to serve as a stop in loading.
No. 4 – An experimental bullet by Charles Gebhard. The center band has forced upon it an anchored ring of pure copper to prevent the side slip in the rifling which, according to Gebhard, seems to be a factor inseparable from all cast bullets shot through rapid twists.
No. 5 – In the Gebhard bullet we seem to have an admirable coincidence in the centers of gravity and mass and excellent wind-bucking qualities due to its rather sharp point. This has proved a fine bullet for 200 yards.
While several bullets of this description exist in the Ideal line the one that concerns us here is the Pope taper-bottom .30 caliber bullet illustrated in Fig. 2. It is .980 long, weighs about 170 grains and has seven bands. The first four of these bands measure .301; the fifth band is .3025 in diameter; in the sixth band the diameter is increased to .304; and the bottom band measures at its widest portion close to .315. The bullet is seated in the shell so that all but the narrow tapered portion protrudes. This affords a bearing of generous length and causes the front bands to ride on top of the lands of the rifling. The fifth and sixth band engage the rifling part of its depth while the seventh and last gives a tight seal from the moment the bullet begins its travel.
The tapered bottom band is not merely, as might appear at first glance, meant for a more convenient seating of the bullet in the shell but has an additional, deeper significance. When a cast bullet has passed through the rifling under the impulse imparted to it by the exploding charge it emerges from the muzzle with as many tiny fins or vanes as the rifling has lands; these vanes are often irregular in shape and length and they to a very considerable extent limit the accuracy of cast bullets that enter the barrel from the breech; indeed, it is the absence of such vanes from bullets that have been loaded from the muzzle that gives the muzzle loading rifle the greater accuracy for which it is famed.
New_Bullets_Fig_08-09.JPG
Above-These groups were shot with the Gebhard bullet, at 100 feet, muzzle and elbow rest.
Below-—An exceptionally close 100-yard group shot on the machine rest with the Squibb gas check bullet Illustrated In Fig. 1.
In Pope’s taper-bottomed bullet these vanes are practically absent because since they are shaved off the wider portion of the broad bottom land the metal of which they consist passes over to the taper, increasing its diameter without permitting the vanes to extend beyond the bottom as would be the case with a bullet the bottom land of which is straight. It is also easy to see that a bullet like Pope's is not nearly as touchy as the fiat-base cast bullet whose sharp bottom edge must be guarded against the slightest injury during casting as well as in loading.
What the Pope bullet is capable of doing is ‘shown in Fig. 6 a photographic reproduction of two targets taken from a collection of possibles made by John W. Hession in a recent 100-yard indoor competition of the Metropolitan Rifle League of New York.
These targets, and many more like them, were shot in the regulation prone position, with a Pope barrel 32 inches long, glass sighted and mounted on a Springfield action. The twist is 14 inches. During the earlier stages of the match Hession used a load of 12 1/2 grains of Duponts No. 80 which he later increased to 15 grains, the latter load apparently giving the better results.
A modification, in some ways an elaboration of the Hudson-Pope idea of giving the bullet different diameters appears in what has come to be known as the Squibb-Miller bullet illustrated in Fig. 3. In similarity with the Pope bullet the Squibb-Miller secures its central placing by having its forward portion made of land diameter. Consequently the first four bands measure .301, which causes them to ride on the lands of the rifling. With the fifth band the bore-sealing process begins, its diameter being .310 or .002 larger than the grooves. The sixth band is still larger, namely .312 and the last or bottom band measures a full .314 inch.
While a superficial examination of the Squibb-Miller bullet would show the bottom band to be straight, in reality this band has near its upper edge a narrow ridge which serves as a stop beyond which the shell does not extend in loading and which bears the forward thrust of the shell when the cartridge is pushed home in the chamber. Many trials of the Squibb-Miller bullet, on the machine rest as well as in actual competition firing have established a load of 12 1/2 grains of Duponts No: 80 as the most accurate at distances up to 200 yards.
That this bullet must be counted among the star performers is shown in Fig. 7 representing two of a number of possibles made by one of the bullet’s fathers, L. J . Miller, president of the Brooklyn Rifle Club in this year’s 100-yard Metropolitan Handicap. The rifle used consisted of a No. 3 Winchester barrel mounted on Springfield action, the twist of the rifling being 12 inches—telescope sights.
Another very early bullet experimenter of the Cypress Hills aggregation was Charles Gebhard, he whom they call “Pop" —-not on account of advancing years which seem to sit lightly on him but because Gebhard is an oldtimer in the shooting game who combines theory and the skill of the tool maker and machinist with patience and an enthusiasm so youthful that it requires more than the cost of tools to prevent him from going after a new bullet bug that may bite him.
Some ten years ago “Pop” came to the conclusion that store bullets and missiles made with the molds then available possessed certain incurable shortcomings. Therefore he set himself the task of finding something better. The path of the bullet crank being no primrose affair, as mentioned earlier in this narrative, Geb’s ten years of experimenting have netted him a young museum of cherries and tools, molds and machinery and a collection of bullets of all sizes, shapes and ballistic properties that are much too formidable for exhibition in the columns of ARMS AND THE MAN. The Gebhard bullet shown in Fig. 4, for instance, shows to what length the designer went in his attempts to endow the cast bullet with a behavior which the conventional cast bullet does not always possess.
This is a bullet which in the process of casting is armored with a guide ring of pure copper by means of which groove slipping is prevented. For it is safe to say that practically every cast bullet—except that provided with a gas check-—when fired from a barrel having as rapid a twist as ten inches, fails to hold the rifling without at least some side slip.
I do not think I am spilling any beans in saying that Gebhard’s shop is more than likely to produce something very interesting along these lines very soon.
The present Gebhard bullet, illustrated in Fig. 5, is regularly used by quite a number of riflemen in the East; it is a rather clean-cut, pointed bullet provided with three lubrication grooves and weighing about 165 grains. Sized to .311 it shows remarkable accuracy with a load not exceeding 12 1/2 grains of No. 80. The bullet itself will easily stand a load of 15 grains of No. 80 though with no noticeable gain in accuracy at 200 yards. Good results are also obtained with 12 grains of Duponts Smokeless Shotgun powder, the elevation in the latter case being exactly the same as when 121/2 grains of No. 80 is used.
Earlier in this dissertation reference was made to the care with which cast bullets have to be handled to preserve the perfect roundness on which their gas-tight fit depends. _ This care naturally extends to the seating of the bullet in the shell, an operation during which the bullet is easily disfigured unless great care is taken.
Of the bullets described only one, the Pope, is seated in the shell with the aid of a tool. The Squibb-Miller, the Squibb gas check and the two Gebhard bullets are better for being seated loosely in the neck of the shell by hand. The Squibb-Miller is peculiar in having on its bottom band the narrow ridge beyond which the bullet will not pass into the shell. The taper of the Pope bullet also provides an efficient stop while the Squibb and Gebhard bullets perform best when seated in cannelured shells.
No doubt there are other meritorious bullets which though used successfully are unknown to the fraternity; if so, it would make good reading and afford means of comparison if the designers would come forth with details of their particular pet.