Handloader Article June 2015

[leadman]

Got my new Handloader today and was reading the article on the Encore 357/44 B&D written by Stan Troniec. I have been interested in this cartridge for quite awhile.
Either Stan has some information on the T/C Custom Shop I have not heard yet or he is way behind the times. He wrote that a barrel chambered in this cartridge can be ordered from T/C's Custom Shop.
I know it closed about 5 years ago but have not heard anything about it re-opening.
Any new news on this?

[Tatume]

While I have no news on the T/C Custom Shop, I do have a comment on the Handloader 357/44 B&D article; it was a complete waste of about 10 minutes of my life. The article had no useful information whatsoever. I've been debating whether or not to renew my subscription, and this article definitely helps make up my mind.

[Piedmont]

I thought the entire issue was lame. There isn't much I want to read in there anymore and consider not re-upping myself. Scovill mentioned he is retiring this year. Who will be the new editor?

[ohland]

Handloader 357/44 B&D article... The article had no useful information whatsoever.

I read the article, the writer panned the heavier (jacketed!) bullets past 156 grains [in his 15" pistol]. Oddly, there is no mention of cast boolits. I have some RCBS 357-180-SIL that would disagree with him... The short neck does make things more demanding, but a good booliteer can make it shoot.

So little time, so many calibers...

[leadman]

I called T/C, the Custom Shop is still closed and has been for a little over 4 years according to the lady I spoke with.

I too have been debating the renewal of my subscription. There have been way too many errors and/or poorly written articles lately.
Mike Venturino's article on the 1891 Argentine Mauser left alot to be desired also.

[dragon813gt]

I haven't been reading the magazine long. And doubt I will be for much longer. It's a poorly written magazine. I'm not a professional author and not saying that I can write a better article. But it really is amateur hour.

[Tatume]

Sadly, Handloader was the best gun magazine on the market. The American Rifleman is no longer of any value, and American Hunter never was. I may have to pick up an issue of American Handgunner.

[Dan Cash]

I quit Handloader back about 2000, having grown dissatisfied with the information. After reading an article about the Walther P38 wherein the author described an improvement on the "barrel bushing" to compensate for problems with the barrel dropping at the rear upon unlocking, and describing a totally unsafe clearing procedure, I wrote the editors urging them to clarify and correct the article. A reply from a fellow named Barsness (sp?) informed me that I was only an armchair amature and should not try to tell the professionals how things work.

I cancled my subscription, never receiving credit for a remaining half year. At the time, I worked for the U.S. Army Armor School as a tank weapons and small arms instructor and subject matter expert. I have handled many P38s and the follow on, long slide clone, the Baretta M9 and have never been able to get the back of the barrel to drop when unlocking. Boo the gun rags.

[EDG]

I have been a subscriber since about 1969. I have never been happy with Dave Scovill's efforts. He told the story of his life starting with the .257 Roberts pump and the 7X57 Ruger way too many times. I used to read the magazine cover to cover. Now I hardly read it. Too much retreaded single action and lever gun stuff. The writers often talk about things they know little or nothing about about. One of them is modern manufacturing. Scovill and some of his crew seem to dislike the internet. Well no wonder. It is not hard to find people that know more about the various subjects than they do.

[Tar Heel]

I just look at the pictures..........you guys actually READ it?

Attachment 138373

[GLL]

Anyone interested in the 357/44 B&D should contact Peter at Bain & Davis located in San Gabriel ,CA.

Jerry

[ohland]

357/44 B&D should contact Peter at Bain & Davis located in San Gabriel ,CA. Jerry

In his arduous research, he doesn't draw much attention to the B&D gun shop, which is still (somehow) in business in the Democratic People's Republic of Kalifornia. If he would have actually sent an SASE to the nice folks at B&D, they would send three pages (maybe three and a half!) of loads using modern powders.
http://bainanddavisgunshop.com/index1.asp

Looking at the meticulously assembled research, I could have done about the same from my collection of 357/44 articles.

I was suprised with the 357/44 in a 22" barrel. I feel that it is eminently capable of 150 yard deer termination with 6x to 8x glass or good iron sights.

[EOD3]

Way too much arrogance in Handloader, and its siblings for that matter, for my liking. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that has quality articles often enough to justify a subscription. I'll just keep scanning the cover stories at B&N. and Booksamillion.

[dragon813gt]

So I have a serious question. Who is their target reader? I can't figure it out. A lot of the articles are very basic. And all of that info can be found in manuals and online. There is very little for the experienced hand loader in them. I know the internet has killed a lot of magazines and this is definitely one. Some of the reader submitted questions are downright scary in how basic they are. Maybe I'm being to critical.

[Roundball]

Most of you folks have a world of experience and willingly share the same. I do have a kind word for some aspects of "Handloader". Back in the day my complaints about another publication were about the same as yours. One of my mentors asked me how long had I been doing what that article was about. A long time. The current article on the Roberts by R.H VanDenburg was very good. His historical data was in line with introductory articles in "The American Rifleman" back in that day. I do not recall Roberts using any boolits in his research. Those other bullets selected for this article basically duplicated weights those used by the original experimenters. How many different ways can you write an article on loading a cartridge like the Roberts? I find Handloader's LoadData.com to be very useful.

[alamogunr]

I called T/C, the Custom Shop is still closed and has been for a little over 4 years according to the lady I spoke with.

I too have been debating the renewal of my subscription. There have been way too many errors and/or poorly written articles lately.
Mike Venturino's article on the 1891 Argentine Mauser left alot to be desired also.

Where might I find this article???

[HeavyMetal]

Handloader is not the mag it was 15 to 20 years ago, I have also contacted them about format preference for submitted freelance articles.

I was told they had no need of free lance material, they had a full crew writing for them.

Since that time I have seen less and less interesting articles and suspect a very real fear of lawsuits from newbie's but it could be they just keep things in the family.


I don't subscribe and never will, I just scan the mag at my local store and purchase if it looks like an article might be decent.

[drinks]

Someone,I know not whom, gave me a subscription, I have tried several times to cancel the magazine as, in my opinion, it has almost no value.
I certainly shall not renew.

[JohnMiller]

Currently the best gun related magazines in my opinion is The International Ammunition Journal and Man At Arms. I find every issue of IAA to be well written well researched with each copy being in full color. Anyone interested in the old stuff would likely really enjoy either magazine. Unfortunately neither focus on reloading or publish loads, But in my experience online forums are vastly superior regardless.

[Bent Ramrod]

I subscribed from the early '80's to the mid-'90's, and have grabbed up all the earlier numbers of both magazines that I could find. They really were "journals of record" back then.

I well remember the cozy letter Scoville sent us when he took over the magazine, to the effect that it was time to move beyond the "aging readership" that had formed the bulk of their subscriber base and appeal to the larger (and presumably younger and richer) newsstand buyers. Soon after came the color internals, the pictures of animals on the covers, and the steadily dwindling number of articles on classic rifles, historical aspects, and experimentation by amateurs and semi professionals (freeing up space for product infomercials and Which-Is-Better-The-9mm-Or-the-.38-Spl.-type articles by the pros).

The magazines still have a bunch of good writers. I think Barsness, Venturino and Pearce could make an interesting writeup out of anything they wished. But the choice of turning the magazines into general-interest newsstand magazines meant that they were going to be competing with all the others for an audience of more casually interested shooters than are found on specialty Internet forums. Those guys have to write for that audience to keep their jobs.

I can even see Scovill's point. A business has to keep moving forward to survive. The two magazines, according to then editor Ken Howell, ran at a loss for years, kept afloat by a consortium of reloading equipment and component manufacturers, and even when it was self supporting, they paid their writers and staff poorly. Maybe it was a miracle that they were as good as they were for as long as they were.