volume 11.2

Terry Wieland’s On Shooting

Ammunition That Works: A Good Cartridge Does More Than Go ‘Bang’

The practice of ‘custom handloading’ is as old as cartridge rifles themselves. As a serious commercial proposition, it dates back at least to the 1930s.

Phil Sharpe, in his monumental tome, Complete Guide to Handloading, writes of several experimenters of that era who loaded ammunition for fun and profit. One was the wildcatter, J. Bushnell Smith, in Middlebury, Vermont. Smith achieved a degree of immortality by dying in an explosion that destroyed his shop. To this day, it has not been conclusively explained. It is generally believed a hot ash from his ever-present cigar dropped into the ever-present open keg of shotgun powder, and that was that for J. Bushnell Smith.

Smith and the other early practitioners found markets for several reasons. Some loaded ammunition that was hotter than normal; others used special bullets they cast or swaged themselves; and still others loaded ammunition for wildcat cartridges of their own design. Smith was one of the more successful ones in that regard, since his name has also gone down in history as one of the developers of the .22-250.

Generally speaking, custom loading has gone hand in hand with the development of special bullets available only to those who load their own - that is, not available in factory ammunition from the big companies.

In Smith’s day, this applied mostly to lead bullets. In the hard-up 1930s, buying inexpensive practice loads with cast bullets was vastly preferable to high-priced factory hunting ammunition with jacketed bullets.

When Fred Barnes and John Nosler began producing premium hunting bullets that were available only to handloaders, hunters who did not load their own could get this better performance only by buying ammunition from those who did. Later, as well, some hunting cartridges were discontinued by the factories, and rifle owners had to seek out people to reload their empty cases for them.

The practice really took off in the 1980s, with the introduction of one premium bullet after another - the Bitterroot originally, then Trophy Bonded and Swift. These bullets were demonstrably better than anything from Winchester or Remington, but many serious big-game hunters had neither the time, the inclination (nor, perhaps, the confidence) to load their own.

Eventually, several large companies began to load the private-name bullets. Federal was a pioneer in this regard, offering Nosler Partitions in its premium ammunition. I can’t say for sure, but I believe Weatherby was the first to offer Nosler Partitions in commercial ammunition, but it was available only for Weatherby cartridges. Federal later added Woodleighs and Trophy Bondeds to their line.

One great advantage enjoyed by handloaders is the opportunity to develop a load for one particular rifle. Rifles are finicky things, and ammunition that is deadly accurate in one is ho-hum in another. By picking the right powder and bullet, and then adjusting the load a half-grain of powder at a time, a handloader can produce ammunition that is both powerful and accurate, loaded with a bullet of proven performance.

Again, of course, not everyone has the time or skill to do this, and there arose the new era of custom handloaders: Those who took a client’s rifle and developed a special load of guaranteed accuracy; they then undertook to supply ammunition for it henceforth.

My earliest experience with that practice was Jim Riley in Michigan; Jim had a small business called Wolverine Ballistics. He was involved in the early ballistics testing of the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, and loaded Bear Claws exclusively in his ammunition for clients. Jim guaranteed accuracy of one-inch groups at 100 yards, even in large calibres like the .458 Lott. Through Jim, I also got to know Ted Greenwood, who founded Superior Ammunition. Ted later sold the business to Larry Barnett, who moved it to Sturgis, South Dakota, where it exists (and prospers mightily) to this day.

Initially, Superior offered generic loads in different calibres, with the premium bullet of the client’s choice, but they later began tailoring loads to individual rifles, just as Jim did. An early Superior Ammunition brochure lists Woodleighs, Swift A-Frames, Bear Claws, and A-Square bullets, among others. Larry was an early proponent of the Barnes X-Bullet, and they are still a mainstay of the business.

A few weeks ago I visited Larry in Sturgis and asked him what bullets he currently recommends to a client for a dangerous-game rifle like the .458 Lott.

“Either the Swift or the Barnes Triple Shock,” he told me. “The Woodleigh is also excellent, but it is more expensive. The Bear Claw is not as good as it used to be. I get a few requests for A-Square bullets, and now that they are available again, we’ll probably do more with them.”

If a client wants something more exotic, he can send the bullets to Larry to be loaded into custom ammunition. A client in Alaska, for example, recently acquired some of the South African GS flat-nosed solids, and Larry loaded them for him in .458 Lott. Getting the blunt, flat-nosed ammunition to feed properly gave the riflemaker fits, but that’s another story.

When Larry moved to Sturgis a dozen years ago, the business consisted of himself and his delightful wife, Anne, and they set up shop in a garage next to their house. Right now, they are busy building a new house - and a brand-new shop - a few miles outside of town. The shop will include a shooting facility for testing, and space to house their four additional employees. Business has never been better.

The success of operations like Superior Ammunition has sparked other companies to adopt the practice of tailoring ammunition. Dakota Arms, for example, offers a service to its clients, developing loads for their individual rifles and providing Dakota-labelled generic custom-loaded ammunition using premium bullets like the Woodleigh.

Ironically, when you consider the origins of custom loading in the 1930s, an area of increasing interest to Larry Barnett’s clients is practice loads - ammunition with inexpensive cast bullets and lighter powder charges. When a box of 20 rounds with premium bullets costs more than a $100, not many are expended in practice, nor should they be. Practice rounds allow a hunter to put dozens (or better still, hundreds) of rounds through his rifle ahead of a safari, both to ensure that it functions properly and to sharpen up his own skills.

Today, there are all kinds of cast bullets available in every conceivable diameter, bullet weight, and shape, but none that I know of are available in inexpensive factory ammunition. If you handload, you can easily create practice loads. If you don’t, there’s Larry Barnett.

“I have had so many requests for practice ammunition, I am now offering it as a standard product in some of the heavier calibres,” he told me.

Exactly how to put practice ammunition to best use would fill an entire column. For now, suffice to say the first requirement of meaningful practice with a big rifle is suitable ammunition. Being pounded into oblivion by a succession of full-house loads, all the while reflecting that each time you pull the trigger you are sending ten bucks downrange, is not conducive to the kind of day-after-day practice required to becoming really proficient with a dangerous-game rifle.

So now, custom ammunition can be either hyper-expensive premium hunting loads, or ultra-economical light practice loads.

While that aspect of the business may be reminiscent of the days of J. Bushnell Smith, a few things have changed since his untimely departure: There are no open kegs of gunpowder in Larry Barnett’s shop, for one thing, and no smouldering cigars, either.

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