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August 2010 No. 267Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Printed in USA7 25274 01240 4

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S&W Pro Series Model 627

Reloading Tips forBrass

Shotshells!

Remington’sVenerable

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LoadingH&H’s

Big Secret

One Load,One Caliber,Many Rifles?

4

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNAL AL

August 2010Volume 45, Number 4

ISSN 0017-7393 Issue No. 267

Background Photo: © 2010 John R. Ford

24 Hodgdon’sVargetPropellant Profiles -R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

28 Glock Rx for.40 S&W BrassPistol Pointers -Charles E. Petty

30 XP-100.250 SavageRenewing anOld FriendshipStan Trzoniec

38 Reloading BrassShotshellsPart II: Technical TipsR.H. VanDenburg, Jr.

46 Smith & Wesson.357 MagnumPro Series Model 627Brian Pearce

56 HandloadingShotgun SlugsLow Cost PerformanceJohn Haviland

62 .33s and .35sDream RiflesJohn Barsness

8 Bullet Pull –Neck TensionReloader’s Press -Dave Scovill

12 10mm AutoBullets & Brass -Brian Pearce

16 RCBS SpecialOrder MouldsMike’s Shootin’Shack -Mike Venturino

18 The ShootistSingle Actions?From the Hip -Brian Pearce

22 .458 LottCartridgeBoard -Gil Sengel

Page 38 . . .

Page 62 . . .

Page 72 . . .

Handloader 267

Publisher of Handloader™ is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of publishedloading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproducedwithout written permission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American Rights upon acceptance andpayment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility forlost or mutilated manuscripts.

Issue No. 267 August 2010

AMMUNAMMUNITITIONON REL RELOADING NG JOJOURURNAL AL Publisher/President – Don Polacek

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Background Photo: © 2010 John R. Ford6 Handloader 267

On the cover . . .The Remington XP-100 .250 Savage isset up with a Bausch & Lomb 4x scopemounted in Redifeld rings and one-piecebase. Photo by Stan Trzoniec.

72 Loading H&H’sUnknown SoldierThe .500 31⁄4 InchTerry Wieland

82 One Load,One Caliber,Many Rifles?Versatility on aLimited BudgetMike Venturino

94 A Case of CaliberConfusion – andOther BlowupsReader ResearchBob Campbell

02 New Bulletsfor OldIn Range -Terry Wieland

102

16 Handloader 267www.handloadermagazine.com

ing rifles, sniper rifles, carbines,handguns and even submachineguns used by all the major com-batant nations. The RCBS specialorder moulds have been instru-mental in helping me shoot twoof those handguns and one sub-machine gun. Those are a BritishWebley Mark VI .455 revolver, a Japanese Type 14 pistol for the 8mm Nambu and a RussianPPsh41 7.62x25mm submachinegun. In the same order, the RCBSspecial order moulds for thoseguns are 45-265 WEBLEY, 8mm-110 NAMBU and 30-085-RNMAUSER. The first number is thecaliber either in inches or mil-limeters, and the second is thenominal bullet weight in grains.

Of the three bullets mentionedin the above paragraph, the lattertwo are plain-base roundnose de-signs, while the big Webley bullethas a cone-shaped nose with ahollow base. One might note thatthe bullet I’m using in the Russ-ian-designed submachine gun isactually listed by RCBS as for“Mauser.” That’s okay, becausethe 7.62x25mm Russian and the

7.63mm Mauser canshare bullets.

Shortly before the turnof the century, I pub-lished a book titledShooting Lever Guns of

the Old West , thereincovering handloadingfor most of the car-tridges that had beenchambered in nine-teenth century – Win-chester and Marlinlever-action rifles andcarbines. Again RCBSspecial order mouldswere a great help. With-out them, including castbullet loads for .25-35

MIKE’S SHOOTIN’ SHACK by Mike Venturino • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

RCBS SPECIAL

ORDER MOULDS

Mike currently uses these eightbullet moulds from the RCBSspecial order section.

These five rifle bullet designs areRCBS special order moulds (fromleft they are intended for): .25-35Winchester, .32 WinchesterSpecial, .33 Winchester, 11mmMauser and .50-70 Governmentor .50-90 Sharps.

Being so enamored of old

and oddball guns and theircartridges, my handloading lifewould have been much more dif-ficult without the array of RCBSspecial order bullet moulds. Bymy count in the current Hunt-ington Die Specialties catalog(PO Box 991, Oroville CA 95965),there are 30 bullet designs listedunder “special order.” Of these, 6are for handguns, 21 are for riflesand 3 are .40-, .45- and .50-calibermoulds for smooth-sided paperpatch bullets. In total they stretchfrom a 50-grain roundnose forthe .25 ACP to a 515-grain flat-nose for the “Big .50” Sharps.

Twenty-five years ago, I first be-came aware of the RCBS spe-cialty moulds when the late JayPostman of RCBS sent me theirdesign for .44 S&W American. Anarticle under my byline had justappeared in these pages aboutthe hoops I jumped through ingetting an old S&W Model #3 revolver up and running withoutproper reloading equipment.Never had I dreamed that one of our major reloading tool com-panies would have amould available for suchan all-but-forgotten car-tridge. Jay Postman gotmy attention with thatmould, and I have beena frequent patron of the RCBS special ordermould list ever since. (Idid notice in writing this column that the .44 American mould isno longer listed, so ev -idently some designscome and go.)

After the turn of thecentury, I began assem-bling an array of WorldWar II firearms, includ-

RCBS has taken pains to fashion its .455 Webley and8mm Nambu special order moulds to duplicate theshape of military issue bullets for those calibers.From left: .455 Webley round with 265-grain FMJbullet, RCBS 265-grain bullet and .455 Webley roundloaded with RCBS bullet. Next is 8mm NambuJapanese military round with 102-grain FMJ bullet,106-grain RCBS bullet and 8mm Nambu loadedwith RCBS bullet.

good cast bullet loads wouldallow me to get more trigger timewith that fine, old rifle.

Also, mould 38-175-RN intriguesme. I suspect that one might beintended to duplicate the 178-grain jacketed roundnose theBritish loaded in their .38/200 re-volver cartridge as chambered intheir Enfield No. 2 revolvers. Theone defect with most catalogs inregard to those RCBS specialorder moulds is that they do notshow photographs of the variousdesigns. Also there might be someconfusion as to what specificalloy was used to obtain the des-ignated bullet weights. MostlyRCBS lists weights with an alloyof one part tin to 10 parts lead butdoes vary from that on some of itsregular cataloged bullet designs.

Regardless, I’ve yet to have had abad experience with one of thespecial order moulds. As a rulethey are cut into iron blocks withtwo cavities until bullet size goes

August-September 2010 17www.handloadermagazine.com

Winchester, .32-40 and .32 Win-chester Specials and the .33 Win-chester would have been far moredifficult. [Mike’s book will once

again be available in early fall

from Wolfe Publishing Co. – Ed.]

RCBS’s bullet designs for thosethree bore sizes are variations ofthe same theme. That is theyhave one wide, curved greasegroove, a crimping groove, flatnose and shank for attaching gaschecks. Nominal weights are 100,170 and 200 grains in .25, .32 and.33 caliber, respectively. Impor-tant too is the fact that the crimp-ing groove on those bullets isplaced so that overall loaded car-tridge lengths are correct forfeeding through lever actions.

Single-shot riflemen can alsofind some good designs amongthe RCBS special order moulds.When I bought a .43 Spanish cal-iber Remington Rolling BlockNo. 1, its 43-370-FN was ordered.At a gun show I noticed a new/unused RCBS 44-370-FN mouldon a fellow’s table. Hoping itwould drop .446-inch bullets tofit my .44-77 caliber (both Sharpsand Remington) single shots, Itook a chance on it. Poured of avery soft alloy of one part tin to40 parts lead, it indeed did cast at.446 inch. Not only did those flat-nose bullets shoot accurately inboth rifles, but also they wereused in the Sharps .44 on a bisoncow with great effect. I’ve alsoshot a couple of six-point elk and a couple of mule deer withthe RCBS 50-450-FN loaded in a.50-90 Shiloh Sharps. That partic-ular bullet is shaped like a verylarge semiwadcutter and does aneffective job on game.

At this writing I have some bul-lets from RCBS mould 6.5-140-FNloaded up in both 6.5mm Japan-ese and 6.5mm Swedish cases.They will be test fired as soon asthis long Montana winter lets up.Also I’ve been eyeing mould 348-200-FN. My Winchester Model 71.348 seldom gets fired because ofthe hefty recoil delivered by full-powered rounds. Perhaps some

past .44 caliber in rifles. Then it’sone cavity per mould. Also the hol-lowbase .455 Webley bullet comesonly in a single cavity design. The2010 retail price for all RCBS spe-cial order moulds is $120.98. •

Terry Wieland

Ask anyone to name the greatHolland & Holland car -

tridges, and chances arehe’ll mention the .375

H&H, probably the .300, and maybe,if he likes double rifles, the .500/465.But there is another cartridge fromthe black-powder era that may nothave been a Henry Holland develop-ment but became such a specialtyof the house that it should be on thelist of great H&H cartridges.

The .500 Express (31⁄4 inch) was a cartridge thathad a short life span but was considered in its dayto be just about the best lion-and-tiger round theworld had ever seen. Look up the .500 Express (31⁄4 inch) in almost any cartridge book, and the information will be sparse. The very first edition ofCartridges of the World (COTW) gave it barely amention, lumping it in with the 3-inch version as just a variation on the theme – black-powder

The .50031⁄4 Inch

LoadingH&H’sUnknown72 Handloader 267www.handloadermagazine.com

SoldierAugust-September 2010 73www.handloadermagazine.com

Handloader 267

H&H’sUnknownSoldier

These specifications for the.500 Express 31⁄4 inch are froma Kynoch catalog, circa 1895,with some modern notationsfor the .500 Nitro Express.

The .500 Express (31⁄4 inch) hada short life span.

From a Holland& Hollandcatalog, circa1900. AfterThe Field trialsof 1883, H&Hwas England’spreeminentriflemaker,and the .500Express 31⁄4inch was aspecialty.

first rifle cartridges. The roundnumbers are logical: A .5-inchbullet in a 3-inch case makessense. Initially, these “express”cartridges followed the pattern ofthe original express muzzleload-ers, as initiated by James Purdey,and fired a relatively light castbullet in front of a maximumcharge of black powder. In thecase of the .500, standard bulletweights came to be a 340-grainhollowpoint and a 380-grainsolid.

There were certainly other bul-let weights loaded in the .500 (3inch), but for stag-stalking andgeneral plains game hunting inIndia, those were the acceptedstandard. The cartridge belonged

expanded on the British .500s,they never did go into the partic-ular history of the .500 Express(31⁄4 inch). As it turns out, thatcartridge was more than justsome gunmaker’s attempt to be alittle different.

The 3-inch version was intro-duced sometime in the 1860s,which makes it one of the very

than a century. But delve into alittle history – history that isspread in bits and pieces throughdifferent books, catalogs, oldmagazine advertisements andeven the loading information en-graved on the frame of an H&Hhammer double – and the differ-ences start to come into focus.

After several months of re-searching this specific cartridge,I have drawn some conclusions.Rather than qualify every state-ment with “in my opinion,” let’sjust take that for granted and, ifanyone finds a demonstrablyegregious error, feel free to sayso. Otherwise, a little slack wouldbe appreciated.

Although later editions of COTW

ancestors of the great .500 NitroExpress.

If you count both case lengthsand then multiply by the originalblack powder, the later corditeand the in-between nitro-for-black loads, there are six varia-tions, and they do tend to lookalike from a distance of more

August-September 2010 75www.handloadermagazine.com

to no gunmaker in particular.This was before the later practiceof proprietary cartridges reallybecame established; there wereseveral metallic-cartridge makersin Britain, and all of them loadedvariations on the .500.

During this period, guns for re-ally big game continued to be theproven 8- and 4-bores with wideuse of 10- and 12-bore rifles aswell. By comparison, the .500was a “medium” at best, but bythe 1870s, hunters and gunmak-ers alike were starting to see the possibilities of smaller rifleson the larger game. Sir SamuelBaker, an unquestioned admirerof the ultralarge guns, champi-oned the development of a .577rifle even for elephants.

The .500 as it existed had poten-tial, but it also had limitations.The standard bullet was paperpatched. You could increase theweight to make it more effectiveon bigger game, but that wouldreduce powder capacity; if youpacked in more powder, it meantyou had to reduce bullet weight.Someone hit on the idea of ex-tending the case length by .25inch, which allowed a 100-grainincrease in bullet weight while

still managing to afford a littlemore powder capacity.

As originally designed, the con-figuration of the 340- and 380-grain bullets is identical; theweight difference comes fromhollowing out the cavity, so seat-ing depth, overall cartridgelength and so on are the same forboth. The longer .500 Express(31⁄4 inch) would accept 440- and

480-grain bullets, and even withthe larger bullets, powder capac-ity increased to 142 grains (5drams) from 136. The new car-tridge was the ideal rifle for lionsand tigers.

In 1883 the magazine The Field

sponsored a comprehensive rifletrial in London with rifles testedin 10 categories from smallborerook rifles to 4-bore elephant guns.

Above, this custom mould will produce a facsimile of the original Kynoch480-grain solid lead bullet used in the .500 Express 31⁄4 inch. Right, the440-grain “express” hollowpoint bullet for the .500 Express 31⁄4 inch hada relatively small cavity in the nose. Henry Holland was adamant thattoo large a cavity promoted poor penetration and wounding.

Handloader 26776 www.handloadermagazine.com

about the black-powder .500 (31⁄4inch) than I outlined in the open-ing paragraphs of this article. Myoriginal intention was to findsome nitro-for-black loads usingsmokeless powder like 5744 and play with a variety of bulletsuntil I found a combination thatworked.

As I got deeper and deeper intothe literature, however, I realizedwhat I had was, in 1895 (when itwas made), the state-of-the-artlion rifle, carefully tailored for aparticular load by two of the most

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both odd weights forthat caliber. Later, H&Hmade published ref -erence to its “specialbullet,” but exactlywhat that was remainsa mystery. It reallydoesn’t matter; the point is, The

Field trials established H&H’sreputation as London’s preemi-nent riflemaker, and Holland andFroome set out to build uponthat in every way possible.

Since the .500 bore was a fa-vorite all-around rifle for armyofficers and hunters setting outfor Africa and India, Holland andFroome were determined to per-fect it. They did this in a numberof ways involving both the car-tridge and their rifles.

The standard H&H express riflewas a back-actionhammer gun withrebounding locksand a Jones under-lever. It was simple,durable and ultrade-pendable. Hollandalso developed andpatented a patternof rifling that mini-mized powder foul-ing, allowing manyaccurate shots with-out cleaning. Thebore tapered nearthe muzzle by .005inch, a feature thatwas found to improve accuracy.Obviously, they were not doingthis independent of the cartridgedesign, and the literature of theday makes oblique references tothe “special” H&H .500 Express(31⁄4 inch) cartridge.

In early 2010, I acquired one ofthese great H&H hammer rifles.When I did, I knew little more

Yet another wrinkle: In thetransition period from blackpowder to smokeless, the am -munition companies loaded“Smokeless for Black” ammuni-tion. Other components, such asbullets, were usually transitionaltoo. This Kynoch .500 Express31⁄4 inch was loaded with a 440-grain solid lead bullet with acopper base, providing the sameprotection as a gas check.

Eley Bros. .500 Express31⁄4 inch brass is exceed-

ingly rare comparedto the common 3-inch

variety. Even when youfind it, however, if it

has been used, it israrely reusable.

The firm of Holland & Hollandswept the field, winning all 10categories. The credit belongedto two men: Henry Holland andhis foreman and chief barrel reg-ulator, William Froome. Hollandwas a gifted rifle designer, whileFroome was the best regulator ofhis generation, as well as beingan excellent marksman. In the tri-als, Froome did all the shooting.

Exactly which cartridge theH&H .500 rifle was chamberedfor, we don’t know. Informationpublished later stated it wasloaded with 136 grains of pow-der, which suggests the older 3inch, yet the stated bullet weightswere either 414 or 435 grains –

August-September 2010

expert riflemen of the day. It didnot make sense to try to second-guess Henry Holland and WilliamFroome. Why not, I thought, findout exactly what this mysteriousoriginal load was and duplicateit? Why not indeed.

A letter to Russell Wilkin, H&H’stechnical director, elicited a lit -tle information. My rifle wasmade “for stock,” not to order fora client, so they had no loadingdata for that particular rifle. AndHolland’s company policy is notto give out specific loading dataanyway. (And who can blamethem?) Still, the information wasuseful: It meant this rifle wasmade to fire a standard load,which very likely was the com-mercial Kynoch ammunition ofthe era.

The .500 (3 inch) used paperpatched bullets, but every illus-tration of the 31⁄4 inch that couldbe found showed a bullet partlyout of the case with lube grooves.As well, while there are refer-ences made to many differentbullet weights in the shorter car-tridge, as far as I could find, thelonger version was loaded onlywith 440- or 480-grain bullets. Inother words, this was a speciallydesigned cartridge intended for a specialized purpose: lions,tigers and comparable beasts.Varmints and plinking were notpart of the plan.

I contacted Bob Hayley, my bul-let-casting and custom-ammuni-tion making friend in Seymour,Texas, and he began diggingthrough his voluminous store ofinformation on British ammuni-tion from the late 1800s. He did-n’t have an appropriate mould inhis 500-plus mould collection,but he did have the Kynoch spec-ification sheets and engineeringdrawings from the 1890s and wasable to order two custom moulds

77www.handloadermagazine.com

What I had was,in 1895, a

state-of-the-artlion rifle.

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Handloader 267

Back to Bob Hayley. “The Britishdidn’t load their cartridges theway we did,” he told me. “Tropicalheat was a huge concern, coupledwith the need for absolute relia-bility. Everything they did wasbased on that.”

Some years ago, Hayley visitedthe Birmingham proof house andspent some time examining itscollection of old cartridges andcomponents. He advised me to

discard any idea of using the various tricks and wrinkles es-poused by America’s black pow-der target shooters of today; theBrits wanted simplicity and relia-bility above all, along with easeof loading. And unlike the buffalohunters of the plains with theirSharps rifles and loading tools,Kynoch and Eley brass were notgoing to be reloaded. All thesefactors played a part in the waythe ammunition was put together.

“Lubrication was extremely im-portant, obviously, but they werealso very concerned that thegrease not melt in the heat andcontaminate the powder,” Bobsaid. “For that reason, they usedpure or almost pure beeswax astheir lubricant. That also allowedthem to dispense with a wad andpack in as much powder as pos-sible.” In lieu of beeswax, weused SPG Bullet Lube, which Bobconsiders the best black-powderlubricant available today, and ithas a high beeswax content.

Kynoch used a 100-to-1 alloy(lead/antimony), but since theantimony was there solely tomake the melted lead cast easily,we dispensed with it and wentwith pure lead, lubed with SPG.

“The British standard for .500-

78

H&H’sUnknownSoldier

Bob Hayley checks chamber compatibility with modern .500 3-inchbrass. Although specifications were standardized so rifles could accom-modate a variety of ammunition, it does not always fit. This is wherethe rule originated to always check chambering of the rounds you arecarrying before you go into the bush after a lion.

This collection of assorted .500 Express brass includes Eley Bros., Kynochand the long-defunct NA&A (National Arms & Ammunition Co. Ltd.).

that would provide us with thebasic bullets needed.

Brass for the 31⁄4 inch is not com-mon; most .500 owners just shootthe 3 inch, which is readily avail-able. But that did not fit my pur-pose. Fortunately, Bertram makesthe longer brass, which is im-ported by Huntington Die Spe-cialties. At almost $4 apiece, thebrass is not cheap, but a man’sgotta do what a man’s gotta do.And no, I didn’t get a discount.

With brass and bullets lookedafter, we moved on to powder. Mydecision that I would shoot onlyblack powder in this rifle wasenormously liberating in a bizarresort of way. At least I could concentrate on black and forgetsmokeless. As all black-powdershooters know, however, theblack powder of today isn’t theCurtis’s & Harvey’s #6 of 120 yearsago. I took Garry James’s recom-mendation of GOEX, and I thentook Chris Hodgdon’s recommen-dation of GOEX Express Fg.

August-September 2010

ably less powerful, as well assofter, and for that reason sug-gested I use standard large pistolprimers. The problem was, pistolprimers are thinner and seatdeeper than rifle primers. So Istuck with Federal’s F215 Match.“And be sure to wipe all the lube off the base of the bullet be-fore you seat it,” Bob added.Right, Boss.

The Field rifle trials involved

shooting 10-shot groups (fiveshots from each barrel) at eachof 50, 100 and 150 yards, for atotal of 30 shots. Results weremeasured by designating the cen-ter of a group, then measuringthe distance to the center of each bullet hole and averagingthose distances. With the H&H.500, William Froome recorded a1.719-inch average – an excellentresult that many, if not most,

modern hunting rifles wouldhave a tough time matching.

Another way of measuringgroups in those days was by a“diagram.” A rectangle was drawnwith the line passing through thecenter of each of the four outly-ing bullet holes, and then the di-mensions of the rectangle weregiven. Froome’s rectangle at 50yards, enclosing 10 shots, was1.8x2.8 inches. I planned to use

the latter as my methodwhen I went to the rangewith the rifle and a supply

of (I hoped) authentic H&H-pattern .500 Express (31⁄4 inch)ammunition. The recorded veloc-ity of Froome’s ammunition was1,784 fps at the muzzle, loadedwith 138 grains of powder andusing either a 414- or 435-grainbullet (reports do not agree).

The Handloader Trials of 2010took place on May 6, 2010, withone (1) entrant, shooting one (1)rifle and 10 rounds of ammuni-

caliber bullets was .509 inch,while ours was .512,” Bob said.So we sized them down from .515inch to .509 in two stages. Thatwas good enough for me; slug-ging the bore of the rifle and dis-covering the .005 inch muzzleconstriction with bore/land diam-eters at the muzzle of .500 and.495 was never far from my mind.

The special H&H “non-fouling”rifling consists of six narrowlands in what looks al-most like a smooth bore,so it grips the bulletwithout setting up much obstruc-tion. Holland and Froome knewhow this would work, and theyalso knew that the rifle might becalled upon to fire ammunitionfrom any of the different makers.

Bob’s last recommendationconcerned primers. While mostblack-powder shooters today recommend large rifle magnumprimers, Bob pointed out that theprimers of 1895 were consider-

79www.handloadermagazine.com

Brass for the 31⁄4 inch is not common.

Handloader 26780 www.handloadermagazine.com

H&H’sUnknownSoldier

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grains of GOEX Express Fg butusing 380-grain bullets and a thinover-powder wad recorded veloc-ities around 1,550 fps – still a farcry from Froome’s 1,784 fps. Ob-viously, something – or things –was very, very wrong.

The question is, what? Suchabysmal accuracy can only be ac-counted for by a bullet that wasnot stabilized by the rifling, wastoo small for the bore or was de-formed as it left the muzzle. Asfor the huge difference in veloc-ity, we already knew that modernblack powder would not measureup to black powder from the late1800s.

Having done my best to deter-mine exactly what componentsH&H and Kynoch used in 1895,and then duplicate those insofaras it is possible with what isavailable now, and then assemblethe ammunition in the manner Ibelieved was as close as possibleto Kynoch’s own method, I wasleft with more questions thanwhen the project began. Car-tridges from that era are seriouscollectors’ items, and I, for one,am not about to pull one apart to see what’s inside, even if I had the exact cartridge, which Idon’t.

So what’s left? We’ll start overbut in an approved “load devel-opment” method: First, I’ll try athin over-powder wad with aharder, 1-20 (lead/tin), 480-grainbullet. Second, I’ll try several dif-ferent powders to see if theyshow any improvement. Third,I’ll jump to a greater diameterbullet – .512 inch, first in purelead, then in a 1-20 alloy.

If none of this works, there isalways a séance. I would love tohear William Froome’s views onall this. •

Out of 10 shots, only six hit thepaper. One struck 2 inches left ofdead center with perfect eleva-tion. The other five were spreadup, down and sideways, with 33inches separating extreme rightfrom extreme left. Where theother four shots went, I have noidea. Between smoke and recoil,I could not see where dirt kickedup in the backstop. On the brightside, if you can call it such, noneof the bullets keyholed or ap-peared to yaw.

I then set up a chronograph andrecorded velocities for two shotsof 1,310 and 1,350 fps – almost500 fps less than Froome’s re-ported velocity. Two other car-tridges, both loaded with 140

tion at 50 yards. This, I felt,would show if I was on the righttrack. To be on the safe side, Iput up a blank sheet of paper 24inches high by 38 inches widewith a bullseye in the center. Ithen fired five shots from eachbarrel, alternating right-left,right-left.

The result was . . . was . . . Dis-astrous? Laughable? Perplexing?Humiliating? All of the above?