As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is a shame no one really cares about the intricacies any more about bullets and loadings in cartridges, but simply purchase whatever is offered in power points, jacketed hollow points or whatever is available.
I delight in such things and smile whenever I come across old articles of hunters using various bullets, powders and loadings to read of their experiences in use on big game.
I found a mention by a grizzly bear hunter of his loadings for big game, and was of interest as he killed a number of them, and that alone was quite rare.
He was using a Sharps buffalo rifle, which was a single shot, and in wading through the Choctaw of it, as loadings were not just 40 Smith and Wesson as they are now, as sometimes it was the length of the shell casing or the powder charge which showed up in the load.
This load was an "express bullet". That tells little, but most lead bullets were of a mix of 1 part tin to 9 to 13 of lead to make the soft lead more hard, to penetrate into large game.
Modern methods created jacketed bullets of copper alloys, compartments or teflon tips to aid in the quick killing of the beastie.
This grizzly load which was used on elk and sheep, both large animals, was a Sharps 45 caliber, 340 grain express ball, and a 2 inch casing filled with a powder called, C & H No. 6.
Obviously there were at least 5 other powders or this was the formula in the 6th being a success. It is easy to deduce from experience, that this was a FFg or coarse large bore powder, which in size was designed to burn more slowly and not cause explosive pressures in the old gun iron barrels.
This load would list something like Sharps 45 105 340 or 45 340 2". The standard rule was a 2 inch casing held about 100 grains of black powder and the 2 1/2 inch shell held 150 grains in the Sharps Buffler Rifle put out at the end of the buffalo range career.
This load flew 7.01 inches above trajectory at 200 yards.
This load killed 38 bears, 22 with one shot, and several that almost killed the bar' hunter.
The grizzly expert states that this 340 grain ball is equal to the approximate powder charge of 100 grains as a heavier bullet would but too much burden on the charge.
This takes one into the realm of powders in this hunter was not aware of Charles Meyer findings as a gun crank, in he burned British powder, which produced a moister and more energetic explosion, in his pet load was I believe a 40 90 420, which killed as far as he could see a buffalo and was equal to any big 45 or 50 to the task.
He then swerves into his gun crank devil in the details in he is using a 44 caliber ball, with three paper patches on the bullet to make the ball 45 caliber. Paper patching was placed on a bullet in called nitro paper, some used thin antelope skins, as a gas seal like an O ring on a rocket, to utilize the full power of the charge and not have it blow by the rifling before the bullet left the barrel.
Rifling for those who do not know, is groves and lands cut into a barrel to make a bullet slowly rotate to keep it on target. It is why golf balls have dimples in them to break up air deflection.
That is why all of this matters in the nuances of the loads are vital to not being eaten by grizzlies or gored by buffalo.
He kindly lists his light deer load too, in a 40 caliber, 100 grains of powder and a 270 grain bullet, which creates a 6 inch arc to place the bullet on target at 200 yards.
Apparently an eighth of a mile was the hunting distances for this guy.
He used 5% tin for the heavy bullets and 8% tin for the lighter deer loads. I am not going to do the ratios for you in the conversion.
In closing on this feature of history, D. W. Pickett, who was the bear killer, liked for his shotgun a most perplexing instrument.
It was a double barrel, but he liked a 20 gauge, made by Bland & Sons of London, chambered for Kynoch brass shells.
A 20 is a delightful little popper to shoot, and in the hands of a gunner, they do well with modern loadings, but this gun was of that 2 1/2 inch genre which is hardly a goose gun. I have found it is hardly a long range dove shell, but D. W. liked this for busting ducks, grouse, jackrabbits, magpies and skunks all in a whispy 6 pound gun.
He does not relate drams or shot, as most riflemen thought shotguns as so much a fry pan in you used what you had.
It is though a historical reference for me to record for when I will be wealthy enough to go off and play with my own buffalo rifle. I doubt I have time to ever introduce myself to a grizzly, but for meat I would intend to enrich some Indian tribe of a purchase of a buffalo or two, to see what it was all about, as shooting Angus steers just does not have the same allure as some shaggy beast.
Enough of this.
agtG
