Gary's Gun Notes #19

Hunting season is in full swing across the country and it seems everybody is talking elk, deer, rabbits and squirrels. Huge elk are being taken here in the mountains of Arizona. 7x11s, 8x12s 9x9s and a lot more. The rain we had during the summer has helped develop some monsters.

This Gun Notes is a bit early but I will be extremely busy with Larry Kovach during the next 4 weeks developing new loads for our 510 GNR for the Celebrity Handgun Hunt coming up the first week in December. Kelly Brost has some new 350 grain gas checked LBT bullets for the 510 and hopefully we will have the new gun and ammo ready for the hunt. The gun we used in Africa was the prototype revolver and with non gas checked bullets. With the gas checks we should be able to boost the power level up a bit.

Lots of new items to confuse you with. Freedom Arms has their new 32 H&R revolver out and it can be had with an extra 32-20 cylinder. Jim Taylor says his is extremely accurate.

Kelye at Belt Mountain has some swaged brass bullets out. These are actually machine turned on a screw machine and have a lead core. I have some in 50 caliber that make amazing holes in large critters. Jim Taylor has some in 454 that he has shot 42 inches thru wet newsprint. I didn't measure the depth on the .510 caliber ones I used. I never recovered them as they went thru an 800 pound animal and kept going.

How about a new military cartridge, for the U.S. Military? It's been a while since we had a new one but the military is very disappointed with the 5.56 (223)'s performance in Iraq. So, there is a new cartridge coming out soon. It's the 6.8X43. Now, I know you're saying what the hell is a 6.8. Well it is a 270, 115 grain, traveling at 2650 out of an M-16 16 inch barrel, 2800 out of an 18 inch barrel. Gary Paul Johnston, the gun writer, took the first big game animal with it when he took a large mule deer recently with the 110 grain V Max Hornady bullet. Remington is making the military ammo, 10 million rounds this year. That tells me they are serious about this. Remember the old 30 Remington? It was, for all practical purposes, the 30-30 in a rimless case. The new 6.8 is the 30 Remington necked down to 270. It looks amazingly like the 7.62X39. This new cartridge is very hush hush but I had a box of them in my hot little hands so they do exist.

How about a new handgun cartridge? Glock has their new 45 Glock out. That's the name of the cartridge. It's a short cartridge the same length as the 9mm with a 200 grain bullet doing 950 FPS. Cor Bon apparently has a 165 grain 45 caliber bullet that some people think will do 1200 fps in the new pistol.

How about a new rifle round? Ruger has a very hush hush new round coming out called the 204 Ruger. For all practical purposes it is a 222 magnum necked down to 20 cal.  It sports a 32 grain V Max bullet that screams at 4225 fps. Ruger has run over 1000 rounds thru one rifle and it shows no throat erosion. This I imagine is because of the design of the powder. Long strand powder eats a barrel up while spherical powders are a lot more gentle on it. The new 204 Ruger ammo is being made by the fine folks at Hornady. Expect to see the new rifle in several different variations from the All Weather model 77 to the Ruger #1 Varminter.

Larry Kovach's www.cartridgeperformance.com is going strong. He has 41 GNR loaded ammo in 25 round boxes ready to ship and the 410 GNR will be out by next week. 510 GNR will be right behind that and others will be joining them very soon. This is absolute top of the line ammo. He and I will be using it in December on the hunt down in Texas at the Y.O. Ranch in our 410's and 510's.

The 500 S&W cartridge is doing extremely well, despite Smith & Wesson's problems with the revolver. The problems seem to be minor ones but must be irritating as hell. In the latest issue of the SCI magazine there is a Cape buff and an elephant taken with it. Both were taken with the Cor Bon 440 grain hard cast bullet. Kelly Brost at Cast Performance makes the bullets so they must be good. The cape was taken with one shot which didn't really surprise me as 2 of my close friends have taken Cape buff with our 410 GNR, one of them with one shot. Them, plus my buff and Larry Kovachs American Bison join the list of large critters taken with it.

The elephant taken on that same hunt didn't go down with one shot but again that didn't surprise me. Elephant take a lot of killing. Even with a lung shot they sometimes go for miles before piling up dead.

The Shot Show is coming up in Las Vegas in another couple of months and all these new toys will be released to the public at that time. I figured you might want to know about them a bit sooner.

Til next month, have a good hunt.

 


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