Do you remember these phone numbers. Back when I was a lad this is what was used. I was recently paging thru a Sports Afield magazine dated September of 1952. My attention caught the many ads, but very few had phone numbers. Most had a mail address and requested you mail them. How things have changed.In a particular a article on “Adventures in Accuracy” written by Edwards “Pete” Brown.Bryan Gordon’s new wildcat cartridge is unusual- Not so much for what it proves but for what it disproves. This kind of sounds like a negative approach to explaining how Gordon topped a world record by shooting a 10-shot 200 Yard group measuring .744 inch at the DuBois, Pennsylvania, bench rest match in June. In doing it he also upset a lot of pet ideas on how to make a gun shoot with precision.His combination follows the standard bench rest match rifle lines in a number of respects. Rifle-action: F.N. Mauser, Trigger: Canjar set, Barrel: Douglas No. 9, 30 inch length, One and a eighth inch diameter at muzzel. 1-16 twist and 6 lands. Stock: Herters laminated blank, shaped by Bill Humphrey and fitted to this particular rifle by Roy Pullen. Pull: 12 7/8 inch. Weight: 17 pounds with lower stock extension. ( I am not sure but most of you out there can remember Herter’s of
Waseca Minn.) I could talk volumes on this subject. Ammo: .22 Super Gee Gee designed by Gordon. Case length: 2- 1/16 inches. Base: Same as 30/06. Diameter at shoulder .460 inch. Shoulder angle: 30 degrees. Length of neck .410 inch. Load: 34 grains of 3031 Powder with Hornady 55 grain Spire point bullet. Case capacity: 43 grains. of 3031 ( this is not a load but indicates the volume of the case.) To give you a idea, it would be much like the 30×47 of today but would be necked down to .224.The article goes on to say…… Most unusual feature is the way Gordon loads for this rifle. The only tool he uses for reloading this rifle is a de-capper and primer seat. He doesn’t full length resize, neck size , expand the neck, or crimp, from one loading to the next. He merely re-primes the case, drops a powder charge and seats the bullets by hand. Sometimes they drop down the full length of the neck and sometimes thy protrude more. He followed this procedure merely because he found that with this particular rifle, seating to a standard size and crimping didn’t seem to make any difference. When the bullet seats to the full depth of the case neck it must move forward about 1/4 of a inch before it contacts the lands. There is a lower extension to the forend. This extension is made of walnut and is secured to a special floor plate. The extension doesn’t touch the forearm. Thus, when the rifle is rested on the sandbag for shooting the weight of the rifle will always take up at the same point just under the action. The idea if this was to avoid changes in the impact which might be occasioned by not always resting the forearm at the same point on the sandbag. The groove diameter is oversize at .2247 inch; the bore diameter is the standard .219After one has read all of this…. I am sure your question is How in the Sam Hill did this thing even hit the paper. Just when you think you got it all figured out and know what makes things tick…… you read this article when there were not computers in every house and Bench rest was still in its infancy. Anyway, it was a interesting article and I am sure you older gents will get a smile or two out of it. I know I did.