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Number 106 - July-August 1986 - Volume 18, Number 4 FEATURES Publisher and Editor Assistant Publisher Assistant Editor Production Supervisor Circulation Manager The 9mm Can Be Accurate.... C.E. Harris 20 The Innovative Sauer 200....Jon Swndra 24 Postscript: Return of the.250 Savage and the.257 Roberts...... WilfPyle 27 As I Remember Julian Hatcher.Ludwig Olson 30 Personalized.338 Elk Rifle....Gary Sloan 32 A Modern Takedown Model 94...Joe Poyer 34 Updating a Pair of '93 Mausers...Dave Webb 36 Maybe It's Your Target... Wayne van Zwoll 38 DEPARTMENTS Spotting Scope....5 Aiming for Answers...18 Capitol Watch...6 American Gunmakers...19 Air Rifles.....10 Book Reviews...54 Classic Rifles...12 ProducTests...59 Dear Editor...14 Product & Service News...66 Staff Photographer Famous Riflemen...16 Trophy Pointers...70 R.T. Wolfe, Ph.D. ON THE COVER Remington's synthetic-stocked Model 700 Custom KS Mountain Rifles are available in six different calibers in both left and right-handed actions. The left-handed.375 HbH in the photograph is adorned with a 2 % ~ Redfield, held in place by Redfield rings and mounts. Photo by Dave Culver. Mike Venturino COPYRIGHT 1986 Rifle Magazine is published bi-monthly by Wolfe Publishing Co, Inc (Dave Wolfe, President), 6471 Air- ing rates furnished on request All rights reserved Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published data, or from recanmendations by any member of The Staff No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the editor Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied 4 Change of address please give six weeks notice Send both old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept, Rifle Magazine. 6471 Airpark Drive, Prescott, Arizona 86302 RIFLE 106
LTHOUGH DALE STOREY A builds custom bolt action rifles and shotguns, his specialty is what he calls the Storey Conversion. He starts by slicking up a Winchester Model 94 action and installing a Bauska barrel. Various options include a quarter rib with express sights, an integral front sight ramp and integral sling swivel eye. A curved steel buttplate is fitted to the highly figured stock and the forearm terminates with a custom steel nose cap. Fine line checkering completes the package. Storey says that minute-of-angle accuracy for three-shot groups is quite common from his conversion if the proper loads are used. Storey developed an interest in firearms while growing up on a Montana ranch. Prior to becoming a fulltime gunsmith in 1981, he worked at the trade part-time for almost 20 years. He also worked for two other gunsmiths, V.M. Starr and Martin (Swede) Erickson. What Storey likes most about gunmaking is the independence usually associated with the trade and the opportunity to experiment with various firearms and caliber combinations. Storey advises anyone with a desire to enter the field to obtain an education in running a business first. He goes on to say that trade schools are highly worthwhile but they teach only the most elementary skills. A new graduate will soon find that operating a shop requires much more experience in the trade as well as a knowledge of business management. He feels that the future of fledgling gunmakers is good, Dale Storey especially those who possess the tenacity and desire to perform nothing but top quality work. Dale defines the term custom rifle as a firearm designed and built by a gunmaker to fit the specific needs of a customer. It is unique in many ways and of quality far superior to that of a mass-produced firearm. He also opines that a true custom stock is one a craftsman has shaped, inletted, finished and checkered totally by hand without the aid of power tools. When building a custom rifle, Storey prefers to use only what he considers the best of materials and time-proven actions such as the 98 Mauser, Pre-64 Model 70, Remington Model 700 and Ruger Model 77. His preferences in shotguns are the Winchester Models 21 and 101. Unless a customer specifies otherwise, he uses Bauska barrels exclusively. In the accessory department he likes Conetrol, Weaver and Buehler scope mounts: Marble and Williams sights and Pachmayr recoil pads. In his book, a hunting rifle should have a satin oil finish in its wood and the metal should be bead-blasted prior to blueing. To obtain the best accuracy from a rifle, Storey seeks concentricity between receiver and barrel by lapping the locking lugs and by facing off the bolt face and receiver ring face. He is also a strong believer in synthetic bedding materials. Storey does not think it is humanly possible to attain a uniform fit between receiver and stock, one that eliminates uneven stress on the receiver, without the use of bedding materials. According to Storey, it takes more than an ability to assemble parts to produce an accurate rifle. A gunsmith must realize that two seemingly identical rifles can vary considerably in accuracy and what makes one shoot well may not work on the other. It is the ability to seek out those differences that separates a top gunmaker from the mediocre. Storey s requirement from a lightweight mountain rifle is % to oneinch groups at 100 yards. Storey s goal is to be recognized as a leading builder of rifles ranging from lightweight arms for high cougtry hunting to those of heavy caliber for use on dangerous game. Also a hunter, he enjoys trips in pursuit of elk, deer, pronghorn and turkey. The.22-250 is a favorite for varmints while he picks the.270 Winchester as best all-arounder for big game up to black bear in sue. Storey builds 15 to 20 rifles each year and can usually deliver within six months after receiving a 50 percent deposit. Test targets are shipped with the rifle. A brochure is available from 1764 S. Wilson, Casper WY 82601. 0 The Storey 94 Conversion: a new octagonal barrel with an integral sling eye, a shortened magazine and selected American walnut buttstock and forearm add up to a handsome, accurate rifle. JULY-AUGUST 1986 19
%e Best of T I Colonel ownsen d Eelen i- The Best of Colonel Townsend Whelen: Approximately 500 pages, 6'/,x9lh inches, with more than 75 photographs from Colonel Whelen's private collection. These books are custom-bound in genuine pigskin, gold embossed, each with gilded pages, real hubs on spine, ribbon marker, silk moire endpapers, and a beautifully finished slipcase. Through a special arrangement with Amwell Press, Wolfe Publishing is making available only to readers of Rife and Handloader magazines a very limited number of these books of which only 1,000 were printed. These books originally sold for $100.00 but this exclusive offer from Wolfe Publishing makes them available for only $80.00 plus $2.50 shipping and handling. Remember, there is a limited supply of these books left, so don't miss the opportunity to take advantage pf this savings, order yours today. Send check or money order fofs82.50 in U.S. funds to: Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc. 6471 Airparkhive Prescott, AZ 86301 _-.---- L (Arizona residents add 7%) (602) 445-781 0 [m] M-F 8:30-4:30 d
C.E. Harris HE 9xl9MM PARABELLUM is T the most widely used automatic pistol and submachine gun cartridge in the world. Originally developed by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) in 1902, it was adopted by the German Navy in 1904, the German Army in 1908, was widely used by both sides in two global wars, and standardized by NATO in 1954. The U.S. Army decided to adopt a 9mm handgun in 1955 but large stocks of serviceable.45 M1911A1 handguns resulted in postponement of the action. By the late 1970s, supplies of serviceable.45 pistols were dwindling. In addition, the military services were armed with a hodgepodge of.38caliber revolvers, a situation which was less than satisfactory. After several trials, considerable controversy and a number of false starts, the 9mm Beretta Model 92SB-F was finally selected as the Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) in 1985. The inaccurate WW 11-era Parabellum submachine gun cartridge has been replaced with a highly accurate and efficient 9mm service round, the XM882, which is being developed jointly by Federal Cartridge and Olin Corp. The XM882 fires a 124-grain full metal jacket, roundnosed bullet at 1,230 fps from the Beretta pistol or 1,300 fps from a submachine gun. It is some of the most accurate 9mm service ammunition in the world, producing an average Mean Radius of an inch to an inch and a half at 50 yards. That equals an extreme spread of three to four inches for lo-shot groups. The popularity of the 9mm cartridge among U.S. shooters today is undoubtedly the result of the PDW trials and the selection of a 9mm handgun to replace the.45 automatic as our military sidearm. Now that the 9mm is officially our service round, it is reasonable to expect that it will see increased use in military and conventional target shooting. The 9mm cartridge is also gaining favor among U.S. law enforcement agencies who have discovered what Europeans have known for 75 years, that the 9mm is a highly accurate and efficient service cartridge. The state police of Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut have adopted 9mm handguns to replace their.357 Magnum service revolvers. Federal agencies, including the FBI, the Secret Service and Park Police, also issue 9mm handguns to personnel on bodyguard and counter-terrorist assignments. It is only a matter of time before the 9mm becomes the standard by which U.S. automatic pistol cartridges are judged. The 9mm Parabellum has not been noted for its accuracy, because most of
the arms chambered for it are tnilitary, intended primarily for rough and ready field use rather than fine grouping on the target range. It should be remembered that the same was true of the.45 ACP until the late 1950s when tinkerers like Lt. Col. Bill Brophy of the Army Marksmanship Unit started accurizing the old monkey wrench. Once military teams have had a few years to experiment with the new Berettas, you ll see 9mm target autos appearing in the centerfire matches at Camp Perry, just as they are now being used by some practical pistol competitors. Given good bullets in properly loaded ammunition, good barrels and correct chambering, the 9mm boasts the same inherent target accuracy as any other conventional handgun round. Its potential grouping is fully equal to the.38 Special or.45 ACP which we are accustomed to depend on for target work, Ammunition quality is the key. Ordinary.45 ACP ball ammunition seldom shoots 10-shot groups smaller than five to six inches at 50 yards from a test barrel. National Match ball can shoot groups half the size of most ordinary ball ammunition, about two to three inches for 10-shot groups from a test barrel. It s seldom that a lot of match ball can shoot 10-shot groups smaller than two inches at 50 yards. Wadcutter loads from.45 ACP and.38 Special test barrels frequently beat the two-inch mark, but even the best lots seldom keep all 10 rounds in 1% inches at 50 yards. It is a rare target pistol that can. Alberts 9mm swaged alloy bullets delivered good accuracy in Ed s tests, as long as muzzle velocities were limited to 1,000 fps. In the photo above, they are (1) a 130grain hollowpoint, sectioned; (2) a 130-grain hollowpoint, unsectioned; (3) a 125grain roundnose, which duplicates the NATO bullet s profile; (4) a 125grain experimental semiwadcutter; and (5) a loaded round for comparison. Right, Ed found that the (6) 125-grain RCBS RNGC and (7) H&G No. 7 were the most accurate cast bullets he tested. equal the accuracy of a Mann barrel, so test barrel figures are the best the competitor can hope for; the ragged-hole bragging groups pasted inside competitor s pistol boxes are the result of chance. To assess the potential accuracy of 9mm ammunition, some typical factory loads were tested by one of the ammunition companies in a SAAMI four-inch accuracy barrel shot from a Universal Receiver in a return-to-battery rest, I also built a test rig using a Remington 788 action with 24-inch bull barrel rifled and chambered to the same specifications as the SAAMI accuracy barrel. It was glued into a fiberglass stock and shot from sandbags with a 24x scope. Later, I did some testing at a government facility where I had the opportunity to fire different loads for ac- Now that the Beretta 92zSB-F (above) has been chosen to become the official sidearm of the U.S. armed forces, the 9mm Parabellum cartridge is bound to undergo more extensive development. On the opposite page, the test guns used by author Harris: a bull-barreled Remington Model 788 chambered for the 9mm and a Browning Hi-Power with some of its test barrels. The nose of the NATO bullet, on the left, is more blunt than those of most commercial fulljacketed 9mm bullets which usually resemble the Remington version (center). Ed had nothing but praise for Sierra s 115-grain Power Jacket, on the right. His tests proved it a superbly accurate bullet. curacy from the Heckler & Koch MP5A3 submachine gun at 100 yards. Those tests proved that the inherent accuracy of 9mm ammunition is about the same whether you fire it from a four-inch SAAMI accuracy barrel, a good submachine gun with an eightinch barrel or from an accurate test rifle. Velocity increases with barrel length, as you might expect, but no significant velocity gains are realized with barrels longer than 16 inches and grouping is more dependent on ammunition and barrel quality than barrel length. In testing factory loads, three consecutive 10-shot groups were fired indoors at 50 yards from the SAAMI accuracy barrel. Federal 123-grain full metal jackets (FMJs) averaged 3.4 inches; Winchester 115-grain FMJs, 5.0 inches; Remington 124-grain FMJs, 4.9 inches; and Canadian Mk. I Ball NATO A360 cartridges made by IVI in 1979 averaged 3.5 inches. Firing the same types of ammunition in the Remington 788 bench gun, five consecutive 10-shot groups averaged 2.7 inches with Federal, 4.7 inches with Remington and 3.3 inches with IVI. The MP5 submachine gun with iron sights averaged 9.6 inches at 100 yards RIFLE 106 21
Barrel length for barrel length, 9mm revolvers churn up slightly higher muzzle velocities than autoloaders. The velocities recorded by the Ruger Speed Six in the photo will usually equal or slightly exceed those delivered by Ed's Browning with its 4.7-inch barrel when both are fed the same ammunition. The Canadian A360 round contains 6.5 grains of a French spherical powder and a 11 5-grain full-jacketed bullet. The latter has a cupped base and a lead core. This round generates a muzzle velocity around 1,200 fps from a typical four-inch barrel autoloader. Velocity Vs. Barrel Length of Typical 9mm Parabellum Ammunition Vel. (fps) Instrumental at 15 feet for 10 rounds DiStOl SMG Uzi carbine ammunition &inch barrel' &inch barrel" 16-inch barrel special lest 24-inch barrel WWll German Pist. Patr. '08 m.e., 100-gr. steel core ak St 6-44 1,335 1,435 1,466 1,525 Czech Vz48, 100-gr. steel core, bxn +16 51 1,238 1,387 1,419 1,467 NATO A360, Canadian Mk.1, 115-gr. lead core, lot 304-1\11-79 1,214 1,330 1,412 1,494 CCI Lawman, 100-gr. JHP 1,249 1,387 1,566 1,604 CCI Blazer, 115-gr. FMJ 1,213 1,336 Federal, 115gr. JHP 1,156 1,263 1,305 1,385 Federal, 123.gr. FMJ 1,057 1,177 1,197 1,187 Remington, 115-gr. JHP 1,156 1,263 1,305 1,385 Remington, 124-gr. FMJ 1,093 1,169 1,305 1,320 Winchester, 115-gr. FMJ 1,099 1,292 1,344 1,342 Winchester, 115-gr. STHP 1,216 1,321 Selected Handloads 115-gr. Sierra, JHP R-P case, Fed. 100, 4.8 grs. Bullseye, OAL 1.09" 1,206 1,395 115-gr. Sierra, JHP F-C case, W108, 5.8 grs. Unique, OAL 1.09" 1,213 1,427 125-gr. Sierra, FMJRN F-C case, Fed. 100, 5.8 grs. Unique, OAL 1.16" 1,118 1,347 124-gr. Hornady, FMJ FN F-C case, W108, 4.8 grs. Bullseye, OAL 1.09'' 1,141 1,355 115-gr. Sierra, JHP F-C case, W108, 6.5 grs. Unique, OAL 1.09" 1,274 1,529 * Velocities obtained from author's accumulated chronograph records using various pistols including the S&W 459, HK P7, Walther P5, Walther P.38 and Luger P.08. ** Einch SMG velocities based on firings in NATO test barrel or HK MP5A3. with Remington and 8.8 inches with CCI Blazer for five consecutive 10-shot groups. Putting a scope on a 9mm carbine such as the Uzi or HK54 would undoubtedly shrink those groups by reducing sighting error. Jacketed hollowpoint bullets also group better than those clad in full metal jackets. I had no trouble whatever getting one-inch, five-shot or inch and a half, 10-shot groups with the Sierra 115-grain Power Jacket, or 115-grain Hornady jacketed hollowpoint bullets from the Remington 788 at 50 yards with standard handgun charges of 4.8 grains of Bullseye or 6.0 grains of Unique. Sierra 125-grain or Hornady 124-grain full-metal-jacketed bullets would consistently shoot two inches for five-shot or three inches for 10-shot groups at 50 yards, using 4.6 grains of Bullseye or 5.8 grains of Unique. All handloads were assembled in Federal cases with Winchester primers on a Lee Turret Press with Auto Index and Auto-Disk Measure. Cartridges were separately taper. crimped to.375-inch mouth diameter, and cartridge length was 1.15 inches. The accuracy of typical 9mm handguns does not even approach-the inherent accuracy of the ammunition. Nearly all military handguns of this caliber deliver the same accuracy at 25 yards, for an identical number of shots, as an accuracy test barrel will at 50 yards with the same ammunition. Tenshot groups of two to three inches with good jacketed hollowpoints and from three to five inches with ball bullets are about what can be expected unless you tinker with the gun considerably. An as-issued GI.45 pistol does the same unless it is accurized. Accurized.45 pistols can approach, and in rare cases equal, test barrel performance of the ammunition. It is reasonable to expect that when we gain comparable experience with the 9mm, it will be a good performer for target work. Most important in any accurking procedure is to obtain a quality barrel with uniform dimensions and smooth interior finish. Accuracy also requires that the barrel have a concentric chamber of proper form and headspace, which fits the pistol with minimal end and vertical play so that it returns to battery consistently after each shot. Optimizing the twist rate to impart 22 RIFLE 106
I ideal gyroscopic stability for the intended bullet is also necessary. The traditional 10-inch twist used in 9mm barrels is intended to provide quicker stabilization and maximum penetration for military use, and is much faster than needed to stabilize 95 to 125-grain bullets at velocities from 1,000 to 1,300 fps. The.38 Special and.357 Magnum fire bullets of similar diameter at the same range of velocities with twist rates from 14 to 18% inches. They give excellent accuracy, far better than most 9mm pistols. Experiments by US. arms makers determined that rifling twist, chamber configuration and other factors greatly influence the potential accuracy of 9mm handguns. Such testing led S&W to change the rifling in its 9mm pistols from 10 to 18% inches, and to modify the chambers. Custom 9mm barrels such as those made by Bar-Sto share similar features. In order to assess the potential improvement in accuracy which would be gained by such changes in typical 9mm pistols, I decided to take an average pistol of proven performance and test it with a group of different barrels. The Browning High Power is a well known 9mm military pistol, having a fine reputation for durability, It is the standard service handgun of the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Australia and several other countries. The High Power is used for service pistol competition in Canada and presents a realistic standard for comparison. In Canada, most accuracy improvement with the FN Browning is obtained by barrel replacement, selective fitting, better sights and trigger jobs. No tightening of slide or frame rails is done due to their softer steels (compared to M1911A1.45 pistols) and because such steps rarely improve grouping, but may affect functioning. I had five experimental barrels fitted to my FN Browning which I tested in addition to the original 10-inch twist JULY-AUGUST 1986 9mm Parabellum Chambers (Continued on page 46) saw Bar-Sto SAAMI I W current standard current pre-1976 A,395,395,395 B,3946,3946,3913 C,3813,3813,3810 D minimum,754,750,754 0 maximum,768.755,776 E (freebore),070,120 none F (angle) 30 20 20 G (throat entrance).357,357,358 number of grooves 5 6 6 6 twist 18% 16 10 10 groove diameter,3540 +.0015,3555 +,0010,3550 groove width,114 +,003,120.lo0 +,002.115 bore diameter,3540 +,0015,346 -,001.346 FMJ RN Unique 5.6 H S-6 6.8 WW 231 4.9 Blue Dot 7.5 Blue Dot 8.0 All dimensions in inches. All twists right hand, one turn in length indicated. 9mm Barrel Twist and Chamber Comparison military and commercial loads of nominal 1,148 fps equals velocity of U.S. XM882 23