"How to write a mediocre load book" second revision
Clark Magnuson
Accurate Arms, Hodgdon, IMR, Vihtavuori, and Winchester.
Ignore Norma, Nobel, Rex, Scot, and Ramshot.
2) Buy the load manuals from the Powder manufacturers that sell them;
Accurate Arms, Hodgdon, and Vihtavuori.
3) Buy the load manuals from the Bullet manufacturers that sell them;
Speer, Sierra, Hornady, Lyman, and Nosler.
Ignore Barnes, Swift, A-Square, and Lapua.
4) Load development:
You need safety margin. If you don't know what that is, put some popcorn
in the microwave for one hour. The instructions on the bag say 2
minutes, and smoke stinks up the lunchroom in 10 minutes.
It stinks up the whole building in 15 minutes.
That [10 - 2] = 8 minutes is safety margin.
5) Writing the loads part of the book:
Reduce the powder manufacturer's max load by 5%. That is your max load.
Reduce your max load by 10%.
That is your starting load.
Paraphrase any anecdotes about the caliber written in the bullet
manufacturer's load books.
6) Calibrating test equipment:
The only thing that counts is a calibration sticker. To make one, on a
piece of paper, write, "Popcorn: minimum 1.8 minutes, not to exceed 2.1
minutes". Tape that paper to the front of the microwave. Your equipment
is now calibrated.
7) The other stuff in the book:
Find someone who handloads and take pictures of his hands while he loads
a cartridge.
Paraphrase the pages of text in the load books you bought; accuracy,
safety, blah, blah, blah...
8) Try to do a good job:
With $200 outlay and an afternoon's work you can sell 10,000 books at
$10 each wholesale and $3 each to have printed, you will make enough
money to pay the rent for a year.
HOW TO REVISE YOUR LOAD BOOK.
1) Wait at least a year, or until the first printing has sold, whichever
comes last.
2) Get the latest free load data from the powder manufacturers.
3) Look for any new powders or calibers that were not in your first edition.
4) To add these new loads, reduce the loads by 5% for max load, and that
by 10% for starting loads.
5) Charge $12 wholesale per book. Make the money last until you write
the 3rd edition.
Cross marketing:
Find some guy who makes benchrest bullets in his garage and get drunk
with him. Fix him up with your sister. If you could start selling his
bullets by featuring them in your book, you would both benefit. You
could find some surplus "blems" to fill in the product line, and he and
your sister may spawn a gun culture dynasty.
The End
Editor's note:
Last year when we first announced the "How to make a mediocre load book"
project, we used some different data. Someone suggested that it was fear
of law suits that made us change. Nothing could be further from the
truth. It was just that some new very powerful Asian microwaves were not
compatible with Beareto's Organic Popcorn. And we found a way to more
accurately measure time. The hour glass technology we were using has
been replaced with quartz-crystal oscillators and flip flop based
counters driving blinking light emitting diode displays. We feel that
the load book writer should start at 1.8 minutes popcorn microwave time
and work up carefully looking for burning signs and never exceeding 2.1
minutes.
We have received some personal messages asking if it was the Lee book
lifting data or the Speer 12 and 13 making up pressures and velocities
that the project is about. Neither could be further from the truth. In
actual fact, we are all about that an average American has the
opportunity, in few hours and for a few hundred dollars to write a
mediocre load book on a par with many of the other mediocre load books
available today.
As an addendum I hasten to add: We have had some complaints that 2.1
minutes will not pop all the kernels, and some load book writers have
been exceeding our published limits. This is dangerous and foolish. If
there is a fire in which someone dies, the load book writer making the
pop corn could be tried for murder.
It is much better to be safe and sane and spit out the "old maids" that
don't pop.
--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Learn about rec.guns at http://www.recguns.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
Roy Studer
page, or will a footnote be okay? Roy Studer
"Clark Magnuson" <c.mag...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:boghkj$eh1$1...@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
> ...
edition.
> ...
atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.
J David Phillips
You totally forgot about Beano, and what it does to velocity. At least,
it reduces mine a LOT.
J David Phillips
Crystal River, Florida, 34429
352-795-2777
" Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their Country."
flm...@tampabay.rr.com
"Clark Magnuson" <c.mag...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:boghkj$eh1$1...@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
# 1) Get all the free load data from powder manufacturers; Alliant,
# Accurate Arms, Hodgdon, IMR, Vihtavuori, and Winchester.
# Ignore Norma, Nobel, Rex, Scot, and Ramshot.
Clark Magnuson
J David Phillips wrote:
#Geeeesh Clark;
# You totally forgot about
#
Flim Flam,
Forgetting is natural for me.
I once set the microwave popcorn to 45 minutes, walked off, and ....
what was I writing about?
--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Clark Magnuson
#Clark, If I use your outline, do I have to credit you on the dedication
#page, or will a footnote be okay? Roy Studer
#
#
Roy,
I am going to write a book myself, so you should hurry and publish yours
before mine crowds all else off the shelf.
My thoughts:
1) About as many guns are blown up from bore obstructions as too much
powder. Therefore the safest load would be one half way between a stuck
bullet and case or gun failure.
I have 100 guns that cost less than $100 and I can do the testing
myself. More scars don't scare me. "My friends think I'm ugly, I gotta
masculine face." -Tom Waits
2) Readers will pay $ to read the velocities of my overloads. Like
watching Jack Ass Videos, there is vicarious pleasure in reading about
some nut getting more velocity out of a 100 year old 380 than any
factory 357 mag ammo offers.
3) My adventures with microwave pop corn continue to be a great
engineering modeling tool for handloading. I set the controls for 45
minutes and walked away at work. 400 people in suffered the smoke and
stink. At home I did the same thing, and the cooling fins of the
magnatron filled with smoke tar. Every time the microwave was used, the
stink came back. Washing out the magnatron with soap and water works,
but firing up the microwave without drying out the high voltage
transformer resulted in a secondary failure. Domestic tension and a new
microwave followed. This is allot like life: mistakes are compunded by
more mistakes, and then there is the belief we are wiser. My book will
spread such wisdom.
--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.
Rigger
<c.mag...@comcast.net> wrote:
# 3) My adventures with microwave pop corn continue to be a great
# engineering modeling tool for handloading.
If you keep this up, Schumer/Feinstein are gonna hear about you & add
microwaves & popcorn to the AWB renewal...
I can just see it now; the "Magnuson Assault Kitchen Appliances Ban".
--
Dave Vick
NRA, MCRGO, MRPA
Tank: "Okay; whaddya need... Besides a miracle?"
Neo: "Guns... Lots of guns."
Clark Magnuson
#
## 3) My adventures with microwave pop corn continue to be a great
## engineering modeling tool for handloading.
#
#
#If you keep this up, Schumer/Feinstein are gonna hear about you & add
#microwaves & popcorn to the AWB renewal...
#
#
#
To learn to develop one's own loads from scratch, first one should study
the way of the popcorn master, but I think the potential for terrorism
is there.
The timing function on some microwaves make them a ticking time bomb.
A smoke bomb of overcooked popcorn could be set up and the perpetrators
could be long gone when the building is evacuated.
It is a situation that calls for legislation or at the least an
amendment to the national fire code:
1) No more that twenty boxes of popcorn stored in an office cafeteria.
2) Pop corn must be stored in the original microwave popcorn bags.
Let's just hope that the Carnivore program is sensitive to the words;
"popcorn", "microwave", and "timer".
--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Turbinator
# engineering modeling tool for handloading. I set the controls for 45
# minutes and walked away at work. 400 people in suffered the smoke and
# stink. At home I did the same thing, and the cooling fins of the
# magnatron filled with smoke tar. Every time the microwave was used, the
# stink came back. Washing out the magnatron with soap and water works,
# but firing up the microwave without drying out the high voltage
# transformer resulted in a secondary failure. Domestic tension and a new
# microwave followed. This is allot like life: mistakes are compunded by
# more mistakes, and then there is the belief we are wiser. My book will
# spread such wisdom.
This is hilarious! How do you come up with such comedy? :)
Turby
David Steuber
# This is hilarious! How do you come up with such comedy? :)
You actually think Clark was making all that up? He only posts first
hand experience.
--
One Emacs to rule them all. One Emacs to find them,
One Emacs to take commands and to the keystrokes bind them,
All other programming languages wish they were Lisp.