THE INVENTIVE MINDS.....
of the shootists.......PACO

I couldn’t begin to list all the inventions that various members of the SHOOTISTS have come up with, to make the life of the shooter/reloader easier and more enjoyable. But I will touch on some of them....

the SGB tool. It is so good a national ammo company put Allen’s 22 RF bullet on the market as the SGB (small game bullet) but without giving Allen any compensation or credit.......

The tool creates the SGB bullet. It’s for 22 rimfires. And 22 rimfires, any make becomes extremely effective after a trip thru Allen’s tool. Ever hit a squirrel with a 22 RF and have it run off? Well if you had spent two seconds with the cartridge in Allen’s tool first...that squirrel would have traveled only in one direction....to the ground. As the not so good photo of the two rimfire bullets show the tool cuts the nose clean and absolutely flat. So it transmits all of it’s muzzle energy.

I like cutting the nose off hollow points...they then tend to open as they are supposed to out to longish ranges for a rimfire. One of the problems with the RFs is they slip thru flesh, not transmitting any energy so a shot outside of the brain or spine, isn’t quickly effective. The little animal may die latter but that isn’t what any decent hunter wants. I have had rimfires slip right thru lungs of small game and vermin without any immediate effect. I have never had that happen with a SGB rimfire.

We had a feral cat that found out my wife was feeding the song birds....this nasty little critter would hide up in the tree the seed feeder was hung on....and jump the birds when they came in and landed on the branches. I caught him in the tree one day, and put a standard velocity 22 RF that had been cut to SGB in his ear...from a window where he couldn’t see me.

Any bullet placed in the same spot would have done the business...even a standard 22 that wasn’t cut...but the point is the damage that bullet created...beyond the normal uncut 22s, was extensive to the extreme...it appeared the cat was shot with a 22 MagRF solid from a handgun.

When you have the tool Allen taught me the quick way to cut the bullet noses...using a file to cut them takes too long. He showed me a pair of wire cutters he had held the face of the cutters to a grind stone and flattened them....then they can be used to snip the bullet noses...and they come out flat. I can do 50 rounds in about four minutes....

I have spoken about the FREECHEC tool before. It was designed to make gas checks from aluminum cans. Hence the name Free Checks....I invented it back in the 1980s but it was the genius of Ed Wosika that developed it into a workable tool. Today that little tool can be had for any caliber cast bullet. But the best part is it can be had for plain base cast bullet designs.

I have several...the one for my 357 plain base also makes a FreeChec for the check designed bullets in .375...works for both. The nice thing about aluminum pop or beer cans isn’t just the free material...it’s the material’s ability to resist lead fouling much better then the copper gas checks. Being soft the aluminum not only seals the bore behind the cast bullet 100% but it also cleans out the lead fouling somewhat. I have loaded bullets checked with them backwards and they have even cleaned out heavy lead fouling, some copper fouling and powder/dirt and lube, etc....

I have purchased sheet aluminum from Ace Hardware...it’s a little thicker and a little denser then pop cans....for heavy loads in my very large bore rifles. Or not having that, I have used double thickness pop can material....you can work with these tools to get good accuracy and fouling protection. My understanding is Ed’s and Dennis’ company ‘ The Hanned Line’ is manufacturing them also.

Back in the early 1980s when I was the Technical Editor for the FOULING SHOT.. The newsletter or bimonthly magazine as it is now...for the Cast Bullet Association I wrote about fire lapping barrels. It has become a standard thing to talk of in gunzines now, with everyone saying he or she invented the process. Actually it was invented about the time serpentine lock muzzle loaders were invented in the 17 century.

I have mixed semifine to micro fine compound into my formula lube...with a few important changes in the character of the lube...lubed cast bullets that are soft and loaded them to pistol velocities under 1000 fps and fired them out of barrels that needed cleaning up badly, to those that needed only polishing...about 50 rounds usually works well on just rough barrels.. with badly scored or pitted barrels needing more. But the system works and it works well...saving a lot of elbow grease. Making the stuff is a pain but it is worth it. I always run a batch when I run low, never know when you need it for a new gun that comes into your hands. Works on handguns or rifles.....

You cut the tubing to fit the mold cavity and then inject the lead into the mold holding the tubing and you have a jacketed cast bullet......I use them in both my .375 BB Winchester and my 38-55 leverguns....I have them from the NEI mold at 230 grains to my custom molds at 275 grains. Certainly a lot cheaper than over the counter jacketed bullets....

I have a bullet making set that Ed Wosika made up for me....we had .458 copper tubing made on special order...and I can make bullets from around 180 grains to well over 600 grains. They were strictly for 45-70s and 458s. JD Jones brought a handful to Africa in the 1980s and used them in one of his HandCannon 45-70s..he told me they full penetrated everything he shot them into....including hippo from the rear and elephant from the side.....and that was from a twelve inch barrel! The 450 grainers I make and fire from a 45-70 leveraction will not even stay in very thick trees, they blast rocks...and will drive right thru the big bears of the north...And Ed thought this one up all by himself.

One of the most important tools I have in my shop is a small lathe (20 inch bed). From chamfering hundreds of cases in a few minutes to making small parts and tools it is a frequently used necessity. The second is the small milling attachment that fits to the lathe....

There are so many useless tools out there being touted as the answer to the reloaders needs it makes you wonder sometimes if you should ever buy another...at least I know these are a few that really do help.....paco