JE223,
I appreciate your time, financial expenses, and sharing with us all your testing both here on THR and your website.
Thank you for you kind comments directed at me personally. Please do call me Steve.
Ammunition testing as I have shared with you in Private and Publicly here on THR is not new. I have shared the Scientific Mud/ Dirt Test with you in Private and Publicly here on THR as well.
MY take: I have no problem with advances in firearms and ammunition.
I do have a problem when folks put more stock into Hardware , such as firearms and ammunition, instead of Software like getting training and testing their own personal firearms and ammunition for reliability, shooting for groups, pattern density with shotguns - etc.
There is no Holy Grail in firearms, or ammunition.
History shows, and confirms folks have been successful in putting food on the table and defending themselves with Firearms they owned with the ammunition they had of the times.
Folks grew up learning firearm safety and how to shoot.
WE - Mentors & Elders, and others like us - trained and practiced Software with the Hardware available.
Meaning regular guns folks actually had with the ammunition loadings they had.
If that meant all a family had was one shotgun and the loadings were birdshot, some buckshot and slugs - that is exactly what they trained with and used in training.
If that meant a dedicated .38spl handgun and ammunition was a hand full of 158 gr LRN and 5 or 6 wadcutter, or maybe some SWC's - that it what was used.
Don't tell me a 158 gr LRN is useless. I have seen a cow drop dead with one shot.
So our "games" date back before 3 gun. WE called them all sorts of names, most often Two Gun, even though handguns, rifles and shotguns were used.
We didn't care about a cute name, didn't care how many guns were used in an "event".
We Cared about any and everyone being able to run the gun, keep it running, and making quick effective hits.
No 911, no cellphones. Civil unrests, Tornadoes, Floods and other circumstances, actually meant folks did survive using the simple guns and ammunition choices they had.
Not a "what if" - Instead "WE DID!"
.22 rim-fire - yep, sure enough this lowly round that gets no respect has proven itself in serious times.
I know - I am one that has survived with only a .22 rim-fire handgun and not only myself, 3 younger sibs under my charge survived an immediate threat.
More that one serious threat I might add.
So why did you folks shoot dirt?
Simple. To get a baseline on load offerings. Not for penetration so much as to how the projectile held up and performed.
Lead (wheel weights for instance) were melted down and made into bullets, round ball for Black-powder and round ball slugs fired from modern shotguns.
Shoot the dirt to see how they held up.
Store bought loads. Shoot dirt to see how these too performed and held up.
If the load came apart, most folks never used them. Not even worth the time to shoot for reliability or seeing if shot POA/POI.
Let someone else shoot these loads in their gun(s). If load "held up" and had "potential" , then and only then did they continue shooting to see if reliable and how how shot POA/POI.
Notebooks were kept.
Hunting or pest control. Recovered projectiles from critters were remarkable as to how similar they were from those recovered from dirt.
One example is a 158 gr LRN fired from a 4" Model 10, store bought load.
Horse had to be put down. One shot, horse down. Recovered bullet, compared side by side from the same load fired into dirt - no difference, once the bullet was cleaned from being shot into horse.
Testing has its place. It is always the responsibility of any shooter to learn and know their firearm to see if it runs reliably , shoots POA/POI , pattern density , or slug groups with ammunition choice.
It is the responsibility for each person to test for themselves and not rely solely on any data from any source in regard to ammunition use in their guns including reloading data.
Personally I feel folks are getting away from correct basic fundamentals and becoming more complacent and dependent on others in regard to firearm choices and ammunition choices.
Folks are putting too much stock into Hardware instead of Software.
Steve
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