[William Iorg]

While looking up some articles for Timberwolfe I remembered the old American Reloaders Association Bullitains. The ARAB was put out in the '60's by Dean Grennel. Contributers were P.O. Ackley, Homer Powley, Robert Hutton, Dan Cotterman and the general membership.

The .444 generated a lot of interesting discussion in these early days.

In October '66 a fellow named Frank Hemsted predicted the .307 and .356 Winchester cartridges. His predictions of performance were very close to reality. Mr. Hemsted really wanted a .375/.444.

In the 1979 Gun Digest Myron Rockett wrote on his .444/308 wildact built on a M-94 action. His performance closely paralled the current .307 cartridge. This was before the Big Bore with its action cheeks to give a little extra lock-up strength.

We are very lucky to have the wide variety of components and forums such as this to share information. While the Anti-Gun groups and silly laws have grown steadily over the years we shooters have more interesting guns and components to play with now than I ever dreamed possible back then.

 

[William Iorg]

Alan Gun,
How about that! For nearly forty years I have thought Frank Hemsted must have been a pretty smart guy, glad to hear he really was! I knew he had to be seriously involved in shooting somehow, his letters were straight to the point and accurate. As I said his predictions of the .307 and .356 were spot on, and WAY ahead of their time.
I was a teenager when the ARAB Bulletin was going on but Dean Grennel and Dan Cotterman were two of my favorite gun scribes. When Cotterman quit writing and bought the Yamaha dealership I was really disappointed. Cotterman was a champion of the small game and varmint cartridges.
Dean Grennel was a champion for the .32 S&W Long and was an early advocate for the ". 32 Magnum". Most of us do not realize how much pioneering work Grennel, Ellis Lea, C. E. Harris, Vernon Magee, Ken Waters and a few others did with .32 S&W Long rifles and handguns.
The ARAB Bulletin was similar to today's Internet. Everyone felt they had ownership and contributed. P. O. Ackley and Homer Powley were regular contributors.
I am pleased to know Russell Millar who was a contributor to the ARAB Bulletin and is still a commercial reloader and a Handloaders Handloader. He is registered on this board as Fostule but mostly lurks. Russel is such a big fan of the .444 Marlin that he had P. O. Ackley convert a Marlin 336 after the cartridge was announced and before the rifles or the ammunition was available! Russel studied Frank DeHaass and his heavy bullet-fast twist theory and had Ackley barrel a Winchester Hi-Wall to a fast twist .444. There are few others who have worked with the .444 as long as Russell has. Despite all of his tutelage I still prefer the .356, poor guy….
Alan I appreciate your writing, it means a lot to me!

 

[William Iorg]

KciH
It would be interesting wouldn’t it, Wolfe Publishing sort of tried to start one but it was really too expensive. Most of us cannot get past the "free" internet boards to one that offers something extra to members for a price.
Beartooth, 24 Hour Campfire and Hunt Chat have a pretty closely monitored format that about fills the need. There are some pretty sharp folks contributing and I have learned a lot from them. The problem is there is to such extraneous stuff attached to the boards. Politics, four-wheeling etc.
You are right about nothing new under the sun. All you have to do is ask the question and several people who have "been there, done that" will give you the answer. My Dad and I wanted a lever action rifle chambered for the .30-30 Improved or .30 Leverpower since the mid 1960's. We never met anyone who had one or had seen one. After reaming our own and discussing it on the Internet we have had the pleasure of meeting a dozen or more shooters that have one.
As big fans of the .307 Winchester we recently had the pleasure of reading a post by Myron Rockett on the Leverguns board. Then Alan Gun posted on Beartooth that he knew Frank Hemstead! The Internet has made the world a LOT smaller!
Charles Hamilton runs a number of discussion groups on Yahoo groups. His CB-L group is affiliated with the Cast Bullet Association and well worth looking into. Charles and his friends meet the standard of people who are really dedicated to furthering both the shooting sports and Handloading.
You have hit the Nail Square on the head when you when you talk about passing down the shooting sports to young people and handloading in particular. Handloading is one of those activities that can be learned by yourself but it is better and safer to have a mentor. My memories of shooting, reloading and bullet casting with my Dad are vivid. Guys like Chris Cash and ENGLANDER who are able to share the shooting sports with their children are lucky guys