sable tireur
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2010
- Messages
- 3,350
Well 'geargrinder' let me answer in this manner. I am just as entitled to an opinion as you and everyone else on these forums so long as I keep those opinions civil and with some modicum of respect for those who query.
Read any of the other threads soliciting opinions about anything on these forums and that's what you get, "I like it therefore it's great!" Yet nobody presses them for another in depth explanation? Also I am extremely busy and don't relish trying to convince those who really don't want to be convinced in the first place. This is paramount to all those folks who thought that Tasco scopes were really the World's Best when the rest of us knew they weren't. Everyone has an opinion and the more who are believers without collateral data to back up those opinions simply screw with the curve. Secondly, I did no such 'chest thumping' as you suggest. Rather I gave explicit details about my background in order to lend some credence to those opinions about many of the brass manufacturers and the testing I used to make decisions regarding those manufacturers. I don't generally discuss my testing protocols as I feel everyone should develop their own. Plain, simple, factual information with no chest thumping involved at all.
Third, I doubt if there are more than a handful of folks here who have tested the amount of brass to the extent I have in order to make good decisions for my client's best interest.
As I stated previously:I've been doing this for slightly over 25 years, spending my own money to buy and test brass, bullets, powder and primers in order to achieve the best data available to help my clients make the best decisions.
In my initial encounter with Bertram brass, we were building rifles for clients to take to Africa for anything from plains game to the Big Five. Many of the requests for out of circulation and obsolete cartridges could only be serviced by Bertram since they had chosen that path for their manufacturing model. Buying the brass, bringing it in house and reloading for testing resulted in some less than enthusiastic results. Poor strength overall in the case, poor consistency in the primer pocket fits, uneven neck thicknesses, a distinct lack of consistency in case weights. Anything that could possible go wrong was wrong with their brass. The worst sin being it was basically soft. This was not just one cartridge in particular but over a dozen for just that period of time. We also consulted with other builders asking about their results also which generally matched what we came up with.
This process has continued throughout the 25 years, often buying and testing any of the 'new' cases released up to and including those currently being discussed. Occasionally, I would be surprised to find that some cases actually held up to standard pressure loads for more than 3 shots. Then I bought as much of that lot number as I thought I could use. The others, most of the product I purchased, was sold off or recycled.
To date, for those 25 years of testing and research, I have about 3,000 pages of typed text, graphs and targets, approximately. These are not for publications or distribution but for my own work with clients who request my work. Currently, that work will not include any Bertram brass.
No chest thumping involved at all. Just the facts.
Regards.
