marlinguy wrote on Aug 15
th, 2017 at 10:48am:
I will soon receive 40 years of Walter's load data for the Pope set, along with a large quantity of brass, and loading components! Still need to get dies for the .22 barrel that turned out to be .218 Bee, and not .22WCF.
A monumental day for me today! The two binders of Walter Stier's work came today! (20 lbs. worth!) Had little certain knowledge of what might be in the two volumes, and didn't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed. But it seems whatever hopes I had were much lower than what I discovered upon opening his binders!
There's a lot here to be discovered, and I'll be weeks absorbing most of it, and some of it I'll never understand! Walter being an engineer, had an engineer's mind working when he worked up his loads. The ballistic tables and math are over the top, and just amaze me that someone took so much interest and spent so much time calculating and drawing graphs, and such for every caliber he had!
Another discovery that wasn't a surprise, is Walt was an owner of a fair number of guns! I found data for probably a dozen calibers or more, and both rifle and pistol calibers! In the larger binder I also found numerous receipts for guns dating from the 1960's up to 1980's. Some used, and some new, like a C Sharps 1874 in .45-70 purchased for @$540 new. And it appears Walter also had a Ballard in .40-90 Ballard, as he did load data for it also, with BP and Pyrodex!
That same larger binder contains a huge assortment of catalogs, articles, and computer data he worked up. It also contains original letters from names like Charles Huntington, son of Fred Huntington when Fred was owner of RCBS. Letters from others also, and copies of letters he sent out to well known gun writers.
Going to have to try and figure some of this stuff out, as the math might require a consultation with another engineer! Walter did love his ballistics, and calculated bullet's flight, recoil, and other things for every caliber he shot!!