I have been meaning to ask about the base-band jacketed bullets. What happened to them? I read about them in reference to Mann and Niedner and then they seemed to disappear.
Richard
The cartridges for the base-band bullet were made to very close tolerances and even changing brands of brass might cause a shooter problems. They had the necked reamed to take about 1/16-1/8" of the bullet that had the band so they had to be loaded single, they were hard to transport if not done right. A lot of misunderstanding of the whole system caused many a gunwriter to publish negative stuff about the system. The majority did not want to go to all the trouble they took and as other cartridges and loading tools became common on the market the base-band bullet died. I believe that there is still a lot of merit in the system but very impractical for any but the bench-rest folks.
I have one of Dr. Mann's barrels from a high-wall chambered for a .25-krag that the outside diameter of the case neck is .257", try to order a set of dies for that ;-).
