Reeder Custom Guns - Gary, did you mess with the .30 or .357 Herrett

Back in the day? I liked reading about Steve Herrett and Bob Milek. Both left too early. I’ve shot your .300 GNR in a single shot. Extremely surprising and efficient. I get the .30 but the .357 seemed like there were other easier options. Maybe not. I guess both were designed around 10” barrels. I could understand that.

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I used it for deer all thru the South. I shot a 357 Herrett also but had a really hard time keeping a scope on the barrel. The recoil was so rough the base would fly off after ripping all 4 screws out of the barrel. Back then we had porting which didn't help a lot with a cartridge as rough as the 357 Herrett.

At our shop in Florida we went on a hunt every 8 weeks all over the country plus in Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Up until I came up with the 41 GNR I used the 30 Herrett on everything up to big bodied deer. The 30 Herrett was what Kase learned on and he shot quite a few sheep and other exotics at Tellico Junction with it. He used the 30 Herrett in the 10" Contender and a semi custom Blackhawk in 45 Long Colt for some of his critters.I also started Colleen off with the 30 Herrett, then switched her to the 7 GNR. All the pics here were the 30 Herrett except for 2 of the 7 GNR.
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The 30 Herrett was the reason for the 300 GNR. The 30 Herrett killed so well that I wanted the same cartridge or the same power in a revolver. I cut the 30 Herrett case down a bit (maybe 1/10th of an inch) which was originally a cut down 30-30 case and shortened the neck about an eighth of an inch and came up with the 300 GNR that would fit in a revolver.

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30 Herrett. I was fortunate enough to be a good friend of Bob and he gave me some of his favorite loads for the 30 Herrett. He also was working with the 300 Herrett which was a large case meant for a custom XP-100. It never seemed to get enough gun magazines to promote it and it eventually died.
I was talking to him one day and he was obviously really in a pissy mood. I asked him what had him ticked off. He said TC had gone with Ugalde's version of the 6mm/223 that Bob had come up with. They took his design and changed it to the 6mm TCU (Thompson Center Ugalde).
Bob was a good friend and he let bad decisions get to him and probably said things to some people that he shouldn't have. They eventually switched him to doing articles on spotting scopes and shooting accessories and piddley crap. I heard from another friend in the business that it got to Bob and he quit writing altogether. A terrible loss of a good friend and great handgun hunter.

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I began reading his work in the late 1970s. Most noteworthy, besides the Herretts and his 6/.223, were his test on the slow to be released “brand new” Ruger Redhawk and test of a new cartridge called the .45 Win. Magnum. If I’m not mistaken the TC Contender was the first factory chambered gun.

He made it to Africa at least once and toted of all things a .35 Remington Contender 14”. Surely he shot rifles while there but I forget and it was long ago. I think I read he had a heart attack. His son dabbled a bit in Bobs published stories. He looked like they enjoyed the family hunting.

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really believe in hunting large game with the Contender. The Encore was 20 years away at that time so if a person wanted to hunt with a handgun he was limited to a Contender or some of the lesser known handguns of the time. I had just built a barrel in 45-70 and he really didn't think that was a good idea. He never really went into why and I didn't want to piss him off over something as trivial as a 45-70 in a Contender. He liked the 357 Herrett and shot elk and like sized critters with it.
Bob was a good friend and he put up with a lot of handgun hunting questions from a pure novice. But he reminded me of Lee Jurras in that he enjoyed talking about guns and handgun hunting and no matter how many times I called him just to talk guns and such he never told me to take a long walk off a short pier, and just like with Lee I respected them for that. I will always miss both of them.

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I relished his writings. I have one of the G&A specialty magazines on Handgun Hunting. I was reading it last night in his article," Large Varmint Medicine". Beautifully written and on point.

I loved his style of writing, and the topics were on things that the average man could do.

This weekend, I may take a little trip into the Gas Hills or towards Castle Gardens or even Alien Face and do my best to administer some "Large Varmint Medicine".

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Either way he left this old world way too soon.

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That it basically equaled the published .30 Herrett data with a little less capacity and powder. I even have what amounts to a rare .25 Herrett that is a shocker too. In a much longer barrel 14-15”. My only issue with it was that pressure peaked quickly as I was experimenting. I suddenly got some sticky cases in the Contender. You don’t want to break anything. Boy that .30-30 case is tough!

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30 Herrett has. I cut the overall case length down to be able to get it in a revolver, but I didn't cut down the powder capacity. Mainly I cut down the neck length and straightened the case to give it a bit more capacity without causing any pressure problems.

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Gary, did you mess with the .30 or .357 Herrett

Kase and I shot the 30 Herrett for several years

Bob Milek was the main man behind the

I really enjoyed his technical articles.

Bob was a hard core handgun hunter but he didn't

If I am not mistaken, cancer took Bob ahead of his time

It was the combination of several things

I’ve only shot the .300 GNR but was surprised

The 300 GNR has the same powder capacity that the