Remember Herters Wasp Waisted bullets?

[JEFFPPC]

Back in my teen years my buddy and I usually accompanied an elderly retired PRR engineer 6 days a week groundhog hunting. I was the proud owner of an used Savage 340 in .222. With 21 grs of IMR 4198 and a Hersters WW bullet of 50 grs I was a groundhog killing terror. Once got chewed out from a farmer who saw me sitting in the corner of a field with a standing groundhog several feet from him sitting on his stopped tractor and I would not shoot at it. A couple of groundhog hind quarters on a stick over a fire with some corn from the farmers field abd we could last till dark. Experiences I would not trade for a million dollars. That old Savage shot those funny looking bullets into .5 or .6 all day and occasionally better. Curious if any one else used them. I killed hundreds of groundhogs with them. No annealing, no digital scales, no conciticity gauges, no cronies, but lots of dead groundhogs and a few chiggers.

 

[Brians356]

Back in my teen years my buddy and I usually accompanied an elderly retired PRR engineer 6 days a week groundhog hunting. I was the proud owner of an used Savage 340 in .222. With 21 grs of IMR 4198 and a Hersters WW bullet of 50 grs I was a groundhog killing terror. Once got chewed out from a farmer who saw me sitting in the corner of a field with a standing groundhog several feet from him sitting on his stopped tractor and I would not shoot at it. A couple of groundhog hind quarters on a stick over a fire with some corn from the farmers field abd we could last till dark. Experiences I would not trade for a million dollars. That old Savage shot those funny looking bullets into .5 or .6 all day and occasionally better. Curious if any one else used them. I killed hundreds of groundhogs with them. No annealing, no digital scales, no conciticity gauges, no cronies, but lots of dead groundhogs and a few chiggers.

No annealing?!@# Please don't say you didn't tumble your cases to jewelry gleam after every firing.
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[rsmithsr50]

no but I had the same rifle as my first center fire rifle!

 

[SSL]

I remember seeing those things in the Herters catalog. Always thought they were cool and state of the art. I've read several articles over the years that they weren't all that great...but sure looked sexy!

 

[JEFFPPC]

I remember seeing those things in the Herters catalog. Always thought they were cool and state of the art. I've read several articles over the years that they weren't all that great...but sure looked sexy!

I have read those same articles. The rage back then was a 722 in .222. My dad would drop me off at the local rifle range for a couple of hours. My Savage with its 6X Lyman All American and I would shoot the old guys with the "good equipment" for root beers. They often owed me root beers and would not play again. I took the barrel band off and tuned it with cardboard shims, maybe that's why I jumped on tuners about 10 or 12yrs ago for my competition rifles.

 

[TAJ45]

I don't remember the Herters but how about the Nosler Zipedo? Was it wasp waisted?

 

[Dimwit Flathead]

I don't remember the Herters but how about the Nosler Zipedo? Was it wasp waisted?

They were wasp-waisted because of a manufacturing defect. Herter's didn't want to lose money on them, so they advertised them as the newest bullet design. People bought them. Some people remember them. There is a reason nobody sells them now.

 

[sqrlgtr]

Dont remember the bullets,but have had a couple of those rifles in savage and stevens both in 222 and they both shot excellent.Have one 222 left in the stable but its a 788 remington that shoots bug holes,got a luv them .222's.

 

[stork]

I don't remember the Herters but how about the Nosler Zipedo? Was it wasp waisted?

No they were just a standard soft point configuration. I still have 1 full box left of 55 gr .224 dia. Not going to use, just as a pleasant memory of a large contributing factor in past pasture rat aerobatics.

Shot up the last of the Herters 180 gr .308 cal wasp waisted box I had fireforming some 30 cal brass. Very poor shooters.

 

[SBOOMER]

From my 1973 childhood bible.....

 

[SBOOMER]

Dont forget the Swedish Banana Peel.....

 

[JEFFPPC]

They were wasp-waisted because of a manufacturing defect. Herter's didn't want to lose money on them, so they advertised them as the newest bullet design. People bought them. Some people remember them. There is a reason nobody sells them now.

I am not doubting the mistake info but where did you hear that. I have read about them over the years but never heard that before. My neighbor tried then back then in his .220 Swift, shot terrible for him.

 

[rockhound78]

Think I have part of a box of those Herters bullets somewhere. Never did shoot any though

 

[nmkid]

I don't remember the Herters but how about the Nosler Zipedo? Was it wasp waisted?

I'm pretty sure they weren't. Matter of fact, the last deer I killed in Wyoming was with a zipedo.

 

[PDS]

I got my 1st whitetail buck with a Herter's wasp waist. Used in a sporter 1917 Enfield. I minute of deer was good enough for the job.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Why did those bullets back then have to ship to a permit holder but you could buy a rifle from a catalog for $19 and have it shipped to you?

 

[JEFFPPC]

I see that on the Banana Peel bullets. Must have been a danger to the Monkys.

 

[Brians356]

Why did those bullets back then have to ship to a permit holder but you could buy a rifle from a catalog for $19 and have it shipped to you?

Yeah, why?
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[Richard Jones]

Sure do miss those catalogs......

 

[JEFFPPC]

Sure do miss those catalogs......

I grew up on the Herters catalog and Jack Oconners articles in Outdoor Life. Owned many many rifles, never a .270. But then again, never hunted sheep which I believe was Oconners passion. One thing I find interesting is given our ultra liberal education system from grade school thru college, Jack Oconner was at one time an English teacher if I remember correctly.