32 Miller short

 KAF,  the original 32 Miller (1.520") was, but Dean and Cyle were dissatisfied with the brass from Remington.  By time I designed the short with Dean at the 'nats in Golden in 1990 they had gone to the German's rimmed 222 Magnum case (5.56x50R?).  It's a funny story; I had just gotten my first photo on the cover of Precision Shooting Magazine about two months before (my 257 Banshee reamer and print) and Jim Cuthbert thanked me by giving me a two reamer set credit.  I am talking with Dean and Cyle and “Connie” Grimms at Golden the second day and Dean asks me for my opinion as to how it might be improved.  They were shooting as good or better groups as the 32-40, but the aggs were within a point or two.  I had just shot in my first Super Shoot, and was telling him about the then-new 6mm PPC that Ferris Pindell and Doc Palmisano had concocted.  My thought was to cut the OAL and increase loading density.  Dean says how much, I say try a quarter inch and see.  He and Cyle and Conrad all think that is wonderful, but question the issue of $$$ for a new two reamer set that may not work.  I mention that I DO have the reamer credit, and Keith Francis was the finest reamer cutter in the world at that time.  Dean agrees to build me a rifle, and away we go.  I order the reamers and tell them to ship to Dean.  The next April my wife and I drive to St Onge and sleep in the “Doll House". The next morning we drive out to Cherie's (Dean's wife) families ranch to their range with my new rifle and the tools.  We fit Cherie's 36X Unertl to my rifle, and start shooting with 9 gr of AA#9.  We went up each 10-shot target half a grain.  I was surprised that it only took a few clicks of elevation and windage to get her scope on for me.  At 10.5gr I shot a 248 and a 249, the best targets ever shot there.  About an hour later Lowell Hamilton rolls up and asks “...where's that new short version that shoots so well...?".  Everybody but my wife and I burst out laughing. When I ask what's up they confess that they had spent a couple hours the day before testing the midget.  They had had the same results as I did, the best set of 5 10-shot groups ever fired at that range had been with 9.5, 10, and 10.5gr.  They figured if it did not shoot, they would let me see that, and then rechamber for the 32 Miller.  Needless to say, that did not occur, and since that summer the short case has won better than 90% of the ISSA Regionals and every National but one.  When I think about the forty-four years I have been shooting and casting bullets and reloading, it makes me feel really proud to have contributed something worthwhile to the shooting industry.

Most of my good friends came from shooting, and hunting, great minds DO think alike!

Anyway, that's the story, and it was chronicled from winning the Media-Celebrity Match at the Tacoma Regional with a borrowed rifle to shooting with the wunderkind at the Nationals the next year.  They ran the entire series over nine issues of PS.  The story is there if you can get reprints.

Rich I just always liked to tinker...