David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. XXXVI

[Lee Martin]

Ray Lones coaches as daughter Megan Squeezes off a cast bullet from XP-100 .221 Fireball. And yes, targets don't always fall, but low recoil keeps her shooting.



Trophy and Sig Himmelman .44 El Dorado that came with it.



Bradshaw and Ron Brooks, director of Precision Valley IHMSA match in Vermont. Revolvers are S410N 10-1/2" Silhouette Supers.



Score keeper.



For a short while around 1980, S&W made bullets and loaded ammo. Handload with S&W .44 240 JHP produced 10-shots, 4-1/4" group at 132 yards, from Silhouette Super with Leupold 4x LER. No optics allowed in competition in those days.



Singer Nanette Workman topples 19x20 rams @ 200 meters with Hornady .358 200 grain Spire Point fired from Dan Wesson Arms M40 Vent 8" .357 Super Mag. Damariscotta, Maine. Revolver rest over Kevlar blast shield.



Silhouette shooters, trying to look like outlaws, somewhere in Texas.
L-to-R: 1) Dan Pool w/ two S&W M-29's, including custom 2-1/2"; 2) Bradshaw with S&W M-629 or early Redhawk 5-1/2", and probable custom snubnose M-29; 3) Forgotten name gent with with Ruger or Abilene .44, and DWA M44 Vent Heavy; 4) Jim Whitcomb with S&W M-29 8-3/8" .44, and Ruger "Silhouette Super."; 5) Ken Fryer with 7-1/2" SBH and S&W M-29/M-629 6-1/2".



Ruger stainless steel prototype .357 Maximum, with 10-1/2", 1:16" twist bull barrel. Serial number 600-14111. Anodized aluminum long ejector housing. Load looks to be Federal .357 180 JHP over 21.5/H110 in Federal Super Mag brass. (Velocity p[robably around 1,550 to 1,600 fps.) Four inch group @ 100 yards. Target indicates 2,000 round through pistol. Cannot tell whether cylinder may be blue, or just is dirty.
David Bradshaw



-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[bradshaw]

Top photo shows a stock Remington XP-100 in wood thumbhole carved by Ray Lones. The lones' represent an all-lead family----husband , wife & daughter shooting cast in everything from the .221 Fireball on up. The 10-1/2" barrel limit imposed on Production (closed breech) and Revolver category guns was written specifically to include the Remington .221 Fireball, which barrel is a bit over 10-inches.

Photo of Nanette Workman in dead frog position: Dan Wesson M40 Super Mag .357 Maximum is earliest production, with original 1:14" twist, eight inch barrel. The 1:14 stabilizes Hornady .358 200 grain Spire Point. For whatever reason, DWA soon switched to 1:16 twist, which no longer stabilized the 200 SP. The 1:16 stabilizes 200 grain rifle bullets of round nose persuasion. Told that the 1:14 twist was discontinued for quality problems, the few 1:14's I saw and used shot beautifully. The last production M40 and M740 Super Mags came through with ho-hum 1:18-3/4" twist.

Prototype stainless Blackhawk .357 Maximum----going to look for more info on this revolver.
David Bradshaw

[Fowler]

David,

I have been told that there were exactly 6 stainless Maximums made. 3 were in house test mules and 3 got out of house and sold at some point, in fact I think one was sold at a back east a few years back unfired or very nearly unfired. Anyways I was curious what you knew on their history being so rare...

[Ken O'Neill]

One of the stainless Ruger Maximums was in the Stan Terhune collection which went on the auction block a couple years ago. I got distracted by something and lost track of that auction, so I don't know if it was sold, or for what price.

Thanks for the photos David. Almost makes me wish it was '79-80 again and we were still in our 30's and could do it all over again.

[bradshaw]

Fowler.... I can neither confirm nor deny potential existence of six stainless Maximums. Digging thrtough stuff yesterday, came across a number of targets, and photos, including photo of target pictured above. "Serial no. 600-14111, 25 Aug 1983." That's a brain bender right there. It's high in the serial numbers, it's late summer '83, and it's stainless steel with blue steel prefix. Notation further indicates " 410 SS," and "Rc 30," and "2000 rds," pretty specific information. Today, while discussing this Maximum with Whitworth, said I believe the cylinder is stainless, darkened from shooting. If the target in photo exists, and I can find it, there may be more info on the back.
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Ken.... there is a photo of a prototype stainless in the article in Guns & Ammo, March 1983. May be the same revolver pictured here, but the serial number of this one is so high, I harbor doubt. And, yes, the volcanic era of silhouette kept many a shooter hammering.
David Bradshaw