David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. LI

[Lee Martin]

More shooting from David with our 276 gr Volcano:

Dwindling supply of .452" 276 grain Volcano, always shot under adversity, continues to show stability unavailable from parent 300 WFN GC, or either 250 or 260 grain Volcanics. Deep seated over 13.5/HS-6, the 276-277 grain Volcano tracks unusually flat and vastly straighter than the others.



All shooting for this essay involved snowshoeing 400 to 600 yards to set up targets. As usual, comfortable leather is a must.



Shot taken after sunset, 105 paces. Cardboard invisible straight on, but came into view from an angle. Squeeze off one round as target fades from view.



Detail of .452" 276 grain Volcano, fired at an angle to target. Signature of a point-on bullet, distinct from a yaw or keyhole.



Walking on day-old snowshoe track to put out targets. Sun headed for horizon, temp about mid teens in sun.



Two shots taken with .452" 276 grain Volcano, Ruger 03 rested over a flimsy tree limb, 117 paces on snowshoes. Distance tracks very close to yards. Pacing is learned through practice as a certain stretch in one's thighs, with a meter registered as more stretch. With practice it becomes accuracy enough to dope revolver sights for a silhouette match.



Volcanic hollow point is vulnerable to damage. Reckon velocity 1,100 fps or a little better, plenty enough for punch.



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

[bradshaw]

Discussed the cast .452" 276 Volcano GC and 335 LFN GC with a handgun hunting member of the forum. A few observations on hunting whitetails:

The pie plate into which one must put a bullet is smaller for a cast SWC, larger for a JHP. Have a feeling the 276 Volcano will tear a larger hole through a whitetail----sending out a shock wave in the process----than a hard cast 335 LFN. A .338 225 Trophy Bonder Bear Claw is a lousy deer bullet, short of hitting bone its energy largely unregistered, as compared with a Hornady 200 Spire Point, Nosler 200 Ballistic-Tip, or Nosler 210 or 225 Partition. Increase animal mass to the likes of an elk or moose and the TBBC or Partition buries the others----except for the Partition, which works fine on deer, as well as intended elk & moose.

Silhouetters have told me they lost North Country whitetails to a cast SWC, which they claim would have made it to the meat pole with the same hits from a 240 JHP. Of course, the wound of an animal uncollected is conjecture. Nothing matches an autopsy. A moose guide I know tells clients up front, "Do not bring a .308!"

The 335 LFN GC, cast softer to upset at the nose @ 900 to 1,100 fps should be a cannon shell on a mature whitetail.
David Bradshaw

[shaner]

great post and pictures

[bradshaw]

shaner.... thank you. The .452" 276 Volcano deep seated over 13.5/HS-6 immediately felt like a performer. Few rounds imbue this feeling. Verification requires more range time, and time on the mountain. The round feels low pressure, accurate, sharp punching. Stormy North Country weather doesn't stop shooting but sure puts pressure on the accuracy game. Weather is not an alibi to not shoot.
David Bradshaw

[jfo4]

What state are the photo's from?

[joej]

I chased after the wily moose a couple times with a lot of Canadians and never saw any of them use anything but a 30-30, 303, 308 and I think one or two may have had a 30-06 - most 303 & 308.

They just shot until the moose went down or they ran out of ammo, as it sure wasn't fun going a 1/4 mile or more into the bush, skinning and either deboning or quartering that puppy for the long carry back. Nice when they dropped where you could get the pickup to them or spend that C-Note, if a skidder operator was close by and wanted a little drinking money.

Do you know the reason for the outfitter's recommendation against the 308?

[bradshaw]

jfo4.... Vermont.

joej.... guide says no .308's because he's had clients shoot moose with the .308 Winchester and never see them again. On the other hand, a serious tracker tends to grasp anatomy and understand the value of shot placement. Shot placement with 180 grain bullets will do the job. Buckethead "hunters" loose moose to .300 magnums because they can't shoot and don't respect the animal they hunt. The idea that one can fill a big animal with enough lead to put it on the ground----with snow on the ground----is bullroar. You may be talking eastern Canada, where Frenchman and Indians have hunted and snared moose for generations. Those moose may be the smartest in the world, having to navigate survivalist predation. Trapper with oily hair growing out every pore of his body eatin' beaver meat all winter. Beaver weaving rowboats into dams. Hard corps.

Surplus Short Model Lee Enfield .303's and lever action .30-30's----yup.

If cartridge selection is tactics, marksmanship is strategy.
David Bradshaw

[edk]

Really like what you are doing with the volcano. Has Veral had anything to say about his mold making bullets that won't shoot? Heard claims of LBT WFNs that wouldn't shoot but usually the marksman is blamed - I trust that's not the problem with Bradshaw behind the sights

[bradshaw]

edk.... John Parker and Dick Thompson are two of the experienced handgun hunters on the forum who've looked at the accuracy----or lack thereof----of various meplats downrange. Dynamic stability has been studied for years, probably beginning----certainly not ending----with artillery. Lee Martin chucked .452" 300 WFN GC's in a lathe to carve my suggested Volcanic hollow point, in the process discovering runout on the ogive. We mutually remarked a slight yet disturbing convexity of the 300 WFN meplat; Lee noticed the asymmetry. Slight convexity attributable to individual mold from which bullets were dropped.

As to meplat, much prefer a slight concavity to a slight convexity. Call it conceptual reasoning, superstition, or aesthetics, or all three. Target shooters have done many things wrong over the years, to include derailing a generation in pursuit of the flawed marriage between wadcutter bullets and auto pistols. (Let's keep it equal: "Combat" and silhouette inflicted their own diseases. Organized games inevitably surrender vision to specialization.)

As to the guy doing the shooting: he worries about ability all the time. Can't imagine anything worse than to be trapped in the skin of a lousy musician.
David Bradshaw

[buckheart]

bradshaw - Marksmanship and experimentation being a given at your house you're one hardi Yankee!

[joej]

Bullet placement is always key and those Canadians worked the bolt or lever as fast as they could and put all/most all anyway - rounds into the boiler room/front shoulder area and HOPED the moose would go down in a couple of steps or three. Sometimes those critters just didn't know they were dead and would either just walk off or trot off into the bush and then the work would begin.

In Ontario they use to allow an uncased firearm in a vehicle (don't know about today) so a rifle fed with a mag was a great aid in bailing out of a "slowing" vehicle, as those puppies crossed the logging road pretty quick and in that country you haven't much of an opportunity to get out in front of them. Sitting on trails and "grunting" is a great way to get a close up shot but the only problem is, it usually doesn't work out very well when you only have 5 or 6 days in country.

Learned a long time ago when you have a moose in a patch of woods/brush surrounded by a logging road, you better leave a shooter at the vehicle while the vehicle driver goes in on the trail. We surrounded a large patch once when we cut tracks of two going in and not coming out - 6 of us got in the bed of a pickup and dropped off as the pickup slowly drove around the patch (never stopped to drop a guy off, just jumped off thinking we were fooling the moose)and then the driver stopped at where they went in and went in after them.

Damn moose with their good hearing knew exactly where we all were and just circled the bush pusher then went out about 10 feet from the parked pickup, never to be seen by us again. Since that learning experienced, we left one riding shotgun but the moose always seemed to pick a location to their advantage and would pussy foot up to the end of the trail and then kicked in the afterburners - we always heard the noise of a locomotive and brought the rifles to bear and they usually piled up with 180 grainers into the front shoulders fired as fast and "as often as one could". No better tasting meat than a 2-year old calf IMO.

[bradshaw]

Had a jawbone on cast bullets with Lee Martin last week. Lee has been skeptical on harmlessness of powder coated bullets. My thought ran to trying PC on the .452" 276 grain Volcano (300 WFN GC with cavernous hollow point). Also, subject came up in jawbone with Jeff Hoover.

Chanced, yesterday, to watch a gent shoot a Beretta Storm Compact in 9mm Luger. He was shooting round nose bullets which looked to have a translucent yellow/orange Full Metal Jacket. No so, said he. Rather, the bullet is cast and coated with a baked on polymer from Australia. Think he said the bake on polymer comes out of "S&S" in Illinois.

Gent says he's heard of the powder coating available from Harbor Freight. The gent works in the oil patch and has this to say about the Powder Coat:

* A main ingredient, BARIUM SULFATE----common name BARITE----mild abrasive, 3-to-4 on the MHO scale. Powder coating is a type of paint.

* Barium sulfate is used as a density agent in drilling fluid. Erosive of bronze butterfly (flapper) valve in dry bulk transport system. Pumped at 20-30-40 psi. Eats valves, including stainless. Tends to erode pipe after a while----dry or wet----especially corners.

* Barium sulfate has a specific gravity of 4.2. Water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon. Barium sulfate can be used to raise weight to over 19 lbs per gallon.

Perhaps there is nothing to fear from shooting PC cast in revolvers. As high consumers, the experience of Sixshot and Hoover cannot be sneezed at, and their reports come from trigger time on targets.
David Bradshaw