David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. LIII

[Lee Martin]

One-of-a-kind Ruger 03 with first stainless .45 ACP cylinder put on a Blackhawk. Original plan was to fit blued ACP cylinder to stainless 03 Bisley Blackhawk. Bill Ruger, Jr., directed service manager Dick Beaulieu to make a stainless .45 ACP cylinder. Per David's request, Colt cylinder was unfluted, with ACP fluted, to distinguish by sight or touch.

Remington Golden Saber 230 JHP is one of most accurate ACP bullets made, with excellent expansion. Seated over 8.5/Accurate #5, for velocity of 915 fps from 5-1/2" Ruger. Fed GM 150 primer, Fed case, COL=1.240".



Remington Golden Saber 230 JHP, 8.5/AA #5, six shots @ 126 paces. Ruger 03 "steadied" over thin tree bough. 6x6=9.0".



Remington Golden Saber 230 JHP, 8.5/AA #5----4x6 shots=4.3" @ 126 paces. This is typical accuracy intrinsic to this load. A Freedom Arms convertible or a proper Ruger Convertible is accurate with both .45 Colt and .45 ACP cylinders. It is then up to the ammunition to equal the gun.



Rimless ACP headspaces on case mouth. Single ejection provides convenient unloading from single action. Whereas, a double actions requires separate clips to hold rims for extraction. To put it country simple, the old single action works perfect all by itself.



.45 Colt----Speer Gold Dot 250 JHP averages 900 fps and expands reliably at this velocity. As for Remington .45 ACP Golden Saber 230 JHP, the Speer is appropriate for lung shots on medium deer. Bullet hole at 100 yards.



.45 Colt Speer Gold Dot 250 JHP, two shots @ 117 paces from Ruger 03. As usual lately, pretty damn cold. Shooting after sunset.



.45 Colt----Nosler 250 JHP seated over 24.7/Win 296; CCI 350, Federal brass; COL=1.600"; Velocity 1,150 fps. Bullet a near duplicate in appearance and performance of old Hornady JHP, which was replaced by XTP line. This bullet, and its .44 counterpart, is no slouch in communicating punch to a mature whitetail buck.



.45 Colt, Ruger 03, Nosler 250 JHP over 24.7 gr./Win 296.

126 paces
5x5 shots=6.7"
4x5 shots=5.5"



126 paces. BR-R-R-R...!



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

[cmillard]

as usual, nice shooting and nice write up

[joej]

Just for informational purposes related to penetration - the Speer Gold Dot as a loading component is sold as a bonded bullet while the Remington Golden Saber is not bonded. The commercial Remington Golden Saber can be purchased in bonded form but as a reloading component Remington does not sell the Golden Saber in the bonded version - the B stands for brass, not bonded.

[bradshaw]

cmillard.... thank you for the kind words.

joej....
Speer Gold Dot: the Speer Gold Dot line is a second generation Total Metal Jacket with a hollow point punched into it. TMJ bullets employ electroplating to fuse copper jacket to lead core. First attempts were inaccurate, as plating made jacket thicker around corners and tight curves. Once uniformity was sorted out, TMJs proved accurate. At least one silhouette record was set with a Speer TMJ (.357 200 grain TMJ in .357 Maximum).

Way it was explained to me, term "gold dot" came about as the hollow point punch left a signature spot of jacket centered at the bottom of the HP. Jacket fusion is intrinsic to the jacket forming process.

Remington Golden Saber: my experience is limited to the original Golden Saber, a brilliantly engineered bullet. As you state, the original bullet, and bullets available as components, are of conventional----non-bonded----core-in-jacket construction. Having taken deer and small pigs with handloaded .45 230 JHP, including a nice buck, I see reliable expansion in a bullet of great accuracy. It would be a mistake to push the Golden Saber too hard, or to expect magnum penetration.
David Bradshaw

[joej]

Bradshaw..... I knew you would know the difference but I posted so some members wouldn't be disappointed when they see the Remington 230 grain component labeled 230 grain BJHP and might think it meant Bonded Jacketed Hollow Point - whereas it means Brass JHP and that's quite a difference in bullet construction. The LE commercial version has a bonded bullet but again, you need to know the manufacturer's number as they also sell the non-bonded version labeled the same - BJHP. The bonded version is the Gold Dot's equal - as you can run from them but you can't hide. Both fit the bill as "flying ashtrays".

That Gold Dot is one fine bullet but fairly hard to find as a component these days.

Nice hard crust snow you walked on - with my 80 inch snowshoes I would be skiing on that stuff. I gave up on the bearpaws 40 years ago in deep soft snow, as it took me too long to get into shape for such high stepping activities when the snot froze on your whiskers.

Those rimfire rams would still be in a world of hurt with you behind the sights - just keep on checkin 6 for ole man Murphy, as he seems to like visiting ole timers out and about having a good time.

[bradshaw]

joej.... photo series in Vol. XLIX cover the tracking of two different bucks, two days apart. Fortunately temperatures ranged from a few degrees below to a few degrees above 32 fahrenheit. Upon setting onto the second track, I wished I'll strapped on the Tubbs bearpaws. And just a quickly, I was glad I hadn't. Whitetails like cover; the noise would've been unbearable. Not to mention skirting steep granite ledge, where one must really pick his steps. (Of course, every step tracking is a picked step.)

Snow on these hunts was damn near ideal for movement, although sinking over my knee in places on the track of the second deer, especially at higher elevation. Second buck took me on an angelic tour of the Great White Cathedral, proudly avoiding puckerbrush and bog. This tracker is grateful.

Received couple blankets of heavy snow past two weeks, followed by drop to 25-below. Hard freeze dries heavy snow, makes it lighter, and wind packs it. I'm sure you know. Bearpaws generally float these conditions; weight without snowshoes sinks. Not necessarily every step, just every other----an exhausting trek. So far, snow conducive to the bearpaws.

Lost camera for a few days, wondering whether it fell in the snowbank. Found it in a friend's truck; been thawing since last night. About to try it indoors. Temp unlikely rise much above ZERO today----no favor to a camera. Not to mention a trigger finger which cannot feel a shutter release. Camera or not, we'll throw some lead today. The Super Bowl is the half-time show. Frozen triggers and hot lead come first.
David Bradshaw