David Bradshaw Photos Vol. LXXVI - DWA M44, Part 2

[Lee Martin]

700 rounds from Dan Wesson Arms Model 44 Vent Heavy 8-inch. DWA Combat grip. Fired from 50 yards on 21 May 1985. Position: Creedmoor, sandbag, offhand. Federal .44 Mag 44A 240 JHP. No malfunctions of any kind.



250 rounds fired from 50 yards with M44 VH8, 22 May 1985. DWA Combat grip. Creedmoor, sandbag, with some of it offhand.



All of the rounds shown on the preceding targets, were fired in two days from the DWA M-44 VH8 shown here. Shooting divided between sandbag, Creedmoor, and offhand.
DWA factory grips:

1) Combat (bird head)----CREEDMOOR and offhand.
2) Target (square butt)----sandbag.

CREEDMOOR for handguns:

1) Body reclines, oriented to target. Remember, adjust body to target, not gun.
2) Knees drawn up with feet spread
3) Knees lean into each other, held by gravity.
4) Support hand reaches tightly behind head to touch ground at back of neck, between shoulder blades.
5) Head rests----as erect as possible----against triangle formed by support arm. Head held by gravity without neck tension.
6) Elbow of gun hand rests on ground----outboard of torso.
7) Gun hand pivots into hip, barrel resting against leg above ankle.
8) If gun doesn't line up on target, adjust position.



M-44 .44 Mag Vent Heavy 8" at full recoil. Creedmoor is a free-recoil position. To protect one's hip from high pressure gas and particulate escaping barrel/cylinder gap a blast shield is a must. David conceived the Kevlar blast shield, which became standard in handgun silhouette. Multiple layers of leather and industrial nylon belting also work.

Muzzle must extend beyond leg.

Elbow protection is a must against any hard surface. The more padding, the better. Nerve and cartilage damage await those who think elbow protection is a joke. (Rule applies as well to shooting from a bench.)


Dan Wesson Arms M-44 with VH8 barrel & shroud comes in just under 4-pound IHMSA limit for Production and Production Revolver categories. Some denser factory walnut puts weight over.
Pachmayr grip definitely puts the VH8 over.

Once a barrel/shroud configuration is settled upon for continued shooting, barrel threads should be set with BLUE Loctite. (Heat must be used to soften Loctite before removal is attempted.)



Standing, or offhand, with the M44 VH8. Isosceles stance affords maximum eye relief, import to long strings of fire. To know isosceles and a boxing, or modified Weaver, stance is a good thing. The individual determines through practice which he or she will use. Doctrine is crap when performance doesn't back it up.

Isosceles requires more muscle tone than modified Weaver to steady a heavy handgun. Again, results are final arbiter of technique.

While elbows are extended in this isosceles stance, they are exactly locked. A detail especially important for riding serious recoil, or when shooting over a rest.



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

[bradshaw]

My thanks again to Lee Martin, a conscience of good shooting.

An error of mine in captions suggests locked elbows are a requirement of isosceles (offhand straight arm triangle) technique. In fact, conservation of elbows requires elbows slightly UNLOCKED.
David Bradshaw

[seancass]

Jun 1, 2015 20:06:11 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

My thanks again to Lee Martin, a conscience of good shooting.

An error of mine in captions suggests locked elbows are a requirement of isosceles (offhand straight arm triangle) technique. In fact, conservation of elbows requires elbows slightly UNLOCKED.
David Bradshaw

I read that and thought it was interesting(surprising), I always tell people who are new to big recoil to definitely Not lock their elbows. I can't speak for extreme accuracy, but it sure seems to help keep your hands wrapped around the gun when it starts coming back at you.

[bradshaw]

seancass.... met a number of former bullseye shooters who reported elbow wear from their days punching paper. Main culprit, said these pocket pool marksmen, the 1911 and beaucoup rounds downrange. To a man they shot locked elbow. Noticed on some of 'em they could hyper-extend the elbow, similar to folk who can hyper-extend their knees. The recoil just accumulates like a a little monkey with a ball pean hammer tapping on your elbow cartilage. Over time, it's all hammered out. Knew a big feller shot a deer with his .30-30 Contender Super 14, elbow hyper-extended on the roof of his car; took his elbow out of action two years.

For the same reason a shooter most avoid recoil to an elbow resting on a hard surface.
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Grip shown on M44 VH8 is what Dan Wesson arms called the "Combat Grip." With all the talk about round butt grips, it may be worth a foray to distinguish between double action and single action revolvers. The S&W K-frame M-19 2-1/2" exemplifies the classic DA round butt. The Merwin-Hubert or whatever the gun is called, a beautiful late-19th century sixgun, came with a birdhead grip of fine proportions. The DWA Combat Grip is a birdhead DA grip. The blended M44 Combat Grip is unstable on a sandbag. the birdhead DWA Combat Grip was standardized in a graphically more sculptural form. Most silhouetters campaigned the standard DWA target stock.
David Bradshaw