David Bradshaw Photos - Vol IV

[Lee Martin]

I'll let David talk specifics....











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

[bradshaw]

Photos, from top:
1) Redhawk 5-1/2" .44 with 1st round hit from 200 yards. Load:
* Cast 240 SWC
* 10.6 grains/HS-6
* Federal 150
* Federal .44 mag brass
* COL=1.500"
* Velocity 1050 fps

Note nickel cases in revolver----Federal 44C Sierra 220 FPJ, which, holding a hair less front sight, also scored first round hit.

2) top----Super Blackhawk, one of the first with 10-1/2-inch barrel.
bottom----The first production .357 Maximum, 600-00018.

3 & 4) The "Silhouette Super" that won the 1st International Revolver Championship (1980). Just before the Internationals, Ruger set back barrel to eliminate forcing cone erosion , and replaced cylinder. Ruger decommissioned original cylinder by removing ratchet to keep it from being used again.

Load:
* Sierra 240 JHC
* 21 grains/Hercules 2400
* CCI 350
* Winchester .44 mag brass
* Velocity 1300 fps

5) .357 Maximum 600-00018 with one of its trophies.
David Bradshaw

[pbcaster45]

David,

I seem to remember you wrote a magazine article about the 10 1/2 inch "Silhouette Super" sometime after they first appeared. The article had a picture of you shooting prone with the revolver held against a blast shield on your right leg? I'm a bit fuzzy on this... And I thought maybe you mentioned cleaning the blueing from the bore somehow? Throw a dog a bone!

Same gun from the review?

[bradshaw]

pbcaster45.... Yes, this is the same gun.

Wrote a few reports on the Silhouette Super. I think one for Shooting Times, a couple elsewhere. Did nothing to the bluing; perhaps you remember me smoothing the rough bore, which fouled badly on the new revolver.

1979 manufacture was before Ruger installed hammer forging machinery in Newport, New hampshire. Barrels were supplied by George Wilson of Connecticut. 357 barrels were, as I recall, button rifled. 44 rifling was cut with a broach. Same method used by S&W, except S&W micro-honed the bore prior to broaching, and the Wilson-supplied Ruger barrels tended to vary, with grooves of from .428" to .431 or .432".

I talked Bill Ruger, Sr., into going with the 10-1/2" barrel. The NRA, which asked for and received permission from Elgin Gates at the 1979 IHMSA Internationals in Black Canyon to adopt our rule book, had turned around and arbitrarily mandated a 10" limit on production barrels. I pressed Bill Ruger to stick with IHMSA rules, as we had the organizational base for sanctioning matches. Bill Ruger agreed, and that is why the Ruger has a 10-1/2" barrel.

Ruger sent Gates a pair, and me a pair, of the first 10-1/2" "Silhouette Supers." I scoped one with Leupold base and 4x EER scope for targetting loads, and left the other stock for competition. Performed my own triggers jobs on both, with factory springs. It so happened that the non-scoped gun fouled.

Using a hardwood dowel with a jag whittled on the end, I stroked the bore with J-B Paste on cotton flannel patches. J-B Paste did a marvelous job of eliminating jacket fouling. Groove diameter measured the same .428-inch before and after, although it is now .429-inch. That revolver piled on the trophies and won the first International Revolver Championship. It has never sniffed a lead bullet, shooting far more Sierra 240 JHC's than any other. This is a storied revolver. Besides setting back the barrel to remove forcing cone erosion, and replacing the cylinder, Ruger replaced other parts, and I replaced hammer, trigger, and grips. I described this revolver as a 5-inch gun at 200 meters. I suspect it was more accurate, as I fired a few iron sight groups----Creedmoor----of around 3-inches at 200 meters. But the 5-to-5-1/2" groups with Sierra bullets were provable on demand. Consistency is the name of a winning combination, for without consistency confidence withers.

It should be noted that the first International Revolver Championship came about through a hard corps of shooters campaigning sixguns against single shots, and that the match director, Ron Ricci, got behind it completely and brought in tremendous industry support. On this score, great tournaments are nothing without the match director. Everyone watched this one, and Ron Ricci did not disappoint.
David Bradshaw

[jwp475]

David I have always marveled at your shooting ability which is simply amazing to say the least. I am glad that you are a contributor here.

Thanks

[pbcaster45]

David,

It was Shooting Times! Should have kept that issue, very well written.