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Post by bradshaw on May 7, 2024 9:40:00 GMT -5
singleaction.... beautiful looking sixgun. Should not let it slip away, it won’t be easy to replace. Without a specific need of those Rocks & Dynamite loads, plenty of work----with more enjoyable shooting----can be done without all the fire and brimstone, and sideblast from that .008” gap. (Simultaneously amplifying sideblast while bleeding off velocity, the generous gap doesn’t affect accuracy.) For this shooter, a Ronnie Wells grip frame tames recoil. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 7, 2024 9:24:08 GMT -5
I’m still a newby tho’ I’ve been lurking (dreaming) here for a few years... and at age 74... not practiced much... so excited... first shooting of this FG-RW Ruger 360DW that I am so blessed to have.... Taking it easy with some 38 special rounds.... start out with a bag-rest, kind of get use to things.... Consistently this gun shot much better than I had thought possible for me. ***** Ishines.... good self-advice. To add a few tips: Practice the COORDINATIONS1) Position----balance, adjust body to target. 2) Breathing----deep & comfortable, not shallow. Don’t forget to breathe. The eyes are the first organ to go into oxygen debt. Oxygen clears eyes and calms nerve pressure. 3) Sighting----3 focal planes, in order of importance: Front sight; Rear sight; Target. 4) Squeeze----smooth accumulation of pressure in trigger straight in line from the target to your eye. Ride bullet through target (follow through). Squeeze is exact same in all shooting positions. DRY FIREDry fire. If you haven’t time to dry fire, take time from something else. Many brief sessions tine mind & muscle better than one long session. At the range, dry fire to settle nerves and check position. Dry fire informs all shooting positions from sandbag rest to standing. LIGHT LOADSLight loads tone mind & muscle to build consistency. CALL YOUR SHOTRead your shot like the hour on a clock. Follow through makes this awareness possible. End practice on a good note. Don’t shoot to exhaustion. Mind & body want memory of doing it right. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 6, 2024 12:08:06 GMT -5
singleaction.... absence of faux case hardening on Vaquero is a clue revolver has been worked on. Have seen some factory polished and blued barrels on the Vaquero. Ruger would not subject a heat treated frame to reheating. The grayish faux case hardening was an attempt to mimic the colors of carburizing without heat. For that reason, and the lack of an adjustable sight, Bill Ruger, Jr., steered me away from the Vaquero. “You’ll wear the chemical color off in no time, and it won’t look like wear on real case hardening.” Bill emphasized Ruger frames and parts are “through hardened,” with heat treatment configured to chromoly 4140. In essence the faux case hardening is a chemical, not heat.
Some of the chemical “CCH” looked almost o.k., but the way it wore looked more like a coating rubbed off than genuine 19th century case hardening----which slightly helped strength, greatly improving smooth and reducing wear.
Tyrone may have a handle on the roll mark being moved to the bottom of the barrel. Of the roll marked warning, Bill, Jr., said, “It’s a lawyer thing. When you get tired of shooting the gun you can read it.”
It’s my impression that ky-yi-ing from Cowboy Action shooters did more to mpush the warning under the barrel than groans from the rest of us. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 5, 2024 8:58:17 GMT -5
Visit from a Michigan IHMSA silhouetter about thirty years ago. One half of Lansing Shtooing Supply, maker of flip-up hoods for Bo-Mar sights and the excellent 4-D Globe front sight for Unlimited pistols. Had on him a Llama Firestar .40 S&W. Naturally, we did some shooting. A dense piece of meat, with a pivoting trigger that doesn’t pinch. His Llama Firestar shot fine and didn’t jam. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 5, 2024 8:39:14 GMT -5
Improperly matched stainless 1911 slides and frames are a galling issue waiting to happen. Bought my first stainless DW about 20 years ago. Never saw a galling issue. Did see big time stainless 1911 galling 40 years ago in the AMT Hardballer. Colt figured it out and life was good. ****** As stainless steel fever spread, a neighbor had the hots for the first stainless 1911 to come on the scene. Cautioned him to wait for Colt to introduce one. Believe the first stainless 1911 wore the name Randall of AMT JHardballer, soft, ill-fit jammamatics. Eventually a Colt Series 80 stainless came out; neighbor and myself fetched one each and did some good shooting, from out yonder to penetration experiments on automobiles up close. One day at the town dump, we stood one of the old vacuum tube televisions on an oil drum. Neighbor shot it with his stainless Colt. The heavy TV flipped backwards like George Foreman had punched it, a gray cloud of atomized glass where the TV had stood. The reaction of the TV stunned us, as no .45 has the muscle to push over a fat old television. Then, experience with explosives drifted in, and this is the way I see it. The .45 slug penetrated the thick glass, shattering the front of the vacuum tube. Atmospheric pressure dove into the vacuum, instantly flipping the television backwards. In blasting the effect is called IMPLOSION. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 4, 2024 15:34:54 GMT -5
I looked at 3 Smith n Wesson 44 mags today. All used and all at about the same price. I can only afford 1. Needles to say I like them all. #1 is a 3 inch 629 classic.A very cool revolver. I have liked them since they 1st came out. I would load 240 grain HPs over 7. 5 to 9 grains of Unique and put it in a Horizontal shoulder holster. The lighter loads for around town, the hotter ones for out in the woods. #2 A-629-6 5 or 5.5 inch full lug.With a vertical shoulder it could do the same stuff as the 3 inch. And be easier to shoot well. I like this one and I think it has the most practice uses of the 3. The 3rd is a 29-2. 8. 3/8ths. Some might say it's a no Brainerd get the Harry Callihan model. Pinned and recessed no key lock. I disagree. If I want to hunt with a 44, I have a 7.5 inch bisley. And the newer guns have to strengthened features. The key lock is crap but that 5 inch full lug balances well. And I think I could shoot it well too. Your thoughts please. .. tj ***** rj3006.... #1) Ease of shooting? You correctly reckon the 3” .44 presents the greater challenge to control. A 3-inch .44 Mag starts to make good sense with light to moderate loads. Once we’re into magnums, my preference begins with a 4” barrel. A vertical or angled holster offers better security than a horizontal cross draw. Gun weight rules out horizontal carry. #2) Seems you lean to the M-629 with Python-style 5" full underdog barrel; on this you have my agreement. #3) As for the M-29-2 with 8-3/8” barrel, wouldn’t trade the two I have for any M-29 made since. Extreme accuracy of each publicly demonstrated. Short of handling or shooting these three revolvers, my assessment relies on your description. Note on S&W's so-called “enhancements” to the Model 29 and M-629: a few changes were incorporated to prevent the cylinder unlocking at discharge. I named the event CYLINDER FLOAT, which, at its worst, can fire the chamber to the left of the discharging chamber. Extreme cylinder float could fire a burst, all on one pull of the trigger. Lengthening the STOP NOTCHES in the cylinder helped eliminate cylinder float. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 4, 2024 10:39:43 GMT -5
Ronnie.... and the 6-1/2 29.... David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on May 3, 2024 21:28:13 GMT -5
Ronnie.... 4-inch 29 from when Smith & Wesson made decent grips, so-said Goncalo Alves from the Amazon environ. Sanded down for all-around carry and shooting. Scallop hollowed to clear the HKS M-29 speed loader. S&W used enough wood to blend wood to trigger guard via a French curve. Toe is narrowed for purchase by little finger. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 29, 2024 19:41:48 GMT -5
Was handed, roughly a lifetime ago, a Colt Model 1917 .45 ACP, its chambers reamed straight through for cut-off .30-06 shells in half moon clips. Lands reamed out the barrel, a sixshooter shotgun. Highly illegal even back then, though who knows whether the deed was done before the Federal Firearms Act of 1934 ostensibly enacted to curb gangsters. Never occurred to me to ask who made dies to load sawed off .30-06 shotshells. Indeed, back then I encountered more World War I Colt than Smith & Wesson .45 ACP’s. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 29, 2024 18:40:46 GMT -5
"It helps me to go over these basics from time to time." ***** junebug.... reckon I ain’t that lucky. Pretty much commit to the COORDINATIONS (basics) each squeeze. Each shot is a job. Deliberate, no matter how fast. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 29, 2024 10:02:42 GMT -5
Once handgun silhouetters, most of em, had their fill of Rocks & Dynamite, handloading settled down to the business of accuracy, with power enough to generally topple the ram @ 200 meters. The .308 maintained a steady following, including such IHMSA All-Americans as Russell Troup and Bob Thomas for competition in the Unlimited category. Properly downloaded the .308 Winchester holds dead nuts accuracy. Hornady, Hodgdon, and Speer CCI took immediate interest in steel shooting, yet their manuals did not fully reflect the trend to reducing loads.
For his Wichita .308 with 15” barrel, Bob Thomas favored the Speer 180 SP flat base over 30 grains of H4895 or IMR 4895. (I interchanged H4227 with IMR 4227, and H4895 with IMR 4895, in matches from local to international without detecting a difference in sight dope or accuracy, results backed on Oehler chronographs.)
Minimum IMR 4895/H4895 loads for consistency, flat base bullets * 150----34 gr. * 165----32 gr. * 180----30 gr.
Lighter than 150 gr., I’d opt for a faster powder. All sorts of powders are accurate in the .308. Reduced loads narrow selection. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 29, 2024 9:00:05 GMT -5
Went to my local BI-Mart store yesterday. IMR 4227 and IMR 4350 were 61.50 a LB. I like 4227 for 45 Colt And 4350 for 30,06. Been using that rifle powder for about 40 years! I guess I can use AA#9 and longshot for the 45. And i might have enough 4350 to last the rest of my life. But these prices are to much ...tj ***** Two great single base “stick powders.” (Note: dynamite in a paper "cartridge" is also called “stick powder.” That is, until a blasting cap is inserted into the cartridge, at which point the cartridge becomes a “primer.”) As plead the 2nd alludes, by pistol standards 4227 is a slow powder, which means it must fill the boiler room to achieve efficient combustion, usually under a heavy bullet. In .44 Mag, specifically under the great Sierra 240 JHC, IMR 4227/H4227 (single base), along with Winchester 296/Hodgdon 110 (double base), and Hercules 2400 (double base) podium repeatedly in IHMSA silhouette. IMR 4350 achieves superior accuracy across a spectrum of bottleneck rifle cartridges. Including the versatile .30-06 Springfield with bullets 165 grains and up. Too slow for use in John Garand’s M1, which Garand engineered for medium burn rate IMR. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 28, 2024 15:48:42 GMT -5
....125 gr Hornady SST bullets? ***** parallaxbill.... you forgot to state purpose of load. I’d search Hodgdon load data. Short of published data, my intuition points to IMR 4198, also H4198. Check powders in IMR 4198 zone, including ball powders. Again by intuition, I would start at the lowest charge, possibly two grains below that, target @ 100 yards, then work up. To simultaneously chronograph & target yields more information than collecting that data separately. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 28, 2024 12:12:37 GMT -5
Trey.... we hear a lot about different shooting positions causing different points of impact. I understand the problem when the cake is half baked. My silhouette shooting covered every sort of range and weather condition. If I had to reset my sight dope from Creedmoor to Standing, and be ready to cocktail each for the individual range, light, and weather conditions, I would have been in a world of hurt.
Right now, I believe we’re trying to HOLD STEADY THROUGH HAMMER FALL. We’re trying to take care of the sights so the bullet takes care of the target. As handgunhuntingafield states, and I’ve heard you say, and this shooter preaches daily, dry fire is a great meditation for live fire. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 27, 2024 23:01:56 GMT -5
fox trapper..... while neither me nor my hands have retired, my hands went to gloves a long time ago. Shot too many bare hand magnums before handgun silhouette came along, and too much silhouette, bare handed, before greatly preferring oiled deerskin between palm and grip.
Among sports gloves, a batter’s glove.
Cut off glove fingertips, if you prefer.
Good leather receives periodic treatment of rendered hooves (neatsfoot oil0, or my heated mix of clear mineral oil & pure beeswax. More wax for water molded top grain, less wax for gloves, latigo, bags, etc. David Bradshaw
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