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Snyd
Apr 9, 2024 7:57:29 GMT -5
Post by bradshaw on Apr 9, 2024 7:57:29 GMT -5
Bob.... thank you.
Summit this one, Perry, as you have some of handgunning’s steepest challenges, David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 8, 2024 22:26:11 GMT -5
Ed Verge, my late shooting partner, packed a Model 57 .41 Mag with 8-3/8” barrel, while I packed a 6-1/2” M-29 .44 Mag. We shot neck & neck continuously. Once, while hunting, we jumped a deer in snowy softwoods. Ed about 20 yards to my left. Neither knew the other drew, but drawn we did, each cocking on the draw. Sounded like a single stereoscopic shot. Dressing the deer, we found both shots intersected the heart, an inch or 1-1/2 inch apart. Ed felt neither outgunned nor undergunned with his .41. Same went for his partner with the .44.
Neither shooter ever suggested the other shooter change caliber.
The advent of handgun silhouette drew this shooter like a magnet, but not Ed, although his marksmanship possessed a serious competitive spirit.
I thought about the .41 Mag, yet did not want to pollute my feel for the .44 with the .41’s slightly flatter trajectory. We were better off sticking to our guns. Handgun silhouette saw the screwdriver replace Kentucky. Those who came to with Kentucky could take advantage when distances varied and light conditions messed with sighting. Had Ruger made the Super Blackhawk in .41 Mag, and especially the 10-1/2” Silhouette Super and Silver Hornpipe, the .41 would have attracted more shooters. Dan Wesson Arms would have found the .41 more difficult, as the M-44 .44 Mag Vent Heavy 8-inch (VH8) barely slid under the 4-lbs weight limit. To make weight, a .41 Mag VH8 would have had to hog more metal off the barrel shroud. Same diet would apply the a DWA .41 Mag with 10” Vent shroud.
As our James from Jersey notes, the N frame Smith is a natural for the .41 Mag. But not for trying to launch the Space Shuttle. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 8, 2024 12:41:13 GMT -5
seminolewind.... revolver in photo essay Vol. 34-2 is a Ruger S410N .44 Mag “Silhouette Super”----10-1/2” Super Blackhawk from earliest production (introduced 1979), and winner of the first International Revolver Championship.
Must now get ready to watch eclipse. Shall check screw arrangement on .357 Maximum later. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 8, 2024 7:11:02 GMT -5
Pete.... as Tyrone (contender) says, “Never say never with Ruger.”
Bill Ruger incorporated two ALIGNMENT LUGS on the “ears” of his GRIP FRAMEs. These ears align into cuts in the rear of the FRAME. These allow the grip frame to be held to the frame by a single screw in front of the trigger guard. I used this convenience when doing trigger jobs on the original .357 Maximum prototypes. I learned this trick while tuning the letoff on Bill Ruger, Jr.’s coffee table.
“You know, you don’t have to use all five screws to test your work,” said Bill, Jr. “The front [grip frame] screw is all you need.” (I declined Bill’s invitation to fire a few rounds with just the front grip frame screw.)
Both right & left lugs on the grip frame were notched to allow passage of the long grip frame screw. As well, both holes in the frame were drilled deep enough to accept the long screw. On a gun so-made, all you had to remember was to insert the long screw as the flute in the flute in the hammer pin.
Variations, later on.... * As has been noted, there came grip frames with just one alignment lug notched for screw clearance. * Frames have been made, in which the two holes behind the trigger drilled to unequal depths. * Grip frame alignment lugs and corresponding cuts in frame were eliminated from production perhaps ten to more years ago. * Long screw and hammer pin flute are normally on LEFT side of frame. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 7, 2024 21:01:33 GMT -5
Pete.... check out Gallery section, DB Photos Vol 34-2 (XXXIV-2), to see the long grip frame screw goes to the left of the trigger----opposite loading gate. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 7, 2024 20:56:54 GMT -5
Pete.... lookout photos #14, 15, and a couple others to see the LONG GRIP FRAME SCREW goes in the hole to the left of the trigger guard (opposite loading gate. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 7, 2024 12:37:03 GMT -5
Just a reminder to everyone, the hammer pin goes in with the grove on the loading gate side of the frame, and the long grip frame screw also goes in on the loading gate side. The frame is cut to accept the long screw on the loading gate side. Damage to the screw can occur if the long screw is installed on the wrong side. Been there. ***** Correct. When stripping revolver, it is a good idea to clean drilled & tapped holes. Gradou, including steel cuttings, sometimes clutters holes in a Ruger frame. Same is true for tapped holes in S&W frames which receive the side-late screws. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 6, 2024 14:15:16 GMT -5
Mr. Bradshaw not to argue with you, but for information. Let's say you're shooting a BP load in a revolver and you get 1000 fps muzzle velocity. So say if you load smokeless and it gets slightly less muzzle velocity, which has less pressure? My understanding is pressure=velocity. More pressure more velocity. I understand the pressure developes differently between BP and smokeless. ***** I would love to visually watch smokeless propellant, black powder, and high explosives combust in ultra-slow motion. Short of that, I’d appreciate a lab tutorial on the heat and detonative decomposing of solid and liquid chemistries into gas; to watch TTP (Time to Pressure), with simultaneous displacement of Material at Rest (whether it be bullet, rock, steel, or water). I expect much of the mathematic information is available, and that very little visual info has been developed. Having used some early SEMI-SMOKELESS powder, and blown up a black powder mortar with semi-smokeless, provides the impression smokeless powder continues to expand long after black powder finds atmospheric equilibrium. That continuing expansion of smokeless suggests, at least to this shooter, that PRESSURE TIME translates to Work on Target. This is easily demonstrated with HE (High Explosives). Also readily demonstrated through handloading. Piezo pressure equipment would be the way correlate black and smokeless characteristics. Meanwhile, back in the Handload Jungle, I would feel better loading antiques with black powder or Pyrodex. And, I would call Hodgdon Powder and listen. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 6, 2024 12:50:30 GMT -5
Mr. Bradshaw, what is your opinion on the safe production dates for colts to use smokeless powder in? You stated using smokeless loads in an 1897 colt, and I have an 1896 colt that has been in my family since it was bought new in St. Louis. I have never shot it as I do not currently possess 44-40 dies nor black powder. What says you about loading light smokeless loads for this gun?[/quote] ***** marlin35.... god question, for which I haven’t a measurable answer. After shooting that beautiful 1897 Colt, I decided a continuous diet of my load might prove too much for the old steel. Technically, black powder is an explosive, whereas smokeless powder is a propellant. Yet, the expansion ratio and pressures generated by black powder is less. My late friend and maestro TIG welder in Austin, Texas, made weldments to antique guns for a couple of America’s top revolver smiths. Looking at the parent steel under magnification, it amazes me----the fantastic machine work and gun making that was done in the 1800’s. Inclusions are to be found in old steels with really challenge welding skills. These same inclusions do not make steel stronger over time and probably increase exposure to fatigue. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 6, 2024 10:42:39 GMT -5
Okay members, I own a Colt New Service 45 Colt manufactured in 1917 according to the serial number. I'm puzzled that the cylinder throats are .452 not .454. Back then Colt was doing that on all their 45 Colt revolvers both single action and double. My New Service has the original cylinder and the cylinder yoke and revolver's frame serial numbers are one in the same. How did this happen my cylinder throats are .452. I'm not complaining by the way. Just looking for answers. Tony ***** Measured a particularly beautiful .45 Colt Peacemaker with 4-3/4” barrel, made in 1897. Chamber exit holes measured .452” to .4525”. Don’t recall groove diameter exactly, but it was on the order of .451-.452”. After trying my handload of cast ,452” 255 SWC, deep-seat over 6.7/HP-38 (Win 231 under Hodgdon label) @ 20 yards, the revolver's owner set up his spotting scope and pointed to three of my Tin Man targets I’d cut for him from 1/4” mild steel. We settled on one Tin Man, which a range finder lased across his bass pond @ 190 yards. Based on my 5-shot offhand group @ 20 yards, which POI registered 8 o’clock about 2-inches to my POA, I loaded six rounds and took a Scientific Wild Ass Guess for a 1 o’clock hold on Tin Man @ 190 yards. Holding Isoceles offhand, the first shot returned a surprising and satisfying TIK. Six rounds produced 5x6 hits, spread around Tin Man’s torso. If my friend was stunned, I was elated. That was in Alabama. Soon after, in Vermont, I described the beautiful Peacemaker to a friend and occasional shooting/hunting buddy. An early Colt Model 1873 made to firm dimensions was not news to him. Which may or may not have bearing on chamber & groove dimensions of your Colt New Service. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 6, 2024 8:59:11 GMT -5
Gary.... I shouldn’t have worried about your computer giving a revolver VD. Quite obvious, however, that Artificial Intelligence can infect our writing with VD. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 5, 2024 16:46:32 GMT -5
REVOLVER accuracy comes before BULLET accuracy comes before LOAD accuracy.
Revolver accuracy can be tested at closer range than bullet accuracy. A revolver that groups tight @ 25 yards has a good chance of continuing to group tight @ 50 and 100 yards. Nevertheless, confidence on the Firing Line depends on trusting the revolver to perform to the distance of competition. To secure competitive confidence requires testing at the full distance.
Bullets vary in DYNAMIC BALANCE. The greater the distance, the better bullet balance must be for continued accuracy. All from the same revolver. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 5, 2024 8:21:24 GMT -5
Gary.... the Interarms Virgian Dragoon is not a “VG.” Other than the old NRA rating of VG grading a firearm 95%, what the hell is “VG”?
My experience is limited to the Interarms Virginian Dragoon Silhouette model, otherwise called the Silhouette Dragoon. Very accurate in .357 and .44 Mag. The challenge comes from its long lock time, a consequence of its tall hammer, with long arc fall. The long lock time tests a shooter’s follow through. Rod Sward ran the factory in Virginia, rifling via pull-through carbine swage, for specified 1:18” twist, which sometimes came out closer to 1:19”.
Basic Peacemaker lockwork with a floating firing pin, Colt-type leaf spring actuating trigger & bolt. Coil mainspring.
Nobody I knew used the Swiss Safe base pin, preferring the only way tom carry a Peacemaker----hammer down on empty chamber.
Interarms was started & owned by Sam Cummings of World War II OSS fame. Cummings became an international gun runner after the war, supplying nations with surplus arms and American shooters with military small arms. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 4, 2024 20:43:30 GMT -5
Someone tell me about how these guns are. Is it a bad idea to shoot .357 Mag in them every now and then? Have a possible trade for one in the works. ***** DWA M40The Dan Wesson Arms Model 40 .357 Maximum is built on a stretched M44 .44 Mag frame. Since top strap and bottom strap are parallel, cylinder length is not limited by the tapered bottom strap of a single action. (Leastwise not without straightening the bottom strap in from to the grip frame, ala BFR.) Like its parent Model 44, the M40 features solid frame construction, pioneered in Bill Ruger’s Redhawk. Due to barrel face erosion from a lot of high pressure fire in the Ruger Maximum, DWA released the M40 with two barrels, so the silhouetter could easily swap. Original barrels came with 1:14” right hand twist. Not very long after, the twist was changed to 1:16” RH. Later on the stainless M740 was rintroduced, with a chromoly 1:18-3/4” RH twist. (That’s right, stainless DWA’s have carbon steel barrels.) Reading M40 twistThe only M40 and M740’s I’ve shot, in fact the only one’s I know of, have an 8” barrel, with barrel shroud vented to sneak the revolver under the IHMSA Production category weight limit of 4-pounds (64 ounces). The 8” barrel makes it easy to observe the twist rate without measuring.... Look down the bore----8” bbl----observe LAND @ 6 o’clock: * 1:14”----land ends about 1 o’clock; greater than 180-degree arc. * 1:16”----land ends at 12 o’clock; exactly 180-dregree arc. * 1:18-3/4”----land ends about 10:30 o’clock----less than 180-degree arc. My 1:14 and 1:16 M40 barrels were fantastic shooters. Chamber-to-bore alignmentS&W long ago proved that you don’t need line boring to achieve near-zero runout. DAW proved it all over again in the school house converted to factory in Monson, Massachusetts. Pristine chamber-to-bore alignment, firm chamber exit holes, firm bore & groove, minimum 11-degree forcing cone, couple to clean, light single action break and fast lock time spell superior accuracy. DWA achieve this in spades on the firing lines of handgun silhouette, from Model 15 .357 Mag, to Model 44 .44 Mag, to Model 40 .357 Maximum. End shakeDue to yoke indexing with frame, some end shake is normal. Thus, the barrel is headspace to prevent the hand from pushing the cylinder face against the barrel face. In practical terms, the resultant barrel/cylinder gap promotes SPITTINGS and reduces velocity. In IHMSA competition it was verboten to rotate the cylinder by hand, unless a part broke and it was otherwise safe to complete the match. M44/M40 triggerSingle action break may be tuned down to a clean 1.5 lbs. Double action pull is irrelevant. Ruger Blackhawk .357 MaximumCylinder length limited by bottom strap taper. Bill Ruger, Jr., was ready to lengthen frame, backed by his father, while I held out for preserving frame length of the seven SRM prototypes. Bill, Jr., was in mind of lengthening the maximum case from 1.605” to 1.660”, which would have necessitated a longer frame; I resisted both. Aesthetics as well as strength played on my mind, although the strength issue didn’t phase Bill or Bill, Jr. A shooter has to go about handloading all wrong to stress either a Ruger or Dan Wesson frame, or cylinder. The Ruger Maximum uses a George Wilson barrel, button rifled 1:16”. Chamber-to-bore alignment varies more on Rugers than Dan Wessons. Forcing cone of a Ruger Maximum could be either my short 11-degree included angle, or the deeper 5-degree favored by Bill, Jr. Lock time is longer for the Blackhawk. After all, it is a single action. TriggerIn general, a hunting letoff should be a pound or two heavier than a competition letoff. My competition tunes run down to clean 1 lb., factory parts including trigger spring. (Aftermarket parts, including springs, were not allowed in silhouette.) Many shooters cannot trust themselves with a 1 pound trigger, and this includes a few steel shooters. I increase the CONTACT PATCH when holster work is on the menu and a light break is desired. Fast draw does not ruin a chromoly or stainless Ruger hammer & trigger when the contact patch is correct for the job. DWA single action LETOFF, like that of the Colt Python, can be set lighter than on a Smith & Wesson. Stationary vs moving targetDWA M40----easier to shoot accurately, freestyle or offhand. Probably about the same from sandbag rest. Ruger----faster, more natural, on moving target. David Bradshaw
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 4, 2024 15:46:45 GMT -5
Someone tell me about how these guns are. Is it a bad idea to shoot .357 Mag in them every now and then? Have a possible trade for one in the works. ***** The issue is whether .38 Special and .357 Mag will be accurate in the DWA Model 40 Super Mag .357 Maximum. While I did not shoot .38 & .357 in my DWA M40 and M740, I’ve put a fair amount of .38 Spl. and .357 Mag through a couple of Ruger Blackhawk .357 Maximums----with excellent accuracy and no evidence in the Maximum chambers. A key to revolver accuracy before the bullet enters the barrel resides in the CHAMBER LEADE, the angle of transition between CHAMBER and CHAMBER EXIT HOLE (throat). An abrupt or rough leade may chew the bullet, diminishing accuracy. The tradition of shooting .38 Serial in a .357 Mag is founded in training, both institutional and private. Fouling should be cleaned. Remember, on a sixshooter the barrel face is exposed to 6 times the fire as an individual chamber. David Bradshaw
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