David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. XLV

[bradshaw]

Re-reading first responses to this piece on revolver accuracy, Jeff Hoover and Ken O’Neill, it is a shame we didn’t keep track of cast bullet performance in IHMSA. Take it from the firing line, when you’re hot to mow steel, posterity ain’t on your mind. IHMSA All-Americans Mugs and Bev Tyler made religion of fierce shooting cast bullets. Both cast and jacketed have their attributes, down to top accuracy. Not even a long range match pitting cast against jacketed would settle accounts, although the match result would provide plenty gasoline for the campfire.

James, aka jfs, ratchets the equation with Hornady XTPs in his Freedom Arms .41 Mag. The place where cast takes a graphic lead is in adapting to an oversize groove diameter. I’ve not heard a top long range competitor claim superiority of one over the other. That would provoke a trip to the firing line, where lip-flapping tends to eat crow.
David Bradshaw

[alannadeau]

I'm glad I found this thread.

I shot cast in a Ruger 7 1/2" Super and was fairly competitive in Production class.  I used H110, 296 & IMR4227 and had loads for each that shot to the same point at 50-100-150 yds.  For rams I went to the Hornady 240 jacketed, not because of accuracy but I felt the jacketed bullet held together a little bit long for a better shove on those mizzable bahstuds.

I caught the mention of the St. Albans club.  They still had the old targets when I became a member there in 2012.  Wicked beat up and deemed unsafe, as was all shooting on steel.  We finally junked them a couple years later.  I have tried to get some interest in 22 silhouette going but had to give it for lack of any traction.  I've been president there for the past three years but the BOD is promoting "action pistol" so nothing else gets any consideration.

I remember Skip Hurd shooting his barrel off.  I almost think that happened at the range in Perkinsville, VT.  It either happened there or I heard about it at a match there.  There was a shooter from NY who used to shoot in Bristol, VT.  He shot an Automag and somehow managed to wipe the barrel release or takedown latch as the gun recoiled and when the bolt closed the barrel slid off the frame and landed on the ground.

Those were fun times!!

[bigbrowndog]

The AutoMag issue is one I had as well with mine. A quick call to the “old Curmudgeon” and I was told to deepen the detent and it would take care of the issue........it did, never had another issue with that again.
When an AutoMag goes off there is a lot going on, it is a handful.

Trapr

[bradshaw]

John Parker.... photos 4 & 5 are of the Interarms Virginian Dragoon in .44 Mag. With 10” barrels and silhouette sights, these are the Silhouette Dragoon. Rod Sward ran the small factory making the Virginian for Sam Cummings, owner of Interarms and former Strategic Services operative I’m World War II. Cummings went around licking up battlefield booty and built a huge business selling surplus arms. A gunrunner at heart, Cummings dabbled in manufacturing; the tooling aspect wasn’t his thing.

To this shooter, Rod Sward wanted his Silhouette Dragoon to be a player in International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association sanctioned competition. The gun came with walnut scales and Pachmayr neoprene stocks, which most steel shooters prefer for long strings of fire. Photo #4 shows 2nd version Silhouette Dragoon with flat-back rear sight and target front. Memory says front sight about .100-inch, with appropriate rear notch. Photo #5 shows Jim Whitcomb of Austin, Texas, loading 1st version Silhouette Dragoon on firing line at Goliad, Texas.

The Virginian Silhouette Dragoons were silhouette accurate, with smooth factory letoff. Peacemaker-style trigger, easily tuned. When I described the tall, long-fall hammer to Sward as requiring the utmost FOLLOW THROUGH, he explained the long cocking stroke as an aspect of the single-dog pawl. In the Revolver category, the InterarmsVirginian has about the longest lock time, the Colt Python about the shortest.

Rod Sward made barrels at the Virgina factory. Don’t know about .45; .357 use 1:18” twist. Sward said the pull-through carbide button sometimes results in twist closer to 1:19”. When I suggested all manufacturers of .44 Mag revolvers should test accuracy with Federal 44A 240 JHP, Sward grinned and lead to me their stash of Federal 44C Sierra 220 Full Profile Jacket ammo, which I did some load development on. Like the 240 JHP, the 220 FPJ used an asphaltic sealant between bearing surface and case neck.
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

For a look at the Interarms Virginian Silhouette Dragoon....
David Bradshaw