100 Yards & Iron Sights

[dobegrant]

Very nice gun and very good shooting

[gunsbam45]

Great group there Lee. Hopefully I can get my little .32 lined out soon so I can get in on this in the small bore category.

[Colt45r]

This group I put up a few years back with my Alan Harton tightened up Ruger 480 Bisley Super Blackhawk that I did some grip work on.
Using my range bag while in a seated position, resting my wrists\forearms on the bag. 100 yards of course.
Gun has had the barrel shank turned for a tighter cylinder gap of .003", Throats are a .477" Bolt is oversized and fitted. No front to back play with the cylinder, anymore than enough to lube front and back. Trigger has been straightened, creating a good overtravel stop. Bowen Rear and Harton Front sight with horizontal brass reference lines. Oversized Cylinder Pin from Belt Moutain. Trigger job at about 2.5 lbs.

Load is using a 420 grain LBT LFN GC, sized at .477", in front of 20 grains of H110. Starline Brass with WLP primers. These 420 grainers chrono on a consistent average of 1,088 fps. These 420 grainers weigh in at about 425 grains.

Nice day with no wind, very rare!
Thought I would see what I could do.
Surprised myself with one flyer.
This gun shoots and hits the 12" plates that we have mounted at our hometown 100 yard range very consistently. 
Fun gun to shoot!

Keeping oxygen fresh in the eyes, pulling the trigger into the target, and a consistent firm grip makes all the difference in the world.

You guys issuing a 100 yard challenge with iron sights have created a great deal of fun with all of this!! Thanks for all of the inspiration!

[cmillard]

Fine shooting

[Colt45r]

Thank you. 

[Lee Martin]

Nice work and equally nice gun. Thanks for contributing to this post. Hope to see more from fellow members.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[longoval]

Lee, I've been trying but the results don't stack up to what others have posted.

Guns used:
NM Flattop Blackhawks, 4-5/8" and 5-1/2" with Bradshaw Bisley and Wells #9 grip frames respectively from RW grip frames. They both have factory front sights and BCA rears. Both are in 44 special.

Target was a 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of notebook paper against clean cardboard.

Setup involved resting my wrists on a sand bag. I know that is not ideal. I have experimented with other options but I always come back to supporting my wrists rather than the barrel and/or frame because my POI matches how I shoot offhand when I only support my wrists.

I first tested two loads that I have been satisfied with at 25 and 50 yards. These loads use a 240 gr LSWKSK (lead somewhat-kinda-sorta-kieth) from Hunter's Supply. The two loads are 7.5 gr Unique and 9.0 gr Longshot.
Then I tried a couple bullets that I've not yet had any success with using other powders- a 255 gr LALMK (lead a-little-more-Kiethish) form Stateline and a 200 gr HP from Hunter's Supply. This time I tried them with ligether loads of Winchester 231.

Results were fairly ugly. "Proven loads" across both handguns averaged 13.3". But honestly that's not terrible for me since I am a 6" shooter at 50 yards and a 3" shooter at 25.

My method was I would shoot 5 shots, then mark the group. The following five shots were marked differently, recording each load as fired. This worked well for testing multiple loads and multiple guns on the same target but required walking out to the target after each 5-shot string.

On my 6th string I lost track of one of the bullets- meaning I couldn't find it on the target. Obviously this is discouraging and I called it quits after that. It was unusual because I felt good about all five shots, no called fliers. And the other four grouped reasonably well. Pictures to follow.

[longoval]

It is fairly depressing measuring groups with a tape measure rather than calipers or a pocket scale.

[bradshaw]

longoval.... keep shooting.
* If you haven’t done so, slug each barrel with pure lead to check for loose or tight spots.
* The cardboard is a good idea, but I would ditch the white paper and use plain cardboard and come up 3-clicks.
* Call each shot and check through spotting scope and record data in notebook.
* To call a shot helps train follow-through.
* Don’t give up on resting revolver (as opposed to resting wrists). Trunnion position----snug barrel/frame junction into sandbag or rest.

Terms for an out-of-group shot
* Flier----an out-of-group shot attributable to gun or ammunition.
* Pulled or thrown shot----an out-of-group shot attributable to shooter.
David Bradshaw

[cmillard]

I echo what Bradshaw says. I would also measure throats. I had a Bisley Blackhawk .45 Colt that would throw a flier every single time out of a cylinder of 6 shots. I couldn't figure out why until I got smart. I marked my cylinders and found it was the same chamber every time. I measured the throat and found the throat to be much tighter than the others.....then purchased a Manson cylinder throat reamer and problem solved!

[longoval]

Apr 6, 2023 0:01:32 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

longoval.... keep shooting.
* If you haven’t done so, slug each barrel with pure lead to check for loose or tight spots.
* The cardboard is a good idea, but I would ditch the white paper and use plain cardboard and come up 3-clicks.
* Call each shot and check through spotting scope and record data in notebook.
* To call a shot helps train follow-through.
* Don’t give up on resting revolver (as opposed to resting wrists). Trunnion position----snug barrel/frame junction into sandbag or rest.

Terms for an out-of-group shot
* Flier----an out-of-group shot attributable to gun or ammunition.
* Pulled or thrown shot----an out-of-group shot attributable to shooter.
David Bradshaw

Thank you for the reply and the advice.

I will certainly not give up on shooting! I spoke with 2Dogs and he is suggesting more load development to include trying a gas check. I have some 240gr XTPs that I had hoped to try today but weather held me back.

The 4-5/8" Flattop did have a slight constriction where the barrel threads into the frame. We fire lapped it out in about 12 shots. The 5.5" showed no restrictions.

Both guns have the Bowen rear sight bottomed out. This happens to be a proper zero for my 4-5/8" gun at 25 yards. The other shoots a couple inches higher. I had no intention of adjusting my sights during this exercise. I just wanted to measure groups.

I agree that I need a new target. A 12" blank piece of cardboard would not work at this public range. There are too many other targets piled up on the backer. It would be very busy and hard to find. I will keep thinking about a different solution.

I will give my Ransom multi caliber rest some more use.

Thanks again.

[longoval]

Apr 6, 2023 6:18:14 GMT -5 cmillard said:

I echo what Bradshaw days. I would also measure throats. I had a Bisley Blackhawk .45 Colt that would throw a flier every single time out of a cylinder of 6 shots. I couldn't figure out why until I got smart. I marked my cylinders and found it was the same chamber every time. I measured the throat and found the throat to be much tighter than the others.....then purchased a Manson cylinder throat reamer and problem solved!

I shoot bullets matched to my throat size for the most part. One gun measures 0.431" and the other 0.432" but both show a strong preference for 0.431" bullets, confirmed by my 0-1" micrometer.

2dogs had to address one of the cylinders just a little bit, the other was uniform from the factory.

Thank you for the suggestion.

[Colt45r]

Mar 30, 2023 7:35:38 GMT -5 Lee Martin said:

Nice work and equally nice gun. Thanks for contributing to this post. Hope to see more from fellow members.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

Thank you Sir!

[lifebythewaters]

Bump for interest.

[Lee Martin]

Glad you resurrected this thread. I shot some groups last year with my .357 Maximum and new RDW rear sight. Here's a repost of those results:
____________________________________________

I recently added a RW 2Dogs rear sight to my .357 Maximum. The blade is 0.340" tall with a 0.090" notch (plain black, serrated edge). It mates beautifully with the 10.5" barrel and 0.100" wide front blade:





I have a lot of trigger time on this gun. Over 2,000 rounds to be exact. I can positively say the RW 2Dogs rear greatly improves the sight visual. Here are a few of my better groups @ 100 yards. The load is my standard 18.5 of IMR 4227 with the 194 gr Bradshaw-Martin SWC.







This was an interesting pattern. Two almost touching and three in a perfect diagonal:



If you own a Ruger Maximum, or any Blackhawk for that matter, I highly recommend the upgrade.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"