Post by zeus on Oct 31, 2015 15:28:13 GMT -5
With getting all of my son's equipment together Wednesday, I didn't really think about what I was going to take on the trip until the last minute in usual fashion for myself. I grabbed the 4" M29 and some ammo for it, the Lipsey's 454 because I knew I had some ammo for it and of course the 10" FA to go with that and some of my favorite 260 JFP ammo but at the last minute, I grabbed a special 10" SuperBlackhawk and two boxes of ammo laying in the cabinet for it. This special Super is how I first came to know my good friend Kings6 here on the forum. I bought the barrel of this gun from Robb off the Ruger Forum. Quite literally, the barrel and the TSOB that was mounted on it. To this day, I don't know what I was planning to use it for now that I look back. But I remember asking Robb where the rest of the gun was. He had a 7.5" barrel that he was planning to put on it for when he was on the tractor. About a month later, maybe less, he called and I bought the frame and the extra barrel and it was promptly shipped to my dealer in an old sock. I think I gave that to my dealer as a thank you for taking care of the transaction. He only had one leg so I figured he wouldn't mind if there was only one sock. Anyway, eventually, I put the 10" barrel back on the frame and looked it over. The barrel had been magnaported which was the first revolver I had ever owned like that. The first trip to the range was a good one, a nice one hole group at 50 yards from the bench with a 4x Leupold. I knew we had a winner at that point. I cleaned up the trigger just a touch to get rid of the slight creep that was still there from its trigger job at MNP and we were good to go. I polished the cylinder ring out and left it polished to hide the NM streak and then beaded down the rest of the gun. Robb had the sling studs installed so it was ready to go!
I kept the gun in the safe and in a moment of complete stupidity, I sold it to a buddy that was really wanting to get into handgun hunting. I had a 10" FA so I wasn't worried. Problem was, I hadn't shot the FA yet at that point. Anyway, my buddy took it hunting the next day and killed two does with it and put it away. About 5 years later, he called and asked if I was serious about buying it back. He got his answer rather quickly. See, the problem was this, when I got my FA out, it was a great shooting sixgun. Shot nice groups at 100 BUT, the Ruger would shoot tighter! We are talking really good groups from the bench. So about a year or so ago, the Super made it back home and I have shot it the last couple of trips to NM out to 550 yards but it hadn't made it to the woods yet.
So when it came down to grabbing a gun from the case this week when I was at the range checking loads, the first I grabbed for my side to accompany the Ruger was the M29 UNTIL I grabbed the ammo. It was definitely the soft nosed bullets but they were ones I loaded for a Ruger so it went back in the case, not going to beat up the old Smith. I grabbed the big Ruger and the boxes of ammo that I had in the cabinet I brought along. I knew it wasn't sighted in for them since I had been shooting the 315 grain RCBS slugs it likes so much so I touched one off at 35 yards. Made a few adjustments and shot another, one more adjustment and then 3 in the same hole right where I wanted to try it. Lined up at 95 yards and touched it off. One minor adjustment and then shot 5 rounds that landed in a nice and tidy 2.5-3" group on the plate from the kneeling position and the BogPod with the PSR attachment on it. I figured that would be sufficient and Minute of Pig so off we went. Hard to complain about that grouping when you haven't cleaned the gun in 2 years and it has countless rounds downrange
Once my son had taken his hog and we had it all taken care of, I went back and grabbed the Super. About 45 minutes later had me looking at a pretty decent hog half hidden by a rock ledge. I set up on it, judged the distance at about 65-70 yards and knew it was not something I needed to compensate for since we were well below where we had it sighted at so the distance/aiming portion was kicked from my simple mind for a bit. I had the pig in the scope and then what always happens with hogs, happened. Another one from behind the ledge ran from behind the one that I was watching and just like always, the one I was watching decided to follow suit. Luckily, it wasn't spooked or grabbing another gear when it started out. I was able to follow it and when the shot was clear, I sent a fast mover downrange towards the unsuspecting swine. There was no doubt of impact! Immediately upon the gun roaring, a tennis ball size blood spot was behind the shoulder of the pig. It did was pigs that get shot do a lot of times and bolted catching two extra gears on the way out. It was just a waste of energy. After about 20 yards and two forward summersaults later, it lay still at the base of a tree. The amount of blood loss in the 20 yards was amazing. I've shot a good number of pigs over the years down in the swamps of MS and LA and on different ranches in the midwest and I feel confident in saying that this one was the most dramatic in blood loss and instant feedback at the shot. This one even beat the one I shot with a 375-06 JDJ which I didn't believe could be beaten! A blind man could have followed this short blood trail. After it was over, I asked my son if he thought I missed at the shot. He started laughing and told me that it was really easy to see the spot that the bullet hit. There was blood at the point of impact blown back towards me. I was pretty impressed. When it was skinned out, I noticed that it took out one rib and half of another upon entry and another on the exit side. Exit hole was nice and normal with no signs of the bullet coming apart on entry. There were no signs of fragments in the lungs or ribcage that would have indicated the bullet came apart at all. Overall, I am VERY impressed! I have about a box and a half of these left and plan to leave the big Super sighted in for these and use them on more pigs and deer until I'm out of the ammo. Should be fun!
Super was loaded with "Super" ammo--180 JHP
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