629 Smith & HP's

[2 Dogs]

This just goes to show why I tell guys all the time .001” will drive you crazy in a sixgun. Unfortunately most guys rely on a dial caliper to measure their cast bullets and they are plus or minus .001” which is why I recommend a good micrometer.

[parallaxbill]

The use of good quality calipers in trained hands can be quite accurate. Just saying, from someone with 44 years of experience. Amateurs beware.

[sixshot]

I knew it, I knew it! 2dogs is an amateur ! I knew it the first time I seen him shooting the banana rock at the Whittington Center in New Mexico, I think it's a little over 550 yds, might be wrong. He hardly ever missed it!!!!
I seldom measure throats unless I have to, I can usually do ok just by trying different bullet sizes & see what the target tells me, once in a while I get fooled though. I'm the original owner of this old 629 so the throats haven't been changed or measured & the gun hasn't been shot for a very long time because I don't shoot double action guns that often except for my 610 competition guns.
All I can say is this gun shot good with .430" bullets & great with .431" bullets & that powder coated bullets are a bit more forgiving. Also I went back to the range the following day & was in for a big surprise after putting up a target at 50 yds & shooting 5 of my dandy gray powder coated beauties..... I never hit the target one time! The day before I did shoot a cylinder full at a steel gong at 300 yds & I was all over it, I mean tight, might even have hit it twice but couldn't get the gun down out of recoil fast enough to be sure.
Now I was mad! When I got home I went over things, & it only took a few seconds to find it, a loose scope base. dang it. Off came the scope & this time I had 29 rounds with me, no fooling around. Except I had a guy next to me with a Savage 223 & he couldn't even hit the paper at 100 yds, he told me twice that he could usually shoot a straw in half at that distance. I finally relented & took over his straw killer & moved to my 50 yd. target & had him on in 2 shots, then got him 1 1/2" high at 100 yds with his handloads & wished him well. I figured 2 straws would last him the rest of the summer.
I use finger nail polish for thread locker & it was drying while I was helping the straw slayer so my gun was ready to go, I got dialed in at 50 yds paying attention to the backlash which is much like the backlash in a lathe when you are adjusting it for slack. Won't show this target, too many holes in it but it made a fine showing on the 300 yd. gong after the first shot so this shooter is happy, I just want to depend on the thread locker, I've always used it.
Remember, an undersize bullet will almost never get you there but one that's slightly over size can often surprise you if it's a cast bullet. Plus, when I size my power coated bullets I spray them with Hornady One Shot case Lube which leaves a light film on them after they dry, not so with a conventional bullet.
Can't remember who gave away this gray powder but it's some great stuff, sure wish I had some more. It's the raspberries!

Dick

[contender]

I know most,, if not all of us have experienced the frustration of a gun suddenly not shooting, and discovered a loose scope. I know I have,, more than once. And it surely caused some bad words to escape because of it.

That gray powder most likely came from Trey!

[bigbore5]

I'm really liking the grey powder Trey sent me. Looks good and has worked great

[bradshaw]

Dick.... I, too, have used fingernail polish for screwing/weather-proofing mount screws. It was my old shooting partner Ed Verge who hipped me to Leupold, and to taking out slack on the clockwise. His technique for setting small screws came out of his machining experience----snug the screw by hand, then set the screw by pressing in on the screw with clockwise pressure, then tapping the screwdriver with a small hammer.

For this shooter, screws so tightened have not loosened in the field.

Same technique is used----with counter-clockwise pressure----to loosen a screw. When in doubt as to whether screw may have been fastened with Loctite, apply heat before attempting removal.

Back in the 1970’s my old SAKO L-61 .338 Win Mag started to walk on me. That is a laser shooting rifle, so any deviation is noticed fast. A look at the Redfield mount showed the Leupold M8 4x had started to slide under recoil, the rear ring begining to shear through the base windage screws. That was up in Vermont, but on a trip to Texas, Bill Mading in Austin TIG welded the rear ring to the base.

Must have been feeling heady in those days, as I told the former Navy rifleman Martin Hull at Sierra Bullets that I was thinking of chasing after the Wimbledon Cup at Camp Perry with a hunting rifle and the Sierra .338 250 Boattail Spitzer----of course, in the SAKO L-61----and continuing with the Leupold 4x for that premier 1,000 yard prone match. To which Martin Hull said two things: “The 250 spitzer just turned out be be a super accurate bullet.” And, “The Leupold 4x has ZERO PARALLAX.”

Shooting stones in a gravel bank @ 600 yards, the .338 smacked em harder than a .308 @ 25 yards.
David Bradshaw

PS----enjoy hearing you get mad!

[bigbrowndog]

David I recall a comment from some friends years ago (1980’s) they were 300win mag shooters. I always preferred the 338wm, the comment was they were surprised at the flatness of trajectory as we plinked at rocks across a steep creek draw in the Texas hill country. Rocks probably 400-600 yards away, I was using an old Redfield 4x, they were using Leupold 3.5-10x and 6x optics. The difference between 180gr. 30cal at 3000-3100fps and 200gr. 338cal. at 2900-3000 not being enough to eyeball at those distances. I’ve always liked the 338, since I was a boy reading Jim Carmichaels experiences.

Trapr

[500fksjr]

Great Thread

[Shakey]

I feel so stupid for the willy-nilly way I have chased scope adjustments around while not realizing I should do it the same way I would adjust a lathe.

[callshot]

I know who gave you the grey powder and I have more but you will need to come and get it! I thought that 3 pounds would have lasted a little longer. How much of it did you spill?

[bigbore5]

3 pounds would do alot of bullets! The expensive parts would be the powder and primers.