More David Bradshaw photos

[Lee Martin]

I'll let David provide his excellent commentary as always



Heavy gauge stainless steel milk can shot from atop granite boulder @ 200 yards with 4” M-29.


Jerry Busse Battle Mistress. Busse calls the corrosion resistant carbon steel “Infi.” David calls it the finest steel for a field knife he has used.


Cast .44 240 SWC, DEEP SEAT over 5.5/Win 231 (or self-same Hodgdon HP-38) in .44 Mag case, with standard LP primer. Also, same bullet deep seated over 10.6/HS-6. Roll crimp about .030” above front band.


-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"

[hammerdown77]

Ahhh, a well worn, working Model 29 warms the heart, don't it?

[bradshaw]

Photos, top to bottom:
1) Working revolver, M29-2 4"; Bradshaw with goat. A fine billy, he had reached time for the freezer. High neck shot, instant.

2) M29-2 4-inch. Stainless steel cream separator, rolled off the rock (where revolver is posed) with a first round hit from 200 yards. Sight picture: elevate 1/2-red ramp above rear sight. (Revolver zeroed @ 50 yards).

3) Jerry Busse BATTLE MISTRESS. This knife has chopped through deer bones for a number of years. Chopping through a leg bone does not put a flat spot on the edge!. Used 2012 season for whitetail, domestic pigs, and moose. (NO, I have not tried to chop a moose femur, although I bet Jerry Busse would try it.) Glides like cream through moose hide. This Jerry Busse blade performs tasks I would not attempt with any other knife I own.

4) S&W M29-2 4-inch with ammo used on goat at 3-inches and stainless cream separator at 200 yards. LOAD: Cast 240 SWC; 5.5 gr./HP-38; FC 150 primer; Federal .44 mag brass. Note bullet deep-seated to crimp above front band; COL=1.500". The cream pot is bigger than this perspective shows, and the bullet rolled it 2-feet from 200 yards. The empty is from the round that hit the pot.

Lee, thank you for posting these pictures,
with a Merry Christmas and Hanukkah to all,
David Bradshaw

[Fowler]

I love it, a well used 4" Smith with a reasonable load getting shot in it.

Seems to me everyone wants to run full Keith loads in those guns and they are not much fun to shoot at that level. That load is a mild 44sp load and it will do everything that gun needs to do 95% of the time...

David if you dont mind my asking, where are you located at?

[bradshaw]

Fowler.... you are correct, that little 240 SWC deep-seated in .44 mag case to soak up air space and crimp above front band is wonderfully efficient, and accurate enough to gain respect from a long ways away. I have not chronographed this load in the 4", reckon around 800 fps. Packs a punch much more definitive than a .45 ACP, despite energy similarity. And it punches straight through a beef skull, which .45 ACP does not.

Most of the deer taken with this 29-2 4" were slain with the old Hornady 200 JHP and 240 JHP, with a couple of Federal 180 JHP's and 240 JHP's thrown in.

The GREAT Al Plaas applied his loving Old School touch at Smith & Wesson, which included setting the barrel back, molding in a new red ramp, and his exquisite violin touch at tuning. When Smith & Wesson asked where I wanted my name, I said, "On the trigger guard," which was done in Script, to my mind the most beautiful hand.

So why would I load such a work of art with Rocks & Dynamite?

I've too many irons in the fire to pull out the Oehler. Besides, it's getting nippy up here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Expect I'll be gat it in Louisiana soon,
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Hammerdown 77.... as you allude, the difference between use and abuse is a massage, a massage of the sights a massage of the triger and a job done.

I love a beautiful blue. And a beautiful blue lasts much longer than a shallow blue. An old blue is a friend. Follows you around, ready to work at all times.
Best, and may we prevail in the new year,
David Bradshaw

[dmize]

Is that a goat in the top pic?

[bradshaw]

dmize.... billy goat, a very good goat, from breeding to eating, at the end of the trail.
David Bradshaw

[dmize]

Neighbor had a goat I wanted to do that to.
EVIL SOB it was..........

[mark]

Dec 24, 2012 13:18:15 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

...
4) S&W M29-2 4-inch with ammo used on goat at 3-inches and stainless cream separator at 200 yards. LOAD: Cast 240 SWC; 5.5 gr./HP-38; FC 150 primer; Federal .44 mag brass. Note bullet deep-seated to crimp above front band; COL=1.500". The cream pot is bigger than this perspective shows, and the bullet rolled it 2-feet from 200 yards. The empty is from the round that hit the pot.

Lee, thank you for posting these pictures,
with a Merry Christmas and Hanukkah to all,
David Bradshaw

David,
Thanks for sharing these photos as well as the others. What year was that goat taken? This post isn't the first time I have noted that you seem to be a fan of deep-seating bullets. Why? Do you experience better accuracy with no air space? I like 7.5 grains of 231 under a 240 cast bullet (usually Lyman 429244 with no gas check). I suppose that load would do around 850 fps out of that 4 inch 29-2 of yours. You are right, you can get a lot done with a combo like that.
In another post (somewhere), I think you mentioned that you like the factory S&W stocks. These pictures show a modification at the pinky finger. Is that a common change for stocks on your N Frames? I have long been a fan of the Hogue grip (the finger groove grip used by S&W before the current generation they use now). I like how it tucks my pinky tighter to my palm. It is not easy to admit being a fan of rubber grips around here!
Merry Christmas,
Mark

[hammerdown77]

Dec 24, 2012 22:18:54 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

dmize.... billy goat, a very good goat, from breeding to eating, at the end of the trail.
David Bradshaw

Sentiments which can clearly be seen in your face in that picture

[bradshaw]

Mark.... killed the goat three or four days ago. He had already lacerated the bag on a fine milker, and was getting rough on younger billies. It was time for the meal pole. The owner usually does her goats with a .25 ACP bullet up the ear canal into the brain, or a backskull shot. (She does NOT put the crimp on pigs with the .25 Auto!)

She just did not want to do this goat; task fell to me and the 4-inch 29 I was wearing.

I started deep seating bullets with the old Hornady and Speer swaged half-jacket with pure lead core bullets made on the C-H Swag-a-Matic press. No crimp cannelure, so I seated the front shoulder about .030-.040" below case mouth and crimped. The swaged 240 SWC seated deep over 17 grains/Hercules 2400 proved exceedingly accurate and a heavy puncher on whitetail lungs----fast acting, very fast.

I wanted a light .44 cast 240 SWC load for practice and instruction, and settled on 5.5 gr./HP-38 as super accurate. As you no doubt know, Hodgdon HP-38 is Win 231, so they are completely interchangeable. There is beau coups air space with any safe 231 load, so anything that eats air space is a plus, particularly in freezing weather. This little milquetoast load is anything but a punk on the working end of its flight.

A GOOD revolver with a set of eyeballs good enough for that moment should deliver 5-shots into 4-inches or so at one football field. Maybe tighter. Now fore a little detail: this cast 240 SWC is a Bevel Base, as most commercial casts throw them for ease of molding or convenience. How could this bevel base be so accurate? I believe it has to do with subsonic velocity. This bullet loses sweetness when it is pushed hard.
David Bradshaw

[Deleted]

Dec 25, 2012 13:54:57 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

A GOOD revolver with a set of eyeballs good enough for that moment should deliver 5-shots into 4-inches or so at one football field. Maybe tighter. Now fore a little detail: this cast 240 SWC is a Bevel Base, as most commercial casts throw them for ease of molding or convenience. How could this bevel base be so accurate? I believe it has to do with subsonic velocity. This bullet loses sweetness when it is pushed hard.
David Bradshaw

I think you're on to something there David. I've had good success with bevel base bullets in 38 Spl, and 45 ACP. I've never had much luck with them elsewhere.

[bradshaw]

Nose profile can be critical to bullet accuracy when it causes the center of gravity and the center of form to be too close together, as in some ball handgun rounds. A principle understood in artillery, I am told, wants CoG and CoF pushed apart.

This adds to the challenge of making FMJ round nose shoot straight at long range, as it is much easier to control uniform jacket thickness on a flat point or hollow point bullet. Hornady learned this decades ago when making truncated cone FMJ's, which instantly cure the accuracy headache of FMJ RN.

How did I walk out on that plank?

A good example of the S&W "target" stock begs to be contoured to nestle the middle finger----the load bearing finger of a double action----and to have the rib-cracking butt rounded so the hand grips the gun without squirming for purchase. The toe of the stock is tapered to keep the bore axis in line with the forearm and improve pointing.

A bad example of the S&W target stock has the stock meet the trigger guard at a right angle. There is insufficient wood to train this important intersection, with the result that the middle finger gets pounded on recoil.

Finger groove grips fit the person who designed them better than anyone else. I tolerate certain finger groove grips but I do not love them. Among the worst----Pachmayr Gripper for the Redhawk; the grooves are so wide they spread my fingers, causing vertical stringing. The cure to vertical stringing is to get the fingers back together.

A revolver is a personal instrument; sometimes it takes a process of elimination to get it to where it naturally belongs in your hand.
David Bradshaw

[mark]

Dec 25, 2012 13:54:57 GMT -5 bradshaw said:

Mark.... killed the goat three or four days ago.

Is that an Airstream in the backround?
Thanks for answering my question,
Mark