When things come together

[Lost River]

I have been absent from here a bit, and been wanting to catch up on things. Unfortunately there have been some personal life issues that have been dragging on (and on and on) that have kept me very busy, plus I have been doing lots of dad stuff (which I don't really apologize for but it does keep a guy hopping.) Easter weekend saw me filling plastic eggs and making dinner and all that good stuff. Always a good time with kids, and Henry the Happy Hound and Simon the Gangster Cat, who is a formerly feral cat that sometimes thinks he is still on the street (or field).

Anyways......

What this has to do with revolvers..


Well, I make a .45 Colt load that uses a 270 wide nose Elmer Keith style lead semi wadcutter. It is pretty popular as it is simply one of those good all around loads and it is quite accurate.

But a few guys had asked about a heavier .45 Colt load. I have been working on it as a side project, but have not been satisfied with the combo of speed and accuracy until this load. This one is definitely it. It is a heavy, 325 grain WFN (wide flat nose) bullet.

I was short on time, as the sun was setting, and I was not going to have time to set up a proper shooting bench, so it was just going to be one of those shooting over the hood kind of things and see how the loads do.

I was shooting over the hood of my Landcruiser. Some of you might recognize what I was using as a blast shield. It is a hot barrel bag from an M240 machine gun. The gun was my large frame shorty (4&5/8ths") Ruger Blackhawk with a red dot on it. The target was at 25 yards.




I set my chronograph and target up and shot 4 rounds.

Aiming for the green dot BTW.

I could not tell at all if I was on paper or where, so I walked down to check.

When I checked I found this:




I figured I had better take a picture of that because sure as heck, I will screw a group up like that!

My fifth shot was pretty good too.



I then shot some for the chronograph and got 1155, which for that short barrel is moving.





I am happy to say it has come together.

Funny thing is that they are too tall to fit in a traditional plastic ammo tray and cardboard box.



It is always something! But I am very happy that a load was developed that hits the sweet spot I was looking for of speed and accuracy!

Not much is going to shrug off one of those.

[Malamute]

Looks like youre on to it!



The load sounds close to what John L mentioned to me long ago and I loaded for carry loads in the mountains. I never tried them for accuracy to the level you have.

[Lost River]

There were some other loads I had loaded that were another 150 FPS faster, in the 1300 FPS range (using the short barrel. I am curious to see what numbers a 7.5" barrel will produce). Actually a few that were a bit more than that. The problem was that I was not really happy with the accuracy. Plus quite frankly I see absolutely no point.

I know that quite a few people just go for biggest, fastest, bestest, but there is nothing that is going to know the difference between a 325 WFN at 1150 and one at 1250 or more. That slug is going clean through whatever you hit. I realize that velocity is a huge selling point and many only look at numbers, but I personally like "eye hole and ear hole" accuracy combined with a big slug. When those come together in a load, that makes it pretty formidable and confidence inspiring.

[Malamute]

There were some other loads I had loaded that were another 150 FPS faster, in the 1300 FPS range (using the short barrel. I am curious to see what numbers a 7.5" barrel will produce). Actually a few that were a bit more than that. The problem was that I was not really happy with the accuracy. Plus quite frankly I see absolutely no point.

I know that quite a few people just go for biggest, fastest, bestest, but there is nothing that is going to know the difference between a 325 WFN at 1150 and one at 1250 or more. That slug is going clean through whatever you hit. I realize that velocity is a huge selling point and many only look at numbers, but I personally like "eye hole and ear hole" accuracy combined with a big slug. When those come together in a load, that makes it pretty formidable and confidence inspiring.

Yes, theres a point of diminishing returns. John and I discussed this several times, after a point, velocity buys you trajectory, but not necessarily better performance on the animal, depending on all the variables of animal, bullet hardness, range, blah blah. Its also the question of if the perceived returns are worth the cost of recoil, muzzle blast, shootability, etc. Johns conclusion after his personal use and extensive correspondence and talks with many users was that a heavy bullet at medium velocity did pretty much everything one really needed to do in the lower 48 on game so long as one can make good hits. Ive heard him on the phone many times when people called to ask about his big guns, hed ask what they were going to do with it, then say "You really dont need one of these big guns (475 or 500) to hunt deer (or whatever) with, a 45 with good loads will do what you want, but Ill sure build you one if you want it".

[Catshooter]

Sweet load. That'll dust both sides of anything living in America, except (maybe?) a bison.

Too bad you can't shoot for shit!

[Lost River]

Yes, theres a point of diminishing returns. John and I discussed this several times, after a point, velocity buys you trajectory, but not necessarily better performance on the animal, depending on all the variables of animal, bullet hardness, range, blah blah. Its also the question of if the perceived returns are worth the cost of recoil, muzzle blast, shootability, etc. Johns conclusion after his personal use and extensive correspondence and talks with many users was that a heavy bullet at medium velocity did pretty much everything one really needed to do in the lower 48 on game so long as one can make good hits. Ive heard him on the phone many times when people called to ask about his big guns, hed ask what they were going to do with it, then say "You really dont need one of these big guns (475 or 500) to hunt deer (or whatever) with, a 45 with good loads will do what you want, but Ill sure build you one if you want it".

That is pretty much my conclusion.

I know that they are much easier to shoot precisely than some of the monster magnums. At least for me. In the 90s, I knew a rather odd guy that had both a 475 and 500 Linebaugh built after he came into some money from his parents passing away. He let me shoot both at the range. I only shot the revolvers one time and it was enough. I knew it was not something I needed or really wanted. It has been a long time ago now, but I do remember thinking that I could not shoot either very well. At least with my .44 I could hit rabbits and rock chucks and deer and stuff.

A man's gotta know his limitations..

[okie john]

Good to see you back.

Once upon a time, I was a pretty good pistol shot. Then I got a 5-shot 45 Colt and built myself a flinch that you could see from outer space. It took years to get back to where I had been before.


Okie John

[Malamute]

Good to see you back.

Once upon a time, I was a pretty good pistol shot. Then I got a 5-shot 45 Colt and built myself a flinch that you could see from outer space. It took years to get back to where I had been before.


Okie John

One handed shooting helps that. The flinch is magnified to near comical levels and really forces you to focus to avoid embarrassing yourself to death, even when youre alone. Lots of 22 also helps.

[Stephanie B]

In the 90s, I knew a rather odd guy that had both a 475 and 500 Linebaugh built after he came into some money from his parents passing away. He let me shoot both at the range. I only shot the revolvers one time and it was enough. I knew it was not something I needed or really wanted. It has been a long time ago now, but I do remember thinking that I could not shoot either very well. At least with my .44 I could hit rabbits and rock chucks and deer and stuff.

A man's gotta know his limitations..

Yep. I've prolly told this story before, but I used to hang around somewhat at a LGS. They tolerated me because I bought shit. So one day, they had a used .500 Magnum in one of the display cases. It was one with an 8" or so barrel. I thought that I'd seen it before. The conversation when like this:

Me: Hey, didn't you sell that .500 to Sumdood awhile back.

Owner: Yeah.

Me: How many times have you sold that particular gun.

Owner: Maybe eight.

[42Willys]

Great thread @Lost River