I've been meaning to try the SNS wadcutters for quite a while... since Wayne's original post. I'm down to my last thousand HBWC so went and ordered 1,000 from SNS last night expecting it to take 12-16 weeks like everyone else. Pleasant surprise, my order shipped this morning.
Bullet supply does seem to be loosening up. Those SNS bullets seem to be the generic DEWCs that most casters sell, so if we can't get them from SNS there are other suppliers.Originally Posted by Salamander
Finally got a round tuit and read these links this morning.
Interesting that Skelton basically says, "Anything from a 22LR pocket pistol big enough to shoot accurately to a .38 SPL K frame or 9mm Lightweight Commander is good." Which basically means a G19 or USPc carry gun (smaller and lighter than either of the above, and just as suited to outdoors use) that's your EDC is perfect.
As a handgun man, I have a rather clear mental image of what a trail gun is. It is a handgun that you carry when you venture afield without the specific purpose of shooting anything.My idea of a trail gun is a handgun that, with 50 pounds of ammunition, will make a package small and light enough that you are unaware of its presence until you need it. It adds practically nothing to the contents of a backpack or to the saddlebags of horseman or cyclist. Worn in a neat holster on the trouser belt, it lies flat and doesn’t sag your pants.Yup. Sounds like he's talking about an EDC.This leads us to the largest, and in some ways the best, of light trail gun calibers. No lengthy description is needed for the .38 Special.
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To serve me as a trail gun, I ask only that its host revolver be accurate, light, and have a barrel of about four inches.
Totally failing to enable my surfing of GB for snowflake J frames.
Last edited by OlongJohnson; 05-08-2021 at 11:27 AM.
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Not another dime.
I havent found the example of g19 I have to be accurate enough for small game hunting. It would probably do, but being used to revolvers, its not particularly accurate in comparison.
One thing that comes to mind as a crossover outdoors small game capable and day to day carry gun is the old Colt Diamondback 38 2 1/2" or 4". I had a 4" 22 Diamondback that I liked quite a lot, but sold in a fit of youthful trading enthusiasm.
A Smith model 15 2" may fit the role of small game capable accurate and fair carry gun, but so does the 2 1/2" model 19, which has much greater power potential and doesnt add much if any to the size equation over a model 15 2". The 2 1/2" 19 is what ive been growing in appreciation for recently.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Driving the dot into a varying hare 25 yards distant with a 180 grain HST after a heavy LEM trigger press would have been less than ideal when I EDCed a USPc. The USPf with Dawson serrated black irons regulated for a 25 yard dead center hold, SAO conversion, and 155 grain lead semi-wadcutter would be much better. Slav squatting on a brookside boulder isn't relaxing with some AIWB kydex. Shift the gun OWB and it's blissful. A pancae conceals great for an OWB as it pulls the gun into your hip seemingly tighter over the miles. An Aker Avenger or holster with belt loops entirely behind the gun avoids hotspots and spaces out enough to tuck the outer garment behind it and keep open access to the grip. Open top holsters are cool when you already have to clear cover garments to deal with an immediate threat. Actve retention gets real cool when your immediate threat profile more prominently features a tumble down an embankment.
A trail gun and EDC have a lot in common having to be comfortably carried all day. The devil is in a bunch of seemingly minor details that can end up with an entirely different piece of gear. Like the tiny sights on a Colt's Pocket Hammerless sucking to track when shooting quickly in the gas station at night but being appreciated when trying to brain a cottontail if we can cross field gun threads.
I carried my g19 a lot in the woods. Its very practical. Its killed a lot of grouse, hares, beavers, yotes, and even a few deer. Its nice at night with a wml already attached. It is very practical.
Some people can be happy sitting in the woods with glocks and ARs sipping whiskey, watching the bear sizzle on the spit listening to owls and coyotes 10 miles from the nearest house or road.
But Im not one of them.
After a few years with my g19 as my trail gun I got my blackhawk and single six
I suppose i should have stated it a little differently, the g19 wasnt accurate enough to satisfy me after being used to revolvers that were quite a bit better shooters. I sold a number of revolvers that were in the accuracy class as the g19, I wasnt happy with their level of precision and what I could do with them in the places I hunted.
It may also be partly me. I had a Colt National Match that was extremely mechanically accurate, but I was never able to shoot it as consistently well as most decent Smiths and Ruger SA revolvers.
Id also second the thought of spending my time in the hills with guns I actually like. Winchesters, older Smiths, Colt SAAs, Ruger SAs all feel more at home in those times and places.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Thirded:
Bear from that morning
I wish I could have taken pictures of how clear the sky was that night in VT. Miles and miles from the nearest road.
I can wait untill my son is just a little older so we can go on trips together.
Thinking of lying in my sleeping bag, looking up at the stars with the smell of fire and bear grease gets me homesick for living like that.
For those who have used DEWC and SWC on game, how do they compare? If you were to have loaded over 3.5 of bullseye and both shot poa just curious the benefits of one over the other in the real world.
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