First Range Report...Of “The Beast"
First trial last week firing out the back door during a snowstorm, at a paper plate stapled to a pine tree, out about 20 yards. Revolver went bang six out of six times, six hits on the plate firing offhand. Winchester 250-gr. Cowboy loads from Sportsmans Guide hit more or less to sights, eyeballed, not measured about a 3” group, 4 shots within about 2 inches, last shot was low, was pilot error. So OK for conditions. Service grade accuracy.
Last night Dick Nearing and I both fired what Carlini has dubbed "the Beast" the two of us alternating groups between Dicks rack grade M1911 firing GI hardball as a sanity check, compared to Winchester Cowboy loads in the M1909. Dark indoor range at 20 yards. Rack grade M1911A1 firing mixed lots of odds and ends of GI Ball ammo we had hanging around, some dating back to WWII corrosive, and some newer WCC stuff, burned it all up, confirmed that 3 inches at 20 yards with an issue M1911A1 is still good benchmark. We sort of knew that.
Attempting to use 6:00 hold with the mild Winchester Cowboy loads the gun shot low on the paper below the bull. This stuff is a mouse-fart load compared to the factory .45 Colt loads of my youth which would put lead in your pencil. Best sight picture with the M1909 .45 DA turned out to be to center bull of 20 yard Standard American bullseye target into the U notch and center tiny front sight in the black. Group is centered and holds the black. Average extreme spead eyeballed about 3 inches off handbags. Sights are hard to see. Now I got brass to reload.
Did try six shots only reloading the six cases I emptied firing out the back door, Saeco 230-gr. flat-nose, #954 Cowboy bullet, as-cast, unsized, tumbled in Lee Liquid Alox, 16 grs. #2400:
BOOM~!, Crack$#!@~, Plooopp....; WHAM~!, Phuuuuuuuuuuuudd.. Pow!
VERY erratic. No more #2400 in the revolver, jams the action up from too much unburned powder. Group (eyeballed, not measured, but saved for posterity so can do later) about 2-1/2” in spite of the varied reports.
From here on I will shoot Bullseye powder only in the revolver. Any further trials of #2400 in the .45 Colt will be in dedicated “Buffalo Loads” intended for RIFLE USE ONLY, with the NEI 250-grain bullet. This bullet has a distinctly different shape from #954, particularly since I had Erik at http://www.hollowpointmold.com>http://www.hollowpointmold.com convert it to a flatnose with large cup shaped, Speer Ashcan style hollowpoint, so it will be very easy to visually keep separate from my revolver ammo so that it will be more difficult to accidentally get stupid.
I sort of knew going in that would be the case, but had to try #2400 because Alliant listed it. Inquiring minds would want to know...
This wheelgun was an impulse purchase bought as a plinker only, because it had been reblued and I could get it so cheap. I want to use the same bullets I cast for my other .45 revolvers and cowboy rifle which all use ACP. My next test iteration will be to load my merger supplly of .45 Colt fired brass with 6 grs. of Bullseye and Saeco #954 230 grain FN Cowboy bullet, as-cast .4555 diameter which is an ideal fit for its .456 cylinder throats. I have hopes that this load will constently shoot 3 inches or better at 20 yards. Doing so at 25 yards of course would be simply delightful, but after all, this is a 100-year old gun with crude sights, being fired by a 62-year old bald headed fat man with an inter-occular lens impant in his shooting eyeball. So we have to calmly face reality here. Being able to shoot 3 inch groups to point of aim at 20 yards is service grade accuracy, as good as a rack M1911, we have proven that. I think even his Royal Highness the ArchDuke of Montana hemself Mike Venturino would accept that. Achieving that realistic, though modest level of performance will hopefully enable me to confirm my working load of 6 grains of Bullseye by the time my backordered box of 500 new Starline cases arrive from Midway before the next full moon...
UPDATE 2-17-2011
#2400 shows accuracy promise with 250-gr. bullets in the H&R rifle. BUT there is alot of unburned powder in the barrel. No wonder it tied up the wheelgun!
Next I want to shoot a series of groups comparing the cast 250 grain bullets loaded with #2400 to the 230-gr. cowboy bullet loaded with 6 grains of Bullseye to see if point of impact from the rifle is anywhere near close, and to see if there is an ample accuracy or HP bullet expansion performance reason to justify using #2400 for a dedicated “rifle only” load. Perhaps the cast 250-gr. hollowpoint bullets which won't expand at handgun velocity will shine all around in the rifle. I would stick to the 230 grain #954 in the Colt. Two loads are visually distinctive and therefore would be easy to keep separate.
If the rifle will readily accept unsized bullets, engraving them upon breech closure, the unsized .456 front driving band of the NEI #332 does not enter the revolver cylinder, making it that much harder to do something stupid...
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia