[ACP230]

I went to a turkey shoot Sunday at one of the clubs I belong to.
One of the events was called The U.P. Grand Slam. The targets were steel critter silhouettes, usually used by the muzzleloaders. They included a snake, a porcupine, a rabbit and a couple others I don't remember.

The rifle for the event was supplied by the club. It was a Ruger lever .44 Magnum, scoped. It was fed Cowboy .44 Special loads and there were a lot of empty boxes in the area so the event was popular.

The Ruger's action was a bit stiff, but the rifle shot accurately. I hadn't shot one of these before and was interested to try one. I'm sure it would have kicked a lot more with .44 Magnum loads, but it was mild with the .44s. It still packed a punch. The steel critters clanged loudly when hit, and fell down NOW.

I missed the snake because, for some reason, I didn't aim for the head. I knocked all the other critters off the steel stands. One critter away from winning something! (That was my lot all afternoon.)

I hadn't given much thought to these little lever Rugers before. Now they might be on my mind more often. I wonder what they go for used? :)

[wanderinwalker]

Wow, an odd firearm I've had experience with! Cool!

The rifle is called the M96/44. Kind of a trim, neat little lever carbine. Mine was surprisingly accurate. At 50 yards it would cloverleaf 3-rounds with my handloads. The barrel was too thin to push for 5-round groups IMO. It shot okay with cast bullets, would feed 300gr LBTs, although I don't recall getting great groups from them, they could be used in a pinch. I broke a firing pin dry-firing getting familiar with the rifle. (But by the time I broke the firing pin I could swing, aim and fire the rifle like it was part of my body. Soon after I had a set of snap caps.) It was fairly easy to tear apart and put back together (nothing like a Mark II pistol!).

My major gripe? The curved, "carbine" buttstock was too short and fit me poorly out of the box. The top edge of the buttstock rested perilously close to my collarbone, and several times did hit it. (Ouch.) This was 95% remedied with a buttpad, though it did still give me a dead-arm feeling occasionally. Still, once I got my .260 Mountain Rifle (Remington 700) I noticed myself leaving the Ruger in the back of the cabinet. So onto consignment it went.

BTW, mine was a Ruger "factory-second" with an asterisked serial number. I paid about $275 for it. I suspect a good used one would be similar in price. Mine did not sit long on the rack at the gunshop. IIRC, it sold within a few weeks.