woodnbow
Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
- Messages
- 2,077
Kwhi43 won more than a few national pistol championships at Friendship.
When he was younger, he used a Ruger Old Army .45 that was rebarreled and had the cylinder reamed.
Whether the gun was balanced or not was probably secondary, because he was able to muscle his shots to achieve championship results.
He posted:
Yes it's old. Made in 1972. I bought it for 78.00 wholesale new in the box from
Hodgdon. I was working in a Tool & Die shop and the boys always were working
on guns and could do anything. Well we put a 45-70 rifle barrel on it because of
the twist which is one in 22. That combo had the pistol record at the time and
still does, set in 1962. So I thought it should shoot. The groove dia. Is 465 so
we bored out the chambers to .465. I use a .465-466 round ball. At the time I
was young and strong and could take anything . Well the accuracy load was
40 grs. of Hodgdon FFF. The powder was actually made in Scotland by Curtis &
Harvey. It would shoot them all in the same hole at 25 yds. I feel bad about it
now, but it caused many a pistol shooter to give up pistol shooting. They did not
want to shoot against that gun. This was in the years from 1972-1976. Well in
1976 things changed D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Lost all the guns including this one. I just
gave up on shooting. Well in 1991 a old friend came to me and told me he knew
where the Ruger was and said he could get it if I wanted it. It was several states
away. I said how much, and was told 125.00 would get it . I said OK. A month
later I had it once again. I talked it over with my new bride and we decided then
and there to start shooting again. Won the pistol championship at the Nationals
at Friendship the following year with it. I'm too old now to shoot it well but,
there was a time . It's got heavy thru the years. One of my favorites.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/the-old-old-army-ruger.741351/#post-9307809
Some time later he began shooting a Remington 1858.
He converted a .44 Remington to be able to be fired with .360 balls, it was fitted with a 9mm barrel and the chambers were sleeved.
About this gun he posted:
I have a 1858 also and the dia. of the chambers have been drilled out to the
same size as the groove dia. of the barrel, which on my gun is .357 The front
of the chambers are slightly champered as to swedge the ball and not cut
a ring of lead. I use a .360 ball This is for compention at Friendship
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/lee-real-in-a-1858.401971/
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Here is the front of my cylinder. This is 36 cal and is sleeved. The dia is .357
and I use a .360 ball. It does not shave a ring of lead. The groove dia. of
the barrel is .355
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-cylinder-bores-bevel-or.520784/#post-6465901
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This Pietta has been sleeved. The cyclinder was a 44 and it was sleeved to
a 36.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/cylinder-question.490963/#post-6096438
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In a thread about sight picture he posted:
The guy who won the NMLRA pistol Championship this year and has won it
several times is Kim Best. He aims center hold. I would not want to tell Kim
or my wife or any other National champion that they are doing it wrong. I let
my daughter read this thread, she just looked at me and said, Dad,
what's wrong with those people? I told her to be nice and polite. Wife and I both have
our CCW permits, and we both carry. When your life might be on the line , I or
her would not want to try to use a 6:00 aiming point. All three of us only know
one way to shoot weather it's paper targets or otherwise . I know many hunters
and I can say not a one of them aims 6:00 on a deer. I guess our family just
hangs out with a different crowd. We have about a 100 members in our club.
There might be some of them who aim 6:00 . I don't know. But the ones who
place or win the matches they shoot, I do know aim center. I know because we
have talked about it . Like I said, you all can aim anyway you want to. Whatever
you like. Whatever works for you. I really did try the 6:00 hold about 25 years
ago. I tried for about three months. I really wanted it to work because the sights
look so good. I was trying to find different ways of doing things to improve my
scores. There were times I would shoot six or seven 10's in a row and I would
think,wow, I'm on to something here. Then comes a 8 or even a 7. At 25 yds
that will kill you in a match. At 50 yds that would be a 5. Stick a fork in you
because your done. What I was doing was trying to make it too perfect. I would
rather have eight 10's and two 9's than eight 10's a 7 and a 8. There is a old
saying , A good score is made by the absent of poor shots , not by a few good ones.
You all have fun now. Post me your targets, especially your 50 yd ones .
I'm going to go have some coffee now.
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This is what I see. I assume you all know how to sight in a pistol. You can't do
it from a sandbag. When you stand up and shoot it with one hand the impact
will be all different. You can't do it on a cloudy day and the next time you shoot
the sun is shinning and you expect it to shoot to the POI. You can't do it in wind.
You can't apply the ball of your finger to the trigger on one shot then use area
a little farther back for the next shot. Your front sight can't be canted from shot
to shot. You can't hold it lose on your shot, then a little tighter on the next.
Impact will be different. You can't even shoot your match before noon, with the
sun comming down over your right shoulder , then shoot another match that
afternoon with the sun over your left shoulder and expect the POI to be the
same. You all probably already know all of this tho. How to sight in a pistol
is a whole other chapter in itself. Anyway here is what I see
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/uberti-58-sight-picture.740474/page-2
Thanks for posting this, I remember reading kwhi43’s posts back then and learning something every time. He’s a fine gentleman and well missed here.
