CraigC
Sixgun Nut
This year's "Bovine Bash" was a little different. The extensive testing/preparation I planned this past spring never happened. I picked up a Dan Wesson .44 two barrel set (4" and 6") in April and started shooting it immediately. In short order, I accumulated additional 8" and 10" barrels and a few scope mounts and found the Pachmayr grips to be a more comfortable shape than the chunky factory wood grips. However, what I really wanted to be the star of the "show" was a Dan Wesson .445SuperMag. I figured it would be a good platform to test the effect of velocity on penetration with the solid copper Lehigh bullets. I acquired a NIB 10" in May and started with it. It did not behave at all. Every chamber stuck terribly and this really took the wind out of my sails. Due to that, along with concentrating on other projects, over a month spent moving my shop, a freak storm at the end of October that left us without power for a week and the following two weeks spent cleaning up toppled trees, I was only able to spend a few days testing a handful of loads out of the .44Mag topped with a Leupold 2x in a Burris mount. I had a 265gr Lehigh WFN load for buffalo and wanted to try the Federal Fusion 240gr load on smaller stuff. The big Dan Wesson has obviously been monkeyed with as I get the occasional light strike and one chamber sticks every time. I had no time to work with another gun and also wanted to drop my SRH off with the gripmaker on the way down. With all that in mind, I played it by ear and decided to take a couple smaller but no less spectacular critters. I'd been wanting a blackbuck for several years and there were some beautiful examples at the ranch. Several times we got to see them do their spring hop as they escaped from view. They're cagey and it took some doing but I managed to take this gorgeous buck with one well-placed shot. It looked closer to me but Jack's friend Wayne paced it at 70yds.
Now both guns have gone home with Jack Huntington to see what's going on with them. He is also going to reshape a set of the factory grips and probably install a scope mount on the .445. May switch the .44 to a Beuhler mount.
I also wanted a nice Corsican ram to do a shoulder mount and picked out this one, which is actually a Corsican/mouflon cross. The 240gr Fusion did a good job on both animals but no bullets were recovered and they didn't seem to expand much. I look forward to testing them in SIMTEST.
Now both guns have gone home with Jack Huntington to see what's going on with them. He is also going to reshape a set of the factory grips and probably install a scope mount on the .445. May switch the .44 to a Beuhler mount.
I also wanted a nice Corsican ram to do a shoulder mount and picked out this one, which is actually a Corsican/mouflon cross. The 240gr Fusion did a good job on both animals but no bullets were recovered and they didn't seem to expand much. I look forward to testing them in SIMTEST.