Riomouse911
Member
I finally got another escape from the flock of telestudents in the house today, so I took five revolvers to the indoor range; three S&Ws and a pair of Ruger SA’s.
The first gun I shot today is a new-to-me Model 14-2, I won it off GB a couple of weeks ago. It had a poorly fitting Hogue grip when I won it, I surmise it was an N frame grip but the owner installed it anyway. I pulled the Hogues off and added the finger groove wood grips after I wiped it down and checked function before shooting it.
I think the previous owner had the trigger rounded and polished, the sides of the trigger and hammer have a lot of color casehardening left while the face is glass smooth and buffed shiny. The trigger face feels good during the press, I wish I had this trigger on my 4” L frame.
I shot a few different .38 Spl. hand loads through it today, it seemed to like the 3.0 gr Bullseye and 148 gr plated DEWC and a 158 gr SWC over 4.5 gr Unique loads best. The DEWC loads at 15 yards:
The second gun was another new-to-me Model 66-2 that I also won on GB a couple weeks ago. It’s in really nice shape except for the grips. This gun had an old and crumbly set of Pachmayr grippers one it, again I popped on some wood grips so I couple take it out to shoot (thanks Amazon!).
I don’t know if the gray colored .500 wide target hammer and wide trigger are factory original. They feel good shooting slowly, but I wouldn’t like it on a revolver for a combat type course. If they are not, this is set up to be more of a bullseye target gun than the Model 14-2 Target Masterpiece is.
This gun fired some of my .357 loads along with the various .38’s I brought. I was happy with how it handled the .38 wadcutters, I wasn’t sure if the .357 chambers would be less accurate than the “proper” .38 chambers on the 14-2. At 15 yds this wasn’t the case, the 66-2 shot the .38 rounds fairly well.
The third new-to-me gun is a NIB Ruger Bisley .32 H&R with a 6.5” barrel... another GB purchase. (I was on a roll I guess.) This is my first .32, and my first Bisley, so I was really excited to wring it out.
The grip felt really nice, both in the hand and under recoil. I think that the people who say the Bisley style Ruger created is good for heavy recoiling guns...of course this caliber isn’t a hard kicker at all.
I loaded a bunch of 100 gr SWC over 4.2 gr. Unique, a load listed as the max in the Lyman handliaders guide I have. I was thrilled when the first four cylinders that I shot at 15 yds were pretty much right on target.
Gun number four was the 5.5” .44 Spl. Blackhawk that I posted about earlier. It’s a bit larger than the .32 Single Six, and also had the standard “plow handle” grip, so it felt a bit different in the hand than the Bisley does. Recoil is, naturally, a bit stouter than the .32 and .38 guns I was shooting earlier, but less than the full magnums that also went down range today.
There’s something about the .44 Spl., throwing that decent sized hunk of lead at moderate velocity is fun and packs enough of a wallop to perform all sorts of tasks. The load I was shooting is a 200 gr RNFP over 5.8 gr of IMR Target, and this gun shoots it pretty well.
The last gun I shot was the 4” 686+. I plan on shooting this gun in the revolver division of a plate-rack shooting tournament next month and I put together a light target load consisting of an Eggleston 146 gr RNL bullet over 3.5 gr Unique. It’s a bare minimum load, and it shot accurately but just a bit low at 10 yards. I’ll be adjusting the rear sight to bring the POI up a touch, then I’ll load another 300 of these and I’m set.
Man I was happy to get away and try out the three guns I just picked up...plus a new favorite in the Blackhawk and learning that my new lightweight plate loads don’t stick in the barrel but instead shoot well. The guns all shot pretty well for me, I’m happy I wasn’t all over the place with any of them. That makes for a good day.
Well, not all good... the only bad part of taking five revolvers shooting is it took me quite a while to clean them all properly.
Stay safe.
The first gun I shot today is a new-to-me Model 14-2, I won it off GB a couple of weeks ago. It had a poorly fitting Hogue grip when I won it, I surmise it was an N frame grip but the owner installed it anyway. I pulled the Hogues off and added the finger groove wood grips after I wiped it down and checked function before shooting it.
I think the previous owner had the trigger rounded and polished, the sides of the trigger and hammer have a lot of color casehardening left while the face is glass smooth and buffed shiny. The trigger face feels good during the press, I wish I had this trigger on my 4” L frame.
I shot a few different .38 Spl. hand loads through it today, it seemed to like the 3.0 gr Bullseye and 148 gr plated DEWC and a 158 gr SWC over 4.5 gr Unique loads best. The DEWC loads at 15 yards:
The second gun was another new-to-me Model 66-2 that I also won on GB a couple weeks ago. It’s in really nice shape except for the grips. This gun had an old and crumbly set of Pachmayr grippers one it, again I popped on some wood grips so I couple take it out to shoot (thanks Amazon!).
I don’t know if the gray colored .500 wide target hammer and wide trigger are factory original. They feel good shooting slowly, but I wouldn’t like it on a revolver for a combat type course. If they are not, this is set up to be more of a bullseye target gun than the Model 14-2 Target Masterpiece is.
This gun fired some of my .357 loads along with the various .38’s I brought. I was happy with how it handled the .38 wadcutters, I wasn’t sure if the .357 chambers would be less accurate than the “proper” .38 chambers on the 14-2. At 15 yds this wasn’t the case, the 66-2 shot the .38 rounds fairly well.
The third new-to-me gun is a NIB Ruger Bisley .32 H&R with a 6.5” barrel... another GB purchase. (I was on a roll I guess.) This is my first .32, and my first Bisley, so I was really excited to wring it out.
The grip felt really nice, both in the hand and under recoil. I think that the people who say the Bisley style Ruger created is good for heavy recoiling guns...of course this caliber isn’t a hard kicker at all.
I loaded a bunch of 100 gr SWC over 4.2 gr. Unique, a load listed as the max in the Lyman handliaders guide I have. I was thrilled when the first four cylinders that I shot at 15 yds were pretty much right on target.
Gun number four was the 5.5” .44 Spl. Blackhawk that I posted about earlier. It’s a bit larger than the .32 Single Six, and also had the standard “plow handle” grip, so it felt a bit different in the hand than the Bisley does. Recoil is, naturally, a bit stouter than the .32 and .38 guns I was shooting earlier, but less than the full magnums that also went down range today.
There’s something about the .44 Spl., throwing that decent sized hunk of lead at moderate velocity is fun and packs enough of a wallop to perform all sorts of tasks. The load I was shooting is a 200 gr RNFP over 5.8 gr of IMR Target, and this gun shoots it pretty well.
The last gun I shot was the 4” 686+. I plan on shooting this gun in the revolver division of a plate-rack shooting tournament next month and I put together a light target load consisting of an Eggleston 146 gr RNL bullet over 3.5 gr Unique. It’s a bare minimum load, and it shot accurately but just a bit low at 10 yards. I’ll be adjusting the rear sight to bring the POI up a touch, then I’ll load another 300 of these and I’m set.
Man I was happy to get away and try out the three guns I just picked up...plus a new favorite in the Blackhawk and learning that my new lightweight plate loads don’t stick in the barrel but instead shoot well. The guns all shot pretty well for me, I’m happy I wasn’t all over the place with any of them. That makes for a good day.
Well, not all good... the only bad part of taking five revolvers shooting is it took me quite a while to clean them all properly.
Stay safe.
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