Favorite revolver chamberings for match shooting

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  • Last Post 18 January 2010
Tom Acheson posted this 14 December 2007

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ubetcha posted this 14 December 2007

Is this forum new?I don't recall seeing a silhouette section before. Glad to see it.Cast bullets is all I use for IHMSA shooting.There is a definite relationship to shooting both benchrest and silhouttes with cast bullets I shoot mostly a TC 30-30 in uas,but I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 mag and a Ruger Security Six in 357 mag that I shoot at times.At our local matchs I see 44's and 357sm and mags although we dont have many wheelgun shooters Keep up the good work in the IHMSA News

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CB posted this 18 December 2007

Oh boy, a new can of worms. Alright let's hold on a minute. IHMSA is not the last word in silhoutte shooting. My IHMSA experience included a M66 S&W, Ruger three screw 44 mag and finally a Remington XP100 in 7mm mag. Bastardization of the Creedmore shooting position can be laid at the feet of the IHMSA shooter, myself included. This arms race has been repeated by many thousands of IHMSA shooters. My stand up routine includes anecdotes from IHMSA matches here in Florida.

NRA Hunter Pistol Silhoutte is aslo an exercise in one upmanship to an extent. However, shoot in the “Big Bore” "Iron Sights” division and marksmenship emerges. This particular division in the Florida Sunshine State games, is dominated by Ruger wheelguns shooting home cast projectiles. Just a little chest pounding, my cast bullet has captured seven medals in the past three years, three I own.

Lawnsteel, the most humbling of steel target games. Both aforementioned games are almost exclusivly contact. Strike a Goose dead center with a 44 and chances are you will get no credit for a target down. Lately the trend in unlimited classes is shifting to single shot, though it is still slightly in favor of the wheelguns. Production class handguns favor revolvers 4 to 1. Cast projectiles share the same use ratio.

While I have competed for over forty five years, my experience has been limited to the southeastern states, mostly in Florida.  Steel has been my preferred target for the past twenty five years and I look forward to the comments made in this section  about  knocking it down.  My curiosity is which discipline, kill the target or hit the target, wins the matches. Let's hear what won for U.

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ubetcha posted this 19 December 2007

Gunarea, don't get me wrong for thinking that IHMSA is the only steel game out there.I'ts that IHMSA is all I shoot.I don't know if there are any ranges in my area that shoot NRA silhouttes or any other steel competetion.If thats how it came across I apologize. The best I have ever shot so far was a 38 x 40 in big bore unlimited with my 30-30 TC and a 38 x 40 in big bore production with my 44 mag TC.My revolver shooting was bad enough not to mention.I have not heard of Lawnsteel before.What is it about?

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CB posted this 21 December 2007

ubetcha, no hurt, no foul. That is not how you came across, I am a bit of a stinker. You are indeed a gentleman. I shoot em all and do ok at most. The only time my scores came close to your best was when the wind was blowing so hard they clamped the targets down and scored hits only. Beating those guys seems to always be just out of my grasp. Lawnsteel is steel targets presented to a shooting group of three to six players. The targets are placed randomly by the shooting group within range boundaries on all sort of things. The distance varies from 45 to 75 yds. Get this, you shoot from a seated position in a lawn or beach chair. The rules promote Christian verbal harrassment. In big bore, all three disciplines, I shoot a three screw 44. Small bore Lawnsteel sees me with a S&W 66 or a Uberti rolling block in 357. The NRA steel game in Florida, just in the past three years, learned subsonic loads can win. The group I am with must travel 40 miles to the nearest range that offers the NRA Hunter pistol course. For state we go even further. My neighbor has a range dedicated to Lawnsteel and we are good friends so as you would guess, I shoot Lawnsteel a lot. This game has some low power factor maximums. It must be my abrasive personality, now I must write an apology to Loyd. Seems I got him a bit fired up about his love of powerful handguns. I would love to write more about Lawnsteel or Hunter pistol. I'm not a preacher though, I need provocation. When you come to central Florida, let me know and you won't Jones for some shooting, my treat. Roy

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fatelvis posted this 23 December 2007

My favorite revolver for IHMSA Big Bore is my DW 357SM, and have been using 180 Horn XTPs in it with great sucesss. Now, however, I finally stumbled on a Lyman 358627 mould, (after much searching!)and have been casting and assembling loads with the 217 grn Keith style bullet. I sure hope my revolver shoots accurately with it. After sizing my lubed & GC'ed bullets to .358", they have to be gently forced through my cylinder throats, so that is a good sign! Anyone else shoot these in matches? If so, could you give me any tips, suggestions, etc.? Thanks!

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hammer47 posted this 31 December 2009

Tom......at Tusco in Ohio the F.A. 357 mag rules.  The revolver shooters are loading the rifle bullet and pay particular attention to the crimp.  Accuracy is great.

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Tom Acheson posted this 31 December 2009

Hammer,

The trend in our area (MN) is shifting slightly from .44 Mag to .357 Mag. But...with all of IHMSA's categories and the shooter aging process, we see fewer IHMSA Revolver entries and more Unlimited Any Sight entries. There are very few shooters up here using cast bullets in the IHMSA entries. In the early 80's there were more cast bullet entries but that gave way to jacketed bullets being favored. All we have for handgun silhouette is IHMSA. At one time several clubs ran both NRA and IHMSA events simultaneously but the match director work was too much to do both so the state settled on IHMSA. We do have a state association, The MSA (Minnesota Silhouette Assn.) and we focus only on IHMSA events.

I've suggested a nostalgic one-match-a-year- thing where only the original 4 IHMSA events would be offered-Production, Revolver, Standing and Unlimited-where earlier guns (no hooded sights or after market sights and barrels) would be used but the interest for that is weak. I must be too old fashioned!

Tom

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hammer47 posted this 31 December 2009

Sounds right to me too Tom.............but now that I think about it, I'm an antique too.>

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JSH posted this 31 December 2009

Tom, Gary, strange this revolter thing has come up a fair bit on a few boards just in the past 4-5 days. A question for you and any one else that may know somthing on this. The MRI BFR's. Any feed back on them, as they are located in your home state Tom. Any one had a one that is not insane around your TUSCO range G? I have read a fair amount on them and have been led to believe they are good shooters. Maybe not quite up to an FA, but what is? MRI does have a custom shop and they do have a smaller frame than the ginormus one. I don't know if it would be a weight issue to have one in 44 mag with a 10” barrel or not. Haven't looked into it that far. They look to me, like they picked up where the old Sevilles left off in quality? They didn't have a list I saw of calibers that were a standard offering, or at least the page I looked at. I think the 44 mag is a bit more than needed for IHMSA, but they do seem to cater more to the hunting crowd. The 357 mag lacks some at times across the country. I know all about the221 and BB at TUSCO G. The 41 mag is either a love or hate realationship. There are not a lot of offerings out there any more and componenets can be a bit of a chore at times in certain parts of the country to find. Thus this brings me to the thoughts of a caliber that never got much attention. The 375 SM. I figure brass can be made from 30-30 or 225? FYI I would not intend to load these all the way to the top. 375WW brass could be used for that, yes it is a bit spotty to find. But the old 38-55 seems to be making a come back on the SASS scene, so that helps there. A smidge bigger than a 357 and yet smaller than the 41. I looked over and tried to understand the best I could for my pea brain on the BC of the 375's, cast of course. I compare it to what the 6.5's are in a rifle. Sectional density and BC. I picked a 375WW up a few years back for cheap. I have to say it is probably one of the least ficlke barrels i have ever worked with using CB's. I shot excellent to great right out of the gate. Not fussy at all with the two CB's and any combo of powders I tried. Have a good 2010 gents. jeff

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hunterspistol posted this 01 January 2010

:shock:  New?  I've been sitting here waiting for someone to notice it!

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_topic.php?id=2324&forum_id=55>http://www.castbulletassoc.org/viewtopic.php?id=2324&forumid=55

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hammer47 posted this 01 January 2010

Hola Jeff..........not a sighting one of a BFR at Tusco.  I REALLY would investigate the 357 Freedom     :dude: Arms...  as the rifle bullet shooters are really cleaning up.  I suspect the rifle bullet out of the 357 revolver has a BC edge that is out of this world.

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Tom Acheson posted this 04 January 2010

I guess I have been a .41 revolver “sucker” for too long. I started using my Mod. 57 8 3/8” in 1980 for handgun silhouette matches, ALWAYS with cast bullets. In 1998 I “graduated” to a Freedom Arms and have to admit, despite its long single action hammer fall, it is the most accurate revolver I own. But we must remember that these high buck toys are purpose built guns. The S&W has about 17,320-rounds through it so far and the FA about 4,597.

For hunting I have used the S&W to take (5) Mule deer (Wyoming) beginning in 1982 and for another (16) Mule deer and (2) whitetails (here in MN), the most recent almost 2-months ago, a somewhat special.41 has been used (I call it a .41 Wyoming but it's very close to the DW 414 SM) . It began life as a Dan Wesson 357 SM (so I'd have a long cylinder) and then an 8” Douglas 1:14 barrel was installed and the throats opened-up to .41. This revolver weighs about 4 ¼ pounds. The cases are 220 Swift cut off and trimmed to 1.600” long (the SM length). The bullet used for the deer hunting is a Hoch mould 320-grains and the mv is about 1200 fps. The rims on the 220 Swift cases are thinner than the Starline 414 SM cases so I have had to thin the rims of those cases when I want to use them. Having this revolver is probably why I have had no interest in the BFR products. There would be no gain for my hunting needs and portability would suffer.

Early hunting loads in the Model 57 were with a Saeco 220-grain mould (21-garins of WW 296, 20.5 H-110 or 24.5 WW 680, 1174 to 1241 fps mv)) and then a Hoch 296-grain mould (copy of a NEI plain base mould but the Hoch includes a gas check) with 19 grains of WW 680. All of the Dan Wesson loads have used 17.5 H-4227. Many dead deer all with factory iron sights. I'd vote for H-4227 being the best all-around powder for my purposes.

I have never had a Ruger .41 but if they had made a 10 ½” Super Blackhawk in .41 like they did with the .44, I'd probably have one. A 7 ½” barrel is just a bit too short for a safe shooting position in silhouette matches. As it is the 8 3/8” S&W is almost marginal in length. And yes, the S&W factory sights are poor for silhouette shooting. I do have a Model 17 .22 that the factory installed a Bomar rear sight on which is really a major improvement sight picture wise.

Next on the horizon is a S&W Model 58 but not for deer hunting!

Tom

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fatelvis posted this 04 January 2010

Tom, I see mention of two things in your above reply that make me sad......Bomar and H4227. I have to go dry my eyes.

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hammer47 posted this 04 January 2010

Did I miss something?  I have several sets of Bomar sights available.:D Not too sure there are not a couple of 8 pounders of H4227 in the shop somewhere too.  Is this stuff in short supply?

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fatelvis posted this 05 January 2010

Bomar sights are no more. The company went out of business due to the owner passing away in a car accident. H4227 is discontinued, and only IMR4227 is available. I used and liked both of these alot.

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mugs posted this 05 January 2010

One more vote for the FA 357 and cast boolits. Shot a DW 357 SM for 7-8 years so when I went to FA, 357 seemed the way to go. Been shooting the FA since 92 and its never seen any thing but cast. RCBS 35-180 silhouette, RCBS 35-200 and I have one of the new NOE 360180. For thoose that haven't seen it the www.ihmsa.net site is up and running again. MUGS IHMSA 5940L

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CB posted this 18 January 2010

I shoot an orginal S&W L frame, the 586, for my match wheel gun. Out if the box it was a high scorer for me. It used to ride on hip while I was hunting.

Jerry

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