I don't know why I said 8" barrel, it's 7.5
grabbed a few boxes of ammo and took it to the range, best grouping, cloverleafing off the bench at 25yards (shooting single action) was the Winchester 240g silvertips
went through two boxes at 25 yards freehanded and there was one big chewed out 1.5" hole and the rest of the rounds were withing 2-3 total spread
shot a few at 50 yards, off the bench about 2"
ready to go hunt, went out Friday night..
Sat afternoon my son got his first deer! he's 9 and I have him setup with a NEF superlight 223 with a Sightron s2 2.5-7 "shotgun" scope
nailed his first deer (spike) about 90 yards out, text book perfect shot behind the shoulder, deer jumped straight up and went off through the brush.. waited about 45 mins (hard for him to deal with!) my son found the blood trail and there it was about 50 yards out dead to rights. 64g Federal tactical sp went through both rib cages with a good 1" plus hole and through the opposite shoulder
too bad the deer didn't read where a 223 wasn't "enough gun"
I asked him what he thought the instant he pulled the trigger, his response "suasage!"
the other funny thing was when I showed him the entrance wound he said "but I aimed here" and pointed to a spot a 1/2" in front of the hole. ah.. thought I was going to weep
Sunday morning right at daybreak I got mine with the pistol, a nice doe, walked off 46 big steps
aiming for slightly behind the shoulder and got her through the right shoulder and then out the other shoulder near the front, deer was at an angle.. she went up and ran limping for about 30 yards
complete pass through, lots of blood on the ground
entrance wound did a nasty job on the shoulder and blew a hole a good 3/4 all the way through
wicked round
interesting thing, I was reading the ballistics
this 240g is going out at 1250 fps
the ruger redhawk 44 6" I shot last week with winchsteer 240sp is 1250 FPS
the ruger was to me, not fun to shoot at all, this gun, is MUCH easier to shoot,
my buddy shot it today, he has a and older redhawkwith a 7.5" barrell and he said the same thing
that is was a lot less recoil and way more pleasant to shoot
it would seem that the same weight bullet at the same FPS, especially with both being from the same maker would feel about the same... I know a big heavy gun vs a small light one can make a huge difference in percieved recoil..
thoghts?
anyways.. I LOVE the gun
I gotta start practicing longer shots
I have done a lot of 25 yard work with my 1911 but I want to be able to take deer out to say 60 yards or so open sighted with this gun... and I need to order up some georgia arms loads, their prices are great.. see if I can find a load that has the same POA as the WInchsters which I will save for hunting, that's expensive stuff to be burning up at the range!