A few weeks ago I bought an 1894C in .357 and I finally was able to make it to the range today. I shot several loads through it, including Rainier 125 gr TMJ RNFP in .357, 125gr cast RNFP in .38, and 158 gr cast SWC in both. I used Bullseye in all rounds, and shot a total of about 200 or so. All the cast bullets were non gas check bevel base.
Predictably, the RNFP bullets fed without a hitch, as did the SWC loaded into the .38 brass. Very little recoil in the .38's and while the .357 had a little more, it certainly wasn't excessive. When I got to the SWC loaded into the .357 brass things got a little tricky. I had previously sorted my rounds into lots of less and greater than 1.590 OAL, and those round less than 1.590 fed well. I had a few that weren't quite as smooth but I suspect they were close to the OAL limit. Then it could've been the SWC profile too, I don't know. Those with lengths greater than 1.590 OAL took some lever fiddling & jiggling to feed, some more so than others.
As far as velocities, I was somewhere between 1000 & 1200 fps, depending on which reloading reference I choose to believe. I hadn't set up my chrony, maybe next time.
I can't really comment on accuracy, other than to say the gun is probably a better shooter than I am. It seemed to shoot down & to the right, but I could've been jerking the gun. Like I said, I'm no marksman. Accuracy seemed to deteriorate towards the end of the session but I don't know if it was from my fatigue or from a hot barrel. It was well over 80 degrees at the range and the barrel was too hot to touch for more than a second or two.
Interestingly enough, I had very little leading after shooting all those rounds but my Taurus revolver, on the other hand, had much more severe leading with about 25 rounds through it.
All in all, I'm quite happy with my purchase and look forward to developing loads for it, as well as improving my marksmanship.
GH1
