38-55 Range Report & 357 handi hunt

[eskimo36]

I spent some time shooting my Target Model on Sunday afternoon.  I have worked up to 9 grains of Trailboss under a lead bullet and it shoots 1 inch groups at 75 yards with a 2 3/4 Redfield scope.  I also shot some custom 379 jacketed soft points over 31 grains of IMR 3031.  Quite a bit more recoil and noise but one inch groups again. Point of impact is about 6 inches higher for the jacketed load. 
I also spent one evening this week shooting armadillos on some riverbottom pasture land with my open sighted Handi in 357 Mag. I rode my 4 wheeler over about 600 acres of pasture shooting these destructive little pests. I killed 31 while shooting 3 different loads. 158 lead semi wadcutters allow them to make it back to their hole to die while 140 and 158 JHP's cause tremendous damage and prevent their escape. This is great fun and teaches quick reloads from a buttstock shell holder.  Second shots on the run are a real challenge.

[myarmor]

I didn't know those little critters where such a problem down there, like our GroundHogs It sounds like you got a good shooting 38-55, I know some have had problems getting theirs to perform.
And I'm still waiting for my 357. Should be a ton of fun Everyone needs to take a day off and go shooting, it's just the best stress medicine in my book.
-Aaron

[Slasher]

I didn't know those little critters where such a problem down there, like our GroundHogs

They are a mess... mostly rutting up the fields looking fer worms and such... but they dig their holes which can mess things up... and with no natural predators... they can become quite the nusaince...

But I did get hunting rights as a kid, in exchange fer riding 2100 acres of cotton and soybeans field and blasting every single one I saw.... I wish hunting rights were so easy to attain these days... 

[eskimo36]

I can't shoot on this property from Oct 1 until Christmas break. It is a high dollar deer lease. The rest of the year I help the rancher that leases the grazing clean up the varmints which include coyotes and armadillos. It is a very sandy riverbottom piece of property. There a lot of small deer but the deer guys are too cheap to plant good summer plots to grow antlers...they only plant wheat in the winter. The rancher really liked my handi....I might buy him a sportster if the hunting is good this winter.

[Paul5388]

Somehow, there's a disconnect between "eskimo" and armadillos. 

I don't have much of a varmint problem and only a rare diller.  The hogs may become a big problem, but they come through so infrequently there isn't any way to plan for the event.

I think I would be more inclined to use a 125 gr out of .38 Special brass on dillers.  10.0 gr of SR 4756 will generate 1715 fps with a Golden Saber and should prove to be very interesting.   Of course, I've also pushed the 125 gr in the vacinity of 2200 fps in .357 brass that should be even more spectacular! 

I never have tried using .360 DW brass with a 125 gr, I wonder what that would do?   

[pshaw]

Dillers will still tend to jump up and down for five minutes whether you shoot them with a rimfire or almost cut them in half with a 12 gauge.

[eskimo36]

My 6 year old son that sometimes first shoots them with a BB gun before I "finish" them, says that when you shoot them and they lay there with their insides on the outside, twitching that "their electricity is going off." Armadillos seem to have a large amount of blood for their body size.  Hydrostatic shock is in credible when you shoot them with something in the 4000 fps range such as a 17 remington or 22-250.  They pop like a watermelon.

[poncaguy]

They are thick here in Northern Oklahoma ,Southern Kansas, 17 HMR is deadly on them. Weren't any here when I was in High School..Class of '59!

[eskimo36]

Last winter, I used a Handi Sportster in 17 HMR to kill about 40 armadillos off of an adjacent farm.  I really liked the results but traded it off during the spring sometime. It was a "one shot kill where they stand" round inside of about 75-100 yards.