OK guys, today was another centerfire revolver day on the range.
This time I didn't forget the S&W Model 69 and started off the range session with it. I fired 3 different loads using it today. I set the paper targets at a stepped off 19 yards today. I just took it out and set it down at what I guessed to be close to 20 yards and later stepped it at 19 paces.
I shot the M69 using the Lyman 429667 bullet and the Lyman 429421 bullet on paper with it. The 429421 over 7.76 grains of Unique is what this gun is sighted in for and it hit near dead center with it at 19 paces. The 429667 bullet over 8 grains of Unique hit about 1.5" high but otherwise well centered. The 3rd load was a full wadcutter. I don't recall the bullet weight or powder charge on that one. It sure hit the steel with authority but was pleasant to shoot.
That's the only time I put one on paper today. All the rest of my shooting was done on metal mostly at the 12" steel plate but I did shoot some of the smaller swingers also.
I ran several cylinders full of all three loads thru it today. I wasn't 100% on the 12" steel but was better than 90%. When I shot at the smaller targets my hit ration went down some.
Next up I shot the Ruger Black Hawk Bisley flat top in .44 Special. I shot all three loads thru it as well. I shot it only at steel today.
Last up was the Ruger Black Hawk Bisley convertible in .45acp. I ran 48 rounds thru it from a box of 50 I had with me. I was using the 185 grain RNFP bullets I had loaded too short to function in semiautos. I'm noticing some of them are at proper normal length but most are too short. Dunno what the heck happened but I loaded 1014 of them so have a pile of them to shoot up in this revolver.
I took my brass and dumped it all in a tumbler to clean and counted it as I put in it. I shot 97 rounds total today with 48 of that being the .45acp and the other 49 being .44 Special.
I got out real early. It was cloudy and had rained most all day yesterday. Things were quite wet out. I had hoped to beat the rain and shoot yesterday morning but the rain beat me so I shot early today.
The load with the 250 grain Lyman 429667 bullet is a noticeably hotter load, more recoil, than the Lyman 429421 "Keith" bullet. Powder charge is 8 grains versus 7.75 so almost identical but the recoil is noticeably more with the 429667.
Long ago I'd have considered both really mild loads but with the severe arthritis in my hands I'm thinking the next time I load them up I'm gonna drop the velocity a bit lower. These both should be going in the 950-1000 fps range tho I haven't run them over my chrono so that's a best guess not a measured reading. I think I'm gonna shoot for about 900 fps when I load my next batch of them up.
That's the report for today.
