Hello. It is time for an update on the 445 supermag conversion I had done. I had the gun rechambered and shortened at both ends. I had the barrel cut to 16 1/4 and the stock was cut to make the overall length of the rifle 29 inches. OK. First the bad news. If I had it to do over again I would cut the barrel to 18 inches not 16 1/4. The gun is so short that you need to take great care in shooting it. Seems like the extra barrel length would make it feel a little safer to me. The other bad thing about the gun is the stock is about 1 1/2 inches to short to use comfortably with a scope. It works well with an extended eye relief scope or a red dot at the shorter lenght but not a conventional scope. I did not like using a peep sight so I took it off and put a scope base back on it and a very compact scope. Then I had to add a slip on recoil pad. It is a small limbsaver pad. It fit perfectly over the shortened stock. I then took camo cloth tape and taped it on very firmly. I am now using two recoil pads. the original and the one I just added. That makes the overall length 30 inches. That is PERFECT for using a scope.
Now for the good. It is one handy little rifle. And it is accurate. I used hornaday 265 gr softpoints with 32gr of 296 and winchester mag pistol primers. At 100 yards I was getting 2 1/2 to 3 inch three shot groups.
Two shots would be touching and one would always spoil the group.
Then the scope I had on the gun went to pieces. The recoil killed it. So today I purchased another compact scope. Not a cheap piece of crap like the last one. It is a very nice Nichols 1.5 X 5 X 20 lightseeker series scope. Nice and compact. For those who may not recognize that scope it was made in Japan and is of very good quality. They had a cheap model of that scope as well. But I stayed away from it. The scope is equivalent to the prostaff nikons or possibly the bausch and lomb 3200. Not a bad scope for a blow out price of 99 dollars. It fit my budget. Anyway I have the scope mounted and the new recoil pad on the gun. I am going out to shoot it again in the morning. Without the lenghtend stock I was getting hit in the eye with just about every shot when shooting the 445 supermag cartridge. When I was shooting 44 mag rounds it was very pleasant and the recoil was very low. Now about the accuracy of this rifle.
The barrel is oversized. It slugged .435 That is BIG. The Hornaday bullets are sized .430. I have some hardcast 300gr gas checked bullets comming that are sized .433 with a gator gas check. Those should give me a better bore fit and better accuracy. I will take pictures of the targes and the rifle at the range in the morning. I will get them on here in the afternoon. There is a big difference in where the 44mag rounds impact on the target and where the 445 supermag impact the target. The 445 supermag impact the target about 10 inches highter than the lighter loads. With the new scope and the softer recoil pad I should be able to get a good idea of how this gun will perform at the range in the morning. Right now my OVERALL impresion of the gun is good. No it is not perfect. The longer barrel lenght would be better for my use. But it is still very handy. I would not give the gun to an inexperienced shooter to hunt with. It needs to be handled carefully being so short. I can use it just fine. There is a late deer season here in Nebraska starting January 1. I will be using it to shoot a couple of does. That is all we can take during the late season. I was very impressed by how much more powerful the 445 supermag rounds seemed than the regular 44 mag rounds. It is a real handful to shoot the full power stuff but a soft shooting nicely accurate short gun shooting the 44 mag rounds. Speaking of shooting the 44 mag rounds I did fire a 10 shot group at 100 yards and got a group of 3 inches with six of the ten shots cutting a big ragged hole then the four flyers opening it up to 3 inchs. Even at this level of accuracy it is a very usable deer gun. The new scope may make the difference. As I said the first testing was done with a cheap scope that went to pieces in 20 shots of the 445 ammo. I will know more tomorrow after my next range session.
As a side note I picked up a nice handi in 30-30 today. It is new. It is a little different than any other handi I have had. the receiver is parkerized instead of blued. Anyone see this before? The barrel is still blued. I have a new nichols 3x9 on it. I am shooting it in the morning too. I am using winchester 150gr silvertips. If it is like any other handi in 30-30 I have had it should do at least 1.5 inchs or better for 5 shots at 100 yards. I will post the results. The good and the bad.
