[lloyd smale]

still no snow here in nothern michigan! usually were up to our ***** in it by now. Im not complaining though got a .45 and a .41 packed up and am going to do a little shooting today. My winter fun usually is limited to casting but Im going to take advantage today!

 

[The Blade]

Those Loads...

Lloyd,

Here in central GA, the shooting is a year round event; any snow that we get is cause for rejoicing by the local population (mostly by the kids who get a day off from school if the weather even threatens to snow).

I've been wondering why you folks that hail from the north lands don't (maybe can't) shoot in winter. Seems like shooting in the snow would be fun, but, I don't live there, so I just don't know. Winter is prime shooting time here for me, as the weather is generally mild (although wet!)

What are your .41 and .45 loads that you are shooting? My favorite .41 load is a Lyman 410456 over about 18 grains of 2400. In the 45 Colt, I shoot a Lee 255 grain PB, but haven't found the optimal powder/boolit combo for my gun yet. I've tried various charges of Unique and WW231 so far. What I have on hand that I haven't tried yet is 2400, H110, Bullseye, and Herco.

I hope you enjoy that shooting trip.

The Blade

 

[bigbore442001]

I love shooting in the winter. It must be my body chemistry. I will attract every kind of biting insect for miles. At our club a shooting house was built. During the hot summer, I see where the wasps build their little nests and deer and horseflies somehow get inside and they are all over the walls and windows.

Then when I go down range to set up a target, I will have one of the littel viragos flitting around me to suck some of my vital fluids.

Nope. I love shooting in the winter. Just dress for it.

 

[lloyd smale]

actually do do a little shotting in the winter about once a week I put the snow shoes on and go and do a little plinking the problem I have is my shooting bench is covered with snow so load development comes to a halt. Im fairly new to the .41 but loads that work so far are a ballistic cast 210 keith pb with 9.3 unique. same bullet with 17 grians of 2400 or 20 grians of 110. Also the lbt 250lfn with 9.3 grains of unique and 19 grains of 110. In the .45 I have a ton of loads. any .250-255 grain bullet with 9.3 grains of unique, 12 grains of hs6 14 grains of hs7 14 grains bluedot 18 grains of 2400 and 22 grains of 4227. my heavy loads are a 300 rcbs keith with either 23.5 or 24.5 grains of 110 or 296 depending on the gun and the same with a 320 lfb ballisticast. I have good luck too with 22 grains of 4227 with these bullets.As you can see I like the 9.3 grain of unique load I have a couple little dandy powder measures and one is allways set up with that rotor in it. It works good for the .41 44 mag 45 colt and even the .475 and .500 for a good lighter load and almost without exception shoots a little better then the standard 10 grain load. I use mostly fed std primers for everything but 110 then I switch to cci 350s. These loads are shot in ruger single actions. hope this at least gives you someplace to start they are just general loads and some of my guns prefer a little more or a little less. But these loads are consistanly pretty accurate.

 

[lloyd smale]

ps in your .45 all three of my rugers were finiky until I had the throats opened up to .4525 before they all had one or two loads they would shoot well and it took alot of experimenting to find them afterward the good loads didnt shoot any better but just about everything that shot not so good improved a bunch. Some bullets are just effected more by the odd chamber sizes then others.

 

[The Blade]

Lloyd,

Thanks for the info on the .45. I have had my throats opened up, but haven't happened upon the magic load yet. Everything I feed it shoots to about 2.5" at 25 yards - maybe that's the best the gun will do without further modifications.

BTW, have you ever tried the 265 grain gc bullets from Ballisticast in the .41? They're long bullets, but they fit in the Ruger cylinders. I liked them so much that I bought a mould for them back during the days that they (ballisticast) were making GB so mad...I didn't mention it at the time, but the mould came in about 6 weeks after I ordered it.

This bullet also does best in my gun with 2400...I have used lots of H110, but 2400 just seems to make the best loads for me in the .41 (It's a stainless 7.5" Redhawk.) I have managed to get several groups at 65 yards with the 265 grain bullet that were under 2" (off a rest, open sighted, yes, I'm a fisherman.)

To paraphrase Brian, Have fun with the .41!

The Blade

 

[Dogshooter]

Loyd, I have an ex-wife that lives up there in your neck of the woods so your lack of snow is dis-heartening. I have been requesting for the almighty to cover up at least a small area up there with tons of the white stuff, alas, seemingly to no avail. Oh well, guess I'll start working on the extreme summer heat and draught prayers early :twisted:

 

[The Blade]

Dogshooter,

WOW! I hope I never get on your bad list!

The Blade


_____________
Ephesians 4:32

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

 

[lloyd smale]

Ill save a pile and throw it in her driveway!

Loyd, I have an ex-wife that lives up there in your neck of the woods so your lack of snow is dis-heartening. I have been requesting for the almighty to cover up at least a small area up there with tons of the white stuff, alas, seemingly to no avail. Oh well, guess I'll start working on the extreme summer heat and draught prayers early :twisted:

 

[lloyd smale]

the 250 lbt lfns that I shot today were the heaviest Ive tried. They shoot into a 1 1/2 with 9.3 grains of unique and about 2 " with 17 of 2400 but some of the primmers looked a little flat. They were a little to long for my gun and I had to really push them into the chambers to make them fit. Could be why the pressure was a little high. IS that 265 a kieth or a lfn I think that if its a lfn or wfn it aint going to fit in my gun. Or maybe the lbt bullet has the crimp grove a little to far back for my gun.

Lloyd,

Thanks for the info on the .45. I have had my throats opened up, but haven't happened upon the magic load yet. Everything I feed it shoots to about 2.5" at 25 yards - maybe that's the best the gun will do without further modifications.

BTW, have you ever tried the 265 grain gc bullets from Ballisticast in the .41? They're long bullets, but they fit in the Ruger cylinders. I liked them so much that I bought a mould for them back during the days that they (ballisticast) were making GB so mad...I didn't mention it at the time, but the mould came in about 6 weeks after I ordered it.

This bullet also does best in my gun with 2400...I have used lots of H110, but 2400 just seems to make the best loads for me in the .41 (It's a stainless 7.5" Redhawk.) I have managed to get several groups at 65 yards with the 265 grain bullet that were under 2" (off a rest, open sighted, yes, I'm a fisherman.)

To paraphrase Brian, Have fun with the .41!

The Blade

 

[The Blade]

Lloyd,

The 265 grain .41 bullet is a LFN. It does fit (with just a small bit of room to spare) in my Redhawk. It is quite a bit longer than the Cast Performance 250 or 255 grain bullets, though.

Take a look:

That bullet will make a .41 Mag KICK!

Here's the 255 grain bullet for comparison:

It's hard to tell the difference with these photos. If you would like, send me a PM with your address and I'll send you a few so you can tell how they fit.

The Blade

 

[The Blade]

Now THAT's cold. I've always wanted a .17...maybe I'll bring up a couple of .22's and let 'em sit for awhile!

If it was that cold around here, I'm sure I'd have more kids than I do... Oops, maybe not. I forgot about the shrinkage factor again.....

I now understand why shooting would be limited in your winter. What do you do with livestock when snow is waist deep (or worse?) Maybe that explains all the frozen beef patties I see in the store?

The Blade

 

[The Montanan]

.

Greetings guys

Here in Montana we still get out in the dead of winter cold and shoot. Them steel targets are painted lite blue so you can see your hits :-D We have loads of fun even when it is 0* outside. Yes it is cold, the BB-Q is going with a warm fire to warm up to :lol: We just love to have fun up here in the North West parts of Montana.

 

[lloyd smale]

Re: .

your lucky I reload and cast in a cold garage all winter so I can shoot all summer

Greetings guys

Here in Montana we still get out in the dead of winter cold and shoot. Them steel targets are painted lite blue so you can see your hits :-D We have loads of fun even when it is 0* outside. Yes it is cold, the BB-Q is going with a warm fire to warm up to :lol: We just love to have fun up here in the North West parts of Montana.

 

[Mikey]

Winter Fun

Gosh Guys, I thought that's what the metallic silhouette games were for - winter fun. They run the targets out on a snowmobile so we can have a track deep enough to see the targets through. Then we flop ourselves down inna snow so we can see if we can see down the tracks to shoot at the targets. Then we hope the wind doesn't pick up and bury us while we're tryin' to shoot. Then we hope our wives will stand us in front of the fire and thaw us out when we get home.

How does the Silhouette Shooter's mantra go -"You can have my gun when you can pry it from my cold, frozen fingers", or is it "You can have my snowshoes if you find my frozen body". And, of course, "The danged hot dogs are supposed to be forzen before they are cooked, not after".

Now, ya'll might recognize the value of owning one of those Artillery Range Finders when ya'll go silhouette shottin'. Let's ya see over the snowbanks. This be Mikey.

 

[The Blade]

Lloyd,

You got a lot of traffic on this topic that started out about your warm winter! I think you could start a pretty good thread with just a test post...

Nobody ever answered my question about where the cattle go when there's snowfall up to your waist...us Southern folk just don't know about stuff like that.

The Blade

 

[lloyd smale]

they pretty much keep the snow packed down from walking around it is ammazing how warn cattle will keep a barn just from there body heat.

 

[Charlie Detroit]

Dang!...

I haven't seen one of those old Battery Commander's 'scopes fo maybe forty years! Mikey, yer makin' me feel old!

 

[Mikey]

Old?

Aw Charlie - I'm sorry. I din wanna make ya'll feel old. Look, I'll even shovel off the path from the shooting line to your car for ya so ya'll doan haf ta struggle through the deep snow. But, we gotta find your frozen butt first, then stand ya up in fronta the fire to thaw ya out.

It's fun, but the worst jokers of all are the fellas who ride the snowmobiles out to set up the targets. It's hard to keepem going' inna straight line and sometimes we wind up shooting on another fella's targets. That makes it tough when you're shootin' for a nickle a point and hoping you'll score high enough to get someone to buy ya an unfrozen hot dog. Mikey.

 

[lloyd smale]

Re: Weather In Anchorge

actually saw a harley on the road yesterday! Thats unheard of here this time of year maybe in Wisconson but here theyd be competeing with the snowmobiles! Suppose to get some snow and cold next week though :roll: take care up there in the real north!="Monte"]Hello Lloyd, freaky just about covered the winter here until recently when the smow fell and the temperature dropped to the zero range.
This was th first December for me to be out rattling windows with the Harley, big fun till I woke a napping APD Lt with a full throttle run just behind the cruiser!
Mufflers? But officer none of yer guys use them on their private scoots!
After confirming my papers were in order and inspecting my 1911, verbal warning! I put on a bunch of miles this december, we've got some amazing scenery this time of year![/quote]