I recently had the unique opportunity (invitation) to travel to North Dakota for a weekend handgun shoot along with meeting a few forum members. My hosts were gracious enough to allow me to extend my stay a few days and we also did a little small game/non-game hunting while I was there. I enjoy hunting the “non-typical” type of game, lol. My list was jack rabbit, coyote, and prairie dogs. Hahaha, I even got to camp out in a nice wall tent for the duration of my stay. In the past I’ve only done minimalistic style camping. Wall tent camping is luxurious in comparison......hahaha.
This would be my first time flying with a checked firearms case and a little ammunition. I had to ship the bulk of my ammunition due to the volume of shooting for this trip. I ended up shipping a 52lb box of ammo, all hand casted and all hand loaded. It was a total of 728 rounds. All ammo had to be shot before I left. I traveled (flew) with 4 of my revolvers, a 44spl Bisley FT, 45colt Bisley Vaquero, 45colt Bisley Blackhawk (heavy loads), and my Bisley SBH 480. After TSA x-ray inspected my case they told me everything was ok/compliant and “they are just old fashioned pistols”, I just laughed and said “yep”.
The shooting was two days with a wide array of different targets and distances that ranged from 20yds to 1,000yds. Most of the targets were animal silhouette shapes. We had two moving targets. One that roamed slowly between 300-400yds and the other that moved right to left on a sled mimicking a running deer that was said to only be 40yds but I swear it was further. It was difficult to dial in my lead to make a hit. Both proved challenging to hit but very entertaining and fun. But I did manage to score a few hits on the slow mover before it finally died, lol.
Having never shot at these distances I quickly had to learn how to use and shoot a graduated front sight blade and elevate the front blade over the rear sight. But it proved to be quite accurate and repeatable. Most of Friday was spent setting up the range but once that was done we took a break and “test shot” a few of the targets.....I was given the chance to do some “mounted” shooting so-to-speak, lol. That was pretty fun! I burned a few cylinders worth on my “mounted” runs, lol.
Forum member “Lazy T Cross” and I sat on the side of the shooting hill and he coaxed coached me into shooting my first long distance target with my 45 colt Blackhawk with heavy loads. My loads were a MP Ruger ONLY 330gr solid at 1250fps and his were the same bullet but penta HP running about the same velocity. That target was around 400yds if I remember right. That dude was difficult to hit for me but I kept misses really close. “Lazy T” seemed to hit it with ease a few times. We then moved to a 600yd plate thats about 25” in diameter. This one I managed to hit with less than two cylinders. We actually hit it with back to back shots. His hit is easily identified by the penta HP leaving a perfect penta mark on the painted target. I got so excited about hitting it I could help but go down range for a proud hero picture, both of us of coarse. I regretfully didn’t return to this target after hitting it the first time. There were other distractions and SO MANY other targets to play with. Oh well, hopefully next time.
The next thing I witnessed I cant explain but got to witness with my own eyes and that is not all cast bullet are created equal. I have heard about certain bullets designs going just absolutely bonkers after, say 150-200yds. Most if not all of these are WFN designs. Some were “Keith” designs also, meaning SWC in shape. Maybe I shouldn’t use Keith.....then again some of these “Keith” SWC designs flew fine.
These bullets, lets refer to them as “offenders” were amazing to watch. The conditions had to be right.....a setting sun at your back seems to be the best. Most of the offenders were shot at a very distant target so the viewer had time to watch the bullet in flight thru binoculars. These bullets just seemed to loose their mind. I saw then dive back to earth hitting the ground very short of the target. I saw them tracking straight to the target, and everything seems fine, but suddenly veering to the side violently. I want to say every time going to the right. These guys told me about this as I was preparing/planning my trip. So I purposely brought some of possible offender designs. One being a new mold I received. It was a 45 caliber 275gr WFN. I think it was the absolute worst offender there. I saw this bullet just go everywhere but to the target. It went crazy after about 150yds. One particular shot I witnessed the bullet veered to the right and then GAINED altitude, arched back up! Viewing thru binoculars I never saw this bullet come back to earth. It may be in orbit by now......lol.
Some “offenders” happened as short as 150yds while some happened at further distances like 350yds. Some of were violent and sudden while some were more on the mild side.
They even showed me some video footage that was taped several years ago. So this is not some recent discovery. They have been working on and playing with this for a while.
Some bullets that stick out in my mind that flew great were (listed as molds):
LEE 255 RF (45 caliber)
MP 45 Ruger ONLY, solid and penta seemed to fly better than the large HP version
MP 454-308 K, penta HP and solids flew best
MP 432-256 (503 H&G clone) both penta and solid flew great
MP 477-640 solid seemed best while the small HP was still decent
Accurate 48-420S (engraved on my mold) this now has a different letter designation on Accurates sight. This bullet flew great in my 480.
There were some good designs in the .501 and .512 calibers but I don’t recall the exact design nomenclature.
I don’t remember all the other good ones and bad ones but Im sure the other members will chime in and name them.
After witnessing this I surely had questions. One being twist rate. Come to find out twist had little to do with good flight (worded loosely). In particular this is a custom 45 colt with a slow 1:32 and a 501 (H&G) Keith design. This combo shot better than in my 1:16 twist Vaquero. Neither were acceptable flights with these guys. But it was interesting to see how twist rate helped or hindered the same bullet and kind of proved a point about twist rate. These guys have recut molds and turned (lathe) cast bullets to improve a design. They also sat me down and showed me some key features to look for in a mold that would narrow down the good flyers vs. offenders when buying a new mold, lol.
The hunting was a little harder than I expected. Maybe it was the season/weather temps transitioning kept game less plentiful. Nonetheless, western coyotes are still on wanted list as are jack rabbits. But I did manage to get a handful of p-dogs with my 45 Vaquero. While “Lazy T” scored several p-dogs. One impressive shot being 86yds with a snubby M69! Good job man!
I want to thank these guys for the help in preparing for this trip, help with to and from the airport, the bullet education, and being great hosts.
Coming home from this trip and this style of shooting, I come to realize I’m a better shot than I’ve given myself credit for. It has given me A LOT of confidence to make a longer ethical shot this coming hunting season.
Thank you very much guys, this trip meant a lot to me,
Lefty SRH
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Originally Posted by M-Tecs
