My bullets v/s squirrels!

[Jerry Lester]

I went after squirrels this morning while trying to push my uncle a deer. He missed the deer, but I limited out on squirrels with my new Single-Six 32 magnum conversion while shooting a load with my first cast boolits:-D !

I'm not getting "quite" the accuracy I'd like so far, but with zero leading, I'm still tickled with my first attempt. I'm sizing to .312" on my Rock Chucker, and lubing with LEE Alox right now. I tried a used LEE lube/sizer, and it just would not work worth a hoot. I friend of mine(machinist) made me a die, and ram assembly to use in my Rock Chucker, and although it's slow, and it's a pain to get the bullets lined up straight, if I do everything right, it works great. I'm planning on buying the Redding lube/sizer, but it'll have to wait till I replenish the hunting/shooting funds:roll: .

By the way, the load is the Saeco 95g SWC, 2.5g of Trail Boss, and CCI-500 primers in Starline cases. It thumped these squirrels very nicely without blowing them up too much:-D.

http://i10.tinypic.com/4dedljo.jpg

[Lucky Joe]

I see head shots, accuracy looks pretty good. Head shots, the hunters way.

[44man]

Nice shooting on those tree rats! Try this (If it will send.) Nope, it is an invalid file. I will try to get the recipe to you somehow.

[357maximum]

Nice shooting...You'd be welcome to walk with me and my Mt. Curs anyday...good job....I have seen fellas that cannot head shoot em with a scoped .22...what a waste of some of the best eating game ever invented...heads shots...the only shot...

[boogerred]

darn good shooting.put em in the freezer,that little pistol will eat up your lunch money.i enjoy loading and shooting my 32 probably more than any of my other guns.im currently shooting a 100gr keith i got off a group buy here. i size to .314 because the throats are about .313. i know you have a custom gun but do you know the throat and barrel measurements? thats almost a must-have to determine bullet size. that pistol is hard to load for only because there are so many good loads,its hard to pick a favorite. enjoy.

[Dale53]

boogerred;
What loads are you using with the Lee GB .32 100 gr Keith?

Dale53

[Jerry Lester]

darn good shooting.put em in the freezer,that little pistol will eat up your lunch money.i enjoy loading and shooting my 32 probably more than any of my other guns.im currently shooting a 100gr keith i got off a group buy here. i size to .314 because the throats are about .313. i know you have a custom gun but do you know the throat and barrel measurements? thats almost a must-have to determine bullet size. that pistol is hard to load for only because there are so many good loads,its hard to pick a favorite. enjoy.

Actually, the black one in the middle was a body shot. The daggone thing positively would not give me a good shot at his head:roll: . He kept on showing me a quartering away shot at his body, so when I couldn't stand it any more, I busted him there, and it exited the off shoulder. I still saved the leg though because it really only broke the bone, and punched a 32 caliber clean hole through it:-D .

The barrel on this gun actually slugged .310". This was a major concern for me at first because I had intended to shoot a lot of cast through it, but also jacketed for bigger critters like coyotes, and bobcats. The throats measure exactly .312", and these bullets drop from the mould(checked a few days later) at just a fuzz over .314". I'm sizing them to just a little more than .312". I mic'd quite a few of them after sizing, and got a spread of .3123"-.3126".

As it turns out, 85g, and 100g XTP-HP's at any velocity from pretty low to screaming shoot good enough to hit pop cans at 100 yards(literally) which needless to say made me very happy. It also didn't seem to cause higher pressures like I thought it would with .002" oversized jacketed bullets.

My cast bullets are shooting great except maybe 3 out of 10 are flying waaaay off at random angles:???: . It''ll put 3 or so in a nice tight cluster, then one will be 3"+ off in some odd direction at 25 yards?. Oh well[smilie=1: :) ...

[LET-CA]

That's some impressive shooting! I couldn't do that at point-blank range.

[44man]

My recipe;
2 or more squirrels
1/2# mushrooms , sliced (Use morels if you can get them.)
1/2 C flour
4-6 carrots sliced lengthwise
salt & pepper
1 C chicken broth
6 strips of bacon
1 C Burgundy wine
2 large onions, sliced
1/2 tsp garlic chips
Fry bacon in dutch oven until crispy, remove and save. Flour squirrel pieces with flour, salt and pepper and brown meat. Remove meat and set aside. Add mushrooms and onions, fry until tender. Put meat back and crumble bacon into pan. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 2-3 hours until tender.

[Bret4207]

Nice shooting Jerry! My SS 32Mag is of the 9.5" barrel variety. Not real handy to carry, but it was all I could find. I admit, mine wears an ancient 1.3x Bushnell Phantom scope due to my being half blind and not being able to find time to get to the eye Doc's. Those little 85 gr condum jobbies SCREAM from the long barrel. I lean towards the 90-120 gr cast loads for pretty much everything, although I have reservations about them on called coyotes. I don't know how much damage a flat nosed .314 boolit at 11-1200 fps is going to do to the hide on it's way out. Sewing isn't a skill I've mastered yet.

Rugers .310 barrel should respond nicely to the Group Buy Lee Soup Cans. I think there's another buy going or at least talked about. I admit I can't keep track of the number of buys going these days, especially since my computer contracted cancer and won't work half the time. Check the Group Buy page. Sometimes one comes up for sale too, and you can always put out a "wanted" type ad.

As to the flyers- I'd check my brass length and trim to match the shortest. Then I'd check my crimp. Those 2 issues have made me tear what little hair I have left out more than once. Starline makes some nice 32 Mag brass if you have problems with the Federal brass like I did. Fedearal nickle brass was a diaster for me, very hard and brittle and difficult to get a consistant crimp. Annealing some brass and trying that may be something to think about too.

Beyond that there's the possibilty you have a chamber slightly out of line or more likely one thats a bit tighter or looser than the others. You can either slug the chamber throats or try firing 5 shot groups from each chamber. If the flyer is due to alignment or size it'll show up on the target.

My bet is it's a crimp/length issue.

[DLCTEX]

Back in the mid sixties I dated a girl in SE Oklahoma and when I heard her father loved to eat squirrel I shot a mess of them for him. He looked at them and said " ya dang fool, you ruined the best part". Seems he liked to crack the skulls and eat the brains. I still shoot them in the head! Dale

[Jerry Lester]

Nice shooting Jerry! My SS 32Mag is of the 9.5" barrel variety. Not real handy to carry, but it was all I could find. I admit, mine wears an ancient 1.3x Bushnell Phantom scope due to my being half blind and not being able to find time to get to the eye Doc's. Those little 85 gr condum jobbies SCREAM from the long barrel. I lean towards the 90-120 gr cast loads for pretty much everything, although I have reservations about them on called coyotes. I don't know how much damage a flat nosed .314 boolit at 11-1200 fps is going to do to the hide on it's way out. Sewing isn't a skill I've mastered yet.

Rugers .310 barrel should respond nicely to the Group Buy Lee Soup Cans. I think there's another buy going or at least talked about. I admit I can't keep track of the number of buys going these days, especially since my computer contracted cancer and won't work half the time. Check the Group Buy page. Sometimes one comes up for sale too, and you can always put out a "wanted" type ad.

As to the flyers- I'd check my brass length and trim to match the shortest. Then I'd check my crimp. Those 2 issues have made me tear what little hair I have left out more than once. Starline makes some nice 32 Mag brass if you have problems with the Federal brass like I did. Fedearal nickle brass was a diaster for me, very hard and brittle and difficult to get a consistant crimp. Annealing some brass and trying that may be something to think about too.

Beyond that there's the possibilty you have a chamber slightly out of line or more likely one thats a bit tighter or looser than the others. You can either slug the chamber throats or try firing 5 shot groups from each chamber. If the flyer is due to alignment or size it'll show up on the target.

My bet is it's a crimp/length issue.

No, I'm sure it's not a trim, or crimp issue. I prep my handgun brass just like my rifle brass. It's been gone over close enough for match use. I'm sure it's a bullet issue. I think my improvised sizing process is causing an allignment problem if I don't pay very close attention to it. I'm working on yet another gadget to correct this little problem.

[Jerry Lester]

Back in the mid sixties I dated a girl in SE Oklahoma and when I heard her father loved to eat squirrel I shot a mess of them for him. He looked at them and said " ya dang fool, you ruined the best part". Seems he liked to crack the skulls and eat the brains. I still shoot them in the head! Dale


eeeeeewww!!!

Yes, I think I'll stick to my current methods...

[Dale53]

Jerry Lester;
I neglected to congratulate you on your skill level and choice of target. Hunting squirrels with a rifle is some of the most fun I have had in a lifetime of hunting and hunting them with a revolver (especially one of my favorite calibers) is simply taking it to the next level.

I normally go for the head shots, but if no head shot is offered, I too will take a body shot (typically behind the shoulder to minimize waste).

Dale53

[Bret4207]

Jerry, what was the issue with the Lee setup that you couldn't get satisfactory results? And what alignment issues are you having with the new setup?

[Jerry Lester]

Jerry, what was the issue with the Lee setup that you couldn't get satisfactory results? And what alignment issues are you having with the new setup?


I'm not sure what was wrong with the Lee press? It sized Ok I guess, but there was lube everywhere, and it would bind up, and require a lot of tapping on the arm to get it unstuck. It looked quite abused to me, and I shouldn't have wasted my time on it. It's history now, so I'm waiting till I can afford the Redding lube/sizer.

The set-up I'm using now is a die I had made for my Rockchucker, and a ram that snaps into my ram on the press. It works perfectly as long as I'm very carefull about the initial alignment before the base enters the die. I'm gonna try using a short sleeve to line the bullet, and ram up before it starts into the die body. I'm pretty sure that'll keep the bullet run out under control.

[Stray Round]

When you say "Single-Six conversion" does that mean a conversion from .22 rf to 32 Mag?

I keep kicking myself for not buying one of the first run of Ruger's in .32 mag. with adj. sights........but I was waiting for them to come out with a stainless steel version and we know that never happened.

But I did jump on a Smith & Wesson 631 with the 4" bbl. when they came out to make up for the mistake. I don't know why the 32 mag is not more popular it is such a fun little useful gun.


Good shooting!!!

[Topper]

what a waste of some of the best eating game ever invented.
You got that right.
Very nice shooting.

[357maximum]

When you say "Single-Six conversion" does that mean a conversion from .22 rf to 32 Mag?

I keep kicking myself for not buying one of the first run of Ruger's in .32 mag. with adj. sights........but I was waiting for them to come out with a stainless steel version and we know that never happened.

But I did jump on a Smith & Wesson 631 with the 4" bbl. when they came out to make up for the mistake. I don't know why the 32 mag is not more popular it is such a fun little useful gun.


Good shooting!!!


My ol man has one of them 32-20/32 mag buckeye blackhawks.........It is one of the funnest revolvers I have ever had the opportunity to shoot....I've tried getting him to sell it to me, he always tells me the same thing...."sorry son..you gotta wait for me to die to get that one"...He really likes it..

[Jerry Lester]

When you say "Single-Six conversion" does that mean a conversion from .22 rf to 32 Mag?

I keep kicking myself for not buying one of the first run of Ruger's in .32 mag. with adj. sights........but I was waiting for them to come out with a stainless steel version and we know that never happened.

But I did jump on a Smith & Wesson 631 with the 4" bbl. when they came out to make up for the mistake. I don't know why the 32 mag is not more popular it is such a fun little useful gun.


Good shooting!!!



Yes. I had Dave Clements convert this revolver from rim-fire to 32 magnum. He put a Douglas barrel on it, converted it to center-fire, made a new line bored cylinder, made a new(taller) front sight, installed a Belt Mountain base pin, slicked the workings up, set the trigger to my preference, and fitted a set of Lett grips on it.

I know that probably sounds like a radical amount of work for a hunting revolver, but I wanted it for years, and like you said, Ruger wouldn't give in to my needs.[smilie=1: Besides, probably 90% of my revolver hunting can be covered with the 32 magnum, so it was money well spent as far as I'm concerned.

[LAH]

Good shooting Jerry..........Creeker