Finally a few hours with the .41 Magnums

[26Charlie]

Hardly done any shooting this spring - but today decided to put together some ammo for the .41 Mag and take the guns to the range. The load is the Lyman 410459 220 gr. SWC design, 19.5 gr. of H-110, Win LRP in Midway brass.

Shooting a five-shot group from each of five revolvers at 50 yards "wrist rest" from the bench gave the following results:

.41 Mag S&W M57, 4" bbl, 5 5/8" group.
.41 Mag Ruger Blackhawk 4 5/8" bbl, 8 1/4" group
.41 Mag Ruger Bisley Blackhawk, 7 1/2" bbl, 7 1/2" group.
.41 Mag Ruger Stainless Redhawk 7 1/2" bbl, 4 1/2" group.
.41 Mag Ruger Blue Redhawk 5 1/2" bbl, 3 7/8" group.

This last gun is a recent acquisition this year. I dropped the next-to-last shot low, for no reason I could tell, so fired a sixth shot into that group. The best five clustered as above, the low shot widened the group to 7 1/4" for six.

A composite for all 26 shots is 5 3/4" wide, 14 3/4" high; excluding the low shot it would be 5 3/4 wide and 10 1/4" high.

The post and square notch rear sights on 1, 2, and 3 are somewhat fuzzy, but the bead and Vee sights I put on the Redhawks seem to give more definition.

Altogether, I'm happy to get out to shoot and happy with the load under the circumstances. It is pretty near a full-house load.

[spqrzilla]

I always liked the Redhawk in .41 Magnum better than the Blackhawk, mostly because it has a longer cylinder and will tolerate longer OAL.

[Groo]

Groo here
The "wrist rest" is not the greatest,,, try this ,,,
Put the bag as high as you can so as not to lean into the gun.
Put the off hand on the bag to cup the shooting hand [ do not grip]
Do not let the but touch anything, allow the gun to kick out of the support hand.
The vertical string may be caused by the wrist getting weak and loose..

[44man]

Groo here
The "wrist rest" is not the greatest,,, try this ,,,
Put the bag as high as you can so as not to lean into the gun.
Put the off hand on the bag to cup the shooting hand [ do not grip]
Do not let the but touch anything, allow the gun to kick out of the support hand.
The vertical string may be caused by the wrist getting weak and loose..
I agree, barrel rise is going crazy. Even sitting with elbows on the knees would cut the stringing way down.

[felix]

No point in having two hands if both not in full use. The gun-hand system should rest on the "bag", and situated such that the system will not dig into the bag upon recoil, or trigger pull.

1, Extend gun out fully with gun sideways, like in the gang bang movies.
2. Rotate arm to make gun upright. This technique locks the wrist and elbow.
3. Place other hand in FRONT of the hand holding the gun.
4. Use other hand to pull back the gun hand, harder for harder recoil.
5. Place the hand system gently on the "bags".
6. The hard part: Place trigger in perfect spot to pull trigger STRAIGHT back.
7. Move Ass to align hand system onto the target; Feet if offhand shooting.
8. Allow the gun muzzle to circle the bottom of the target bull.
9. If not circling the target consistently, push and pull harder with hands.

... felix

[zxcvbob]

The butt of the gun should rest on the "bag", and situated such that the butt will not dig into the bag upon recoil, or trigger pull.I'm sorry, but that just sounds painful.

[felix]

It is, and that is why I do not shoot pistols anymore. Without moving the upper body takes an unreasonable amount of concentration for the fun derived. Bottom half of body should only be moving when rocking and firing rapid fire especially with a moving target. The top half of the body should follow a consistent recoil and reset path ONLY. ... felix

[26Charlie]

My technique - I don't have a bag, just a piece of 4x4 with a carpet wrapped around it & nailed. I use two hands, extended forward so the wrists rest on the padded block, elbows on the bench. Gun doesn't touch anything, so as to mimic any field stance and insure any load groups and impacts where it would in the field. It is, as noted, easy to inadvertently drop the front sight and hence get a low shot, and sometimes I don't see it when it happens.

Felix - I GOT to shoot these pistols once in a while or I don't feel good.

[felix]

I know, Charlie. The last time I shot for real was prolly 8-10 years ago now. Shot 3 new Kimber 45 match target guns such that one was going to be perfect before delivery. One shot noticeably better overall, but had the worst trigger. It was decided to get a new trigger (not Kimber) because the others in the other two were lacking somewhat as well. So, Corky (Sundog) got the real gun which is now the equal of the years ago Clark's and Dinan's military makeovers. ... felix