A Dan Wesson 741-VH with a 10" barrel landed in my safe the other day. Today I got the chance to try some loads.
The gun is probably made in the early 80's and the tape measure gave the barrel in at 9.6" from muzzle to front of cylinder. Trigger is amazingly smooth and lockup seems OK, there is some play on the cylinder in rotation, but none what so ever in the barrel/cylinder gap.
Barrel crown is NON EXISTENT, I was very surprised to see this. Previous owner is a good friend who said he barely shot it. Owner before that I was able to reach, he claimed jacketed Hornady and Remington bullets with 10% above MAX loads with Vihtavuori N110 where the only way to get accuracy out of it. I do not doubt him, but I may contribute that to the barrel crown. Less velocity may mean longer time to be affected by a misdirected gas flow around the muzzle?
Testing procedure:
Gun was shot from a rested position at 50 meters (55 yards). Factory iron sights. I compete regularly in what we in Sweden call Magnum Precision Shooting, where we lie rested with the gun between our knees with a gas flow protection on the knees. On the international pistol target a good gun should hold the center 10 ring circle. Several of my revolvers do. Outside temperature was 25 degrees (-3.7 degrees Celcius).
Following are some pictures with load and bullet data. All loads where shot at the same target. After each load I checked the barrel for leading. No leading was visible at all until the very last load with .412" bullets. The pictures are presented in the order they where shot; N340 lubed RCBS, N105 lubed RCBS, N110 lubed RCBS, N105 coated RCBS, N105 coated Lee, N105 coated ARES, N110 RCBS .412.
The powder coated bullets where clearly outperformed by the traditional lubed ones, even with the same loads of N105. I partly contribute this to uniform bases, the bases on the powder coated bullets where not pretty due to PC getting extruded when sizing nose first. The factory made ARES bullets hade nice bases and clearly performed on par with my lubed bullets.
The one powder that stands out is the two loads with N110. If it comes from the slightly lower pressure or a sweet spot in the velocity department is hard to say. It was however interesting to note that my ACWW .410 were leading free, while there was leading with the .412" in the same load of N110. The alloy and lube was unknown, the bullets came with the gun. They where however cast with the same mold as that also came with the gun.
For competition use we are still off target. I need a load that will hold the center circle of 1" at 50 meters. The RCBS bullet does however seem capable of accuracy compared to the others tested and since the leading is not an issue I will not yet go to a gas checked version. I will try the next batch water quenched but still sized to .410. I will also have the barrel crowned properly and perhaps have my sizing die lapped to .411. The .410 bullets are not freely dropping through the cylinder throats, but neither do they need that firm push that I like.
(I aplogize for the white patches on black. I ran out of black patches)