Category: Guns

My Colt Walker Debut

By Joe Berk

I was downright giddy this past weekend, as I was about to do something I had never done before.  When you’re my age and that happens, it’s something special.  I was enjoying the feeling.  I don’t get to experience new things too much anymore.

Right side view of my Uberti Colt Walker. It sure is pretty, but can it shoot?

The something I was about to do?  I was going to shoot my 1847 Colt Walker replica revolver, a gun that is a cap and ball, black powder six shooter manufactured by Uberti in Italy.  It would be the first time I had ever fired a black powder revolver, and it would be the first time I ever went through the drill of loading it myself.

There’s a bit of a story behind the Colt Walker.  It’s than just a story.  it’s part of our history, and it goes back to near the beginnings of the United States.  Samuel Colt had invented his revolver with the 1836 Paterson model, manufactured by Colt in Paterson, New Jersey (hence the name).   It was a brilliant design, but it was probably ahead of its time in an era of single shot weapons.  That’s what most people thought, but Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Walker wasn’t what anyone might regard as “most people.”  Walker was a Texas Ranger, and he and his men actually used the Paterson revolver in combat along the Mexican border.  Colt Firearms had already failed as a business, but the Paterson revolvers did their job.  Captain Walker and his Texas Rangers prevailed against their enemy.

Captain Walker wrote to Samuel Colt.  Colt Firearms had folded, but Walker explained to Colt how effective his Patersons had been and he offered to help Colt design an even better handgun.   This meeting of the minds led directly to the 1847 Colt Walker.  As I mentioned above, mine is a reproduction of the original.  I paid $343 for it about 5 years ago.  Original Colt Walkers bring more than million dollars when they trade hands today (only a few exist of the 1000 Colts produced for the US Army and 100 Sam Colt made for marketing purposes).

Gus McCrae and his Colt Walker.  I’ll bet he was sporting a Uberti when they filmed Lonesome Dove.

Modern firearms use cartridges that already have the primer, propellant, and bullet contained in the cartridge case.  All we have to do is load the cartridge(s) and fire the gun.   Cap and ball revolvers are different. Loading and firing them requires a series of steps far more complicated than firing a modern cartridge gun.  Loading and firing a cap and ball revolver requires the following:

      • Inserting a measured amount of black powder (gunpowder, so to speak) into each of the revolver’s chambers.
      • Inserting a greased wad over the gunpowder.
      • Lubricating the bullet (typically referred to as the “ball” because the bullet is a cast round ball).
      • Positioning the ball over the chamber mouth.
      • Rotating the cylinder to position the ball under the revolver’s ram.
      • Using the ram to seat the ball in the chamber.
      • Filling the space above the ball with “grease” (a mixture of lard and other things).
      • Placing a percussion cap on each of the cylinder’s six nipples (the cap is the primer that ignites when the hammer hits it to initiate the gunpowder’s controlled rapid burn).

After doing all the above, I would then be able to fire six shots from my Walker.

Yours truly and good buddy Paul. We’ve known each other for more than 70 years.

My lifelong friend and good buddy Paul has been shooting black powder firearms for most of his life.  Me?  I’m a newby.  I’d never through the cap and ball loading sequence outlined above and I was plenty nervous about attempting to do so.  Basically, I’d be playing with guns and explosives.  I asked Paul about a thousand questions about how to do this, culminating in a visit to his rancho in northern California.   Paul was informed and patient, and he had a bunch of good things to give to me when I arrived, including:

      • Black powder.
      • Caps.
      • Balls.
      • Grease.
      • A loading stand.
      • Loading tools.

I was blown away by Paul’s knowledge, generosity, and willingness to teach me how to go about loading and shooting a black powder revolver.  I don’t mind telling you I was a little nervous, too.

The loading stand Paul made for me with the Uberti in place. The long rod beneath the barrel is the loading ram. It pivots to force a ball into the chamber.

Paul told me that while you can load a black powder revolver without any tools, doing so is a lot easier if you have a stand.  He had made a stand for me, and it fit the Walker perfectly.

A closer view of the loading stand with its tools mounted on the base. This is a cool setup.
The tool on top is used for seating the caps (as in cap and ball) on the nipples. The lower tool is the butterknife, used for spreading grease on top of a seated ball.

Paul also made up three tools to help the loading process.  Two of these (the butterknife and the cap seating tool) were integrated into the loading stand.  The butterknife is used to fill the cavity above the loaded chamber with grease.  The cap seating tool is used to push the percussion caps onto the nipples.

Paul fabricated this gunpowder measuring and dispensing device from a .30 06 cartridge. Note the powder charge markings on the shaft. I loaded 40 grains of FFF black powder in each chamber. This is a really cool bit of workmanship.

The third tool was the loading measure.  Loading a black powder revolver involves inserting a measured amount of black powder into each chamber.  Paul fabricated a precision measure from a .30 06 cartridge.  It was quite clever, and it demonstrated Paul’s considerable design skills.  I’ve known the guy literally all my life and he’s always surprising me with things like this.

FFF black powder. It’s a lot more sensitive than the powders we use today in cartridge guns.
Percussion caps. They are, in effect, primers. One goes on the nipple of each chamber. It’s the last step in the loading process. When the hammer strikes these, they ignite and light off the black powder.
Greased wads. These go over the black powder in each chamber, between the black powder and the ball.
Yep. I’ve got balls. Lots of them, in fact.
The grease that goes on each ball before it is loaded into the chamber, and then on top of the ball to seal the loaded chamber and prevent a chain fire event.

We had a very hot weekend and to further complicate things, the road to the gun club in the San Gabriel Mountains had been closed for the last several days (we were experiencing one of our many forest fires).  On Sunday afternoon, though, the heavy smoke emanating from the forest fire (I could see it from my home) had lifted.  I loaded the Subaru and headed for the range.  When I arrived, other than the rangemasters I was the only guy out there.  I had the range to myself.  It was 97 degrees, but I could take my time, focus on everything Paul taught me, and make myself a black powder shooter.

A lubed ball ready to be rammed into the chamber. Notice the cutout in the frame that allows the cylinder to rotate into position such that the ball is directly beneath the ram.

The revolver stand Paul made was awesome.  It held the revolver perfectly and greatly facilitated the loading process.  I set the powder measure at 40 grains (the Walker can go up to 60 grains), filled it, and poured the powder in the first chamber.  That was followed by a pre-lubricated wad on top of the powder.  I dipped one of the balls in the grease and seated it on top of the chamber I had just charged with powder and a wad.  Then I rotated the cylinder a few degrees and forced the ball into the chamber with the revolver’s ram.  Damn, that loading stand was a cool fixture.  I couldn’t imagine trying to do this without it.  I repeated the process five more times, and I had all six chambers charged.

After that, I buttered the tops of each chamber.  The purpose of doing so is to prevent one chamber’s ignition from lighting off the other chambers (such an event is called a “chain fire”).  That sometimes happened on the original Colt revolvers, it was viewed as a design flaw, and Colt’s early investors threatened to pull their funding when it first appeared.  I don’t know if that’s what led to using grease on top of the seated ball.  Whatever Colt did to allay their concerns, Colt’s investors hung in there with him.

The next step was to install the caps on top of the nipples. I was a little more nervous during this step.  The percussion cap is what starts the ignition sequence.  If one lit off during installation…well, let’s just say I probably wouldn’t be typing this story.  But everything went as planned.

I was ready to go, but my hands were slippery.  You know, they say you can tell how good a housepainter is by how much paint he gets on himself.  By that measure, I was not a very good cap and ball revolver loader.  I had grease on my hands and it made holding the heavy Walker difficult.  I wiped off my hands as best I could, picked up the Walker, and drew down on the target 50 feet down range.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement.  Here I was, greasy paws and all, holding this monster 5-pound revolver, trying to focus on a tiny and distant front sight while trying to keep it centered in the hammer notch that serves as the Walker’s rear sight.  I felt like a little kid playing with Dad’s gun when he wasn’t home.  Calm down, I thought to myself.  Focus on the front sight.  As I increased pressure on the trigger and tried to hold the Walker steady, I could feel Sergeant Major Emory Hickman, my Dad, and Paul watching me (even though I was the only guy out there on that very, very hot afternoon).

KA-BOOM!!!!

The big Walker barked, I saw the flash, the muzzle flipped up, I felt the recoil, and smoke filled the air.  I realized again:  This is a BIG gun.  Hell, Walker and Colt designed it so that if you missed the bad guy, you’d kill the horse he rode in on (the literal embodiment of what you say in a verbal altercation).  It was .44 Magnum of its day, the Dirty Harry handgun of 1847.  Do you feel lucky, punk?

Damn right I did.

I looked downrange, and I could see the first hole I had cut through the target.  It was high, but Paul told me these things all shoot way high.  My bad guy was toast.  Nailed him right in the neck, I did.  I was in the scoring rings!  Whoooowee, this was awesome!

Six holes from six balls. Not a bad group for the first time I ever fired a black powder revolver. But that hole on the left? Where did that come from?

I fired five more rounds, gaining confidence with each shot.  I became Captain Augustus McCrae.  I wanted to throw a shot glass in the air and nail it in flight, right there in the saloon, just like Gus did in Lonesome Dove.  I set the big Walker down on the bench and I called a line break (I was the only guy out there, but Captain McCrae wanted to do things right).  As I approached the target, I saw a decent group for a guy with slippery hands shooting a cap and ball revolver for the first time on a blazingly hot afternoon.  Then it was:  Uh oh.  I had put a shot off to the left in Mr. Bad Guy’s shoulder.  I counted the holes in my nice-sized neck group, and there were six.  Where did that seventh shot come from?

There’s a wad behind that tear in my target. It probably wouldn’t stop a bad guy, but I’ll bet it would get his attention.

Ha!  That hole in the shoulder was made by the wad from one of the shots!  It was still stuck in the paper, and when I lifted my iPhone to get a picture, it fell behind the target.

I was hot, sweaty, greasy, and still giddy.  Time for another six rounds.  Paul told me when you shoot these things, you’re lucky to get through two full cylinders.  The guns get so dirty they get difficult to cock and fire after the first cylinder.  A big part of the problem, Paul said, are the cap remnants.  They break up and fall into the mechanism.  He was right.

Fired percussion caps. Paul was right; they do come apart and fall into the mechanism. In the old days when you saw the hero of a Western movie point his gun toward the sky before cocking it for the next shot, it was to allow the spent cap to fall free of the six gun.

I got all the cap debris out of the Walker, loaded the gun again, and lit off six more.  I’d already been on the range an hour and half.  It’s like the amphibians say:  Time’s fun when you’re having flies.  A couple of shots from the next cylinder went a little high, but they were all in about the same area.

12 shots on target. My first 12 ever, and they were close enough for government work.

As I mentioned above, Paul told me all his cap and ball revolvers shot high, and that was what I found with mine.  That said, I was enormously pleased with the results.  The group was about the size of the orange bullseye.  My aim point had been the center of the bullseye.  If I held low and to the right, I’m confident I could put six rounds in the orange bullseye.  Move over, Gus!

You know, on the way home, I was thinking about what our early Americans had to contend with when armed with cap and ball revolvers.  It’s astonishing to think about winning gunfights, battles, and wars with weapons that are so heavy and take so long to load.  My admiration for what they accomplished had been high; it was now even higher.

That ride home was quite a ride.  I was going to call Paul to tell him about my success with the Walker and thank him again, but the radio was carrying President Trump’s speech live from Pennsylvania.  He was only minutes into it and I was only half listening when I heard things crashing and then I heard several pops.  And then a blood curdling scream.  What I was hearing didn’t compute at first, and then I realized:  Someone was shooting and I was hearing it live.

I arrived home a few minutes later and turned on the TV.  What I saw hit me hard.  The President escaped death by millimeters, and that only occurred because he happened to turn his head at precisely the right instant.  I feel terrible for the retired firefighter who died and the others who were injured.  It was a massive failure on all but the final Secret Service action (when they killed the sniper who fired the shots).  I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more about this as the weeks and months go by.  The Secret Service is a troubled agency.   If it’s not botched protection efforts it’s cocaine in the White House or hookers in Colombia.  It’s almost as if they need to shut that agency down and start over. I hope they get it right soon. I would have written and posted this blog sooner, but like most Americans, I’ve been glued to the television as updated info on the assassination attempt rolled in.

So to get back to this blog, I am very pleased with my Walker’s performance, and I am more than a little pleased with my performance, too.  I’m hooked on the cap and ball revolver experience.  For most of us in most of the United States, we can still purchase black powder guns through the mail and have them delivered to our home.  Just this morning I received a cap and ball revolver sale notification from Midsouth Shooting Supplies.  Don’t overlook these windows into our past.  Take it from me:  They are fun.

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Texas Rangers Smith and Wessons

By Joe Berk

I think it would be difficult to be a firearms enthusiast and not be a student of history.  Firearms are history.  And some of that history revolves around the Texas Rangers, the oldest and perhaps most legendary law enforcement group in US history. I’ve always been fascinated with the Texas Rangers, starting with their use of the very first Colt Paterson revolvers in combat, the early Captain Samuel Walker days, and the emergence of the Colt Walker black powder revolver.

Texan Ranger Captain Samuel Walker.

When I was a kid, we had a steady diet of Westerns on TV and in the movies, and the Texas Rangers figured prominently in many of those shows.  I’m a Lonesome Dove fan, having read Larry McMurtry’s novels and watched the television series numerous times.  Go Gus and Woodrow (but especially Gus; he carried a Colt Walker).

Robert Duvall as Gus MacCrae in Lonesome Dove, and his Colt Walker.

You would think with the Texas Rangers’ historical and often romanticized use of Colt revolvers, Colt would be all over the Texas Ranger commemorative gun business.   They did so in the early 1970s with a very limited run of Single Action Army revolvers, but that was the only time.

Colt’s Texas Rangers 150th Anniversary Commemorative. These guns don’t come up for sale often, and when they do, the price is stratospheric.  It’s the only Texas Rangers Commemorative Colt has ever done.

The Texas Rangers commemorative mantle has been picked up by Smith and Wesson, first in 1973 for the Texas Rangers’ 150th anniversary, and again in 2023 for the 200th anniversary.  These are beautiful firearms (they are art, in my opinion).

A Texas Rangers 150th Anniversary Smith and Wesson Model 19.
Another view of the Texas Rangers 150th Anniversary Smith and Wesson Model 19.

Jumping back to 1973, Smith and Wesson offered a cased commemorative Model 19 Smith and Wesson along with a Bowie knife.  A standard Model 19 cost about $150 back then (I had one); the Texas Rangers Model 19 with display case and matching Bowie knife was a whopping $250.  It seems an almost trivial amount today.  A standard Model 19 costs around a thousand bucks today, and the Model 19 of today is not the same gun it was in the 1970s.   The older ones, as is true with many things in life, are better.

The 200th Anniversary Texas Rangers Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolver.

Fast forward to 2023, and Smith and Wesson did it again, with a Texas Rangers 200th anniversary revolver.   This time it’s a highly polished N-frame, fixed sight version.  The N-frame is Smith’s big gun frame used on their original .357 Magnum, the Model 27, the .45 ACP revolvers, and the .44 Magnum revolvers.  You know, the Big Boy guns for us full-figured shooters.

A real beauty, these 200th Anniversary Texas Rangers Smith and Wessons are.

I’ve been perusing both of these Texas Ranger guns on the gun auction sites.  I can get the 1973 version (which was based on the Model 19) for about $1500, which isn’t a bad deal considering you get a more collectible gun, the knife, and the case for not too much more than what a new Model 19 cost today.  I’d shoot it, too, if I bought one.  And then there’s the current Texas Rangers 200th Anniversary revolver, built on the N-frame   Those are going for around $2500 or more.  That a bit pricey, but maybe in 50 years $2500 will be a trivial amount.  I’m a firm believer that you can’t pay too much for a gun; you just maybe bought it too early.

A lot of things are different today, and the price for either of the Smith and Wesson Texas Ranger commemoratives is just a starting point here in California.  Compounding the felony on both guns is our outrageous California 11% excise tax on firearms and ammo (that little bit of silliness and government overreach went into effect this month), which gets added onto:

      • Our outrageous California state sales tax
      • The federal government’s $40 background check and ATF Form 4473 (the one that Hunter Biden was convicted of falsifying when his sweetheart deal fell apart)
      • The FFL dealer’s $40 transfer fee
      • A $75 shipping fee to get the gun to me here in left wing Utopia (i.e., the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia)

It all adds up to roughly another $700.  And all that’s aggravated by the likelihood I couldn’t even get the 200th Anniversary Texas Rangers commemorative because our California Attorney General hasn’t seen fit to add it to our roster of approved handguns.  Even Gomer Pyle wouldn’t know how to react to all these added government fees, but I’m guessing his reaction would be a heartfelt Gosh, or a Golly, or maybe even a Shazam!  It’s almost as if California doesn’t agree with the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

But that earlier Texas Rangers Smith and Wesson…the Model 19 150th Anniversary gun.  It’s now over 50 years old, and that makes it an antique in California’s all-seeing and all-knowing firearms book of state regs , and antiques are exempt from the Roster of Approved Handguns limitations.  I’d still have to pay all the fees described above.  But it’s doable, and I’m thinking about it.

You might wonder:  Are the Texas Rangers still around, and what sidearm do they carry?   The answer is yes; the Texas Rangers are part of the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Texas Rangers are issued a SIG 320 (a 9mm semi-auto), but they are allowed to carry their personal sidearms.  Many choose to carry the 1911.

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Product Review: Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit

By Joe Berk

No matter how much I scrub a bore with patches and solvent, I can’t get all the copper fouling out.  For that, I need to turn to a bore brush, and the general rule of thumb seems to be one complete back and forth stroke for each round fired.  50 rounds fired (which I sometimes will do), and it’s 50 back and forth strokes with a bore brush.  The copper literally has to be scraped out of the barrel.

The problem with this, of course, is that a new bore brush takes a lot of force to drive through the bore, and in doing so, the cleaning rod I’m pushing it with flexes if it is not supported while the bore brush is in the bore.  That can cause the rod to bear on the chamber entrance or the leade in the chamber, and that can damage the chamber.

The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit is a contraption that allows you to protect a bolt action rifle’s chamber from the cleaning rod.  An added benefit is that it prevents solvent or oil from dripping into the action.  The concept is good; the execution is slightly flawed for some firearms in my opinion.  That said, I’ll continue to use it on my bolt action rifles.

Here’s how the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit comes to you:

The packaged Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit as delivered from Amazon.

The pieces include a tube, an end piece with a slot for adding solvent, a sleeve that includes a combination bolt/set screw, an optional bore guide for an AR-15, and three different rubber funnels (for lack of a better word) based on the caliber.

The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit components.

In the photo above, the bore funnel is the red rubber piece on the left end of tube.  Its purpose is to align the tube to the barrel.   The two red rubber pieces above the tube in the photo above are for different size bores.  The brass piece above the tube is the combination set screw/bolt (its use will become clear in another photo below).  The stubby black at the top right of the photo above is the AR-15 chamber adaptor.  The red rubber piece on the right in the photo above is guide that guides the cleaning rod into the tube.  You’ll notice an elliptical cutout in it.  The elliptical cutout’s purpose is to allow you to add solvent or oil to the cleaning patch at that point.  The idea is to not insert a cleaning rod into the rifle with a solvent or oil soaked patch.  This is to prevent the solvent or oil from dripping into the action as the cleaning rod and patch are inserted into the gun.

The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit rubber tip that inserts into the chamber mouth.
The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit sleeve and “bolt” that also functions as a set screw.
The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit inserted into my Ruger GSR.
The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit, with the “bolt” down in the GSR.
Inserting a cleaning rod and bore brush into the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit.

There are some things I did not like about the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit.

    • The first is that the red rubber guide fits into the chamber will not withdraw from the action when the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit is pulled out.  The rubber chamber guide hangs up on the rear of the action.  It’s not a big deal.  I just pulled on the tube, the guide falls off, and I reinstalled it.  I only needed to do this when I was finished using the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit and I wanted to remove the thing.
    • The feature that allows you to add solvent through a port in the rear red rubber guide is something I didn’t need for applying the solvent.  I just dipped the cleaning rod tip (with patch) into the solvent bottle and ran it through the bore.  The same is true with the oiled patch after I’m done cleaning.  That extra port solves a solvent or oil application problem that doesn’t exist.  But it sure came in handy when I encountered the next problem.
    • The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit doesn’t work with a long action and a 26-inch barrel as the kit is configured.  I tried working a new bore brush through my .30 06 Mark V Weatherby, and the cleaning rod handle butted up against the rubber guide at the Tipton bore guide’s rear end with the tip of the bore brush just showing at the end of the muzzle.  That was a real “uh oh” moment.  There’s no way to back the bore brush out (especially when the brush is new).  The bore brush, the bore brush rod, and the Tipton were locked in place.  That’s when the opening in the rear guide came in handy.  I was able to grasp the cleaning rod with a pair of needlenosed pliers and turn it about an eighth of a turn at a time (my cleaning rod handle allows the rod to rotate, a feature intended to prevent the cleaning rod from unscrewing).  Then I’d release the pliers’ grip, move it around the section of cleaning rod visible through the red rubber rear guide, and turn the rod another eighth of a turn.  I did this for several minutes until I could get the rod unscrewed from the bore brush, and after that, I put an extension on the rod.  It was a real pan in the ass.  I’ll cut the length of the Tipton bore guide down to prevent this from occurring again.  I feel the Tipton’s bore guide instructions should have a warning about this.

The above notwithstanding, I think the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit is still a good purchase.  It seems to work well, and it prevents cleaning rod flex when running a tight-fitting bore brush through a rifle barrel, so it does what I want it to do.  I paid $13.01 for mine when I bought it on Amazon.  For $13, it’s a decent deal.

The Ruger .308 GSR story is here!

Open sights at 100 yards!

More product reviews are here.

More gun stories are here.

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A Mark V ’06

By Joe Berk

I had my .30 06 Weatherby out last weekend.  It was the first time I fired this rifle in maybe 35 years.  I bought it at the Weatherby plant in South Gate, California, back when they used to let you in the warehouse to select the wood you wanted.

Fancy walnut and deep, deep bluing. I think I paid something around $300 for this rifle, new, in the 1980s. I’ll never sell it.

When I first shot this rifle in the mid-1980s, it didn’t group very well with my favorite .30 06 load (a 130-grain Hornady jacketed softpoint bullet and a max load of IMR 4320).  That was the load I used in my Ruger No. 1 chasing jackrabbits in west Texas.  Other things intervened to capture my attention, and I never got around to finding a load for this rifle.

Fast forward several decades, and for this outing I grabbed what was available in the ammo locker:  A box of 168-grain Speer jacketed hollow point boat tail bullets (my Garand load), another box with Remington 180-grain jacketed soft point bullets (which are unfortunately no longer available), and a third box with 150-grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullets and 48.0 grains of IMR 4320 (which is also no longer available).  What I learned on this most recent outing is that my Weatherby really likes the 180-grain Remington bullets and 48.0 grains of IMR 4064.  It did acceptably well (for hunting purposes) with the other two loads, but that 180-grain Remington bullet and IMR 4064 is what answers the mail for me.  It’s one of the places where accuracy lives in this rifle.

Before I left the house, I ran an oiled patch down the bore because as I said above the rifle hadn’t been shot in literally decades.  When I first set up on the range, the rifle was throwing shots all over the place for the first few rounds.  Then, either I or the rifle (or both of us) settled down and the Weatherby started grouping.  Most of the other groups were in the 1.2-inch to 2.1-inch range (which is good enough for hunting deer and pigs), but the rifle really liked that 180-grain load.  I’m talking sub-minute-of-angle.  I couldn’t do this with every group, but it tells me the rifle will do its job (if I do mine).

When assessing a hunting rifle’s accuracy, I typically shoot 3-shot groups at 100 yards off the bench. Some folks like to shoot 5-shot groups, but it’s pretty hard to get the animals to sit still for 5 shots.
Two shots through the same hole, and one a half inch away. I wish I could do this every time. The rifle is way more accurate than I am.

I was pleased with how the rifle performed, and I’ll probably start bringing it to the range more often.

A 12X, fixed-power Leupold scope with target knob adjustments and a sunshade. This is a nice setup.

I originally set up the 12X Leupold scope and this rifle for shooting in the standing position, so the scope sits high on the rifle.  When I bought the rifle, I thought I would shoot metallic silhouette with it, but I never did. With the scope as high as it is, it was awkward shooting from the bench.  That probably had something to do with the other groups opening up a bit, but I’m not complaining.

I wish Remington still sold bullets separately, but hey, life goes on.  I have two boxes of the Remington bullets left, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.  I also have a couple of boxes of Speer 180-grain jacketed bullets, and when I’ve run through my stash of Remington 180 bullets, I’ll try the Speers next.  Speer still makes those.  There are a few other loads I’m going to try, too.  I’ll keep you posted.

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A Tale of Two Mosins

By Joe Berk

When I first saw Mosin-Nagant military surplus rifles for sale in a Big 5 sporting goods store years ago, I dismissed them as junk.  Wow, was that ever a mistake.  I’ve previously written about being smitten with these Russian rifles, and my appreciation for them continues unabated.  Back in the day, you could pick them up for $79.  That was after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russians were sending Mosins over here by the boatload to raise cash.   Then, during the Obama administration, the flow of these rifles to the US stopped.  Today, a Mosin will set you back $300 or more (and it’s mostly more).   I recognized the inherent quality and probable appreciation after shooting the first one I bought.  I knew Mosin prices would climb and I picked up several.  My two favorites are the ones you see in the photo above.

I use the first Mosin I ever bought (the one on top in the above photo) for shooting jacketed bullets.  It has a bore that looks like a sewer pipe, but it is accurate.  Here’s a recent 100-yard target.

There are 20 shots on this 100-yard target. The two that went low? Chalk it up to operator error.

I don’t use surplus 7.62x54R ammo in my Mosin-Nagant rifles.  Surplus ammo used to be cheap and readily available, but not anymore.  Even when surplus ammo was around, I didn’t use it because the primers were corrosive.  I shoot only my reloads in the Mosins.  Just about any 150-grain, .312 diameter jacketed bullet works well with 43.7 grains of IMR 4320 propellant.   That powder is no longer available, but I have a stash.  When I use it up, I’ll probably switch to Varget or IMR 4064 (both powders are said to work well in the 7.62x54R cartridge).

My Mosin-Nagant jacketed bullet load. It’s very accurate.

The other rifle Mosin you see above (the one on the bottom) is a beautiful hex receiver with a bore that appears to be brand new.  When I fired it with jacketed bullets, it grouped very well, but it also shot very high with the rear sight in its lowest setting.  I thought I would have to find a taller front sight, but I tried a few cast bullets and to my surprise, the rifle shot to point of aim at 50 yards.  When I tried my cast bullet load at 100 yards, it was a scosh low.   I went up one click on the rear sight and it was perfect.

My first 5 shots at 100 yards went low, wo I went up one click and put nearly all the rest in the 10-ring. Cast bullets can be very accurate.

My cast load for the Mosin is a 200-grain bullet sized to 0.313 inches over 18.0 grains of SR 4759.  Like the IMR 4320 propellant mentioned above, SR 4759 is a discontinued powder, and like my situation with IMR 4320, I also have a stash of SR 4759.  When I run out of it, there are other powders that work well with cast bullets.  I’m looking forward to developing a new load with them.  The load you see here sets a high bar, but I’m sure I can find a load that will match it.

I hadn’t shot cast bullets in my Mosin in a while. It didn’t matter; the rifle still shoots this load superbly well.

With both the Mosin-Nagant rifles you see above, I’ve refinished the stocks with several coats of TruOil (I sanded the stocks as little as possible to preserve the original cartouches).  I’ve also glass bedded the actions and cleaned up the triggers.  Both rifles are fun to shoot and both are superbly accurate.

If you would like to read more on our Mosin adventures, you can do so here:

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The USS Alabama

By Joe Berk

Good buddy Paul recently sent to me a video about the powder charges used by US Navy battleships.  The USS New Jersey was featured in the video, and it reminded of my visit to a sister ship, the USS Alabama.  I wrote a Destinations piece for Motorcycle Classics magazine ten years ago, and I thought you might enjoy seeing it (along with photos that did not appear in the MC article).

The coastal plains along Alabama’s southern edge are flat and the line of sight extends to the horizon.  Ride east on Interstate 10 out of Mobile and you can see her distinctive, bristling profile from a great distance.  One can only imagine the fear she induced in our enemies as she emerged from the mist on the high seas.

She, of course, is the USS Alabama.  She’s docked at Battleship Memorial Park, just east of Mobile on I-10 where Alabama’s coast meets the Gulf of Mexico.  To call the USS Alabama impressive would be a massive understatement.  This magnificent old warship is a study in superlatives and in contrasts.   Taller than a 20-story building, longer than two football fields, and capable of firing projectiles weighing nearly as much as a Z-06 Corvette at targets more than 20 miles away, the USS Alabama projected America’s power on the open oceans and inland during World War II.  The “Lucky A” (she lost not a single crewmember to enemy fire while earning nine Battle Stars) sailed just under a quarter of a million miles in combat conditions and saw action in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theatres.  When she passed through the Panama Canal, the 680-foot, 44,500-ton Lucky A had just 11 inches of clearance on each side.

After World War II the USS Alabama was retired from active service.   In 1962 the Navy announced plans to scrap this magnificent ship due to the high costs of keeping her in mothballs, but the good citizens of Alabama would have none of that.  Alabama kids raised nearly $100,000 in nickels, dimes, and quarters, and corporate sponsors coughed up another $1,000,000 to bring the ship from Puget Sound to Mobile.

The USS Alabama is in amazing condition; indeed, it looks as if the ship could go to war today.  Being aboard is like being in a movie (Steven Seagal used it for the 1992 movie, Under Siege).   It is an amazing experience eliciting a strong combination of pride and patriotism.

The USS Alabama is a floating artillery base.  With armor more than a foot thick above the water line it’s amazing she could float at all, but the old girl could top 32 mph and she had a range of 15,000 nautical miles.   When she stopped at the pumps, the USS Alabama took on 7,000 tons of fuel (a cool 2 million gallons).

The guns are what impressed me most.  The ship bristles with armament.   The Alabama’s 16-inchers dominate everything.  Approaching the ship highlights the big guns and when you get closer, they are stunning.   Try to imagine nine 16-inch guns, three per turret, firing at our enemies (it must have terrifying).   The ship boasts twenty 5-inch guns (two in each of the ship’s 10 smaller turrets).   There are another 12 mounts with 48 40mm cannon.  And just to make sure, the Alabama has another 52 20mm anti-aircraft cannon.   If you’ve been keeping track, that’s 129 guns.

The USS Alabama is only part of the treasure included in Battlefield Memorial Park.  The park includes the USS Drum (a World War II submarine), numerous armored vehicles, and an impressive aircraft collection spanning 70 years of military aviation (including a B-52 bomber, numerous fighters, the top-secret SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, and assorted other planes).  The USS Alabama could touch 32 mph on the high seas; the SR-71 cruised at 3,000 mph.   The USS Alabama weighs a bit more than 720 million pounds; the SR-71 was built from lightweight titanium.  As I stated earlier, the Park and its exhibits are a study in superlatives and contrasts.

Battleship Memorial Park is just east of Mobile on Interstate 10.  You can’t miss it (the USS Alabama is visible for miles from either direction, even at night).   Admission is only $15 and take my word for it, it’s the most bang for the buck you’ll ever get.

The Skinny

What:  Battleship Memorial Park, 2703 Battleship Parkway, Mobile, AL 36602.  An outstanding collection of land, air, and sea military vehicles, with the USS Alabama being the main attraction.

How to Get There:  Interstate 10 from either the east or the west.  From anywhere else, just head south until you hit Interstate 10 and point your front wheel toward Mobile.

Best Kept Secret:   There have been seven US Navy ships named Alabama reaching back to before the Civil War.   Today, a US Navy nuclear submarine sails under that same proud name.

Avoid:   Missing Mobile.  It’s a beautiful town, and its Gulf Coast location makes for great seafood and great hospitality.

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A .458 Win Mag Follow Up

By Joe Berk

I had a great day on the range last week with my friends and I did a lot of shooting, including trigger time with the .243 Ruger No. 1 and the .458 Win Mag No. 1 that I wrote about yesterday.  I found another load that worked well with the .243 using the 55-grain Nosler bullet.  It’s weird; the .243 No. 1 really likes the welterweight Nosler bullet.  With all other bullets, it’s mediocre to terrible.  But the .243 is a story for another blog.   Today’s blog is an interesting follow up on the .458 Win Mag No. 1 story.

The Garmin chronograph.
Garmin’s new chronograph.

One of the guys (good buddy Russ) had the new Garmin chronograph. They are $600 and way easier to use than the old ones. You just set it on the bench and turn it on. There are no external wires, no ballistic screens, and no other stuff.  It can download to your iPhone if you want it to.

I asked Russ if he would chronograph my .458 Win Mag load and he did.  As a bit of background, my .458 Win Mag reduced load consists of 28 grains of SR 4759 propellant and the Remington 405-grain jacketed softpoint bullet. I’ve used this load for decades.  I found it in an old Speer manual.

Reloaded .458 Winchester Magnum ammunition. It’s a fun cartridge to reload.

With Russ’s Garmin chronograph on my bench, I fired three or four shots.  My friends and I were amazed at their consistency.  Those first few shots were all right about 1100 feet per second, with an extreme spread of maybe 20 feet per second.

Then I thought I’d get cute.  With this particular load, there’s a lot of unused volume in the cartridge case.  I tilted a round up to settle the powder near the primer, thinking this would reduce shot-to-shot variability even more. That shot, however, had a perceptibly lighter report and it only registered 600 feet per second on the Garmin chronograph.  I checked the rifle after I fired that round to make sure the bullet had cleared the bore, and it had.  One of the guys commented that the 600-foot-per-second round sounded different.  I picked up on that, too.  Convinced that the bore was clear, I fired a few more rounds.  They were all right around 1100 feet per second again.

As I walked downrange to the 50-yard target, I could see on ragged whole in the black bullseye as I approached it.  I was thinking that even though the velocity was down sharply on that one slow round, it still grouped with the rest of the shots at 50 yards. Then I looked at the target more closely.

A low velocity impact at 50 yards.
Oops! The red arrow points to a low velocity impact.

I don’t know what happened on that one 600-foot-per-second round. It could be that the powder settled in a manner that let the primer shoot over it, so when it lit off, the propellant generated less pressure. I always check all the rounds when I reload them (before seating the bullets), and I remember that the powder levels all looked good. It could be that the primer hole was obstructed by a piece of corn cob media from the brass cleaning operation, although I’m pretty good about clearing those, too, after vibratory cleaning.  The round wasn’t a hangfire (there was no pause between the trigger tripping and the discharge); it just sounded lighter.

We all thought this was interesting.  To me, it was interesting enough that I decided I’m going to buy a Garmin chronograph.  I’ve resisted doing so in the past for several reasons:

    • My primary interest in load development is accuracy.  I have zero interest in maximizing velocity.  I just want small groups on paper.  If a load does that, I’m a happy camper.   I literally don’t care what the velocity is.
    • I’ve never been a big believer in developing a load to minimize the extreme spread or to minimize the standard deviation (the standard deviation is a measure of parameter variability).  I remember from my days at Aerojet Ordnance (we made 25mm and 30mm ammo for the Hughes chain gun and the A-10 aircraft) that there was not strong correlation between standard deviation and accuracy.  There are several variables that go into accuracy; standard deviation (or extreme spread) is but one of them.
    • Prior to the Garmin, the other guys I’ve seen using chronographs on the range were always screwing around with them, mostly trying to get them to work or attending to the screens when the wind blew them over.  One friend told me it sometimes took an hour and a half to get his chronograph set up.  I didn’t like having to wait on those folks, and I didn’t want to be one of those guys holding up everyone else.

My experience with the .458 last week, though, made me rethink this issue.  I’m going to purchase the Garmin , and in another month or two, the gun stories you see on these pages will include velocity (and velocity variation) information.  There are a few ExNotes gun stories to be published (ones that are already in the queue) that do not include this info, but at some point beyond their publication, Garmin chronograph results will be part of the data presented.  Stay tuned.

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A .458 Win Mag No. 1

By Joe Berk

About 20 years ago I bought a .458 Ruger No. 1, but until recently, I had not shot it.

I first saw a .458 No. 1 when I was in the Army at Fort Bliss, Texas.  Bob Starkey (who owned Starkey’s Guns in El Paso) had one, and that rifle was stunning.  I had just bought a .45 70 No. 1 from Bob and I didn’t have the funds to buy the .458.   But man, I sure wanted it.

Bob Starkey’s personal .458 Win Mag was a custom rifle built on a 1903 Springfield action.  I asked Bob what firing it was like.  “Well,” he said, “you’re glad when it’s over.”  Call me a glutton for punishment, but I immediately knew two things:

      • I had to have a .458, and
      • Someday I would.

I’ve since owned several .458 Win Mags, including a Winchester Model 70 African (long gone), a Browning Safari Grade (it was a beautiful rifle based on a Mauser action; I’m sorry I let that one go), a Remington 798 (also based on a Mauser action), and my Ruger Model 77 Circassian.  Every one of those .458 rifles was surprisingly accurate.  If you reload and you’ve ever thought of buying a .458, trust me on this:  Take the plunge. With cast or jacketed bullets and light loads, .458 Winchester Magnum rifles are very easy to shoot.

Back to the main attraction:  My .458 No. 1. Technically, the Ruger .458 No. 1 is called a Ruger No. 1H.  The H designates what Ruger calls their Tropical rifle; I’m guessing the Tropical’s heavier barrel means the H stands for heavy.  The .458 No. 1 is big, it is heavy, and it just looks like it means business.  You might say it’s the Norton Scrambler of elephant guns.

When I saw this No. 1 advertised on the Gunbroker.com auction site, it pushed all the buttons for me.  It was a .458, it had beautiful walnut, it had the older red recoil pad (a desirable feature), it had the 200th year inscription, and it had the early Ruger No. 1 checkering pattern.

Every once in a while over the last two decades I’d haul the .458 out of the safe to admire it, but I had never fired it. I was thinking about that a couple of weeks ago, and I decided my failure to get the No. 1 on the range was a character flaw I needed to correct.

With my light .458 Win Mag reloads, the No. 1 grouped about 12 inches above the point of aim at 50 yards. When I examined the rifle more closely, I saw that the rear sight was abnormally tall compared to the rear sights on my other No. 1 Rugers, and it was already in its lowest setting. Evidently the previous owner discovered the same thing (i.e., the rifle shoots high), he took the rear sight all the way down, and then he sold it when it still shot too high.  Lucky for me.

My first thought was that the forearm was exerting undue upward pressure on the barrel. I loosened the screw securing the forearm to address this and tried firing it again, but it made no difference. It wasn’t the forearm that was causing the rifle to shoot high.

I realized I needed either a lower rear sight or a taller front sight. The rear sight was already bottomed out, so I couldn’t go any lower with it.  I think Ruger put the taller rear sight on the .458 to compensate for the recoil with factory ammo. I have some 500-grain factory ammo so I could fire a few rounds and find out, but I don’t want to beat myself up.  The heavier and faster factory ammo bullets get out of the barrel faster than my lighter and slower loads. With factory ammo the muzzle doesn’t rise as much before the bullet exits the bore, so with factory ammo the rear sight has to be taller to raise the point of impact.  At least that’s what I think is going on. The bottom line is the factory ammo shoots lower than my lighter, slower loads.

The factory .458 load is a 500-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2000 feet per second.   Those loads are designed to DRT an elephant (DRT stands for “Dead Right There”).  My needs are different:  I want a load that makes small groups in paper targets while drawing ooohs and ahs from everyone on the range (you know, because I am shooting small groups with a .458 Win Mag).  Doing so with lighter loads on paper targets keeps both me and Dumbo happy.

If you are reading this and thinking I was obsessing about this situation, you would be correct. I don’t know why, but when a gun is misbehaving I tend to get tunnel vision. I continued to look at the rear sight and started thinking. I knew I needed it to be lower by about a tenth of an inch, so I thought perhaps instead of using a sight picture where the front bead was concentric with the U in the rear sight blade, I could rest the bottom of the front sight’s gold bead lower in the rear sight. I fired five shots with a normal sight picture and then another five with my “lower in the rear sight” concept, and son of a gun, the two groups were right on top of each other.  Both were still about a foot above the point of aim (which was 6:00 on the bullseye). What they say about peep sights is true, I guess. Your eye will naturally center the front sight as you squeeze the trigger.

Out there on the range, I kept thinking about this as I stared at the rear sight. It was a nice day and I was the only guy out there. An idea hit me. The rear sight blade is removable (it’s held in place by two screws that loosen to move the blade up or down), and the rear sight leaf (to which the blade attaches) has a much wider and deeper U. Could I remove the blade altogether and use the wider and lower U of the rear sight frame as the rear sight notch?

I had my gunsmith’s tool kit with me and I took the two tiny screws out (the smallest screwdriver in the kit did the trick). I was sweating bullets (pardon the pun) about dropping either of those screws (I knew if I did I’d never find them), but the screwdriver blade is magnetized and it held onto them.  With the sight blade removed, I fired five rounds, and voilà, I was in the black. I fired another five, and they went right on top of the first five. The group size, with open sights at 50 yards from a .458 Win Mag, wasn’t too bad.  In fact, it was essentially identical to the group size with the rear sight blade in place.

I knew I needed to lower the rear sight, but by how much?  The Ruger’s sight radius is 17 inches (the distance from the front sight to the rear sight), and the distance to the target (on which the group was about 12 inches high) was 50 yards.  Remember when your junior high school teacher told you that algebra would come in handy someday and you didn’t believe him?  Well, today was that day for me.  Here’s how it shakes out:

(distance rear sight must be lowered)/(sight radius) =
(12 inches)/(5o yards)

Solving for the distance the rear sight must be lowered (let’s call it x), we have:

x = (12 inches)*(17 inches)/(50 yards*36 inches/yard) = 0.1133 inches

My first thought was to call the Williams Gun Sight company because I assumed Williams made the sights for Ruger.  I’ve worked with Williams before and I knew they have excellent customer service. When I called them, I learned that they didn’t make the sights for my Ruger.  The guy who took my call had a reference document and he told me that in the early No. 1 days, Marble made the sights. I called Marble, but I struck out there, too. The Marble’s sight base is different than the Ruger’s. While all this was going on, I examined the rear sight more closely and I saw a small Lyman stamp on it. So I contacted Lyman. Their guy told me they haven’t made sights for the Ruger No. 1 in decades.

At that point in my quest to find a lower rear sight, I was up to Strike 3 or maybe Strike 4, so I called Ruger directly. The pleasant young lady I spoke with at Ruger told me they could not sell me a lower replacement sight for my .458 No. 1; they can only sell what originally came on the rifle. So I told them I wanted a replacement rear sight for my .30 06 No. 1 (it has a much lower rear sight). I had to give them a serial number for my .30 06 (which I did), and they were happy to go with that. Ruger charged me $20 for the replacement.

After a week’s wait, I had my lower rear sight from Ruger.  I drifted the old rear sight out with a brass punch and I installed the new one. The distance from the top of the old (tall) sight to the sight base is 0.505 inches.  The distance from the top of the new (lower) sight to its base is 0.392 inches.  Subtracting one from the other (i.e., 0.505 inches – 0.392 inches), I found the new rear sight was exactly 0.113 inches lower than the old rear sight.  My calculation was that the rear sight needed to be lower 0.1133 inches lower.  The fact that my calculation is almost exactly equal to how much lower the new rear sight is has to be coincidental.  I just love it when things work out.  Mathematically, that is.  You might be wondering how the new rear sight worked out on the range.  Quite well, thank you.

The first three shots through the .458 Winchester Magnum Ruger No. 1 with the new rear sight at 50 yards, without making any sight adjustments. I simply drifted the rear sight into the No. 1’s quarter rib and centered it by eye. All three shots would be scored in the X-ring.

You know, if I had mounted a scope all the above would have gone away.  The scope would probably have enough adjustment range to compensate for the rifle shooting high.  But a scope seems somehow out of place on an elephant gun, and I like shooting with open sights.  I’ve read a lot of comments from older guys describing how they need a scope to cope with their aging eyes.  I’m certainly an older guy with the inevitable attendant vision degradation, but I’ve gone the opposite way.  I find shooting with open sights makes me feel younger, and getting tight groups with open sights is its own reward.  I first learned to shoot a rifle using open sights, and doing so again makes me feel like a kid.

Next up will be trying a few shots at 100 yards.  Stay tuned.

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A Tale of Two 1911s

If I had a dime for every article and Internet post comparing the 9mm to the .45 ACP cartridge (and the guns that shoot them) I could probably pay cash for a new Ferrari.  That said, I make no apologies for this being another one.  In this case (and for this article), one of the variables I have sort of eliminated is the gun.  Both are Springfield Target model 1911 autos in stainless steel.  They’re the two pistols you see in the photo above.

Here’s a macro photo of the 9mm cartridge (designed in 1901; also known as the 9×19 and the 9mm Luger) and the .45 ACP cartridge (designed in 1904).  Both of the rounds shown below are my reloads, which I prefer over factory ammo for many reasons.  We’ve written a lot about reloading both cartridges, and you can find those articles here.

I like these kinds of photos. The photo shows the 9mm cartridge (arguably the most popular handgun cartridge in the world) and the .45 ACP.

For this comparison, I used the Springfield Armory magazines that came with of the two 1911s.  Here’s what the ammo looks like in the magazines.

Loaded .45 ACP and 9mm magazines. The .45 mag holds 7 rounds; the 9mm mag holds 9 rounds. I’ve read that the average number of shots fired in an armed confrontation (not counting military actions) is less than two.

The Springfield target guns have nice features, including click adjustable rear sights, dovetailed and pinned front sights, ambidextrous safeties, target triggers, skeletonized hammers, and more.  I didn’t like the two-piece guide rods that came with both guns (you need a tool to unscrew the two-piece guide rods for takedown).  Another two-piece guide rod issue is that they constantly unscrew.  I immediately replaced those in both guns with one-piece guide rods.

A few of the features included on these Springfield 1911 target models are skeletonized hammers (a useless feature, in my opinion), a click adjustable rear sight (a very useful feature), an extended grip safety (another useless feature), and an ambidextrous thumb safety (yet another useless feature). I prefer wraparound Pachmayr-style rubber grips, but the Springfield Armory exotic wood checkered grips look cool.
The Springfield Target model front sights are dovetailed and pinned to the slide. The one on my 9mm still came loose when the retaining pin backed out. The .45 front sight has stayed put. You can see the one-piece guide rod below the barrel; it’s a feature I added to both 1911s.

What has been a disappointment on the .45 Springfield was that the stainless steel was not properly passivated (it came this way from the factory).  The gun exhibited minor corrosion in a few spots after a while, which is unacceptable for a stainless steel firearm.  It’s the only stainless steel gun I’ve ever owned that did this.  The corrosion comes right off with a bronze bristle brush and the steel beneath it then looks pristine, but you shouldn’t have to do this with a stainless steel firearm, much less one purchased new.

My 9mm 1911 had a problem with its front sight.  The pin securing it in place backed out under recoil.  I contacted Springfield about that and they sent an oversized pin.  It similarly backed out.  I applied Loctite to the pin and very lightly peened the edges at the top of its hole in the front sight, and that seems to have fixed the problem.

Neither of the above issues should have been present.  I’ve purchased three new Springfield Armory firearms over the years and every one of them has had an issue.   My Springfield M1A rifle had two issues:  The magazines were extremely tight going into the receiver, and the ejected .308 cartridge cases were striking and damaging the stock.  I sent the rifle back to Springfield.  Springfield fixed the magazine fit issue (that fix worked) and they attempted to address the cartridges impacting the stock (that fix did not work).  The cartridge cases still hit the stock after being ejected (even after Springfield did a ham-fisted job removing wood in the impact area), so I put electrician’s tape on the stock where the spent cases impact before I take it to the range.  The rifle is quite accurate, but damn, you shouldn’t have to deal with issues like this on a new gun.  I believe these things speak to a generally sad state of affairs in Springfield’s quality assurance and process control.  But I’m going off track a bit.  Let’s get back to the topic of this article, and that’s the two 1911 Springfields.

Corrosion on the Springfield Armory .45 ACP 1911. I believe the stainless steel was improperly passivated.  I removed the tarnish/oxidation with a bronze brush and it has stayed off.
My .45 reloads. I’ve been shooting this same recipe for more than 50 years. It works, so why mess with it?  .45 ACP brass can be reloaded many, many times (and this brass has been).

In my most recent outing with both 1911s, the .45 was significantly more accurate.  I believe that to generally be the case when comparing the .45 ACP and 9mm Luger cartridges, and this range day was no exception.  The 9mm load I used was a 124-grain Xtreme plated roundnose bullet over 5.5 grains of Accurate No. 5 propellant.  The .45 ACP load was a 230-grain Missouri cast roundnose bullet over 5.6 grains of Unique propellant (an accuracy load that always works for me).  I shot the targets shown below on the 50-foot West End Gun Club handgun range using a two-hand hold supported by a rest beneath my hands.

The 9mm 1911 grouped just over 2 inches, which is typical for this load. This same handgun has done much better with other loads, which is outlined in earlier blogs on 9mm cast bullet loads and 9mm jacketed bullets loads.

The 9mm grouped okay, but not great.  I’ve shot other loads in this handgun that were much more accurate, but I didn’t have any of those loads in the ammo locker the day I went to the range.  If you would like to know about this, you can read about my 9mm ammo development efforts with the 9mm 1911 (and other handguns) using cast bullets and jacketed bullets.

Groups with the Springfield Armory .45 ACP 1911. Point of aim was at 6:00 on each target. Shooter fatigue is what opened up the last group.

The .45 1911 grouped very well.  It’s a funny thing:  The 9mm 1911 has way less recoil than the .45 and the trigger on my 9mm 1911 has been tuned to perfection by good buddy TJ (you can read about that here), but I shoot better with a .45 (and I always have).  The .45 1911 barks like a Rottweiler and it kicks like a mule, but the thing is just flat accurate.

So there you have it:  Another take on the rehashed ad infinitum 9mm versus .45 ACP argument.  If you have an opinion, please weigh in with a comment or two below.

If you would like to read a bit more about how to shoot a handgun well, that story is here.

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SIG Alert

By Joe Berk

No, I’m not talking about the SIG Alerts we get here in California when there’s a traffic jam on our freeways.  This is about a sale at SARCO, a preferred military surplus outlet, on SIG police department trade-ins.  When police departments upgrade to different weapons, they sometimes sell their older handguns.  That’s what’s happening here.  What makes this sale special, in my opinion, is that the trade-in guns are 9mm SIG P226 sidearms.  You follow the blog, and you know that I consider the SIG P226 to be the world’s finest handgun.  With a SARCO price on the P226 at just over $700, I think it’s a great deal.

My SIG P226. I consider it to be the world’s finest handgun.

I’ve never seen SIG P226 police trade-in guns for sale.  It’s a hell of an opportunity to pick up a great handgun at a bargain price.   I once owned a Smith and Wesson Model 659 police trade-in and it confirmed what I thought about police sidearms.  They are carried a lot and shot very little.  That means there might be some cosmetic shortfalls (holster wear, etc.), but the guns’ internals are probably in superb shape.

A Smith and Wesson Model 659 police trade in that was a lot of fun. Like most police sidearms, it was carried a lot and shot little.

I’ve purchased military surplus equipment through SARCO before (in my case it was a replacement gas cylinder for my M1 Garand, which fixed my rifle’s cycling issue).  SARCO is a reputable outfit.

SARCO’s SIG P320 police trade-in pistols.

SARCO is also selling SIG P320 police trade-ins.  I don’t have any experience with that model, so I can’t tell you anything about it (other than that it’s SIG, so it’s probably good).  The SARCO price on the SIG P320 police trade-in is only $425; that’s a superb deal.

What might be fun is to pick up either handgun from SARCO and send it to good buddy TJ (at TJ’s Custom Gunworks) for a full cosmetics and action job.  That would be fun.  If you have ever entertained any thoughts about picking up a SIG or a custom pistol, this might worth looking into.

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