Jeff Hoover
Blackhawk
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2009
- Messages
- 919
Today I went shooting with one of my favorite guns and bullets. The gun is a Ruger Bisley chambered in .45 Colt and the bullet is Elmer Keith's design by Lyman, the 454424. I had been fortunate enough to take a cow elk and several whitetail deer with this combo. As a matter of fact, I still have about a dozen cartridges left from an original box of 50 handloads featuring this bullet from 2009, when I ventured to Idaho to meet Dick Thompson for the first time. I was lucky, and got my cow with a single shot at approximately 120 yards. She took the Keith slug thru both lungs, jerked her head towards the new hole in her side, took 3 or 4 wobbly steps, and fell over, stiff legged. It was my first handgun kill and it impressed the hell out of me! I sat on that mountain side, mouth open, and mumbled, "Holy hell!" I've been lucky, and have taken about a half dozen whitetails with the same loads from that original box with a single shot. The load is the 260 grain Keith slug over 20 grains of 2400 ignited by a standard pistol primer.
Today's shooting was with a new twist on my devout load. I would be using my same Keith bullets from my cherished 454424 4 cavity mold. Only thing is, Ol Elmer would have a new face. Rather than use traditional bullet lube, I had these bullets powder coated (PC). This is nothing more than impregnating the bare as cast slugs with paint powder and baking them in the oven to melt the powder, giving the bullet a tough outer shell. There is no leading when bullets are prepared this way and in most cases, accuracy is improved. The baking softens the slugs to about a 10 bhn while the tough PC shell is said to be about 45 bhn.
Here is my mighty fine Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.
Here is the Keith slug in PC form.
When I got to the range, I set my target at 50 yards and decided to see what Elmer could do right off the bat. I placed a single piece of 1.5" blue painters tape in the center of a blank piece of paper. The barrel of my Bisley was resting on a sandbag, and I squeezed off 6 rounds. I then walked to my target to check my results.
This was the first six shots out of a clean barrel shooting the PC Keith bullets at 50 yards. The group measured just over 2". The best this gun has ever done.
Satisfied, I then moved my target up to 25 yards, and added more aiming spots of blue tape. My first group of 6 at 25 yards snuggled in nicely.
It was a good day at the range and my confidence with the PC bullets continues to grow. I think the Bisley and the Keith bullet and load just need to go out for some hunts in the near future.
Today's shooting was with a new twist on my devout load. I would be using my same Keith bullets from my cherished 454424 4 cavity mold. Only thing is, Ol Elmer would have a new face. Rather than use traditional bullet lube, I had these bullets powder coated (PC). This is nothing more than impregnating the bare as cast slugs with paint powder and baking them in the oven to melt the powder, giving the bullet a tough outer shell. There is no leading when bullets are prepared this way and in most cases, accuracy is improved. The baking softens the slugs to about a 10 bhn while the tough PC shell is said to be about 45 bhn.
Here is my mighty fine Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.
Here is the Keith slug in PC form.
When I got to the range, I set my target at 50 yards and decided to see what Elmer could do right off the bat. I placed a single piece of 1.5" blue painters tape in the center of a blank piece of paper. The barrel of my Bisley was resting on a sandbag, and I squeezed off 6 rounds. I then walked to my target to check my results.
This was the first six shots out of a clean barrel shooting the PC Keith bullets at 50 yards. The group measured just over 2". The best this gun has ever done.
Satisfied, I then moved my target up to 25 yards, and added more aiming spots of blue tape. My first group of 6 at 25 yards snuggled in nicely.
It was a good day at the range and my confidence with the PC bullets continues to grow. I think the Bisley and the Keith bullet and load just need to go out for some hunts in the near future.
