Some Fourth of July Shooting 475 Linebaugh and 44 Special

[Zach Monroe]

Even with the temp. up to 90 by noon I still made it out this morning to shoot, I don't care for the heat and was very warm by the time I was done but I went anyway. My main focus was to shoot some 400 grain cast loads out of my FA 475. I've been shooting 340 grain bullets and finally got a mould for some 400 grain bullets. This is the first time I've slung this much lead in a handgun so I started with some midrange loads. I used 14 and 15 grains of HS-6 with the average velocities being 1008 and 1074 fps respectively. Now this isn't close to what this gun can do but a 400 at over 1000 fps will cleanly take anything on this continent. Recoil isn't all that bad either but I still limited myself to about 3 cylinderfulls of each bullet weight, which for now is almost too much still (the last few were getting bad so I stopped and picked up the 22 for the rest of the time). I was a bit disappointed with the way my 44 special was shooting, for some reason I couldnt do better than about a 4 in. group and this was off shooting bags at 25 yards. Could have been a bad day for the bisley grip or maybe its the bullets. I havent been using these keith bullets lately and cast them over a year ago and if I remember they were a little undersize then and I never really came up with a good load for them. The 475 was much more accurate with the 400 grainers I have been doing ok with the 340's and even killed a deer last November with one but the first group with the 400's was stacked right on top of each other. But I still don't shoot the big one for too long at each session, I dont really flinch and dont need to start. Anyway enough talk how about some pictures

the 5 that are circled were the first group of 400's that I shot I have a feeling the 5th is the one that got away, still not bad though

The 475 400gr. with a 44 Special with Keith bullet

With this lighter load the bullet is ok so far but I will probably have problems if I go heavier, Just a little bit of crimp jump and I will be in trouble.

 

[Stoots]

Nice pics and story!

I want a FA in the worst kind of way!

:wink:

 

[Tellico]

Good looking guns and reloads! Shooting isn't bad either.

 

[bronco45]

Nice to see a shooter who reloads and wrings the potential out of his weapons. I like Tellico would love a FA but I want the 97.

 

[Hammerdown77]

Are those Express sights on that FA, Zach? That's a good group if they are. My FA came with Express sights (v-notch rear, gold bead front) and I had a hard time really exploiting the accuracy of the gun. My test target showed a one hole 5-shot group, so I knew the gun would shoot a lot better than I could with those sights. Biggest problem was consistency. I'd shoot one decent group and then the next would open up. Hard to develop a load when that happens.

I guess in theory they are fast to acquire, but I did not have that experience because if the brass bead was less than blindingly shiny, I had a hard time finding it on a brownish background (like a berm at the shooting range, or the woods in late Fall). I think the fiber front would be much better in that regard if you were going to use the Express sights.

 

[M'BOGO]

Good stuff, all around.

What were your loads in the .44?

 

[Zach Monroe]

Hammer,
Yea those are the express sights with the fiber optic front. Once you shoot them a little they are not bad at all, especially for hunting when the lighting may not be the best and you need to pick up the target quickly. They are not for everyone but worth a try to see how they work.

M'BOGO the special load was 7 or 7.5(I cant remember which right now) of herco for a little under 900 fps. Nice easy shooting load not the most accurate but I've got a pound of it to use up.

 

[Lee Martin]

Very good shooting and an impressive set of guns you have there.