The usual weekly Friday practice day was supplemented by an additional Saturday one, since we are having a special match on Sunday. Due to work, I can't attend the match, but I did the 2 practice days. Finally had some cooler, less humid weather for both days, although it threatened rain off and on Saturday.

The usual compliment of steel killers accompanied me to the range, along with some Dan Wessons. Friday, I took the .414 Supermag and the 10" 741-V10. When I got the .41 Magnum out, using my standard jacketed bullet load of a Hornady 210 gr. JTC-SIL and 20.5 grains of H-110, I couldn't find my sight settings. The only thing I had was for cast bullets. It took a little adjusting to find the proper setting at 50-100-150-200 meters, which I wrote down, and the old Dan was just smoking the targets.

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I even managed to nail a couple empty spray-paint cans at 200 meters with it...of course, it took a few shots to connect. Those big revolver bullets aren't designed for superb accuracy, but I've found they really are, shooting them through my single-shot guns. After about 60 rounds, it was time for a break.

With a few other projects to complete, that was the extent of the revolver shooting. When I got home, I dug out more ammo from the closet, and I found a couple boxes of cast bullet loads, using the Leadhead 270 grain bullet. Previous notes showed my old 10" barrel had too slow a twist for this heavy bullet, but I hate pulling bullets, so the ammo was just stored. I planned to try it in my Freedom Arms with the faster twist barrel. I decided to just shoot them on Saturday.

This 270-grain load was subsonic and had done well out to 100 meters. Even the 150 meter turkeys weren't too bad, but I knew at 200 meters, there were all over the place. You could barely hit 3 of 10 rams...kind of a minute-of-backstop accuracy. I just shot them from 100-150 meters and had a great time knocking over the steel targets. While letting the barrel cool, I thought I could try them in the .414 Supermag, just for fun. Man, that was fun, almost like a .41 Special load. The bullets hit WAY high at 100 meters, had to hold a foot below the pig to connect. So, alternating guns, I managed to "pull" all 200 rounds. The cylinders needed cleaning about every 30 rounds, due to the gunk in the chambers making it difficult to load. That cast bullet lube and powder grains made a MESS.

After I got rid of the ammo, I shot a cylinder-full of jacketed loads through each gun. This helps to clean out some of the reside, making barrel cleaning easier. Cleaned both guns and called it a day. Sure was a fun day at the range...710 rounds went downrange for both days, about 250 of them were rimfires.

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