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2,177 Posts
Hello all,
I had the chance a few days ago to shoot my father-in-law's .357 Blackhawk alongside my SBH. He asked me to clean it and shoot it, because he had never fired it since purchasing it second-hand many years ago. After cleaning the dirt, cobwebs and dead bugs out of it ( I am NOT kidding !!) and knocking off the surface rust I bought a box of cartridges and headed for the range.
Now, I seem to have plateaued at 3" groups with my 4 5/8" SBH, so I was curious to see how I did with this 6 1/2 inch barrelled .357. After sighting it in, I was able to get groups of 2 1/2" at 50 yds with the .357, compared to my usual 2 1/2- 3" groups at 25 yds with my SBH. Whether the barrel length is the difference, or one gun is just more accurate than the other I don't know. But I was happy to find that I could shoot that well- I was beginning to doubt myself. Now I just need to tune mine and shoot IT that well!
Interestingly, my practice load in the .44 shoots a 240 gr Hornady just over 1000 fps. Theoretically recoil should have been almost identical to the .357 load (Based on factory ballistics; I didn't chronograph the factory 158 gr load) but I found that the .357 seemed to recoil MORE sharply! I didn't expect that.
Well, now that I know it is possible for me to shoot to my desired level of accuracy, I'll continue trying to do so with my gun!
Hope you all have a great weekend! IDShooter
I had the chance a few days ago to shoot my father-in-law's .357 Blackhawk alongside my SBH. He asked me to clean it and shoot it, because he had never fired it since purchasing it second-hand many years ago. After cleaning the dirt, cobwebs and dead bugs out of it ( I am NOT kidding !!) and knocking off the surface rust I bought a box of cartridges and headed for the range.
Now, I seem to have plateaued at 3" groups with my 4 5/8" SBH, so I was curious to see how I did with this 6 1/2 inch barrelled .357. After sighting it in, I was able to get groups of 2 1/2" at 50 yds with the .357, compared to my usual 2 1/2- 3" groups at 25 yds with my SBH. Whether the barrel length is the difference, or one gun is just more accurate than the other I don't know. But I was happy to find that I could shoot that well- I was beginning to doubt myself. Now I just need to tune mine and shoot IT that well!
Interestingly, my practice load in the .44 shoots a 240 gr Hornady just over 1000 fps. Theoretically recoil should have been almost identical to the .357 load (Based on factory ballistics; I didn't chronograph the factory 158 gr load) but I found that the .357 seemed to recoil MORE sharply! I didn't expect that.
Well, now that I know it is possible for me to shoot to my desired level of accuracy, I'll continue trying to do so with my gun!
Hope you all have a great weekend! IDShooter