The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The North Corral > Lock and Load: Live Fire Exercises

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old August 15, 1999, 09:10 PM   #1
Grayfox
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 17, 1998
Posts: 1,885
We finally got a break in the weather. Last couple of weeks it's just been plain HOT! Today was beautiful! So off to the range I went.
I've got this 4 inch S&W Model 19-3. It's an older gun with recessed case heads and a pinned barrel. Looked good when I bought it. However it didn't care for the .357 loads that I've been using for years. I figured the gun was just picky about it's loads. So over the last week or two while it's been too hot to enjoy a shooting session, I've been going thru the books and my cabinet to work up as many loads as I could find.
I started with a Winchester 125gr JHP. I buy these in bulk from Midway. I came up with loads for 10 different powders that I had on hand. These covered the whole range from Bullseye to W296. The trick was to find a load that both of my .357s liked. So I loaded ten rounds each of ten different powders. The plan was to shoot one five round group of each load from each of the two revolvers off a sandbag rest at 25 yards. That much went fine.
Needless to say, the results with the Model 19 were disappointing. About the best this gun will do is 3 1/2 inches, most loads ran about five inches. This is simply not acceptable to me. My personal cut off point for any handgun I own that might be used in the field is 2 1/2 inches at 25 yards. Since I bought this gun intending to use it as a camp gun, it just don't cut it.
Even the best manufacturer of any product, be it a car, a computer or even a gun, occasionaly turns out a lemon. Looks like I got one.
On the bright side, I did come up with three excellent loads for my 6" 586. One really surprised me. A load of 7.6 gr of Universal clays came in at just over one inch. Hogden's data lists it at 1450fps. As soon as I get a chance, I'll run some of these over the chronograph. I didn't really expect that load to do that well. Just proves you need to try everything.
I finished off the day with my Gold Cup. That always makes me feel better.
At any rate, I guess the 19 will go to the next gun show to be sold or traded and I'll get something else. Maybe I'll try my luck with another 19, I do like the gun. Maybe a 4" L-frame, then there's always Ruger, how about a new rifle, hmmmmm.............. decisions, decisions.

Grayfox is offline  
Old August 17, 1999, 02:07 PM   #2
Kodiac
Senior Member
 
Join Date: August 16, 1999
Posts: 1,173
I am sure a decent gun smith could work over this Smith for you - sounds like its timeing could be off a hair - or the pin the cylinder revolves on could be off - or the barrel could be shot out... or severly leaded...

Anyways - take it to a Gun Smith and have him take a look. Guns, these days are too valuable to give up on!

------------------
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."


RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Kodiac is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:25 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.04005 seconds with 10 queries