High volume magnum shooting?

[timothy75]

I often hear people mention the 1000s of rounds they've fired through their 357, 44, and 45's but have never quite seen the point in it. I guess you could plink with those calibers, but ive always shot mine slow fire at longer ranges. I have my loads sighted in and have good days and bad but havent touched my sights in years. So for you guys that have 10,000 rounds downrange with your magnum revolvers, can i ask what exactly you were shooting at?

[105kw]

A lot of rounds at steel reactive targets.
A lot at FBI silhouettes, for practice.
A lot of load development over the years.
For about a decade, I was firing 3000 round a year minimum. Through 3 different Smith and Wessons.

[timothy75]

I'll add i usually shoot alone and dont particularly enjoy reloading. I've had my magnums over 20 years and they all look brand new. My guns and loads all shoot well, and when i shoot a great group i just dont see the point of doing it over and over again?

[RKG]

To 105kw's list, I'd add: real life drills. E.g.,:
One Shot Drill (draw and fire one shot (or two), from covered pistol, and be able to do this instinctively and without having to memorize drive a series of steps.
Multiple Target Drill. (There's some tricks to this).
Reload Drill (without having to put eyes on the gun, vs. keeping them downrange). (Ditto.)
And the like.

One doesn't have to fire 10,000 rounds a year, and probably shouldn't. But these drills should be run with the gun you carry.

[HistoryJunky]

I only own one Magnum revolver, a Ruger SBH in .44 Magnum.

It is a single action revolver, so I don't really practice anything other than slow fire with it.

If I had a double action revolver that I kept for self defense in any capacity, I would do things other than slow fire.

I could see plenty of .357 shooters racking up a pretty good round count.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[timothy75]

Thanks a lot guys. I should have mentioned i was referring more to the sbh, raging bull, 629 style field/hunting revolvers. CCW style guns i can totally understand. Thanks again

[44 AMP]

First off, there is the philosophy that no round that strikes its intended target is wasted, and the way you get rounds on their intended target is practice.

Some folks want to be able to put rounds on target, at any range, and at speed with a magnum, if they can. Doing that takes continual practice for some time, usually, and keeping that skill requires some practice all the time.

Those folks tend to shoot a lot.

Another point to consider, what magnums, what guns, and what uses you put them to. IF all I had were small frame .357s, I certainly wouldn't shoot them much with magnum ammo.

An N frame S&W is, for me, great in .357 and too light for comfort in .44 Mag. Certainly eminently useable, but not comfortable with full magnum ammo.

I know this is the revolver forum so a little off topic, but I have several magnum semi autos, huge and almost unwieldly compared to revolvers in the same calibers, but much, much more comfortable to shoot for the amount of power delivered.

A good heavy gun makes shooting even .44 Mag a fun thing, not a beat you up , but I can do this kind of thing. A lot of us find the blast and the recoil to be fun, as long as it doesn't actually hurt...

Done right one thing a lot of shooting does (and especially a lot of shooting the same load) is give you a feel for the gun and where to aim, at below the level of conscious thought. I don't think that's ever a bad thing...

[Old Stony]

I shot IHMSA matches for years with at least two matches a month, and practicing in between. It involved reloading on a regular basis in the evenings, but I had a lot of fun with the matches and went through a lot of ammo !

[Bob Wright]

When I was in the Army I had two 106mm Recoiless Rifles in my charge. Each gun had a gun book and all rounds were logged in. I sort of got this idea from that, also because I heard a many men who shot far less than I do claim the "millions of rounds that gun had fired. And, I was curious just how many rounds it took to wear out a barrel. (Still don't know that.) So I began keeping a log book and it has become such a routine habit just couldn't find it in myself to stop.



And did I keep records:







Bob Wright

[timothy75]

Were you competing with that 45 Bob?

[KEYBEAR]

I am a shooter always have been in1985 i was Hurt and could not work for the next 4/5 years . I shot my 44Mags every day at a State Range Rain Snow i Shot . I shot 1,500 Cast Bullets and 500 or more jacketed every month .

[jetinteriorguy]

Originally Posted by timothy75

I often hear people mention the 1000s of rounds they've fired through their 357, 44, and 45's but have never quite seen the point in it. I guess you could plink with those calibers, but ive always shot mine slow fire at longer ranges. I have my loads sighted in and have good days and bad but havent touched my sights in years. So for you guys that have 10,000 rounds downrange with your magnum revolvers, can i ask what exactly you were shooting at?

The point is that heavy recoiling magnums require a lot of concentration to shoot well. This means regular shooting to stay proficient. If I want to stay accurate with my .41 mag even with mid level loads requires at least 100 rounds per month.

[rodfac]

I'm 75 now, and have shot for 60+ years, & well over 50 years with .357, .41 & .44 Magnums. I can tell you right now, my hearing is shot, and I wore plugs and muffs for 99% of my shooting throughout my life. My wrists and elbow joints are also suffering.

Take heed those of you who feel the need for speed and throw weight...it'll limit what you can do in your old age. All, I repeat, All of my aged shooting friends have the same hearing and joint problems.

Best regards, Rod.....BTW, aside from hunting season, I never shoot anything, any caliber now that exceeds 1000 fps. YMMv, at least for now.

[rclark]

I don't see the point of high volume 'magnum' shooting that is wrist busting, hand slapping, extra noisy.... That would probably cause arm problems later in life anyway. Also, paper targets, tin cans, etc. don't care what they are hit with. I do shoot .357 ... but load 158s to about 1000fps . In the .44 Mag it is 240s at 1100fps. .45 Colt 250s around 900fps. This are 'shoot all day' level loads. Make shooting much more enjoyable. And yes over time you do shoot 1000s of rounds. You can easily go through a couple hundred in each shooting session. Adds up.

Oh at the range, typically I am shooting paper targets, steel targets, cans, shotgun hulls, etc. at ranges from 15Y to 75Y. Once in awhile, try for the 300Y steel gong way out there if no one is around.

[JustJake]

Whether someone's wuddle wrists get all achy-breaky after firing X-number of magnum rounds is really secondary to what high-volume magnum shooting does to your typical S&W "cop-type" revolvers, like the J-frames, K-frames or even the N-frames.

These guns were designed and intended to be carried waaay more than shot.

Over time, they get looser than Grampa's fillings after a Saturday night bar fight from all the blastin' and poundin': wear and tear at the forcing cone, poor cylinder lock-up, timing issues. .... Good gawd.

Ruger's Service and Security Sixes were a hardier breed of wheelgun.

[rclark]

is really secondary

Ah, no.... A person has to live with the arms and wrists 24x7... The gun is just a tool. If wore out... toss and buy another or have it fixed. No different than when you break the handle off a shovel....

[Nanuk]

When I got out of the Army in 1982 and into law enforcement I bought a S&W model 66 and 357 loading dies. All I reloaded and shot were 357's. I did not even have 38 brass. Same story when I got into the 44 mag a couple of years later.

Jake, I have a 1982 vintage Model 13 that still is not loose...... My 686 no dash with 10's of thousands of maggies is still as tight as it was new.

[kell]

It's fun. I shoot rocks. 22's make'm jump, 38's and 357's make'm jump more, and 44's blow'em up. Paper and "shoot-n-see's" are great for making adjustments, but not nearly as fun as sitting on a pond dam or (stock tank) shootin' rocks and twigs.

[The Happy kaboomer]

I don't keep a record of rounds fired. I do keep a record of rounds that I have reloaded. Right now I am over 300,000 for all calibers and guages. Started recording data in Jan. 1992. However I started reloading in 1972. So a 20 year gap with no data.

[wild cat mccane]

10,000?

Can't even shoot that much up in Resident Evil with a Broken Butterfly with unlimited ammo.

You're probably only hearing this from competition shooters or people shooting life long...which might not be totally right or a massive expanse of time.

[Nick_C_S]

I didn't read every response, but keep in mind that some people are recoil junkies. I know this, because I used to be one of them.

I used to take my 44 Mag to the range weekly and put about 150 full-throttle rounds downrange every trip. Sometimes shooting at silhouettes (100 yds, open sights - back when I could see and I didn't shake); but mostly just shooting at paper.

These days, I rarely shoot my 44 Mags; and when I do, it's almost always 44Spl ammo. I may end my day with a cylinder full (or two) of Mags - just for the novelty of it.

In short, different strokes for different folks.

[Bob Wright]

I've shot heavy handloads ad full power factory Magnums back in the day when I was hunting and also interested in long range revolver shooting. Now I'm pretty much limited to paper punching so use much tamer stuff for that. I do practice often with moderate stuff of personal protection, a .45 caliber 250 gr. bullet at around 1,000 F.P.S.

But when using heavy loads, it was not for the recoil effect, but for the power and accuracy of the gun/load. As to any physical damage, I've yet to experience that.

Bob Wright

[reddog81]

Originally Posted by timothy75

Thanks a lot guys. I should have mentioned i was referring more to the sbh, raging bull, 629 style field/hunting revolvers. CCW style guns i can totally understand. Thanks again

IMO CCW guns are the worst. I'd rather be shooting my S&W 460 XVR than my 325 PD in 45 ACP. Once proficient the with small/lightweight CCW guns any additional shooting is voluntary as far as I'm concerned.

FWIW I mainly shoot 9mm and .38 Special so I get the concept of sticking with the easy to shoot loads but I also bring out the hand cannons from time to time. It's just something different and adds some excitement into the mix.

[Bob Wright]

timothy75 asked:

Were you competing with that 45 Bob?

No, Sir. I used that .45 in developing some .45 Colt loads as well as .45 ACP ammunition. Also used it for comparing grip styles, Super Blackhawk, Blackhawk, and Bisley. Also did some long range shooting with the gun.

Bob Wright

[upstate81]

Cause its fun?