Rowdy lite strikes?????

[Prof Young]

Picked up a Bond Arms Rowdy today. (45 colt/410) Ordered it as a range toy. Along with the NICS paper work our governor think he needs to know why we bought the gun and what our occupation is. I answered the purpose question with "fun."

First two shots were some Fiocchi (sp?) 45 colt. At five yards I got them on the paper but they were tumbling, which the owners manual says may happen. (I mean come on there's only about a half inch of rifling.)

Second two shots . . . did not fire. Really? Both had an indentation in the primer. Next two fired. Then one would fire and the other not. Tried a bunch of different loads. Some Winchester shells shooting 7.5 shot, some hornady personal defense loads etc. About 25% - 30% of the time only one barrel would fire. Aside from that second two shots, the top barrel fired just fine but the bottom was very inconsistent.

I ran every thing that didn't fire in the Rowdy through my Taurus Public Defender and they all shot just fine.

I'll contact BA, shoot it more and see what happens. I told the range lady about it and her observation was that I have the worst luck with guns. Hmmmm . . . . yeah kinda, maybe I'll have to create a separate post for that.

Anyway, the Rowdy is a hoot to shoot. Whatever you wanna hit needs to be CLOSE. At five yards shooting one of those big blue targets that has a "human" form outlined on it, and shooting Winchester 2.5 inch shells with 7.5 shot, there were one or two pellets that found the body mass and most of the rest were at the edge of the paper. This changed radically at 3 yard. Sorry I don't have pics but your's truly managed to leave his phone at home.

I got the gun for exactly the MSRP ($299) which is not the norm at my LGS. I usually get a bit of a discount, but they had a hard time finding one and the dealer they got it from charged shipping etc. So . . .

Other than the lite strikes I pretty much got what I expected. It will be a fun gun to shoot and to let other people shoot. A lot of the reviews describe it as cool . . . and yeah, it is.

Life is good
Prof young

[Prof Young]

I e-mailed Bond Arms and their reply e-mail suggested I call their CS. So I did. Talked to a nice lady who asked about my ammo, and told me that some of the loads with harder primers will not always fire in the Rowdy. And reading through the owners manual it is suggested that if you have mis-fires then you should change ammo. So . . . okay. I'll take that as a given. But why should the top barrel fire and the bottom not? Are the mechanics different?

One thing I did NOT think about before I bought this gun is the cost of the truly FUN ammo. I can reload my own 45C but the 410 stuff I'm not set up to do. The really fun loads are all in the 410 format. The buck shot loads and the disc and BB loads are all pricey. Even the simple 2.5 inch regular shot (5,6 etc.) loads are not cheap.

But it's all in the name of fun so . . .

Life is good.
Prof Young

[Prof Young]

Few more range trips with the rowdy and the fail-to-fire problem has disappeared. It's really fun to shoot and I'm thinking about buying some different barrels.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[Cheapshooter]

But why should the top barrel fire and the bottom not? Are the mechanics different?

My guess is that being farther away from the axis of the hammer, the increased distance results in a bit more inertia providing a bit harder hit. Just a guess.

I've been thinking of getting one of those for a range toy, but now you have me cooled off on the idea. My PD Poly goes boom every time with whatever ammo I feed it. Even more, my really cheap, pot metal 38 Spcl. Cobra Derringer also never fails to fire.