Smith vs Ruger

Originally Posted By: Brad PhillipsOriginally Posted By: Lefty SRHNice article Bearcat.

Phil Shoemaker has more sand than most, he has lived quite a life.


Yes he does. My panties would have been ruined before the shooting even started. I heard tell right after he finished off the bear he said, "I don't often kill bears with a handgun but when I do it's with a 9mm and hard cast. Stay thirsty my friends......"
 
I think each manufacturer's offerings come with some advantages and disadvantages inherent to each design. It has long been known that the Ruger Blackhawk and Super Redhawk .44 magnum revolvers are more robust than the N frame Smith & Wesson revolvers. It has also been well known for many years that the S&W design offers a superior out of the box trigger, and is a bit more refined revolver.
If your desire is to shoot a steady diet of heavy 300 grain bullets at maximum velocity, you may want to get yourself a Ruger Super Redhawk. If you intend to shoot standard .44 Magnum 240 grain bullets at standard .44 Magnum velocities, a S&W model 29 or 629 will serve you very well.
Some also prefer the recoil impulse from the SA design of the Ruger Blackhawk, while others prefer the feel of the DA S&W design.
I currently personally own two .44 Magnum revolvers. A 4 inch 29-2 I bought new in 1978, and a 6.5 inch 6-29 Classic I bought used in 1987 or so. I use the 29 as my woods carry gun during firearms deer season, and have used it to take a few deer. I use the 6.5 6-29 in the same way during foul weather. It's also taken a few deer, including my first ever handgun buck shortly after it became legal to hunt deer with handguns in Indiana. When I began using my .44 magnums for deer, I found Winchester Supreme 250 grain partition golds worked very well. I'm down to about a dozen rounds of that ammo left, and can't find the partition bullets as components, so I now shoot 240 grain Hornady XTP's over 20 grains of 2400 from both revolvers and my Marlin 1894. These loads are great deer killers. I've recovered every deer I've ever shot with them in less than 75 yards.
 
I forgot about that article and the 9mm bear stopper! Good stuff to stand in there and protect his clients like that!

Thanks for all the other info on cast bullets too!

How would these bullets work? Or would I be better off the step up to 300+ grain?

Cast bullet 260gr
 
I brought home a new Ruger 44 this weekend. It's a new model super Blackhawk with a 3.75" barrel. It's much more comfortable to shoot than that smith! The smith might find a new home....
 
Originally Posted By: RammerI brought home a new Ruger 44 this weekend. It's a new model super Blackhawk with a 3.75" barrel. It's much more comfortable to shoot than that smith! The smith might find a new home....

Really? A Super Blackhawk with a 3 3/4" barrel? Does it have an ejector rod? I have never seen a Super B with anything shorter than a 4 5/8" tube and the ejector rod housing went all to way to the end of the barrel.
 
Rusty - it has a full ejector rod, it's not quite long enough to eject all cases from what I've
seen so far. It'll push them 3/4 way out some do stick, but I haven't cleaned it yet either.

Ruger 3.75"

I put a link in above for it.
 
Well aint that sumthin? I'd like to try one of those just to see what it's like. I shot a 2 1/2" .44 Mag Smith once and while I did not care for it it really wasn't too awful either. Just a lot of blast.

That looks like fun. I bet you enjoy it.
 
Rusty - I'll shoot some full house loads out of it soon and let you know how it goes. Winds blowing 50 here next 2-3 days, don't much care for shooting in that crap!

Rich - I've always heard that about the Bisley frame. Maybe, if I ever see one in person, I'll snag one for my wife!
 
I've shot quite a few 240gr XTPs out of the 3.75" and it loves them. Working on the 300gr Cast Performance load now. Anyone have any 300gr Cast Performance load data?
 
I used to cast up a 315 grain Truncated Cone bullet that I got from molds that I bought from SSK Industries. JD Jones himself suggested 22 grains of H110 and I tried it. Trust me- this is not a load of the faint of heart or weak of wrist! I backed it down to around 19 grains and was much happier.
 
Rusty, i started at 21gr of H110, and was getting a little sign of pressure. I then loaded up some up at 20gr, and those came out with much nicer primers. I'm patiently waiting for my new front sight posts to show up from Ruger for both of my new model super Blackhawks.
 


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