Elmer Keith - 75% of the rounds that pass through my big Smith are .44 special, leaving the muzzle at around 850 fps. Some of his .44 spl loads in a SAA left the barrel at 1,200 fps. Used to read Elmer Keith a lot . . . . he wrote about bringing down a deer from 600 yards with a model 29, 6 1/2 barrel, same length as my 629. I actually have some old Guns and Ammo magazines from the '70s with reprints of his ealier articles. Reading those take me back to my formative years when I was first learning to reload.
I learned with a Lee Loader!! To resize you held the die in one hand and hammered it home with the other. It was perfect for me as a young boy to learn - makes me appreciate my Rock Chucker every single time I use it.
Hehe...yup! That was my first loader too... At first it was quite unsettling using a hammer and loader to seat a primer, and agonizingly slow, but still fun :)
Current reloading is provided courtesy of an old rcbs single stage, and a newer lee pro1000 progressive.
It's interesting to hear people from less gun-tolerant countries talk - firearms were such an integral part of growing up for me. I remember walking down my semi-rural street after school with my buddies, each of us 13 years old with a shotgun resting over our forearm . . . neighbors waving a casual hello. Our dads all started us in similar ways; with shotguns you began with a 410, then dad's 20 gauge and one memorable Christmas, Foy got a new Remington 870. With hand guns, it started for me with a standard barrel Mark II, then my dad's model 10 (that's the one I Lee Loaded .38s for) and on and on . . . .357s, 41 mag, 223, 30 carbine, 30-40 Krag, 30.06, 7 mag, multiple .22s . . .
I've been away from it a few years but after talking here, I'm thinking I need to blow the dust off my presses.
Unfortunately Mr. Foy, times have changed for the worse. In high school, used to bring 1 or 2 of my long guns on the bus with a few boxes of shells, stash it in my locker all day, then afterschool practice pluggin clay pidgeons & paper with other members of 'the rifle club'. Similar to the chess or debate club - we just went behind the school after normal classes to compete in a mini IPSC, & had weekly meets with other high school rifle clubs.
Can you imagine 40 or 50 teenagers bringing shotguns & rifles to a high school nowadays!!!
And yup, Remington 870!!! My 14th birthday present, went pheasant hunting same day with my Dad! Also bagged my first deer with that lovely shotgun few monhs later shooting slugs thru it.
I miss those days sometimes. We were taught well, were fiercely serious about safety even though we were stupid and reckless about most other things. When it came to firearms, our parent's trust in our responsible gun behavior was well justified.
It's funny (well not funny, actually)... It's sad what two school shootings in little more than year can do to a country's gun legistlation. And It's also funny weird how differently people react in different countries. After Luby's massacre in Texas in 1991, people demanded more rights to carry firearms, and shall-issue law was passed couple of years later. After the Finnish school shootings everyone wants to ban all handguns. There's a nationwide campaing going on ever since declaring all handguns evil and their lawful owners some kind of massacre-plotting psycopaths. It's gotten really ugly here really fast. But since Finns are hunters since generations ago there's no one demanding ban on long firearms. It's just really weird here with the guns nowadays and my head hurts when thinking about it too much.
Well, guess it could be worse. It could be like UK. That would suck.
It's a P220. I used this one in the army as my personal arm. We have the right to keep them if we retire. I don't have any fotos of it, but here is the link to Wikipedia.
It's clumsy and a bit heavy, but if it's good for the army, it's ok for me. It does the job, it makes big holes.
We got a new gun law here, in effect from today. It's great... Let's see now... Age limit for getting a handgun license went up to 20. And one must proof that he has been into shooting sports for minimum of 2 years before he can apply for own handgun (see the pattern here?). And everyone must have a written document from an firearms instructor (which do not exist at this point in the eyes of the law) that his shooting hobby is regular. And all the handgun licenses are granted for maximun of 5 years, after which one must apply for it again. And an application for firearm license costs 72 euros. And everyone applying handgun license must fill a questionnaire of 270 questions (do you have friends? Do you enjoy violence etc). And all the applicants must attend to a 30 min private discussion with the licence official (police). Doctors are oblicated (not allowed, oblicated) to report to police whenever they suspect that a certain person might pose a "risk" (risk to what? that's not explained in the law). Yep, there goes the doctor-patient confidiality. Oh yes, and all handgun applicants are required to be a member of a shooting club so there goes the Finnish constitution and freedom to (or not to) unite. Also the stuff requiring licensing are in addition to complete guns: barrels, frames, suppressors, locking device (slide, bolt etc) and cartridge chamber (what?!). This is one f-ed up nation I tell you.
Of course it is - it's a SolarForce T4 powered by 2 x AA's (now replaced by two of the four hybrid DuraLoops Jeff (Boaz) sent me. Neat little batteries - still need a good charger, though.)
had a weapon similar 20 years ago. it was just brutal to shoot.
i liked until i realized you cant really have any kind of conversation about it with any authority, and its remarkably inaccurate.
uncomfortable, inaccurate, and highly illegal. triple threat. i put a short stock back on it and the shortest legal barrel i could. far superior weapon in any tactical situation. ghost rings and a fenix ld20. the feds would hate but so far, its still legal.
Sure is. Just don't ask about methylmercury or dimethylmercury. You have exactly one chance to get it right. You'll get it wrong once. The chance to get it wrong again won't be available.
