The Rohrbaugh Forum

Miscellaneous => Other Guns => Topic started by: Relic on July 10, 2011, 04:39:39 PM

Title: Other Carries
Post by: Relic on July 10, 2011, 04:39:39 PM
The R9 has quickly taken over as my EDC.
But, somedays a man just needs to take a walk with his wheelguns.  The special occasion today was the need for a new wheelgun to have some sighting in.  A Circuit Judge carbine and a few boxes of .45 Colt had arrived at casa de Relic.

Todays carries were an original series S&W Model 66 (no dash) with tritium sights and Hogue monogrips riding in a Ross natural leather paddle.  The BUG was another Smith (of course), a J-framed Model 438, with CT lasergrips riding in my offhand pocket in a Nemesis.

We ran a few errands and picked up some food, drinks and ammo for the Rossi then headed off to the farm.  To sight in, I places a few "shoot and see" target at 25 yards and setup rested on an old wodden bench.  I checked to ensure the thread protector choke was installed then took aim.  The first round hit about 2" high and centered, putting a nice big hole in the target.  Well, ok then, I can live with that...no adjustments needed.  Round two went down range and slightly enlarged the first hole.  Hmmm, lucky shooting I guess.  Round three just nipped the holes of the first two.  Really?  I wasn't expecting that.

Four and five left the little carbine and met the others, leaving a single ragged hole a little over 1" across.  25 yards isn't much of a challenge for the tiny little Rossi/Taurus carbine, apparently.  So I decided to switch chokes to the straight rifled one and try some .410.  I fired a couple of patterns with #6 shot and was very satisfied with the coverage although I could see there was definately more spread that my full choked .410.  The shot pattern was a couple inches lower than the .45 Colt hit, but that was an easy Kentucky windage adjustment, I didn't bother to adjust the factory sighting as we set up the clay thrower to see how the sub-five-pound carbine swings.

Rather than bore you with a clay-by-clay. ;)  I'll say that between the four of us shooting we missed 4 clays out of 46.  The carbine handled well as a shotty.

But what would one use it for?  To be honest it needs more choke to reach out past 25-30 yards with shot, but that's plenty of range for squirrel or rabbit where we hunt here in SW Ohio.  A few 45 LC shells in your pocket could take out a 'yote, groundhog, or even a small hog (haven't seen one here yet, but they're in the counties around us),  if one popped up.  But you'd have to change out the choke, which takes a minute.


I'll take it over to our 100yard range and let you know how it shoots at that range with the .45 ammo.  Drop is going to be severe, I'd expect 5-6" or so. But that's based on hangun charts, the longer barrel should help a bit.

I'm going to give it a try this season on small game.  It's shorter and about the same weight as my well-used antique single shot .410, but the full choke on that old gun is an advantage.  We'll see how the Rossi(Taurus) compares.

Fun day with the wheelguns, for sure.
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: yankee2500 on July 10, 2011, 05:12:01 PM
Sounds like a fun day of shooting. :D
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: kjtrains on July 10, 2011, 07:17:43 PM
Great day at the farm, Relic.    :)
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: Robar233 on July 10, 2011, 09:34:06 PM
Relic,
 Sounds like a great day at the range. That beats a fantastic day at work any day. Thanks for the post it was fun to read. My neighbor showed me his C/J a couple of weeks ago. I'll have to ask him for a try.
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: Reinz on July 12, 2011, 03:26:14 PM
Always fun trying a new one, and it sounds like you succeeded.   :D
Thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: TBI on July 12, 2011, 10:13:53 PM
Ah the good old days.......fun shooting on a home made range...beats any club that I know of.. Glad someone can still have some good old fashion fun!!
Title: Re: Other Carries
Post by: kjtrains on July 12, 2011, 10:19:43 PM
It is fun.  Just step out the door, go about a 100 ft and fire whatever you have with you; even the big stuff.