Picked this up last week and have shot it twice now. I like it a ton. I looked over four of them and managed to find the one with the best trigger and the tightest bbl/cyl gap. It shoots pretty fast for a 4" .22 lr - and it's one of those odd guns that shoots much better offhand than off a bench.
Last Saturday, it was unpleasant shooting in a 20 mph headwind at 38°F, but I chrono'd a number of loads. Interestingly, the ones that are supposed to be "fast" really weren't and had big, weird spreads. The middle-velocity rounds did very well from the Bearcat.
With bulk Federal Champion 36-gr HPs, the Bearcat's 4" tube did an average of 1081 fps/ES 48.23/SD 17.72.
Old CCI Velocitor 40-gr HPs: M 1064/ES 53.49/SD 18.00
(New Velocitors didn't do as well - I don't want to crunch the numbers, though - and I'd have to b/c some guy on the next lane was shooting a muzzle-braked rifle that played heck with my chrono's recording.)
Stinger 33-gr HPs: M 1238/S33.73/D 23.34
CCI Mini-Mag 36-gr HP: M 1018/S101.8/D35.45
CCI Mini-Mag 40-gr solids: M 1062/S 31.17/D 11.61
pre-CCI Quik-Shok 33-gr frangibles: M 1049/S 41.94/D 13.74
Aguila SSS 60-grainers: M 713.8/S 43.2/D 15.70
Today it was nicer, though a bit colder at 36°F and sunny.
I ran the Federal Champion 36-gr bulk HPs twice, with remarkably consistent results:
M 1093/S 44.84/D 19.94
M 1093/S 37.54/D 13.26
I also ran the new version of CCI's 40-gr HP Velocitor:
M 1021/S 144.9/D 53.20
as well as CCI's Blazer 40-gr solid (twice):
M 1026/S 26.43/D 9.69
M 1015/S 53.17/D 21.33
I
really have enjoyed shooting this little single-action, and can't wait to shoot it again - even though I just shot it this afternoon!
Oh, and I have some elk antler stocks on order for it.
