I like to hike and backpack quite a bit, and this has driven an interest in lightweight, big-bore revolvers. I have a 329PD, a snubby Model 69, and a 4 5/8 Blackhawk in .45 Colt. Those guns are awesome, but the 69 and the Blackhawk are both pretty heavy, and the 329 is awesome to carry but downright painful to shoot. I've always been a fan of the .45 Colt, and couldn't get this idea out of my head that a lightweight, short-barreled, 5-shot .45 Colt would be the goldilocks woods carry gun.
Unfortunately, nobody cares about the .45 Colt anymore. Sure the cowboy action crowd likes it, but I've already got a single-action and that's not what I'm looking for. To my knowledge Smith never offered a snubby 325 in .45 Colt, and even the short-barreled steel guns bring upwards of $2k these days. Enter Taurus. Not only did they make one, but from 1999-2002, they made one in Titanium that only weighs 19oz. I've had bad experiences with a couple of Taurus revolvers in the past and swore I would never buy another, but I just couldn't get this one out of my head. I casually watched Gunbroker for a while until a couple of weeks ago one came up for a price that I couldn't refuse.
Mechanically, it's not bad. Fit and finish is on par with my Smiths, the grips are comfortable and well designed, and the trigger is not amazing but acceptable. Lockup and carryup are good even under recoil, and there are no timing issues.
As a result of trying to squeeze a .45" diameter tube into such a small package, the forcing cone is very thin at the base. Those of you familiar with the cracked forcing cones in .357 K-frames will likely cringe as I did when you see this. This gun will definitely not be digesting any "Ruger-Only" .45 Colt loads.
The barrel is ported. This is stupid. It produces blast and muzzle flash right in front of the shooter's face, does little to nothing for the recoil, and likely has a negative impact on ballistics, which are already compromised due to the short barrel. It's also a pain to clean. I wish they hadn't done this.
The biggest problem by far, though, is accuracy. It's just all over the place. My regular .45 Colt load is a 250gr LRNFP over 8gr of Unique, and it shoots great in my other guns but this thing won't even keep it on paper at 15 yards. It's showing evidence of tumbling, so I'm pretty sure it's not stabilizing the bullets out of that short barrel. I've been playing with some different .45 Colt loads, including some 185gr and 200gr bullets to try and see if I can find something lit likes, but so far they're all pretty bad.
Interestingly, I tried a powderpuff .45 Schofield load using my home cast 230Gr truncated cone bullets that I use for .45ACP, and that load performed pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only going about 600 FPS, so not exactly useful as a bear defense/woods gun option.
The targets below are the 250gr load (lots of rounds off the top of the paper), the Schofield load, the 200gr load (1 round off paper), and the 185 gr load (3 rounds off paper) at 15 yards.
Here's a second target with 5 more of the Schofield load circled in red (the green was a different load), also at 15 yards, so it's showing some promising consistency.
I'm planning to load up a few more of the 230gr Schofields to give it a more thorough test, and probably some in .45 Colt as well, at different velocities, but I was wondering if anybody here had any experience feeding one of these or handloading for it. At this point I don't think it's ever going to adequately fulfill my original intended purpose, but I'd like to at least find a load that it will shoot.
Unfortunately, nobody cares about the .45 Colt anymore. Sure the cowboy action crowd likes it, but I've already got a single-action and that's not what I'm looking for. To my knowledge Smith never offered a snubby 325 in .45 Colt, and even the short-barreled steel guns bring upwards of $2k these days. Enter Taurus. Not only did they make one, but from 1999-2002, they made one in Titanium that only weighs 19oz. I've had bad experiences with a couple of Taurus revolvers in the past and swore I would never buy another, but I just couldn't get this one out of my head. I casually watched Gunbroker for a while until a couple of weeks ago one came up for a price that I couldn't refuse.
Mechanically, it's not bad. Fit and finish is on par with my Smiths, the grips are comfortable and well designed, and the trigger is not amazing but acceptable. Lockup and carryup are good even under recoil, and there are no timing issues.
As a result of trying to squeeze a .45" diameter tube into such a small package, the forcing cone is very thin at the base. Those of you familiar with the cracked forcing cones in .357 K-frames will likely cringe as I did when you see this. This gun will definitely not be digesting any "Ruger-Only" .45 Colt loads.
The barrel is ported. This is stupid. It produces blast and muzzle flash right in front of the shooter's face, does little to nothing for the recoil, and likely has a negative impact on ballistics, which are already compromised due to the short barrel. It's also a pain to clean. I wish they hadn't done this.
The biggest problem by far, though, is accuracy. It's just all over the place. My regular .45 Colt load is a 250gr LRNFP over 8gr of Unique, and it shoots great in my other guns but this thing won't even keep it on paper at 15 yards. It's showing evidence of tumbling, so I'm pretty sure it's not stabilizing the bullets out of that short barrel. I've been playing with some different .45 Colt loads, including some 185gr and 200gr bullets to try and see if I can find something lit likes, but so far they're all pretty bad.
Interestingly, I tried a powderpuff .45 Schofield load using my home cast 230Gr truncated cone bullets that I use for .45ACP, and that load performed pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only going about 600 FPS, so not exactly useful as a bear defense/woods gun option.
The targets below are the 250gr load (lots of rounds off the top of the paper), the Schofield load, the 200gr load (1 round off paper), and the 185 gr load (3 rounds off paper) at 15 yards.
Here's a second target with 5 more of the Schofield load circled in red (the green was a different load), also at 15 yards, so it's showing some promising consistency.
I'm planning to load up a few more of the 230gr Schofields to give it a more thorough test, and probably some in .45 Colt as well, at different velocities, but I was wondering if anybody here had any experience feeding one of these or handloading for it. At this point I don't think it's ever going to adequately fulfill my original intended purpose, but I'd like to at least find a load that it will shoot.
