A .44 Sort of Day...

The incredible weather is holding, so today after doing V/O all morning I headed out to the range to do some cowboy rifle drills. I had 2 plates, one at 15 yards the other at 20, and 2 Action PT silhouettes at 50 yards, so I did 5-round "round-robins," 15, 20, 50, 50, 20…trying to pick up speed on each run. When I got done, I decided to lob some .44 Specials downrange.

I posted yesterday on Lee Martin's wonderful Single Action Forum about the Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter:

It's Ruger's hunting .44 Magnum, different from the standard Super Blackhawk with a round trigger guard (as opposed to the Dragoon finger-buster), a heavy barrel with rib, scope mounts and the longer ejector and housing from, I believe the .357 Maximum from years back. Mine has been redone by the inestimable Hamilton Bowen with the barrel cut to the length of the ejector housing, a perfect trigger and Bowen sights (it's also drilled and tapped on the top strap for a scope mount if I decide not to use the barrel mounts…move the weight a little farther back).

The gun was built for a project that fell through at the last minute (it happens), but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. If Hamilton's name is on it, it doesn't leave my hands. I hadn't shot it in ages and ages, but we're scheduling a hog hunt in Texas with suppressed ARs in April…I'll be there as a producer, not a hunter (or, in this case, huntress), but I don't believed in being unarmed. I thought the Hunter in a Simply Rugged "Chesty Puller" rig and one of the Corbon Hunter loads (I'll aways go heavier rather than lighter) would be a perfect "anchor gun." Still ambivalent on whether I'm going to scope it or not.

So I hauled the Hunter out of the safe, got a couple of boxes of .44 Specials, and took it to the range. It was amazingly fun. What a great revolver! I could spend a whole day on the 50-yard silhouettes.