Cured 'itchy trigger finger' this afternoon

[Crow Choker]

Nice sunny day in North Iowa, 41* gentle breeze. Have been wanting to get out and snap some caps and make smoke with a percussion revolver. Took my Ruger Old Army out of mothballs and shot nine cylinders (54 shots), .457 balls, lubed felt wads, around half at 35 grains of 3F, the rest at around 38-39 grains. Shot the first three rounds at large tin cans at around 20 yards +-, got bored with that and fired the rest fast point shooting at around 12-15 yds which is a lot more fun and interesting, some double taps. My style of shooting vs a thumb cocking target shoot. Ventilated the cans with big holes and made them bounce. Shot them in front of a large snow drift in old cattle lot. Snow drifts make good back stops, when the snow melts in the spring all the balls/bullets I've shot into it during the winter are just laying on the ground for easy pickup. Wash and recast them into various fodder for reshooting. Beats mining them from sand and dirt backstops. Only hangup was since I can't use my Ted Cash snail capper on the Ruger, I had to use a straight line capper. Have three, but only took one out. Pain in the seat recharging it out in the elements. Spring is coming, one day closer after today.

 

[William P Sepessy]

Glad you got a chance to shoot. I'm hoping to do the same this week as we are supposed to get a little warmer weather. I agree that the fast point shooting is interesting, and I am planning a lot more of it this season. I spent a lot of years at slow fire target shooting. It developed a good foundation, but the first time at a Cowboy Match (25+ years ago) when the buzzer went off I was like a fish out of water. Good experience which forced me to shift gears in my practice/training approach. You made me smile at the mention of collecting lead from snowdrifts. I remember Elmer Keith recommending doing the same thing to recover undamaged bullets for inspection.