Anybody like shooting pistol?

Bolt Action Pistols

I've got a 'soft spot' for bolt action pistols such the XP-100's of Remington and those sledge hammers from the Salvage company! I've had at least one ever since Rem. came out with .221 Fireball in, I believe, 1968. Now I have 'em in several flavors including a rebarreled Savage in 6mm BR, an XP in .250AI, both of which have 16" barrels. Also, have the .XP/.223, a couple of .221 Fireballs, one in 7BR and several I don't remember the caliber of off hand! I had the Savage rebarreled by Steve Branham, S. Carolina, years ago, about 1995 or thereabouts, and it has never been shot. Several of the others have never been shot either.
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I've always been more of an accuracy freak than someone who has to load a gun to max to enjoy it. Found out many years ago that ya' can't miss 'em fast enough to kill 'em so I finally realized and accepted that fact! The reason I haven't shot so many of them is that I got many of them hoping to enjoy them after retiring. Well, I retired then had a couple of heart attacks and a case of bad knees so my varmint hunting sort of came to a halt. Then I left Georgia and moved back to the God-forsaken Peoples' Republic of Illinois, sister-state to North Korea! Ain't nuttin' left up here to hunt unless you're into 'Drive-By Shooting" up around Cook Co. or Madison Co.!
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Also, have a like-new Cooper in 19X.223 that I've shot but seven rounds through it. Took it out one day to begin the barrel break-in procedure when it began to rain. Into the case and the truck it went and after I took it home and cleaned it, it never got to go back out and play again! The largest caliber rifle I currently own is a 6MM Remington in a Model 600. I never believed in bazookas, just a rifle to do the job that had the accuracy to put the bullet where it would accomplish just that! No macho crap with cannons!
Accuracy was the rule; not mass concussion.
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Someday day, SOON, I'm gonna' have to bite the bullet and sell some guns but it is still hard to do even facing my health problems!

I've always loved shooting pistol! I shot USPSA matches decades ago and even won a slot to go to "Nationals" a couple times (I was at the first Nationals won with a red-dot sighted gun). I hunted deer with a .35 Rem Contender, coyotes/fox with .223 barrel Contender, and squirrels and such with .22. When my wife told me I shoot too much, I quit "action shooting" and that only left me with handgun hunting and a little "plinking". Well, got rid of the wife, and now back to shooting pistol. Now at this age, I have to remember what one of the front sights to use for anything over 15-20 yards, so I use optics. Not long ago I got my first slide mounted red-dot centerfire, a SIG P320 RX, and that has gotten me back into action shooting. I love it! I wish I would have had it decades ago.
Some of the most fun I've had was long range shooting with unlikely long range guns... .22 pistols at 200-300 are a hoot! I once shot a 4 foot group (7 rounds) with my .45 Officers ACP at 300 yards standing offhand. From that 3.5 inch barrel it took a few long seconds of flight time which makes it all the more fun! I once read a tip from Elmer Kieth, you line the top of the front sight on the target, and lower the rear sight while keeping front centered. At 300 with that .45 I had to hold front on target and the top of the rear centered on the front of the ejection port.

Steven

I guess if you live long enough you'll end up shooting games that most common sense would say it isn't likely that you're going to hit anything....but you hit anyway. We've played the distance games for years at my step dads peanut fields. The fields are 1 mile square and we have targets setup at various points along the fence line. Yep, we've shot the 5 gallon cans at 300 and at 500 yds with pistols. There's a lot of sky and hope with every shot, LOL. I went thru the Remington XP-100s as well. The best was a 6x47 International with a 12" barrel. Highly accurate. I never really liked shooting with a scope though. Just doesn't seem natural to me. Went thru the usual with the Contenders. I still have a stack of barrels from a 22LR bull to the 44 mag with a choke for shotshell. The 35 Herrett can be a handfull with heavy weigh bullets and max loads. The 6 TCU was the favorite for hunting. I guess I should break them out and renew the acquaintance.

Talk about having ammo but no gun for it. It's a standing joke in the family. If I wanted a specific chambering for any gun, rifle or pistol, all I had to do was buy a box of ammo for it and give it to my brother. Might take a month but he'd find a gun that would shoot the ammo. We share guns a lot but then we have a lot of guns. Mostly old Winchesters and Marlins with a few dozen customs.

One of the ladies that shoots with us shoots a CZ Shadow II in 9mm. Now that's a sweet shooting pistol and if I had $1200.00 that was to be spent on a 9mm pistol, the Shadow II would be it. Extremely accurate right out of the box. Certainly beats the Kimbers I have.

Shooting and range time is matter of priorities. It's a 150mile round trip for me to go to the range. Step dads farm was sold a few year back so I'm doing to public ranges. Only thing keeping me home now is the heat. The range I shoot at is all gravel and it's like being in a microwave by 9AM. But it'll cool off one of these days and I'll be burning gas again. I guess it's a good thing that I have a lot of Exxon stock, LOL!.

Loved my target pistols for many years!

Gold Cups, S&W 52's 41's, XP-100, etc.

Here's a pic of one I built, back in the early 1980's.

Kevin

Always have loved pistols - especially when my eyes weren't so old.

Shot 44 mags in the "steel chicken" game for several years. Just a local 'fun shoot' sponsored by a local shooting supply shop.

My favorite was a 10.5" Ruger Super Blackhawk that would print 5 in a 1-1/2" circle off-hand at 25 yards. My pet load was the Sierra 220 gn truncated (match) bullet over 21.x grains of H2400.

I traded that gun for a T/C w/ a 10" bbl that shoots lights out with 260 gn Hornandy XTPs(?) over a stiff load of W296. Brutal recoil for a 44 mag, but shoots clover leafs from a rest at 25 yards.

Every once in a while one gets away that I forevermore KICK myself for ever letting get away from me. That was the Remington XP-100 from the Rem custom shop in 7mmO8. Scoped it was a tack-driver with a custom walnut stock and a 2oz trigger. The only comfort I got from that trade is the fact it went to a handy capped, older gentleman who bagged an elk with it a couple weeks after he bought it from the shop where I traded it. And too, the gun I traded for evolved into my prize (deadly!) Hart-barreled Rem 6BR that I have taken to the BBB on several occasions.

I don't shoot rifles as much anymore as I do my pistols: 22LR Ruger Mk-IIs always please me - and earns their fair share of wins in informal matches (first place in my CCW class qualifying...AmI (my wife) took second with the same gun.).

For my carry guns I favor the 45 ACP (winter) and 380s (summer). ALL of them cut one-hole, 8-shot groups at 21 feet from two-handed standing; the Sig being my 45 ACP carry, and usually my Wather PPK/S in 380. (Leighhigh is the ammo that lifts even the 380 ACP into what was the realm of the 9mm territory. And! Ya oughta see what that same ammo brand does in the 45 ACP while keeping the same POI at 21 (home protection) distance (feet)!

I seldom shoot my 6" S&W Mo 29 anymore. It will tag empty 12 ga hulls at 25 yards, off-hand pretty consistently, but the 44 mag T/C is even better for deer, and defense goes to the autos. And, besides, the T/C is scoped (which these 70 year old eyes appreciates).

Anymore, the majority of my shooting is either shotgun or pistols. (I get tired of whoopin' up on Roo-roo-roogers, so my pet Rem/Jewel/Hart doesn't see much action ever since the PD towns I used to haunt have pretty much dried up.)

Trapper, It doesn't make sense that the 10mm slings brass so far. I have seen a good many five inch 10mm and some 9x25's and none slung brass like that. You have done everything else and may have already done this but pretty much down to tuning the ejector and extractor. There was a contraption to reduce recoil that replaced the recoil spring and guide but I forget what it was called. I had one in a .45 for awhile. Can't remember the results, I think OK but not a miracle. The forty five wasn't a big deal even with major loads so I quit using it, added to weekly disassembly and cleaning time. Another note, back in the old days that Wilson pad swelled around the edges and caused jamming. I just cleaned up the edges on a grinder to make it a little smaller. With everything else working right they weren't needed and I quit using them. Final thought on this pistol, the barrel and slide might be unlocking too fast. A tough fix because it probably involves a new barrel. I assume you are already running a pretty tight bushing. If it was sloppy factory you might gain a little longer lock-up with a tighter bushing.

The main reason for posting, I tuned a seven inch longslide for a fellow back when the world was young. Those stainless things that liked to gall if you weren't careful keeping them lubricated. Were those AMT's? Anyway, when it had been tuned it was a very sweet softshooting gun and very accurate. Always wanted a seven inch longslide after that but never got around to getting one. I wouldn't hesitate a moment recommending somebody else spend their money on one!

I have tuned the ejector on it HU. I thought maybe I wasn't near as good as I thought I was about a 1911 so I took to a guy that sets up all of the competition 1911s of the local military clubs. He pretty much builds 1911s for a lot of competitors across the USA. He looked at it and said he couldn't improve on what I had done to it. I put a Wilson Extractor in it so that's good too. It seems the gun throwing brass is a common problem with the Remington R1. Others have the same complaint. In one respect, I'm kinda glad I have the problem as the gun is not speced very good. The recoil was extremely violent but not hard on the hand. After just 100 rounds thru the gun, the frame at the rear of gun was showing wear thru the blue. Since all of the work I've put into it, the cold blue I used as an indicator is still there so I've taken a lot of violence out of the action of the gun. I'm going to assume the weight of the slide is just too much for a standard size frame. Too much inertia that the gun can't shed.
FWIW, Fusion is casting a 7" slide and barrel. It's a good thing I don't have the current funds to buy one. Otherwise, one would be on the way. They sell it raw, no parts, just the cast slide and barrel. You get to build it from there. That might just be the second project in line. I've had the opportunity to shoot a 7" 45acp and feel in love. But it can be an expensive venture, as you probably know.

Paul, I assume you know Midway has the Lehigh bullets available for reloading. I use their 7.62x 39 123gr Controlled Chaos bullet in an AR upper. I'm not sure there's a difference between a 350lb hog getting hit with it or a Peterbilt fell on it. Awesome amount of shocking power. The Lehigh bullets are my carry bullet in my handloads. I carry a 9mm, 40SW, and 45 ACP, depending on what I feel like at the time. You should see what their little light weight killers do on a coyote out of a 9mm. It will make you believe in the 9mm as a REAL gun. Seems to me I read an article about a game manager killing a grizzly bear at point blank range with a 9mm and using Lehigh ammo.