Well, I finally got a chance to shoot the SBH this morning. It was a lot of fun! I shot forty rounds of Winchester factory 240 gr loads, and ten rounds of "handloads" I cooked up with the bullets I pulled from the other ten cartridges. I found out out a number of things:
* - I'm a highly inconsistent handgun shot!
* - The blast/recoil were not that bad
* - If you rest the front of the revolver directly on the *
* * sandbag your groups enlarge and the gas leaking
* * out of the cylinder gap cuts holes in the bag!
* - Winchester factory ammo is pretty consistent but
* * AA2 Improved is more so!
With the factory stuff I got groups down to three inches at 25 yds once I kind of figured out what I was doing. (The first couple of groups went all over the paper, and I still had trouble with fliers through the 50 shots, but I was beginning to figure out what was causing them.) I also shot at a 12" bull at 100 yds and was able to keep all shots in the bull at that range, which tickled me! Offhand I stunk horribly!
* * About that AA2 load- I pulled 10 of the factory loads and reloaded those bullets into the cases with 7gr of Accurate #2 Improved. Those loads chronographed an avg velocity of 847 fps, with an extreme spread of 10 and an SD of 2! Those are the lowest numbers I've ever gotten! (I have only chronographed rifle cartridges before) Those rounds also grouped better than most of my factory load groups, but that was probably due as much to the intensity of the load as the accuracy.
* * All in all I'm a happy camper with much to learn. I have got to work on a consistent grip and also a good trigger squeeze; I found myself jerking the trigger a couple of times.
* * By the way, the factory loads chronographed *at 1216, with an ES of 28 and SD of 10. Not bad!
* * * * * * *:biggrin: * * * * * *See ya, * *IDShooter * * * * * * * *

Hey Guys,

Try dry firing your revolver 10 times a day.  Pick a target at the far end of the living room and practice squeezing that trigger while keeping your sight picture.  It does work!

Load up a couple hundred practice rounds....you're AA-2 load sounds great.  Go out to a place you can shoot at various distances, and shoot 50 rounds a week just to get the feel of the revolver going off in your hand.  Mix in  a few full house loads, so they "happen" unexpectedly.  Helps fight the flinches.  Shoot it as often as you can.  I bought a Blackhawk in 1971 (.45 Colt) and have been shooting it since....my principle out door handgun....you have a keeper there, so enjoy it.

El Lobo in NM

Hi, ID:
  Looks like you'll have to start casting sooner rather than later if you're going to keep that baby fed! If I can do it, you can too. Better check out those RR crossings. :biggrin:

Bye
Jack

IDShooter,
Sounds like me about 10 years ago when I got my first handgun, although you seem to shoot better than I did, I needed a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood to pattern it on at 50 yards.
I finally would load 4 shells in it spin the cylinder without looking and then shoot as if all cylinders were loaded.  This showed me that I wasn't flinching but I was trying to hold down the recoil.  When it would click on a empty cylinder the barrel would pull down towards the ground, this causes very inconsitant groups.
Since then I have used this system to find problems with my friends and shooting buddies.  I still do this every now and then just to keep myself honest.

Good Luck and God Bless.