Easy Shooting?
By MARJ LAW
“What do you want to shoot this Wednesday?” Joe asks me. On Wednesday mornings, a bit before 10, we go to the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office range to practice our shooting skills. Also, if a person comes who is new to shooting and who wants a little assistance, we are happy to help.
“I’m going for something easy,” I tell Joe. “It’s a good day for my 9mm with the red dot. Feeling lazy.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to shoot a cowboy load?” he asks.
“A cowboy load? You’re talking about shooting a .45, right?” My voice goes up an octave. I’m hoping I heard him wrong. Generally, a .45 has a bunch of recoil. I’m looking for an easy day.
“Yes, that Uberti Peacemaker is a great gun to shoot. We can try a hot hollow point load and compare it with a cowboy load. Let’s shoot both kinds of ammunition and see how they feel.”
He’s all excited. He really likes his reproduction of the 1873 Colt Peacemaker: the gun that “won the west.” I’m less than enthusiastic. It’s a .45. Sigh. I’m not thrilled about shooting a gun with a lot of kick. Oh, well. He’s teaching me something, and it’s always good to learn.
“OK. Let’s see if there’s a big difference.”
“Oh, and while we’re at it,” he continues, “how about we shoot the Ruger Security Six with a jacketed load versus a Wadcutter? Usually, the Wadcutters make it easier for people to handle the recoil of .38 revolvers.”
“The .38? Are we shooting in single or double action?”
“Double action, of course,” he answers cheerfully.
Oh, goody.
The reason that I’m less-than-delighted is this: The Ruger Security Six is a six-shot revolver and can take .38 loads or .357 magnum loads. It weighs 33.5 ounces and has a 4-inch barrel. It can be shot in single or double action. It’s tolerable in single action. Here, you pull back the hammer, then squeeze the trigger. The trigger’s only action is to release the hammer so the gun fires. You don’t have to pull the trigger very hard. If you’ve pulled the hammer back first, then trigger pull according to our Lyman digital scale averages out to be 4.9 pounds. Sturdy, but not too hard.
But in double action, and yes, of course he wants us to shoot in double action, the trigger has two jobs. It has to pull back the hammer and then release it. Giving the trigger two jobs makes the trigger pull harder. A lot harder. A whole lot harder.
At home, after putting dummy snap cap loads into the Ruger, I squeeze the trigger without pulling the hammer back first. Well, I mean I try to squeeze the trigger with the pad of my finger. No dice. Try again. Still, nothing happens. Moving my index finger to the first joint, I pull again. That is some hard trigger pull.
Is it really as hard as it seems? Joe picks up the Lyman digital scale. Setting the pull on the trigger, the scale reads “over.” Joe tries it again. Over. The third try results in the same readout. The Lyman scale stops reading at 12 pounds, so the Ruger, in double action, must be somewhere between 12 and 15 pounds. Yes, it’s heavy.
According to Wikipedia: “Shooting the Security-Six double action was tantamount to using a grip exerciser.
In order to manipulate that heavy action, we need optimal finger placement on the trigger, and that is at the first joint, known in anatomy as the distal interphalangeal joint and usually abbreviated as DIP.”
Instead of my easy day, I’m going to be pulling a trigger of more than 12 pounds! Yikes!
However, in the bonus column, the weight of the Ruger is on our side. The bigger the mass, the lower the recoil. Right? This heavy guy is almost 2 pounds. So, it shouldn’t be too bad. Maybe. The grip is fat and has finger grooves, so the good grip ought to help, too.
The first load we try is a 158-grain full metal jacket round. Now that I’m expecting a whomping hard trigger pull, I take in a breath, let it out, relax and then slowly squeeze the trigger. Blam!
This is exciting! Somehow, I get the x-ring on the first shot. Must be a miracle. I shoot again. Not bad! Even though the trigger pull is indeed very strong, the mass of the gun has absorbed most of the recoil.
Joe tries the Ruger with the same rounds. He also has no difficulty in slamming his two practice rounds close to the bullseye.
Then we try the Wadcutter rounds. These are 148-grain flat nose rounds. When we shot these rounds in the snub-nose .38 Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special a while back, we found they make a large difference in recoil. However, the Chief’s Special is a lighter gun with a short barrel. It doesn’t have the mass or the fat grip of the Ruger to absorb recoil.
This is most likely why, when we shoot the Wadcutter rounds, we do not notice a difference if any, in the kick while shooting the Ruger. I’m surprised.
Since Wadcutter rounds in the Ruger .38 made little to no difference in perceived recoil, will cowboy rounds in the .45 Uberti 6-shot revolver make a difference in recoil? We’ll shoot the cowboy load last.
First, I’m thinking about trigger pull. Will this be difficult?
The Uberti rendition of the Colt .45 Peacemaker is a Western-style gun, so you have to cock the hammer. Since we’re only asking the trigger to do the one job of releasing the hammer, this is a single action gun and trigger pull should be fairly light.
Measuring trigger pull on the Lyman scale, three tries average to be about 3.10 pounds of trigger pull. This is very light.
The Uberti is a 6-shot handgun with a 5.5-inch barrel. Although its barrel is longer than the Ruger’s, the two guns weigh about the same. Will this one have enough mass to absorb the oomph of a hot 230-grain jacketed hollow point round?
We shoot.
Wow! Joe said these hollow points will have a lot of zip, and they do! The mass of this Uberti doesn’t do much to take away any recoil. On a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the hardest recoil, Joe gives it a 3.5 and I give it a 4.
Then we try the 250-grain cowboy load. This is a heavier round with less powder to set it off.
Sure enough, the kick is a whole lot less. We both give kick a 2.5 on that 1-5 scale. Recoil is much easier to manage with the cowboy load.
Different ammunitions make your gun fire differently. The Wadcutter rounds in the snubby S&W Chief’s Special make that .38 much easier to shoot because the recoil is so much less. However, put Wadcutters in the heavy Ruger Security Six, and they don’t make much difference at all in perceived recoil.
With cowboy loads in the .45 Uberti Peacemaker, the heavy and slow rounds make a big difference in perceived recoil. Cowboy loads in this gun make it a lot easier to shoot. They cut down on recoil tremendously.
Hot ones, like the 230-grain loads in the .45? Lots of recoil. After shooting the .45 with “hot” rounds, I’m done shooting. I can’t get a good grouping because of the .45’s short grip. You need a good grip to shoot well. Also, shooting that .45 was dang uncomfortable. My fingers are tingling. I’ve had enough.
So much for an easy day at the range!
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.
