By Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
In my tale about My Old Man’s Rifle, I mentioned some black powder .44/40 loads that didn’t please me.
Those were loaded with bullets cast from an alloy that was harder than my usual bullets and my belief is that accuracy suffered somewhat, giving me lower scores than what I had wanted or expected in our recent Lever-gun Match. While I didn’t favor those loads, and would take steps to see that those were not duplicated, those cartridges were still loaded ammo. What to do with them might be a good question. So, here’s what I did with most of them and the result was a very enjoyable day of shooting.
Old black powder loaded ammo might fall into a somewhat different category because it is often believed that the bullet lube can dry as the ammunition ages, which renders it to be less effective. Let’s just say that could happen. So, when going into a match, try to have freshly loaded ammunition which will help keep your confidence up where it needs to be.
Just to complete some details about the .44-40 ammunition that I’ll talk about; the loads featured my favorite amount of powder, 35 grains of Olde Eynsford 3F, under the 205-grain bullets cast from Accurate Molds’ #43-205C, and primed with a Federal large pistol Match primer. Out of the 30-inch barrel of my Model 1873 copy by Uberti, that load pushes the bullets out at about 1350 feet per second, which is 50 fps faster than the old factory black powder loads. I like everything about this load, except for the bullet hardness in this (I hope) isolated case.
Our club, the Capitol City Rifle & Pistol Club near Olympia, Washington, has a special day just once per month that we call “Open Trail.” This is where the black powder trail-walk, with its hanging gong and silhouette targets, is open for shooting and our gang, made up mostly of members from the Black River Buffalo Runners, will “take a hike” while armed with a favorite black powder gun, be it rifle, revolver, a muzzleloader, or even a .22 rimfire, for some good practice. This is, indeed, a special day because the trail-walk generally must be closed due to it’s being down-range, behind the berms, from the black powder range. The trail-walk and the black powder range cannot be opened at the same time, so closure of the black powder range is necessary.
My Uberti-made 1873 lever action, imported by Cimarron Firearms, with the Lyman #2 tang sight which I added, is the gun I generally favor for shooting on the Open Trail. That gives me practice for “The Meat Hunt” which is one of our shooting matches at Buffalo Camp. And, as my scores will testify, I certainly do need the practice.
So, when this month’s Open Trail rolled around, my ’73 was grabbed right away. And to feed it, I’d use some or all of the remaining cartridges that were loaded with the bullets which I believe are too hard. Shooting at the gongs and silhouettes, basically with one shot per target, isn’t like going for a group or a high score on a paper target. At those metal targets, you want just a hit with little or no regard where on the gong that hit was made.
There might be a question, because I didn’t have the greatest faith in this ammunition, that, if a shot was missed, was it my fault or the ammo’s? Well, I’ve certainly missed a lot of shots in my day so I’ll take the blame, if that does happen. The only other thing to do is to do my best, as a shooter, by keeping a steady hold and maintaining a good trigger squeeze. In other words, give this ammo the best chance it can have and the practice gained while using this ammo, even though it is considered sub-standard, will still be great.
In addition to that, don’t relax or shoot without proper stance and hold just because the ammo isn’t your favorite. Do your best to give that ammo the best chance. Those were the thoughts in my mind when the shooting started.
Then, in order to identify those loads, which looked identical to newer loads that have softer bullets, I put them in my bandolier. That bandolier is actually the strap to a pouch which I must tell you about. This bandolier/pouch is made by Tommymaker and it is made just for the type of shooting I was about to do. Cartridges are taken from the loops in the bandolier and after being fired, the empty cases are put in the pouch. That’s a real help while walking and shooting, and it can be surprising when you count how many rounds were fired after the shooting is done. Actually, I’ve done this before, added ammo that I didn’t have the greatest confidence in to that bandolier for use later while ammo I (at least) thought was better is kept in ammo boxes, ready for the coming matches or targets for score.
This bandolier with the pouch is perfect for such doin’s and mine gets used with the .44/40 ammo rather regular. The adjustable 2-inch wide web strap has 50 cartridge loops to hold a whole box of the .44 or .45 ammo. Smaller calibers, such as the .38 Special, might have more loops, you’ll have to ask about that. And the top of the flap on the leather pouch has a hole in it for receiving your empty cases, one at a time. This means you don’t have to open the pouch to drop an empty case in. That’s another handy convenience.
These are very well-made leather pouches with the web shoulder strap bandolier and the most recent price I have for one of these is $70.00 postpaid. For more information or ordering contact; “Tommymaker” Tommy Ewing, 966 CCS Ln, Oberlin, Kansas 67749. By email use tommymaker@yahoo.com and his telephone number is 785-475-3268. Tommy’s is a one-man shop and his bandolier/pouches and cartridge belts are individually made for each order.
Now, back to the business of shooting this ammo. The group of us, there were six in the bunch, entered the trail, all with shooting in mind. Our rules for using the trail, even though most of us were carrying repeating rifles, is to carry those rifles unloaded and with their actions opened. We don’t load the rifles until we are standing at the shooting station. Revolvers can be carried loaded in their holsters, drawn from the holster to take a shot, then returned to the holster while walking to the next target. Safety has priority.
At the first rifle target, which is a rather hard-to-see raccoon at an undisclosed distance, I aimed as carefully as I could and squeezed the trigger. That was a hit! And with that hit, I guessed that I’d have a rather good day. My previous history at making hits on that “raccoon” silhouette is not the best.
While we were shooting in a group, I more or less paired-off with Mike Moran, a shooter who has been my partner many times before. Mike was also shooting a Model 1873 Winchester copy but his was a carbine in .45 Colt caliber. He likes that because his carbine shoots the same rounds as his Ruger Vaquero revolver and you might recall from my story about the latest Buffalo Camp, about two months ago, that Mike won the revolver match with his .45. We weren’t competing for score or hits even though I was keeping track of my shots, just having a good time and it was Mike who took the pictures of me.
Some of the targets were skipped because of spring and summer growth of the brush and ferns made the targets impossible to see. Our trail-walk does require maintenance and we will certainly need a work party before the next competitive event is scheduled, which will be our muzzleloading Fall Gathering which will be start on the last day of August. That made no difference to us while we were doing our shooting, of course we only shot at targets we could easily see.
Good shooting and good hits prevailed until I came to a pair of targets that are quite a distance apart and yet they are shot from shooting stations which are very close together. Those targets were the “rabbit” at about 30 yards, and the “tank,” a large discarded acetylene “bottle,” which is up the hill at 100 yards. For these targets, during practice like we were doing, we enjoy loading two rounds in our repeaters, shooting at the rabbit, then quickly levering in the second round to shoot at the tank. I believe I missed the rabbit, which is rather easy to do, but then hit the tank. I should have shot for “revenge” on that rabbit because I think that was my only miss.
At another shooting station, further down the trail, there is a spot where three targets can usually be seen, a “turkey,” a “bear,” and a “ram.” My idea was to load three rounds in the ’73 and let Mike Moran get a good action picture of me while I tried hitting all three of the targets. That was made impossible by mother nature herself, the way she let the brush and foliage grow. Only two targets could be seen at once. So, only two shots were taken. But Mike did get the picture and it shows me behind the cloud of black powder smoke while my hand is just beginning to work the lever. If I was just closing the action, a silvery nickel-plated empty case would still be in the air. And I did get good hits with both shots.
So, those non-favored loads worked just fine for the shooting I was doing. While they might not have “pass muster” for shooting scores or groups on paper targets, they did the job for me on the gongs where a hit on the edge of the target is just as valuable as a hit dead center.
