.45 Lon.....wrong Colt

[DirtyDan]

Hey all

I posted a while ago about my problems with .45 long Colt

I’ve been told that “cowboy action” guns use a rod to extract empty shells. So my extraction problems may have been from the ammo. Sent the pistol back to Smith & Wesson they refunded my money. The Taurus  judge fires shot shells just fine.

For my “big gun” I went with a Smith & Wesson model 66-6 K frame
.357 4 inch barrel 6 shot cylinder. Your traditional police service pistol. Been getting a little lot of compliments on it. Holster holds a speed strip nicely.

5 shot J frame .357 2 inch barrel as the “pocket pistol”

.38 special +P hollow points all the way around (357 is “too much” for me..... yeah I’m getting soft )

So that’s the update

Felt like sharing

Dan

[Gavin_Sons]

Hey all

I posted a while ago about my problems with .45 long Colt

I’ve been told that “cowboy action” guns use a rod to extract empty shells. So my extraction problems may have been from the ammo. Sent the pistol back to Smith & Wesson they refunded my money. The Taurus  judge fires shot shells just fine.

For my “big gun” I went with a Smith & Wesson model 66-6 K frame
.357 4 inch barrel 6 shot cylinder. Your traditional police service pistol. Been getting a little lot of compliments on it. Holster holds a speed strip nicely.

5 shot J frame .357 2 inch barrel as the “pocket pistol”

.38 special +P hollow points all the way around (357 is “too much” for me..... yeah I’m getting soft )

So that’s the update

Felt like sharing

Dan

And here I shoot max handloads plus a little out of my 44. I still don't think it is too much. Nothing like a 700 grain 500. They do kick like a mule out of the lever gun though.

[Jess from VA]

Dan you couldn't be better served than by those two revolvers.  

I have both of those too, and my 4" 66 has been hand tuned with a very slick DA action and trigger.

Autos may provide more firepower, but I'm always more accurate with my wheel guns (with adj sights).

Speed loaders work better than speed strips.  Even though both may be loaded with .38+P's, the J frames use 5's and the K frames use 6's.

Just because the guy in the vid is using an L-frame 686 (and not a K-frame 66), the points made are still valid.  The Safariland is better than the HKS.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc4-5fRuBNE

[gordonv]

I'm trying to understand what it is you are looking for. You mentioned .45 Colt, and Cowboy Action shooting, and that a .357 is too much for you.

What is it you want out of your firearm?

Cowboy action shooting? I was going the way of a .357 SAA and a Lever gun matching. I load my own. All you need to do is hit the target, make a "clink", you don't need to knock them over do you? Just reload to light loads, like a .38 special.

I always started with the recommended load, then worked my way down to as light as I could get it, and still get a decent group. Shooting out of a revolver, so no issue with cycling a semi auto.

[Chrisj CMA]

The thing many don't realize is the K frames (66 & 19) are for carry more than shooting.  The L frames and N frames will hold up to shooting and shooting and more shooting way better than the K.

I didn't believe that so I shot my K frame m19 a lot.  I had to send it back to S&W for a forcing cone re-cut and end shake adjustment because I shot it too much and with light ammo too much.  If you are going to shoot the K frame use 158grn.  Light bullets like 110grn will tear up the forcing cone.

[Jess from VA]

Jeff, it's my experience that K frames have a problem with a steady (long) diet of full-house .357 magnum cartridges in any size bullets, and yes the lighter bullets (110-125 grs) are fire breathers and cut the forcing cones even faster.  But they can take hot .38s and even .38+P's and never have a problem.  

A std .357 cartridge is still much hotter than the hottest .38 Specials.  I've several K frame .357s (for a long time) and they're all fine, but I never shot .357s in them full time; practice with .38s only, function fire and sight in with my hot .357 carry loads (125 gr), and carried .357s in it.  If you don't shoot thousands of hot .357s in them, they should be fine (and yeah, I'd stay away from hot 110 gr ammo in all of them).

I have a Mod 360, scandium and stainless .357 J-frame, and I only shoot hot .38s in it.  It is rated for .357s, but stamped on the bbl is "do not use with 110gr ammo".  It even has a piece of extra metal covering the space between the top-strap and forcing cone to stop the flame cutting.  

There's really been a lot written on this over the years.  The thing I was never able to discover was whether the Mod 66 (and other) stainless model K's stood up to high volumes of .357s better than the Mod 19 (and other) blue steel K models.

The Smith L frame was really created specifically to do away with this problem.  The Smith L- frame (and the Colt Trooper series and Python (O-frames), and the Ruger GP 100 series are actually all considered .41 magnum frames.  Though Smith put all it's 41 mags in big N-frames.
      

[Chrisj CMA]

I agree with Jess on this.  That's why I bought a 686 4" for CC and practice shooting.  I think it's important to train with the same ammo you carry. 158grn high performance JHP

The 19 is in the night stand loaded with .38+P for home defense along side with the 20 ga loaded with #3 buck and a sure fire light.  

Right tool for the job makes a better outcome

[Jess from VA]

Well, I agree with you too.  

In a perfect world, training with only .357s would be nice, but I was a poor student with no money for many years, so I used .38 wadcutters (which I used to be able to get for $2.50 per 50, with 50 empty brass traded in).  Those days are gone.

I had a number of K frames (and a couple N's), but never an L ..... so I went out and got a 2.5" round butt, PC 686 Plus (7-shooter) a while back, and this thing is the bomb with 7-shot moon clips (recessed cylinder).  @#$%^! key lock though (it can be removed and plugged).