Category: Gun/Ammo Tests

Through ways too complicated to explain here, I came upon this beast:

…so I took said beast off to the range a couple days back because of course I would.

This Ruger Redhawk is chambered, as in the title, to shoot the manly .45 Colt/Long Colt cartridge, and .45 ACP with the use of moon clips.

Here it is, with the S&W K-frame Mod 65 .357 Mag and minuscule J-frame Mod 637 .38 Spec, by comparison:

The Redhawk, as they say, is a handful — almost more than a handful even in my paw.

“So how does it shoot, Kim?”

Well, it has the typical Ruger trigger:  very stiff (but smooooth) double action (maybe 15lbs), and a slightly gritty single-action pull of about 3-4lbs, best as I can guess.  I see LOTS of dry-firing ahead, or maybe a trigger job is in its future.

As for recoil:  .45 Colt 250gr ammo beats the shit out of my creaking wrists, and the lighter 200gr only a tad less.  Were I to press it into bedside duty (to replace the Mod 65), I’d load it with the 200gr boolets.  However:  using my standard Norma 175gr .45 ACP rounds (what I load in my 1911) in the moon clips, it is an absolute joy to shoot, for so big a revolver.

Accuracy is about what I can shoot, i.e. not bad for a first time:  2″ groups at 30 feet, with the occasional flyer.  (I’ve shot the equivalent S&W Mod 625, but over twenty years ago and I can’t remember it well enough to make a comparison.)  Also, that 4″ barrel does have its limitations;  a 6″ barrel would be better, but man that would make it even bigger and heavier.

Which brings me back to the Redhawk’s size.  It is seriously big, and almost too big for me;  but that weight does help soak up recoil, oh yes it does.

Ordinarily, I’d be a little torn about keeping a gun that (for me) is a little marginal, what with its size, recoil and stiff trigger.  Any one of those is usually cause for a swap meet;  all three?  Hmmmm.

And yet:  there is something about holding in your hand a gun that is indestructible, and that will handle anything you can load into it with consummate ease and reliability.  Because if ever I venture into wild country with big bad toothy animules that want to eat me or worse, I would load up some Buffalo Bore monster +P 300gr loads, and feel very adequately well-armed, with a gun that just will not break under the stress thereof.

That is a Ruger Redhawk, and that is why I’m going to keep it.

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A quick word about the new range.  Since I moved away from Plano, my old stamping ground at the Mission Creek range proved to be just too far for a weekly trip.

However:  allow me to introduce y’ll to Texas Legends in Allen TX.  Lovely new range, it is, staffed by silver-haired old farts who are pleasant and only too willing to sit and chew the fat awhile.  And they’re not fussy about what guns and what ammo you shoot (CCI Blazer and its ilk is verboten  only because the aluminum casings are non-magnetic and difficult to pick up.)  No 100-yard range, but a 3-bay 50-yard rifle-only range is just fine for my needs.

And if you get there between 10am and 1pm during the week, there’s a 50% Old Fart discount.  I spent less than $15 with a target.  This is going to cost me a ton from now on, not in range fees but in ammo.

Starting tomorrow.

Hey, it’s a shitty life, but someone has to live it.

A Longtime Loyal Reader (also a good friend who’s broken bread in my house) had occasion to, and I quote, “Replace a light bulb in my #3 gun safe.”

This necessitated emptying the thing of the guns stored therein, which required the assistance of his Son&Heir.

Then (and I quote again):  “I realized that I had about four CZ 75s tucked in the back that I’d forgotten about.  I bought them during the Obama years when there was all that talk about gun confiscation and mag-size regulation, then forgotten about them since.”

And then came the part which made me choke on my morning gin:  “Would you like one?”

Feebly I protested that I’d love one, but being one of the Poor Of The Parish, I couldn’t afford it, no matter the cost.  “Never mind all that,” was the airy response, “I need to make space in the safe.  What’s the address of your FFL?”

So I picked the 75 up yesterday, and raced off to the range to make its acquaintance.  What follows is the range report.

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I should point out that when I divested myself of the Browning High Power early last year, I also divested myself of all my remaining 9mm ammo, donating it to Doc Russia because, “Oh hell, I’m never going to need all that again.”

Foolish man, right?  Anyway, I picked up two boxes of self-defense hollowpoint 9mm at the Merchant Of Death’s place, because I have decided that I’m only going to shoot what I carry.  So on with the show…

The CZ 75 has been made in several configurations, the earliest being the “Pre -B” (story here) and one of these was what was given to me and which I took to the range.

My Kind Benefactor had the temerity to apologize for the wear on the finish — like that has ever been a concern of mine — but even the guys at the Merchant Of Death, hardened gunnies though they are, were oohing and aahing over the thing, playing with it and trying out the trigger.

I’ll talk a little bit more about the gun itself later, but let me set the scene for the workout.  I made several decisions before the gun even arrived:

• I’m only ever going to shoot heavy hollowpoints out of the thing, and never the cheap 115gr FMJ ammo because I despise it.
• So I chose SIG’s Elite JHP 147-gr offering:
    …because that was the cheapest ammo of those specs I could find.

There are a couple of issues with the CZ pre-B 75 guns, but only one of which might be problematic (for me), and that is that their magazines are not compatible with those used in the later CZ 75 B models (and their sub-variants).  I discovered that the pre-B mags are like hen’s teeth, but this is not a concern for me because I intend to carry the 75 as a backup piece, its 15-round mag replacing the S&W 637’s 5-round cylinder.

Anyway, so this is the background to the workout below.  I only had two boxes (all I could afford at the moment), and I had to hold back 15 rounds for the carry mag, so all I had was 25 rounds to play with.  So instead of blasting away (as is my wont), I had to go all South African Army and watch my ammo count carefully.  Here’s how it went, at 7 yards (20-odd feet) distance:

The double-action trigger pull on the CZ 75 is okay, a tad stiff — more like a WWII P-38 than (say) a Glock — but it doesn’t really matter because as a self-defense piece, and not being constrained by department policy, I’m going to carry it cocked and locked like my 1911 so I don’t have to think about it:  safety off, and away we go.

The single-action pull is lovely:  a smooth take-up but no stop before the bang, which for this 1911/BHP user is going to take a little more work.  It did catch me unawares a couple of times during the session, to be sure, with a couple of annoying flyers, but no matter because MOAR PRACTICE oh boy.

I had intended to do a side-by-side with the 1911, but by the time I caught myself, I only had four rounds left.  Never mind, thinks I, let’s just do four rounds of the 9mm, and four rounds of the 1911 carry ammo:

(This is all I carry and shoot these days in my 1911, because heavier .45 boolets (e.g. 230gr FMJ) do a number on my aged wrists after a few mags thereof, and these soft-shooting Normas are both accurate and deadly — “MHP” stands for “monolithic hollow point”, whatever that means.)

Here’s the 4-round comparison, aimed at the “head” portion of the target:

All were fired in what I call “aimed-rapid”, i.e. bang [beat] bang [beat] etc., and the left-hand hole in the .45 group contains two shots, as it happens, the first two I fired.  (Many thousands of practice rounds helps with this kind of thing.)

I noted that I’m shooting the 75 a fraction high after the first shot, something I’ll be watching in future practice sessions.  (The first shot in the above target is the bottom-left hole.)

The grouping is… acceptable — for me anyway.

This SIG ammo is about 58c/pull, the Norma about 50c.

The difference between the two guns in felt recoil is almost imperceptible.  The 75 is surprisingly hefty and tames whatever recoil the heavier 9mm rounds generate.  In terms of size, it almost fits in my 1911’s holsters, but for the larger trigger guard.

Speaking of which, this is one way you can tell the immediate difference between the CZ 75 and the CZ 75 B:

 
Note too the bobbed hammer of the later B;  those two features and the incompatible mags (grrrrr) are the major apparent differences between the two.

As for me:  I now carry a 1911 with 24 rounds (three mags) of .45 ACP, and a backup CZ 75 with 15 rounds of Europellet in its single magazine.

That should work.

From Rifleshooter magazine comes this even-handed look at the two “sevens”:  the 7x57mm Mauser, and the 7mm-08 Rem.  I’ve shot plenty of both, and agree with everything Scott Rupp says.

However, I’m always going to come down on the side of the 7×57, and those who know me will know quite well why.  As Rupp summarizes:

7×57

Hits

• • History, history, history
  • Case taper produces excellent feeding
  • Uniqueness counts

Misses

• • Not a short action, not really a long action
  • Can’t match the 7mm-08’s ballistics
  • Ammo, gun availability are poor

Actually, the last is true only if you’re looking for new rifles (although Mauser, unsurprisingly, offers it in their M98 line, but it’s nosebleed-spendy).

If you don’t care about that “new” requirement — and for someone who loves the “history, history, history”  thing it’s a feature, not a bug — there’s always the mil-surp market and its “re-stocked” tributary (like this example) which offer many choices.  (I have a special affection for the Oviedo rifles, as I took my very first deer with one.)  By the way, CZ used to offer the 7x57mm in its now-discontinued 550 line, so there’s always a chance you’ll find one in the second-hand market, if you’re alert — when one does occasionally appear for sale it disappears quickly, so clearly I’m not the only one who loves the old cartridge.

Then there’s the “customized” sector, exemplified by offerings such as this one at Steve Barnett:

Expect to pay a lot for a customized rifle at the hands of, say, Gary Goudy, but it’s all good.  (I lie awake dreaming about this one, by the way:  it’s a lottery rifle.)

Finally, unless you’re picky about such things, there’s nothing wrong with the old green-box Remington PSP 7×57 cartridge:  it works well on any deer, as I can personally attest, and its only disadvantage is scarcity and therefore price.  But it’s a hunting cartridge, so you’re not going to shoot off thousands of rounds anyway — although both Prvi Partizan (PPU) and Sellior & Bellot also offer it, usually for less than a buck per round.  (Remington’s Pointed Soft Point is at least double that.)

As for the 7mm-08?  I like it just fine — in fact, given my druthers, I’d choose this cartridge over the .308 Win — and as Rupp points out, new rifles chambered thusly are all over the place.  The shorter action helps, and the recoil is very manageable.  Here’s the Sako 101 Classic, for starters:

…which would make just about any gun-lover’s short list.  And, of course, there’s the Savage 110 for the cheapskate budget-conscious shooter:

…which I would be quite happy to take on any hunt.

My, how I do ramble on.  Here’s the summary.

History vs. modern.  The choice is yours, and neither is a bad one.