Break The Rule

We rendezvoused, he shot his three revolvers and he was right, they certainly did not shoot very well. “Well, let me try them.” I did and they still did not shoot very well. Since we were in such a dire situation, I broke an almost unbreakable rule of mine, which is: never shoot my reloads in someone else’s guns. However, I had noticed something about his ammunition. Without saying a thing to him about his loads, I tried some of my own, which were loaded with the same Keith bullets.

With the short-barreled .44 Magnum using my loads the groups were not spectacular, but certainly passable. They tightened up with the 6″ sixgun and then the group from the 8-3/8″ was as good as it gets with all holes touching. I turned around, looked at him and said: “I think you better call Smith & Wesson and apologize.” The problem was not the sixguns, nor even his shooting, rather his loads. I had noticed the lack of a good crimp on his loads. Every time one of those loads was fired, the remaining rounds in the cylinder would allow the bullets to move forward which played havoc with accuracy. He was, of course embarrassed, but at least the problem was solved. Once again, the problem was ammunition.