Whooe! The Old West Rides Again!

[Eric Johanen]

Just picked up a Cimarron Lighting in .41 Colt. Birds head checkered grip and 5.5 inch barrel. Have to give it a cleaning and fresh lube and get it on the range. Have already dug out the Rapine .386 hollow base mold and have a few bullets already cast up. Located my die set and my brass. New Remington and once fired Winchester Western. Can't remember which shell holder I used in the past so I'll just open up a spare .38 Special and I'll be good to go. Seem to remember about 18 to 20 grains of 2 fg. black worked well in my old Colt's. I'll be making some smoke this weekend!! Really about time someone offered a modern made smoke wagon in this forgotten caliber.

[Eric Johanen]

Just picked up a Cimarron Lighting in .41 Colt. Birds head checkered grip and 5.5 inch barrel. Have to give it a cleaning and fresh lube and get it on the range. Have already dug out the Rapine .386 hollow base mold and have a few bullets already cast up. Located my die set and my brass. New Remington and once fired Winchester Western. Can't remember which shell holder I used in the past so I'll just open up a spare .38 Special and I'll be good to go. Seem to remember about 18 to 20 grains of 2 fg. black worked well in my old Colt's. I'll be making some smoke this weekend!! Really about time someone offered a modern made smoke wagon in this forgotten caliber.

Sized brass chambers nicely. Loaded rounds with the Rapine bullet at .388 and the Lyman bullet at .390. Loaded left and right.    

[Eric Johanen]

Winchester/Western white box factory load. Lot # 82HG03. 200 grain Lubaloy bullet. (200.8 grains actual) 7.1 grains of a non canister smokeless powder special ordered by a client back in the mid 1970's. Consisted of several 100 thousand rounds. I still have several boxes and use it to compare to my handloads. Very good ammo, Winchester really got this right! With the Rapine bullet comparing favorable in design.    

[Eric Johanen]

Winchester/Western factory load at 12 yards. Very good accuracy and no evidenced of bullet tipping. The hollow base bullet shows good expansion. I was pulling a bit to the left today but pleased with how the new shooter performed. First 5 shots and then another 5.[attachment=1220     The 7 at 9 is from a previous target. The 10 at 9 is a double

[Hanz]

I like it!

[Eric Johanen]

This is my first time using smoke less powder in this cartridge. Rapine bullet and 3.5 grains of Bullseye shot most of the rounds impacted nice and straight. However, 8 of 20 did not engrave the rifling. I'll try 3.7 and 3.8 grains on the next range day.        

[Eric Johanen]

Now for the piece of resistance! Black powder loads. These loads are over 8 years old and put up when I had Colt Model 1877's and a .41 caliber DA Army revolver. I know they used GOEX but not really sure if it was 2 fg or 3 fg. First 5 showed 1 bullet tipped. 10 shots showed 2 more tipped bullets and the last 5 showed no tipped bullets. Close but still no cigar. I'll be testing with Swiss and OE 3 fg and see if the pressure and faster burning powders result in good accuracy and no tipped bullets. Smoke and a bit more recoil than the factory or handloaded smoke less loads.