ihmsa forums

Rolled into the John Sevier range complex about 1630 (about 30-45 minutes earlier than optimal, but finding it was easy for this first time out of state shooter.) and checked in at the front office. Soon enough the regular crew of three showed up and we did a quick and easy set up. (I'll let the others identify themselves as they see fit.) Four of us altogether and I think a good time was had by all!

As far as the shooting went, I can only comment that I fought elevation mostly from what was expected from GA settings. Seemed like I was trending low until I overcompensated high!

Darkness wasn't an issue most of the shoot with the longish day, but the lights came on near the end and I got to try one bank of white painted rams. Very cool! Didn't hit much, but it certainly wasn't for lack of target definition. Wanting to try this when it gets dark sooner. A full night shoot would be great!

Some photos:




The "IHMSA Cage". Note the bank of lights above the roof. Worked well.




Running low of the one lot of Federal Value Pack that this revolver really likes. Seems to have better terminal ballistics on squirrels than most other ammo as well.




Not a good run on the rams, but rack it up to operator error rather than conditions. They fairly well glowed!

I want to try this again! Bit of a drive, but hopefully will get some more shoots in in the not too distant future.

Had some chambering dramas with the .44 rounds that get sized. (No troubles with the unsized rounds for the older .44!) Went through all 150 rounds and found 14 that wouldn't fully chamber. Must have gotten them all up front! Fortunately, had a spare box back in the truck that worked much better. Able to sort the recalcitrant rounds with a Lee Factory Crimp Die. Seems the spae cylinder that was used to check loaded rounds for fit has slightly larger dimensions than the PAS 629 S&W....

As noted above, I struggled a bit.

my scores:
SB standing (S&W 617): 13 (very much an operator issue, as it's capable of way better1)
FP (S&W29-3 .44): 20
PAS (S&W629-6 .44): 22

Stupidly enough, we gabbed afterwards about as long as the shoot lasted, but never inquired about scores! Did learn that there's a possibility that they may get a Big Bore range deal worked out at some point (minus night lights). Would probably be easier for me to shoot BB here than in GA as I have a place to overnight only 40-45 minutes away.

Rams look like ghosts just floating around. Spooky looking but I bet it was fun. I have shot white targets in daylight and they appear to be larger and made me shoot low most of the time. Optical illusion I guess. Good looking range.

We did have a lot of fun Saturday. I like the evening shoots because we have the place to ourselves. We had a great time shooting with jmoore. Although i believe him shooting all the revovers has really got me back to looking at revolvers again. Im thinking a Smith & Wesson model 14 with a 8 3/8 barrel would be perfect for FP. I hope some more people will come join us for some evening shoots. My scores were alittle low saturday i shot a 20 in FP and i believe a 22 in SB P. Come back an see us jmoore.

Mike22

Thanks for the invite! It was a good trip.

If you think about it and have a longish pole, it might be interesting to recover the two (or was it three?) bullet chunks that landed on the roof. One sounded particularly large. Kinda weird!