WB
My boss had one we used to shoot, 4".
Thursday, February 06, 2020, 09:27

He loaded Blue Dot and the Speer 140 gr. JHP at close to 1500 fps as listed in the manual. NO easy chrono's back then, the manuals were Gospel. It was horrific to shoot with fire and blast. Ear protection was just getting going good and it was literally painful and obviously permanent damaging to not use protection. I first had some of those little sonic plugs with the little metal valves in them. Later I got some Air-force type muffs.

A large ball of fire in broad daylight and shocking wave of blast made it almost more distracting than my heavy recoil .44 Ruger to shoot. I had a load worked up with 2400 and the Serria 180 gr. JHC, book said 1700 fps from my Ruger! It vaporized anything it hit. That funky grip angle from Colt and sharp abrading checkering from the factory walnut stocks also made it challenging.

Later as a Junior in HS I bought a 6" MKIII for myself. Traded it to my friend who still has it to this day. He Killed a fine 8-pt Whitetail with it and had the head mounted. Shot it with one of my 148 gr. .38 wadcutter reloads I did for him, but that's another tale. Both guns in the stories had a trait that the bullet hitting the forcing cone and rifling eventually slightly unscrewed the barrels a degree or two! It's odd but noteworthy looking at one used in a gun shop today. Maybe the seller traded it because it shot way off to the side! I've always wanted to try an example of the older model, "Trooper 357" that basically had the Python V-spring lockwork over the MKIII's coil springs and cast parts.