Kind of slow here

[mr surveyor]

Swing up to McKinney... I'll give you a pound of Unique... Then you can REALLY load for the .44SPC.

Dude, you know I have Unique ... my first 150 re-loads for this silly 44 spl were a low (5.5 gr) of Unique. I've experimented with HP-38 as well, but only about a half pound left and have no need for it in any other caliber I load for. I normally keep a goodly supply of both Unique and 2400, but since Alliant powders have been "unobtanium" in my neck of the woods the last year and a half, I've been buying more of the AA powders (2, 5, 7 and 9) to keep on hand. The AA powders seem to work perfectly in my handguns, and AA#7 is magic in my 30-30 with cast bullets.

Today, I went ahead and loaded a box of 200 gr RNFP with 6.9 gr of AA#5 to shoot in the Bulldog. I'll at least find out how they work, whether the "somewhat inferior" revolver runs properly or not.

I don't think it has to do with my re-loads ... this is the only gun I've shot my re-loads through in my entire, extensive (choke, choke) 11 years of re-loading that has suffered from light strikes. Well, there was another - my old 336 faltered a bit ... finally determined the original firing pin had met E.O.L.

Right now, I've decided to just keep the Bulldog and consider it to be a well fitting, single action revolver ... and hope it goes bang when/if I need a follow-up double action shot. It does shoot well - when it shoots!

jd

[Charlie98]

I know that... I was just having some fun.

In reality, once the shelves start to fill back up again... (haa haa) ...I plan on giving some of the AA powders a try, likely #5 and #7, but maybe #9 as a substitute for IMR4227 in the .41 Marlin. Everyone that uses them seems to really like them.

[mr surveyor]

Yeah, I got addicted to the AA pistol powders on my very first powder purchase in January of 2011. My late mentor convinced me that I could load anything I was starting with (38 spl, 357 mag and 9mm) using Unique or 2400. Actually, the two of them would still work, one way or the other, in anything I load for .... but unfortunately (actually fortunately) there was no A2400 available - so I "settled" for AA#7 which would fit loads for both the .357 mag short barrel and the 9mm. My original plan was that either powder would work, in some way, in the three cartridges in the first step in re-loading. I just couldn't get excited with the 9mm stuff, but the 357 mag became a total obsession .... which very soon lead to AA#9. I still use A2400 on certain loads, but it's pretty unobtanium (as well as Unique) around here, so what little I have on hand gets used sparingly. Along the way, I did get pretty hooked on the AA pistol powders - #2, #5, #7 and #9 - and try to keep a minimum of two pounds of each in reserve. Right now, I think there's 5 cans of #9 in the house, and it gets used a lot for the 357mag and 44 loads to feed the Rossi lever guns. You won't go wrong in trying it.

I'll tell you what, let me know the next time you're heading East on I-20 and I'll meet you at the cross-roads and trade you a shiny new can of AA#9 for a brick of small pistol primers

jd

[Charlie98]

Unfortunately, my stash of SPP's are getting quite low. After I got out of the .38/.357 business, the only thing I used SPP's for was the very little .380 that I loaded for my brother.... but that changed when we entered the Second Dark Age of Reloading, and I had to start loading for 9mm, again. My small stash of 5K SPP's have dwindled to less than 2K... so I'm right there with you looking at bare shelves.

[mr surveyor]

Yeah, I'm down to 1.5K small pistol, 2.5k large pistol, 2.5k large rifle, about 20 lbs of various powders, more than enough cleaned and prepped brass, and maybe 2-3k of various bullets. As small of a volume as I shoot in a single trip (but 1-2 trips per week), I could continue at the same rate (depending on the guns used) for a couple more years - but it wouldn't feel "comfortable".

I did get a bit carried away yesterday when I took the faltering 44spl CA Bulldog out again (3rd time this week) to try the 6.9 gr of AA#5 with the RimRock 200 gr RNFP'S. I think I've finally found a combination that shoots POA/POI. It flawlessly handled 20 rounds shooting single action, but, unfortunately, still had 2 light strikes out of 10 rounds in double action. I may just continue shooting it, as is, with their recently installed "proper spring" ... but if it don't straighten up I'll put the Wolff "extra power" spring back in - if I decide to carry it as a field/snake gun this year. There still seems to be the possibility of pierced primers with the Wolff spring, and it is a little more effort the squeeze the trigger, but it would be nice to know that it will at least go bang when needed.

jd

[Charlie98]

I wonder if there isn't some combination of the Wolff spring and modification you could make... perhaps clip a coil off the spring, or use the spring and take a hair off the firing pin?

[Bawanna]

I think I'd be tempted to send it back to CA and have them get it right. It has to be close so they should be able to make it run 100%.
I don't mind messing with a gun to some extent to fix what needs fixing but sounds like you been there and done that. If they can't get it, send you a new one.

[mr surveyor]

Yeah, clipping the Wolff spring a tiny bit "might" help, but then again, the spring they put in a couple of weeks ago (on it's second trip back) made about "half the distance from the original underpowered spring to the extra powered Wolff spring I tried - without them knowing). What's odd is that the light strikes are very intermittent, and when they happen it's very apparent. In the next few trips I'll test out another "theory". This one having to do with the "extractor star" and cartridge rim fitment. For what it's worth, they said they changed the extractor on it's first return saying that it was "out of spec" causing timing issues.

Looks like the only real timing issue here is me, at 68 years old, buying a cheap revolver and expecting to get lucky


jd

[getsome]

Dang Surv, I was hoping they got it fixed up for you but I agree with Bawanna, send it back one more time and send a letter demanding they either fix it or give you another revolver that is 100% and start calling up the line if necessary until you get to someone who will take care of you…..You paid good money for it and it needs to work correctly even if it is an inexpensive gun……Don’t except less than what you paid for and try and fix it yourself, make CA fix it or replace it with one that does work……

[mr surveyor]

After this last return (second trip back), and the somewhat brash note that some "lady" sent, I don't know what good would come of sending it back again. This time they sent the 20 empty shell casings to prove that they successfully test fired it. Oddly enough, 10 were PMC brass (understandably factory loads?), and 10 were Starline brass (what big named ammunition factory uses Starline). My ffl buddy knows that I shoot nothing but my own reloads, and even if you tried it would be a huge, expensive problem to track down "factory" .44 spl. He knows that it ain't my "reloads" causing the issues, but also knows better than to even hint that user reloads have been used. I've got another 600 or so of those 200 grain bullets left so I'll probably load and shoot most of them before making a final decision on sending it back again - maybe permanently. The 200 grain bevel based bullets really don't have much of a future in my Rossi R92 lever gun, and nothing else around here will shoot a .431 bullet.

As long as I just pretend it's a single action short barreled revolver things will work - for a while.

jd