Last Saturday I hosted a little gathering of handgun hunters and shooters. Members SW282 and jmoore429 showed up with impressive collection of PC revolvers. Not the kinder and gentler kind of PC, but the Smith and Wesson Performance Center kind of bark and bite.


Here I checkout the literal truckload of hunting handguns we brought out.
The largest performer was SW282's 10.5 inch 460

Here jmoore429 aligns on an unfortunate target downrange.

Everyone got some trigger time with the 460.

This is SW282 supervising me. Note the pic captured the blast of the brake. The sideview doesn't capture the atomic grade fireball visible to the shooter.


At the other end of the spectrum, was jmoore's 17 HMR revolver.

I was impressed by the rifle like accuracy and downrange performance of this revolver.

There were at least three 44 mag and one 357 PC revolvers present for the fun.

Here is one of the 44s.

I am not a S&W guy, so what a treat for me to get to handle and shoot so many high end versions in one afternoon.

I hope the owners of the guns will provide more details on the guns, optics and loads. Perhaps they have more pics and stories to share.

Looks like everyone had a "blast" wish we could have been there too...We can't wait to hunt with you again in March brother

Looks like fun.

Nice variety of guns/rounds! Looks like a good time!

Awesome Matt!

Thanks again to cmnash and PinkTC for their fine hospitality! Also to sw282 for the heads up concerning the upcoming event.
Not only was it a fine shoot in actual deer hunting territory, we were treated to meat from the very alligators featured in PinkTC's recent thread.

Having never fired a .460 before, thinking it overpowered and rather unwieldy, my opinion was rather modified by sw282's example. With his loads, it wasn't unpleasant to shoot at all, and it handled better than expected from my usual standing position used whilst hunting. (Not much of a tree stand hunter am I.)

The two PC629s that we shot the most were an "unnamed" Holosight equipped 7.5" barreled -6 from the very early 2000s (shown in the first photo above) with which I took my first deer and a 6.5" barreled iron sighted -4 "Hunter" (or "Light Hunter", depending on who you ask) that has been quite successful on both deer and coyote.

The PC686 seven shooter "Light Hunter" is about the same vintage as the 629-4, dating from the mid '90s. It's as yet unblooded, but is probably the most accurate of the lot. Several sub-3" 100 yd five shot groups have been fired with it. Very pleasant to shoot, too! I believe that's what LisaG is shooting in the photo above, it looks a whole lot like the "no name" 629, except for the lack of underbarrel weights.

Matthew shot "No Name" a bit before we went over to the elk range. Ammo for this day was some factory 240gr JSP Fiocchi, not it's usual handloads. It may explain the rather higher than anticipated impacts on the elk. Or not. Should find out more soon at the next range trip.

The PC647 .17HMR was purchased in hopes it would improve hit probablity at the common "uncivilized" squirrels which are more apt to only show at distances over 50 yards. Whilst accurate and flatter shooting than the .22 lr revolver with which I usually hunt small game, it's hard on the old eardrums! Not to mention most ammo destroys a lot of meat. So you are stuck trying to make head shots. It would make a dandy varmint gun, though.

Just wondering, what were the loads were you using?

SW282 provided the handloads for his .460. There were two levels of power, including a low recoil .45 Colt level load, and a midrange load with a 260 grain bullet at 15-1600 fps. Maybe SW282 will share the recipes.

Midrange, ''Reduced Recoil'' w/260gr Gold Dot/2400pdr Speer #14

45Colt load. 250gr Rem lead bullet w/Trail Boss,LYMAN#50 man.

460 Hornady Brass for both loads. l NEVER shoot short ctgs in my 460

Matt, Just curious; was it a requirement to wear blue for this shindig or just a coincidence?

Sound like it was a great gathering.

HA!

Of all the factors leading toward a successful gathering, including food preparation, seating, parking, and in our case target layout, I admit I failed to coordinate fashion...

But seriously, I didn't plan it and didn't really pay attention to it till the wife asked if I had done on purpose.

An impressive spread it was, too, the food! We were just discussing it again yesterday. (Well, Sunday, now it's two days ago.)

LisaG did provide a slight exception to the blue shirt gathering, as hers had some green tint.

If cmnash does put out another invite, we will do our best to attend! Might even bring a Ruger or three.