Hello All,

Had some Great weather here today and had some time to kill so I decided to go to the Pistol Range and check out my new (to me) acquisition. A 10" Contender barrel in .357 Magnum purchased on GB and a pristine Leupold 2x Handgun scope I got for a song at the local Pawn shop. Mounted the scope in the rings I got with the barrel and purchased a box of HSM 180 grain Bear Loads (really for the Starline Brass) my finger was itching to test this rig out.

Checked in at the range around 11:00 A.M., set up with a folding chair for a seat began focusing on my first target. The 3" or so black target set at 25 yards seemed very small through the 2x scope so I really had to control my breathing and focus. BOOM! I expected to see a hole somewhere in the white field, Nothing. So using my Binoculars I bring along I searched all over the white field still nothing. Focusing on the black target now I saw the hole cutting the just left of the X in the black. This has never happened to me before. I usually have to walk my shots into the X or close as I can to it. The next 9 shots stayed in the black.

Moved the target back to the burm (40 yards) for the next 40 shots. Kept them all in a 6" Shoot-N-C target. This one is a keeper. Accurate with mild recoil even with 180's. You will have to trust me, I completely forgot to keep my target.

Took the .41 Magnum 10" Contender too. With Iron sights I can keep the in the same 6" target but recoil is much stiffer. I don't need anything larger than this.

Couldn't hunt this past fall. Lost part of my Right ring finger and damaged my Trigger finger in an accident at work Halloween day. I was watching posts on here everyday and it helped motivate me during therapy.

Thanks to All and God bless!

I am sorry to hear about your accident but glad yo hear you still shoot well. Nice rig. Do you plan to hunt with it?

Thanks Mike. Yes I have plenty of time to practice for next deer season. Also talked to someone at church who hunts hogs and invited me to hunt with him when the water level goes down on his property. I really like the HSM Bear loads I used yesterday.

With a 357 and 41, you are good to go for just about anything. Glad you were able to get out and do some shooting.

Glad to see you are back shooting. I Have always used shooting as therapy when recovering from surgery,injury,just don't go to big to fast. The .22 is your friend and ally during recovery,use it well and often. Built a 12inx24in fold down bench on the back deck 6 yrs ago before cancer surgery . It is attached to the rail and folds down next to a post,shot a lot of 22 CB caps off of it recovering,kept me occupied and sane during a bad time.