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Pistol calibers bucking wind? Moderate speed, large and heavy better than small, light and fast? Not what I had today!!

Club shoot today was pistol and carbine, so I took a couple of Marlins from the collection. One, an 1894P in .44 mag and the other, a very rare 1894 Cowboy in .32 H&R magnum.

The club shoots on military ranges, out over the Channel. (Just can't beat having France as a back stop!! :lol: ) Sunny, warm at 18 degrees, but bugger, was it windy! We were shooting at 100, 50 and 25. Wind about 20 - 25mph, from 3 o'clock, right across the range, gusting.

The .44 is loaded with 240gn, LRNFP, doing a nominal 1000fps at the muzzle. 10 round group at 100 in this weather of around 5 inches, with the odd one shoved out a couple or three inches from the group. The group anyway, three inches or so from centre. No doubt, the wind.

The .32 is using 100gn JRNFP, doing around 1100fps. At 100, three inch group, no fliers, dead centre! No Kentucky windage at all! Did the same at all distances. .44 needed hold off......

Big bullets being pushed by the wind more than small bullets? That's not conventional wisdom, is it?

I read this before and meant to comment as it seemed odd, these are not going to be of the high BC impossibly expensive Gucci genre bullets. The extra fps is always going to help a tad but this is hard to explain, were they all jacketed or were any those odd dull grey things?

1894P, you lucky man. They look great!

Anything to do with barrel length?

Odd it certainly is! The more I've read on this since the above shoot, the more it shouldn't have happened...

The .44 was using 240gn hard cast and the .32, FMJ. Both in a RNFP configuration.

The .32 has a 20 inch barrel, so 4 inches longer than than the .44.

Oh, the 1894P is outstanding! I can't believe they weren't more popular. Only made for two years for around 4000 of them. They also did a .357 version, the 1894CP. I've only ever seen one for sale in the UK and I missed it by an hour!

Now the .32 Cowboy, that is rare! I've just learned from an ex-employee of the New Haven plant that the .32 magum is the rarest caliber made in the 1894. Only 650!

SimG, you on Marlinowners forum? Great resource.

Just re-read your orginal post -

We were shooting at 100, 50 and 25. Wind about 20 - 25mph, from 3 o'clock, right across the range, gusting.

Could it be, you were lucky with the .32 and the way the wind was gusting? Your timing with the wind gusts was spot on?

I know at the firing point at Cawdor the wind can be, for example left to right, but at the butts it's the opposite direction. Maybe the same thing or similar at your range?

Yep, it certainly could be! But, the only thing that discounts luck, to a certain degree, is that it was the same all morning!

Sim G wrote:Yep, it certainly could be! But, the only thing that discounts luck, to a certain degree, is that it was the same all morning!

Magic bullets!

I don't know much about the 32 H&R Magnum, so I did some quick research and could it be, it's just a really good combination of rifle and cartridge ie you've struck gold?

I know the 7.62x25 Tokerov (similar class to the 32 H&R) does not look good on paper but the basic ball ammo turns out to be very good at punching through basic body armour and helmets - pp3,4 http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot29.htm

Like I said, maybe just the right combo and possibly you're luckier than you think.

Sandgroper wrote:Like I said, maybe just the right combo and possibly you're luckier than you think.

I like that thought!

It's my new signature!