Easter, Spaghetti Westerns, and good shots…

The range at my gun club was closed this morning, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me because, after all, it is Easter.  I’m a club member and I have the combination to the gate lock, and I actually like it this way a little better because the range is a lot less crowded.  There was only one other guy out there early this morning.

I knew it was going to be a good morning when I rolled along the dirt road to the range.  I saw a bobcat.  We were both surprised to see each other.  He looked at my Subaru and I looked at him, and then the cat leisurely walked across the road and bounded into the brush on the right.   It was a good sign.   I’ve seen bobcats out here three or four times in the last 30 years, and seeing one this morning was a treat.

My new .45 Single Action Army .45 is magnificent, and it grouped well with every load I tried this morning.   It likes a powder called Trail Boss (those two groups noted with arrows were with this powder).   The gun shoots exactly to point of aim (I used a 6:00 o’clock hold on the targets above), and the spread you see in the groups is almost certainly more the result of my old hands and eyes than it is the result of the gun or the load.  Still, that Trail Boss load shot the best, and that’s the one I’m hanging my hat on.

This Old West stuff is fun.  The gun is the Taylor and Company’s Ranch Hand model, and it is straight out of the old Westerns by way of Italy (it’s manufactured by the Italian company Uberti).  Their other models have names like the Cattleman and other western-themed monikers.  The gunpowder I got those great results with is called Trail Boss.   Shoot, even the guy at the gunstore who sold it to me has the right name…he’s Rory (look up the actor Rory Calhoun and you’ll understand).   You probably remember all those western movies Clint Eastwood filmed in Italy, and I think that’s what I’ll call my new .45…the Spaghetti Western Special!