I mentioned silent loads with handgun power from rifles, in a paragraph in an article a while back. The E-Mail response has been extensive....let me answer some of the questions, in case you missed it. I have been doing this since the early 1970s..I forget who showed it to me...for sure it was someone in the Richmond Va. Rifle Club. I had a home in the wild back country of Va..and the turtles were killing my ducks by snapping the feet off them. But try turtle hunting...you get one shot and the other 75 disappear for the rest of the day. At that rate they were proliferating faster then I could nail them and thin’em out of my little lake. Not to mention ‘one shot frustration’.

I had a Steven’s 44 ½ single action 32-40 chambered rifle...it had 26 inch barrel. So using Bullseye powder and the heaviest cast bullet I could find...which was a 220 grainer...I worked backwards with the powder until the bullets wouldn’t leave the barrel..(yes you need to tap them out when they get stuck) then go to a load just above that barrel sticking load...and that will be the quietest you will get with that rifle. The basics...heavy cast soft bullets...long barrel...Bullseye or other very fast powders....a little pillow stuffing to hold the powder against the primer...pistol primers by the way....

The whole point is to get the rifle to eat up the pressure to the point where there is little or no pop when the bullet exits....and yes I cleaned house on turtles....and found that a 220 grain bullet doing around 600 fps is fairly deadly to other varmints at close range. I know of a number of feral cats and dogs that have gone to their reward, because of this load. I’m now working with my 38-55...MBC 240 grainers and with a little over 1 and 3/4 ths of a grain of Bullseye, it’s close to the right load...just a loud pop...more work to be done. I think I need to go to a heavier bullet....DON’T try it with jacketed bullets!

Take a non shooting friend out to shoot one day...we need to get the non committed and unknowing, to understand guns are not evil and do have a wonderful place in our lives other than for killing....and don’t try and overwhelm them with your pretty, new, powerful 475 Transus megakiller, you are libel to scare them right back to the car. Start them out with a 22 or 38.....remember some of these folks believe all the crap that CBS....CCN...and the others put out. We need to be quiet ambassadors with reasonable voices, letting the fun of shooting win them over.

Drop two leaning Towers of Piazza off a large orange and they will hit the ground at the same time...or some such states science....well in Tucson we had a young girl killed on the street down town, by a bullet that entered her head at an 80 degree angle...some fool a ½ mile or more away fired it in the air. Not only did we loose a child...but we lost a lot of unknowing and non committed people’s attitudes towards guns.....they are committed now all right...unfortunately.

Got my CCW renewed for four years for fifty bucks the other day...best deal Arizona ever offered. I carry one of three guns for different times and potential needs...a 22 RF Magnum (Automag) autoloader, a 45 acp 1911 format autoloader, a S&W 357 Mountain gun..seven shot. Ammo? CCI 22 Mag RF high velocity hollow points, 45 caliber 165gr Cor-Bon H.Ps, 125 grain Gold Dot 357s. Folks ask why a retired lawman needs a CCW....because if the worst happens I don’t want some Adam Henry Lawyer trying to make a case out of my being retired so long and not knowing the changes in the law, and whether or not I’m still qualified to safely handle a handgun....if you have a CCW you should go to a range every 6 months at the least and fire a qualifying score and have the range official sign the target...keep them to show a pattern of practice....in court if it ever comes to that, they are invaluable for your side.

Did you know that all of the spree killing shootings at post offices, churches, schools, offices, and subways have happened during the Clinton Administration years and most after the Brady Bill got signed into law! Did you also know that all of the kids killed by shootings in the last year are less then the number killed by government mandated air bags! A liberal pointed out to me that was too simplistic a view...I pointed out that simple or not it was still the facts. EVERY county of every state in the U.S. that has allowed CCWs...violent crime has gone down...facts.....Of course the liberal agenda is not to even consider facts, it’s to instill socialism into our Democracy.....at any cost, even the lives of our children. Lets get the word out it is the liberal agenda that has caused the killing of our children!

When you shoot a handgun with a 16 to 21 inch barrel the recoil, even in the 454 class is very mild. We were shooting one developed for the English market by Freedom Arms at the Shootist Holiday this year...it was surprisingly controllable and very accurate....but you would need to install a rifle strap to carry it.

I fired the 475 in the Freedom Arms Single Actions. Absolutely the best of the powerful handguns...I feel it out shines the 500 because of the better down range ballistics. It will turn a lion inside out...bring down an elephant...or what ever else ticks you off....

I have owned a 454 since almost the first year they were released to the public...1983/84. Tens of thousands of rounds later...I’m still finding things out about it. The 475 may be the top of the heap...but I’ll keep my 454. It will in cool hands harvest any land animal on earth...even a charging angered anything....it’s like having a heavy loaded 45-70 in a handgun. In fact many of the leverguns that will take modern 45-70 loads will not be able to handle modern 454 loads....I know of two Winchester Big Bores that couldn’t handle over a few hundred rounds of 454...and the Marlin 45-70 loaded to that pressure would lock up on the first shot. And these are good strong rifles...the 454 Freedom Arms short barreled SA, I have with special fixed sights and I have a simpatico....we work exceptional well together.

My favorite 260 Keith hard cast bullet load is 28 grains in Winchester Colt cases for 1725 fps.....my favorite 300 grain Keith cast bullet is wonderful over 27 grains of 2400 gives 1660 fps and the 340 grain SSK cast over the same loading gives 1600 fps....I use the 260 grain and 300 grain most. I have a four cavity old Lyman/Ideal Keith mold for the 260 grain bullet...it makes great bullets. The FA 454 loves them...and always tries to put them into the same hole at 25 yards....couldn’t ask for better.

I have shot this gun so much the barrel throat has been replaced twice...but the barrel is fine. I credit that to never using ball powders in any number let alone extensively and using cast bullets 90% of the time....I sure wish there was a leveraction rifle that would take the 454 loadings...I know Winchester is bringing it’s High Wall single shot out in 454...but I want a leveraction. And not the big heavy 1886 action...unless a lot of trimming and scaling down of barrel/wood/and weight was done.....

Keith brought his bullet design out in 1927/28....71 years or more ago! And it is still the premier handgun killer of game....I use the 173 grain Keith .357 in my 35 Whelen. The 300 plus grain Keith RCBS 429 in my 444 Winchester...and the heavy weight 45 caliber Keiths in my 45 Colt chambered leverguns....Even out of rifles they are wonderful. Any one just starting out and confused by all the different designs and molds....the Keith is a great place to start, it simplifies choices somewhat. I have the design in every caliber including 30 and 32 calibers....

I once hit a rabbit in the back of the head with the 173 grain Keith at about 25 yards...bullet was doing around 2500 fps. At the shot the recoil lifted me slightly, from the sight of the animal....coming out of recoil...it was gone...I walked to the spot where he had been sitting, as I got there it’s head hit the ground beside me! That’s how far up it went! Just the top of the head with the two ears still attached. Everything else was gone. Just fluff floating everywhere on the breeze.

A moose even...would not be able to get far after being hit with a 44 or 45 caliber heavy cast Keith bullet leaving the barrel at around 2000 fps...Keith spells shocking power. Winchester and Marlin leverguns in 44 magnum and 45 Colt chamberings will do that with handloads....

And remember out in the open, not at the range...you don’t want fixed target distances...you want to shoot at unknowns and guesstimates...that way you learn accuracy and bullet drop in the field. Very important....paco