skeeter skelton and the 44 special

...but until they pass a law saying handgun cartridge picks have to be perfectly rational, I will stick with the .44 Special.
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Nothing says you have to be perfectly rational... And who would judge? :) . Now I like both the .45 Colt and the .44 Special. I admit I will but the .45 before the .44, but I still like to shoot both. In fact my last 2 center fire revolver I picked up was a .44 Special Taylor Cattleman and a .44 Special GP100.... Just because (see? not rational :) ).....

My goto tuned Ruger .44 Special 5 1/2" flattop (plow handle) is a also a nail driver. Doesn't get any better. It was very hard to find a load it "didn't" like when I was testing different powders :) .
 
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Well I think you are right and it does not surprise me that your Blackhawk does the job. I gave up trying to find a load that mine won't shoot - not that I tried too hard. At any rate, the old Colt will do things the .44 cannot, but I find more and more that the things the .44 cannot do are things I am not really interested in anyway. And now that it is bedtime I am going to thumb through a few pages of "Hoglegs, hipshots, and jalapenos" and call it a night.
 
I gave up trying to find a load that mine won't shoot
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I wasn't really looking for loads that wouldn't shoot of course :) .... The reason why I was going through different powders was to find good loads equivalent to the Skeeter load (via chronograph) that I could use if the country ever had a run on powder again and my favorite powder(s) became unobtainium....
 
This past week.....

My most recent use of my 624-no dash was at our informal "Bullseye" match. This little match was this past Wednesday. The load was 8grs. of Accurate #5. My bullets were Lyman 429421 sized .430 at 255grs. These bullets were slip fit in the cylinder throats. The alloy was slightly harder than Lyman #2. The lube was White 165. This, with the Skeeter Load, will be standard here on the hill. This load proved to be exceptionally accurate at 25 yards. It's hard for me to see a .44 Special S&W that would not shoot with lead bullets with proper fit etc.
 
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I always enjoyed reading Skeeter's writings. But I tried to keep in mind that he was an entertainer, not a ballistician.

Guys like Skeeter, Elmer, Jeffie etc are very entertaining. But don't take them too seriously.
 
Sketter Rules

My understanding is that Sketter was an active law enforcement officer including the Border Patrol. His sharing had to do with his experience. It does not take Homer Powley to figure that a 250gr. bullet@ 900 fps is no toy. What would a ballistician have to say about what Skeeter shared? Sketter rules. I could care less about the other two.
 
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But don't take them too seriously.
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I have to disagree. They were there and done that. Skeeter had a lot of law enforcement experience, Elmer did more hunting then most of us would ever do today. They speak of life experience. Not like an arm-chair quarterback who 'thinks' he knows better. I'll give more weight to the words of an experienced person, over a 'ballistician' any day of the week.
 
When ol' Elmer wrote that he killed a caribou DRT with one shot from a 4 inch barrel model 29 at 600 yards, any credibility he had vanished.

Skeeter never got that wild and far out, but being a border patrol agent, or any other kind of LEO, does not make you a small arms expert.

These guys made a living telling stories. And they were very good at it.
 
Expert

We are talking about loading and shooting cartridges in our revolvers. In our experience what Skeeter shared about the 44 Special has been confirmed in our experience. This thread has been about shooting experiences and nothing to do with our reading preferences. Jeff and Elmer were not in the mix.

Addendum: An expert is somebody twenty miles from home with a briefcase. :eek:
 
I have no use for 7.5 gr of Unique and a 240 gr bullet because I also have a 44 Magnum. But that same 7.5 gr load works nicely with a 200 gr bullet. I also shoot the Lyman minimum of 7.0, all in my 4 5/8 Flat Top, which has a smallish grip that doesn't work well with high powered loads.
 
Rclark, ditto, well said. Skelton was the real deal (family members knew him & Jordan while in the BP) and he was also a pretty good writer. His load of 7.5 gr of Unique backing a 240 LSWC is my go-to for my .44 Spl's. Plenty of umph (950 fps in my guns) if & when you need it, and about all the recoil I can put up with for extended range sessions. Rod
 
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Ben Dover said:
I always enjoyed reading Skeeter's writings. But I tried to keep in mind that he was an entertainer, not a ballistician.

Guys like Skeeter, Elmer, Jeffie etc are very entertaining. But don't take them too seriously.
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I always liked Skeeter's writings in the gun magazines, as did my contemporaries who were gun people, but we would often refer to his writings as "Skeeter Skelton's fiction". He did have a unique style of writing seemed to be a blend of fact and fiction.
 
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