Henry Rifle Forums

For a while. I have been dealing with "Trigger Finger" on my ring finger left hand and that is my shooting hand for couple months now. It is now causing pain in finger and at joint in palm of hand especially when shooting handguns. So a trip to the local Orthopedic Center will be soon to correct this situation.
However I wanted to try a new to me powder for my revolver loads that might shoot as well as Unique if Red Dot doesn't work well.

Hogdon HP-38 is readily available at my LGS and picked up a pound of it to try with light 44 Mag loads. The revolvers were the Anaconda and the smallest of 44 Mag DA revolvers the Smith&Wesson M-69. The Smith M 69 has the lightest SA and DA action pull of any of my 44 revolvers...yes including the Anaconda! It is a very handy piece to carry and with mild 44 Mag or 44 Special loads is a treat to shoot and it shoots well. Note size difference to
Anaconda!
Looking at the target plates HP-38 would do for general steel plinking but the groups not quite as tight as Unique. One puzzling target was the one where the 200 gr. Xtreme bullet is compared to the 200 gr. MB cast bullet...what the heck happened there???

Another thing is the lead I get after shooting the Hi Tech coated lead MB bullets thru the Anaconda. Tried the 200 gr 12 Bhn and 240 gr. semi wad cutter 18 Bhn bullets. Usually 3 or so clean out shots of an FMJ bullet will clean the bore up like on my M-69 but the lead still sticks to the Anaconda outside rifling grooves which is the bore size after 6 FMJ clean out shots! Don't like having to scrub the lead out and this after 15 shots of MB bullets.
Picture shows bore after firing clean out FMJ rounds....not good. I will clean it out and then slug the bore and check the bore size. The inside bullet grooves came out clean but not outside shooting the XTP .430 diameter bullet.
Can't keep the nice wood grips from loosening up after a few rounds of shooting even after shimming up any clearance gaps inside So may send those back and just stick with the factory rubber grips.
You never know how a revolver will shoot until it is in your hands. For the money I was expecting a trigger at least as light as an off the shelf Smith and Wesson and am disappointed in the Anaconda on that issue. I get light leading with the Smith M-69 and none from my other 44 revolvers shooting same loads here. The Anaconda cylinder throats measure right on for a .430 bullet at .431 so maybe a bore issue?

Oh well taking a rest from revolvers until the hand gets sorted out and glad I shoot rifles right handed. I can use my right hand for handgun use in a pinch though.

Sorry to hear about the orthopedic issues, forty. Hope everything goes well. It would be huge loss to the forum if you had to cut back on your handgun range reports.

And I really do hate a revolver that has a leading problem. It does sound like a bore issue on the Colt. I've had a couple of Ruger 44 mags that had a constriction in the bore which caused leading, but also screwed up accuracy. It's not uncommon with Rugers. Just run a tight patch down the bore and check if it hangs up a bit at a certain spot. If it's just a rough bore, a polishing job might be all it needs.

Kind of disappointed to hear about the trigger on the Anaconda. I have had new production Colt revolvers with pretty decent triggers, though. Tough to beat a good Smith trigger, for sure.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 11, 2022 8:39 pm

Sorry to hear about the orthopedic issues, forty. Hope everything goes well. It would be huge loss to the forum if you had to cut back on your handgun range reports.

And I really do hate a revolver that has a leading problem. It does sound like a bore issue on the Colt. I've had a couple of Ruger 44 mags that had a constriction in the bore which caused leading, but also screwed up accuracy. It's not uncommon with Rugers. Just run a tight patch down the bore and check if it hangs up a bit at a certain spot. If it's just a rough bore, a polishing job might be all it needs.

Kind of disappointed to hear about the trigger on the Anaconda. I have had new production Colt revolvers with pretty decent triggers, though. Tough to beat a good Smith trigger, for sure.

The action is really smooth on the Anaconda but the SA is a bit more than I would like. With my hand issue holding the weight of the revolver and trying to get a good pull with a hard trigger is a pain but did my best. I could hit my three swinging plates from 15 yds with the one painful hand though shooting the 240 gr. Unique load with the Anaconda and that was great!
There is a good shop recommended by Colt to lighten up the trigger pull for 130-200 bucks though! https://www.heffronprecision.com/

Have you slugged the barrel on the Colt? My old model Trooper shoots best with no leading using cast bullets sized .356 so maybe the Colt 44 is bored a little tight.

You lost me on the powder and reloading. Hope your hand and finger problem goes away.

Sir Henry wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 11, 2022 9:34 pm

You lost me on the powder and reloading. Hope your hand and finger problem goes away.

Well I wanted to try HP-38 powder to see how it would shoot for 44 Mag target loads. Local shop seems to have it in stock a lot of time and looking at its use to save on my Unique supply. Price is cheaper too at 39 bucks for 1 lb. compared to 75 bucks IF they get Unique again.
So one last shooting session with the revolvers before I get something done with my hand.