Six of one, Five of another

In the not too distant past I had the opportunity to shoot a revolver that I have been very curious about for some time. It is the Ruger SP101. A close friend of mine has one that is chambered in .357 Magnum with a 2 1/4 inch barrel and he was kind enough to let me shoot about 50 or so rounds through it.
I already own the SPs big brother, the GP100, and I am thoroughly impressed with it. It is simply a shooter's gun, able to take the hottest magnum loads all day long. My GP has a 3 inch barrel. I have carried it before, but at 36oz, it does weigh the hip down after a while. I have been eying the svelt SP to use as a CC gun because it is considerably lighter at 25oz and it's slimmer profile would make concealment easier. A side benefit that the Ruger SP101 has over similar small frame revolvers is that it, like it's big brother, can shoot the hottest .357 Magnum loads all day long, too.

Now, I'm not sadist. Other manufactures make light .357s, but the thought of shooting .357s or even hot .38 +Ps out of something that weighs close to nothing doesn't sound like fun to me. That being said, I don't plan on shoving Buffalo Bore 185gr Magnums in the chamber as a matter of course, but the piece of mind of knowing that I can is a comforting thought.
Both my buddy and I had plenty of Magnum ammo and we fired them all through the gun. Recoil on the small Ruger was not at all uncomfortable with any of the ammo we had. I still wouldn't want to spend all day shooting magnums in it, but for a short session it is just fine. I did shoot some .38 Special +P loads through it too. These had considerably less umph and I tended to place them on target a little better.

This brings me to my personal preference for revolvers. I've alluded already that the .357 is a versatile chambering. It is, in effect, 3 guns in one. Not only can it shoot .357 magnum, .38 Special +P, and .38 Special, it is not picky about what the type of projectile the powder is launching. I could grab 5 rounds with ranging in bullet weight from 110gr to 185gr and as much difference in the powder launching them and have no trouble whatsoever. Some automatics aren't so fortunate. I don't like to deal with uncertainties when it comes to firearms. When I pull the trigger, I expect to hear a boom no matter what ammo I happen to grab (not withstanding Remington UMC, I won't be grabbing that junk any time soon!)

The Ugly: I did have a little trouble with pulling the trigger all the way through the action. This was alleviated by adjusting my grip. No big surprise to me as the revolver is a smaller version of my own. I think a new set of Eagle grips would be good medicine for this problem. Awe, heck. A new set of grips are always in order!

Seubold Camp Out Report

To be sure, I could not give a proper report on this event. I was only one person there and saw things, of course, from my own angle. The short answer to the question, "What was it like?" is we had fun. The Man type of fun. We sat around a hobo fire, ate food that was really bad for you, shot clay pigeons, soda cans, and each other, slept in the back of cars, on the ground, or wherever, and simply rebelled from behaviors and mannerisms that are acceptable in mixed company.

I arrived in the late afternoon with my Grand Cherokee full of mischief. I had enough ammunition to hold off a fairly strong advance, a pistol, .22 rifle, and a shotgun. Arrgh! My plan was to fold the back seats down and sleep in the back of the car if it was going to get really cold. It did. I unfurled my extreme cold military sleeping bag and had just enough room to stretch out my 6'2" frame. Foodwise, I planned with simplicity and manliness in mind. Drinks- water or coffee, food- deer chili, Fritoes, summer sausage, Ritz crackers, and a pair of apples.
That evening we rustled up some grub; Mr. Mike Scherer laid down some potatoes and ham, I made my chili, someone had a pan of cornbread, and that was all that was needed. With supper finished it was time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Time for a little Airsoft! The guys broke off into two teams and spent several hours pegging each other with hard plastic BBs. Jonathan probably took the hardest fall of anyone that night. The good news is that no one was seriously maimed and they all appeared to have a great time.
As the night wore on we turned our attention to stoking the hobo fire and telling jokes and anecdotes. Folks started turning in around 11:00PM. I held out until 11:30. I have no idea what the temperature actually was but I did recognize that it was "colder than the proverbial well digger's arse". No sleeping on the ground for me. I forgot any reading material so I turned on the radio and let Bob Wills, U2, Marty Robbins, and a few others sing me sleepy.
In the morning we slowly made some breakfast. I had trouble with my stove. Apparently small propane bottles don't work all that well in sub-freezing temps. We finally got a little coffee made and inhaled all the biscuits and bacon and whatever else hit the pan. From here we made our way down to the big pond for a little clay busting. I had never shot clay before so I was anxious to give it a shot. What a blast it was! I shot through a little more than a box of shells and let my father and brother-in-laws share another box. Unfortunately we ran out of clay, but everyone got a chance to bust some.



From here we moved back to the pistol range to spank some aluminum cans and old CPUs. We shot the guns that made lots of noise and had lots of fun doing it. When it was all said and done I walked away holding about 5lbs of brass.


All in all it was just what I needed. Guys need a chance to be guys once in a while. Like Brad Paisley says, "With all of these guys linin' up to get neutered, its hip now to be feminized. Well, what can I say, at the end of the day, Honey, I'm still a guy!"