Snakebit fer the first time

[Cuts Crooked]

Howdy Pards,

Ya know, I like my big .45s more than about any other ca'tridge! Them .45's loaded wif full house BP rounds buck, roar, flame, & smoke! Makin' the RO ('n sumtimes the whole posse) choke 'n curse!   

Unfortunately recent events have made it a bit difficult for me to control my beloved .45s. :cry:  But I thought I'd try to keep in practice with sumthin a little less potent until I can hang on to them big irons with confidence agin... so out came my old .357 Rossi and an Open Top .38 that I salvaged from the attentions of a dedicated gun hacker.

Loading fer these has always bin a bit slow on accounta all I had fer boolits wuz 158gr HPSWCs, which called fer the use of a greeeze cookie to keep the bore slick enuff to run an entire match. And even wif a cookie, that ressurected Open Top would bind up after one cylinder full of smokey loads, it handled smokeless quite well being extremely accurate, but nuthin I could do seemed to stop it's dislike fer BP! 

Well, ML Roak made me the loan of his Snakebite mold, so I thought I'd try em 'n see if the extry lube from that canyon it has in the way of a lube groove would make a difference!

The Snakebite, being a front heavy slug, didn't work too well in the Rossi, when loaded in .357 brass. I had to load it with bullet seated deep enuff that the crimp was up over the ogive in order to keep OAL within reason. Even then they are long enuff that they fed kinda rough thru the Rossi action, they fed and chambered ok, as long as the action was werked with authority. But it just wasn't smooth! However, this bullet loaded in .38 Special cases moved like grass through a goose! Very slick through the action, left a nice lube star at the muzzle, and accuracy was as good as I'm capable of wringing out of a gun!

Moving on to that stubborn Open Top: It continued to be stubborn! I had hoped that the copius amount of lube the Snakebite carries would cause it to spew out and deposit lots of it on the cylinder pin, keeping things greasy enuff to let me run multiple cylinders full through it without binding. Alas, such was not the case. It was more than accurate enuff with this bullet, but it kept binding up, no matter how much bore butter I smeared on the pin.   

I have since spoken with ML about this problem and he suggested that I remove that "collar" that fits between the cylinder and the barrel assembly. He thinks that thing may the culprit that is causing fouling to build up fast on the cylinder pin. I haven't had a chance to give this a try yet, but will report back later this week after giving it a chance that way.

Overall impressions, It seems to be an excellent bullet for it's intended purpose! It's certainly accurate enuff, and carries enuff lube to keep fouling soft in the bore through an entire match! I had heard reports of this bullet being prone to keyholing but I didn't experiance that phenomenom at all! At 50 yards all the holes in my target faces were clean and round, and groups were as noted, as good as I can do!

If I were a dedicated small bore BP shooter I would definately own one of these molds!

[Will Ketchum]

Cuts, did you ever get that open top to shoot BP?

Will Ketchum

[Cuts Crooked]

Matter of fact, I did! They's a pic of me shootin it in a match on the STORM forum over on The Spot. It was that  stupid collar that wuz directing the fouling and gasses back onto the cylinder arbor! Once it was removed it ran great! In fact I've run all of my Snakebite slugs through it, over a thousand of em, and will have to beg ML fer the loan of his mold again.

I ued that Open Top along side one of my .45 Remmies to take Second place in the Frontier Cartridge Duelist class at the Central States Shootout down at Indianola back in July. 

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[Cuts Crooked]

 

[ML_Roak]

That danged collar (they call it a "gas ring", more like a gas trap) has caused more Open-top guns to be hated than any other attribute, mine would bind with smokeless, not to mention what it did with B-P
Cut's,
As soon as get my sprue handle fixed your welcome to it

[Howdy Doody]

I have been shooting the Snakes for a while now. This past weekend I had some rifle targets way on out there at the 5 Dogs match. I mean they were 75-80 yards. No problemo with full cases of APP. I actually got them too. Pretty good, since i can barely even see that far.
Snakebite was at the match. I had a chance to talk with him for a bit. He told me he gave Magma permission to reproduce for their molds for their presses and that several bullet producers are now in production for our non- casting pards. One outfit was there at the match ( Ca State Championships at 5 Dogs) and had the Snakebites for sale. That vendors outfit was called Blakes Bullets.
It is just so cool to have our fellow cowboys invent stuff that works. PRS/DD/ Snakebite and Mav.