[Jeff Higgins]

I'll have to take exception with LYNN @CORBON's disparaging remarks about my beloved single actions. For a guy who knows how to use them, they are simply not a disadvantage in the least. As long as the gun is still in my hand, I can cock that hammer.

And $50 to $80 a box for cast bullet loads? I can put up exactly the same loads, with exactly the same bullets at exactly the same velocities (or better) for ten bucks a box or less. There is nothing special about Cor-bon's heavy cast bullet loads, nor Garret's for that matter. They are simply proper cast bullet loads that anyone can duplicate (or improve upon) at home, in their spare time. I've been doing it for 30 years. They are cheap, they are accurate, they exceed the performance of any jacketed bullet available, by any measure, from any revolver. I've sung the praises of cast bullets for an awfully long time.

I've shot a fair amount of game with cast bullets from revolvers and rifles in the last 30 years. I've developed some strong opinions about them from my own first hand experiences. Funny, too, that my "discoveries" pretty much exactly match those of my "mentors" - some I actually had the privilege to meet, some not, some passing on before my time. Guys like Keith, Skelton, Jordan, Seyfreid, Wilson, Pearce, Scovill, and many, many others with vastly more experience than myself. Everything I have "learned" for myself simply reaffirmed these men's work.

I simply have no use for any of these modern-day "hand cannons". Neither does anyone else, they just don't realize it. I've driven a 260 grain hard cast lead bullet through both shoulders of a mature mulie buck, from a .45 Colt, driven by black powder at a stately 850 fps. Clear though, breaking both shoulders. I've driven a 300 grain bullet from a .44 mag lengthwise through a caribou bull, after shattering his brisket, that started out at a thundering 1150 fps. It exited a ham right next to his butt hole. That's over six feet of penetration.

In 30 years of shooting deer, black bear, pronghorns, caribou, and elk with cast bullets, I have managed to recover exactly one from the dozens fired. Every other one fired exited. My "standard" .44 mag or .45 Colt hunting loads push a 300 grain bullet to about 1150 fps, or a 250 grain to 1200 fps in the .44 mag (the original Keith bullet and load) or about 900 in the .45 Colt. And they all exit, from any angle, all the time, regardless of breaking heavy bones or not. Why on Earth would anyone need more? To put a deeper hole in the ground behind them?

There is way, way too much hype in today's shooting world. Way too many snake oil salesmen. The very best handgun loads were developed long before I was born. Anyone who puts the time in, out in the field with them, will soon discover that. Just like I did. What these modern day hucksters are selling today is nothing but advertising b.s. wrapped around simple, effective, and very old technology. It still works, and it always will, but there is simply no way in hell I'll ever pay $80 a box for the same stuff that bullet casting handloaders have been putting together at home since long before my time. I'll just heat up a mold and go to work...