Boy, that sure does bring back the memories. Thanks!
Back in the mid 60's, and I think it was the summer between my junior & senior year of high school, I had a Ruger Blackhawk in .41 magnum. I honestly don't remember how I came to acquire it, but knowing me I probably got it a pawn shop. IIRC, I paid like $80 or $90 for it. Since we had moved back to Ft.Worth after selling our ranch up in Clay County, I didn't have many places I could think of to shoot it. So I drove up to Denton where I was going to high school at the time. They had a 125 acres just west of Denton on hwy. 380. It was during the Christmas break and nobody was at the school. I drove up there with 2 things in mind. One to feed my horse(when we moved off the ranch, I wanted to bring it with me, and as as it happened, the school was more than glad to let me keep it there. I miss you Pancho).
Secondly was to try out my brand spanking new(used) Ruger Blackhawk in .41 magnum. Back then, Selwyn was REALLY out in the country. About 1 mi. west of I-35. I walked down into the pasture and after feeding my horse, drug out the Blackhawk. I wanted to shoot it for the first time, and as kids go, I needed a target. Welllllll.....the only target I could find was an old car bumper wayyyyy out at the back of the school property. I thought that that would make a nifty target, so I made my preparations. I loaded the thing, thought about the probability of ricochet, decided it was safe, and bore down on it. Now I knew that a glancing ricochet might not be too wise as it could go a far distance and possibly do some damage. So I tried to get a shot placement that was as close to dead on, with no angle(of deflection) as I could so the bullet would simply just bounce back. I wound up in a sitting position(as prescribed by the Army field manual for the 4 positions of firing a gun), leveled down on the bumper, minimized my angle of deflection, and fired off a round. Mind you that was my FIRST time I shot ANY kind of magnum center fire pistol cartridge.
Well! It kicked like a mule, so much so the single action slid back into my hand, and the only thing stopping it was the web of my hand! I then fired the second shot....same thing. It kicked back into the web of my hand. My 1911 didn't do that....why did this one? On the 3rd shot I figured out the taper of the grip was to much for me to get a firm grip. Remember I was only 17 years old. I wasn't strong enough. The 1911 I mastered, but not this hand cannon.
I quickly realized that I didn't like the gun AT ALL! But I gutted it out and managed to get through 12 rounds before giving up. I STILL didn't like it. I gave up. I brought it home and wound up selling it for like $95 a few months later.
As far as the bumper goes, the round sure did put a strong dent in it, but never penetrated it(I was curious about that as well). And my biggest disappointment was I never found a 'bounced back bullet'. IIRC I was shooting a flat nosed lead round that was jacketed in copper. Sorry but I don't know what you call it.
Apologies for being so long winded(& hijacking the thread), but I wanted to tell at least one story. I have so many like that.
