Taurus Circuit Judge Carbine 45LC

[bobjones223]

Ok I am not sure where to place this so I am putting it here.

I have a Taurus Circuit Judge Carbine that I am working up some loads for my daughter to use this year for deer. I have been noticing that I am getting one flyer, then a group of two shots touching and another group of two shots touching about 3" apart from the other two shot group.

My question really goes out to the gunsmiths and revolver guys. Can my cylinder indexing be causing this or is it my loads? I don't know enough about revolvers to answer the first question. If it was a vertical string I would say hands down it is the loads but these tend to be at a 45deg angle to each other leading me to believe it may have to do with cylinder alignment?

If it is an alignment issue can this be fixed without costing more than the gun is worth? She absolutely loves the gun but I am not digging the pattern I am seeing. I have plans on marking the cylinders to see if there is a correlation but haven't had a chance yet. The plans are if I have two in a row that pattern well just mark then to be the first two rounds fired, shouldn't take more than one shot but just in case there would be a good follow up shot before things changed.

Thanks.

 

[Tactically Fat]

Most likely it's due to the shallow rifling so that the .410 shot doesn't spin out like a doughnut....though it still does.

 

[foxmustang]

Most likely it's due to the shallow rifling so that the .410 shot doesn't spin out like a doughnut....though it still does.

This and possibly the length of the cylinder compared to the case itself. I had a Circuit Judge that was left in my safe for a few years, I took it out on occasion and shot some of my 45Colt hand loads out of it and never had any of the issues, at 50 or 100 yards, that you are having. How is the lockup on the cylinder? Make sure there were no choke tubes or cylinder choke in?

 

[Tactically Fat]

This and possibly the length of the cylinder compared to the case itself.

Probably a combination of both.

However - many .357 Revolvers don't suffer from horrible accuracy loss when shooting .38 Special - but those barrels are actually rifled.

 

[Cpt Caveman]

ITS THE GUN!
Never heard of anyone getting one of those to shoot a group in a predictable fashion.
Sell it and get something else.

 

[bobjones223]

ITS THE GUN!
Never heard of anyone getting one of those to shoot a group in a predictable fashion.
Sell it and get something else.

I would love to but the girl loves this one. Want to get a Marlin for her but they are a bit hard to find and like said before she likes this one so I am going to play with it a bit more.

 

[indiucky]

ITS THE GUN!
Never heard of anyone getting one of those to shoot a group in a predictable fashion.
Sell it and get something else.

I waited for someone else to chime in...But yes...Cpt. Caveman is correct here....My brother hunted with his one year..One year...He consigned it with my shop after that first season...

 

[bobjones223]

This and possibly the length of the cylinder compared to the case itself. I had a Circuit Judge that was left in my safe for a few years, I took it out on occasion and shot some of my 45Colt hand loads out of it and never had any of the issues, at 50 or 100 yards, that you are having. How is the lockup on the cylinder? Make sure there were no choke tubes or cylinder choke in?

The tube that is in it is the one for the 45LC it is not the one with the reverse rifling to counter spin the wad. at 25 yards I am getting 2" groups with one flyer. Sounds like yours is a shooter though any load you may recommend?

 

[foxmustang]

I'm just running a 255 LRN from S&S with 21.7 gr 4227. Out of my levergun they were right around 1320 average fps. Can't remember if I shot any of my XTP deer loads out of it as they are pretty shout

 

[bobjones223]

I'm just running a 255 LRN from S&S with 21.7 gr 4227. Out of my levergun they were right around 1320 average fps. Can't remember if I shot any of my XTP deer loads out of it as they are pretty shout

Ok so the accuracy was out of your lever gun not the circuit judge

 

[oldpink]

As was already mentioned, it would probably be best to just get a .45 Colt lever gun instead, at least if you want to stay with that caliber.
My deer rifle (until this fall, thanks to .243 and .308 bore diameter high powered rifles being legalized only this year) has been a Marlin 1894 chambered in .45 Colt, and it gets decency accuracy, 5 of my reloads with the 225 grain Hornady FTX right at 2" @ 50 yards, and I've taken three deer with it.
Mine is the rather rare round barrel (the Cowboy version has an octagonal barrel) version that was available for a short time exclusively from Cabela's.
Another option, at least if you're not set on a repeater, would be to get one of the break action single shot rifles made by H&R or Rossi.
The long cylinder and unnecessarily shallow rifling in that Taurus will never be conducive to accuracy.
Another thing to consider (although I haven't shot one to know if this happens) that I've been told can happen is that those Circuit Judges can spit lead fragments at your forearm if you're shooting cast bullets.

 

[foxmustang]

Ok so the accuracy was out of your lever gun not the circuit judge

No that was just the gun I had on hand when I chrono'd the load. I'd say 2" @ 50 was what the circuit judge shot, but they were consistent spread, not like what yours is doing. My lever gun was shooting the exact same load at about 1 1/2" groups.

 

[possum_128]

Not saying it's the gun, but like everyone else is telling you, it's the gun.

 

[Hookeye]

LOL, I keep thinking about converting a Super Redhawk into a rifle.
Like I have money to burn

 

[bobjones223]

Well. Thanks for all the input. I am going to keep playing with it and see if I can try and figure this thing out before I sell it and get something different.

With the two grouping clusters I haven't I haven't lost hope in it yet and think I may be able to get more out it than what I am.

I will keep you guys posted as thing progress.

 

[two70]

I would love to but the girl loves this one. Want to get a Marlin for her but they are a bit hard to find and like said before she likes this one so I am going to play with it a bit more.

Some of the Marlin PCRs have had their own accuracy(patterning) issues as well. I have a .41 mag Marlin that grouped fairly well when I hunted with it but my dad has one in .44 mag that will only shoot one bullet weight/load reasonably well and I know of someone else who had to use oversized lead bullets to get groups smaller than 8" at 100 yards.

 

[bobjones223]

Some of the Marlin PCRs have had their own accuracy(patterning) issues as well. I have a .41 mag Marlin that grouped fairly well when I hunted with it but my dad has one in .44 mag that will only shoot one bullet weight/load reasonably well and I know of someone else who had to use oversized lead bullets to get groups smaller than 8" at 100 yards.

Thanks,

I already swagged the barrel and have projectiles for it at .454 instead of the standard .452 due to the swag results.