Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns My new "Iceberg Gun" is due to show up tomorrow

When I was maybe 14 or so I met a guy along a bluff overlooking Lake Erie. He had a .45 Colt revolver that had been custom built from an N frame .357...

It was early Spring and the lake ice was breaking up. He was shooting long range icebergs and making the kind of long range hits that I'm sure Elmer Keith would have admired...

I still have a very clear image of the big Colt cartridges he was loading... I remember that he had a very nice looking holster and gun belt with cartridge loops....

When I discovered that S&W was making another run of .45 Colt Mountain Guns... I had to go for it.... now I just need some icebergs

Thoughts on safe long range targets? When the valley beside my house is really dry I have a rock I shoot at that is around 150 yards away. Large slugs make nice dust clouds. I have figured out the sight picture and walked the bullets in on it with a .44 Magnum revolver... any elevated position looking down at a dry plowed field has potential...

Just looking for some safe ideas...

Targets that were shot at regularly when I was a lad are now thought dangerous, so I may not be a font of knowledge on this. I remember an article on a run of 25's in the 45 Colt cartridge back before that caliber became a regular catalog item. This was back before it was known that they couldn't take the same levels of powder a Ruger could...nay back when nobody really cared. They were quite a gun back then. My own interest has waned, but I can see where somebody else's might not.

I used to live in the Kansas City area. My Great Uncle used to shoot at floating ice and also 55 gallon drums floating down the Missouri river, up north of town. Heck, it may have been in town for all I know. I always thought that would be fun. I've heard of people doing the same thing with 30 Carbines.

The floating ice on Lake Erie was perfect... the early 70s had very cold Winters and the ice would form most of the way across the Lake... no boats were out there... it was 30 mile of ice and water before Canada started...

That moment in time was 40 years ago... it left a lasting impression... I have a Simply Rugged holster that will fit the gun... guess I need to pick up a matching belt with lots of cartridge loops now....

I spent a long time in the dentist's chair yesterday... The dentist knows I'm a hunter/shooter and he was asking about some help getting his 7 year old son into shooting... I told the story about the iceberg shoot and the importance of visual reaction from targets.

The dental assistant had been listening closely and then literally slapped me on the shoulder when the thought occurred to her about the chunks of ice floating down a local river as a result of our major cold spell.

Finding a safe place for a river ice shoot could be tricky... I think I'll go with the tried and true balloon targets for the 7 year old.

The fun part was seeing the excitement generated from 2 people that as far as I know are not big into the shooting sports...

As you imply, you have to be careful shooting into a river, therefore I'm not really recommending it, but...a lot of the rivers around here have tall bluffs on at least one side. I never got to go with my Great Uncle-he just related the story to me. The river I used to shoot into had steep, mainly dirt banks that could catch stuff. The river changed course and local landowners fenced off the gravel and dirt county roads that allowed access. If I did that, the county would raise hell, but they did and got away with it. The river I shot into was a great place to shoot. It has a special place in my memory. I've got a few pics of us shooting out there over twenty years ago. They're always good to look at, especially the one of my now-wife shooting an AR-15 for the first time. Everybody shot out there. I remember going out there near-dark one time and coming upon Mr. Goodwrench standing there at the edge of the water. Somebody had stolen him from the GM dealer and used him for a target! Kinda eerie. Maybe somebody the dealer had screwed on a truck or something. I certainly don't advocate thievery, but the incident still brings a chuckle.

Good luck with the .45.

Clay pigeons are kinda fun. When you get as good as me you can shoot 'em on the wing.

Anything filled with flour is cool. You don't need much flour to get a decent puff of white, half a handful or so. Cupcake liners work well and they seem appropriate.

More of a .22 target, but charcoal briquettes. They puff when hit, and if conditions allow you can squirt some fuel on them and shoot at night. You get a pretty satisfying spray of sparks.

Yeah, but those flying clay targets aren't really a trick until you shoot them behind your back while aiming through a mirror... the way I do... yeah that's it

The 7 year old will be packing the Savage .22 over .410 his dad bought him for Christmas <IIRC they are pretty big heavy guns... he may need to grow into that one for a better fit> The charcoal taped to a hung up string sounds like fun and I'll bet a coffee filter full of flour would make a very memorable white cloud when hit with a .410...

A bar of soap hit with a .22 should help to impress upon a young mind that a .22 can be a deadly weapon... I have seen pictures of a "wound cavity" from a hollow point into Ivory Soap...

I like to put a line of charcoal briqs on a board - start the kid shooting on one end and you on the other. The guy with the most smoked briqs wins.

Hand tossing charcoal briqs for the kid to shoot with a .410 is fun and cheap also.

My favorite visual target, and the most educational too, was shooting two pop cans. One of them was empty and the hole just punched through it. The other was full of water and it exploded. Then it was explained to me that an animal or human body is like a pop can full of water. It might not be a 100% true but it definately helped solidify the idea that guns aren't toys. And it's fun.

Kids <of all ages> do well with visual demonstrations. IIRC I was pretty young when I saw a picture of what kind of "wound channel" a .22 leaves in a bar of Ivory Soap...

The Iceberg Gun arrived yesterday. after I got the sights adjusted I managed an off hand slow fire 6 shot group at 10 yards where 5 went into 1.2 inches and the 6th shot opened it up to 2.1 inches.

I had some what of a hard time justifying this gun when I had picked up a 625 JM last year and on paper at least a heavy cast bullet in an Auto Rimmed case is enough for close range deer.

The difference in balance and over all feel of the Mountain Gun is amazing to me though. I don't like the ugly and annoying lock, the trigger is only OK... hoping it will smooth up with use, but overall this one is a keeper.

Off to load more ammo now.

I used to make a medium sized watermelon explode with a round ball from a .50 Cal Hawken. My grandkid's idea of fun at the range, is that after punching holes in paper with the .22 bolts, I break out the Rem Nylon 66 autos to shoot blue rocks on the berm. Life is good.

One of my favorite long range targets is the standard out of date empty BBQ grill propane tank. Will take a lot of hits and makes a nice "ding" when hit. If you suspend the tank from a tree limb or makeshift tripod the "ding" is easier to hear.

Gallon water jugs and old gallon paint cans filled with water work good also.

A friend of mine who works in a hospital also gets empty oxygen cylinders from the trash. He paints them orange and the hits are easy to see.

Bob

2ndwind

True story.

When I was a lad I had some friends who were older, wiser and had lots of guns. They were rich! When I came of age and became a police officer, they hired me part time to be a bouncer at their lounge at the ski resort they owned. The lounge was year around so when the ski slopes were empty, we'd often sit on their balcony and use our 1911s to shoot long range targets placed on the grassy slopes out to as far as 300 yards.

We got so good at estimating range and hold over that for a while, it seemed magical. It was as if we could "imagine" the arc of the bullet and hold over accordingly. I believe that is a talent anyone can achieve with lots of practice.

Anyway, years later when I was hiking in Colorado with a buddy, we encountered a target of opportunity and decided to take a shot or two at it. It was a quartz rock against a granite slope at about 200 yards. The rock was about the size of two basketballs. I was carrying my Gold Cup and Dave had a 4" 29 .44 mag. He fired a full cylinder load and never came to within 10 feet of the rock. I smacked it with the first shot! He didn't believe it so I smacked it with the second shot to prove the first wasn't just luck.

My father-in-law had watched me kill a skunk with that .45 at a stepped off 80 yards with one shot as well.

Long range shooting with handguns is just too much fun and very educational!

Dan

A long while back, first weekend the snow was out enough to get ot our cabin, someone had left a bunch of Piels beer in cans (the old style heavy, can't crush with your hand as a kid type at the time) in the old gas refridgerator after deer season. Dad was a Bud and Michelob guy. Well the cans were quickly placed on the target range after a good shaking. Man what an explosion with a .22 hit! Nothing like that before.

My Dad later told me one of the old guys was looking for his 'beer' during Spring Gobbler season that year.

I HAVE one of those out of date 20 pound propane tanks... I think it still has gas in it though....hmmm.


Dan, I read a book a long time ago called something like , "Zen and the Art of Archery". Apparently Zen masters used archery to teach Zen meditation... the one line I remember was "The hit and the hitter become one...".

I guess part of it is visualizing the trajectory of the arrow <or bullet> but there were times when I "knew" when the arrow was a bulls eye... very cool stuff.... when I was shooting well I called it "being in the zone"... there were times when I just needed to put the bow down and do something else so I wouldn't develop bad habits in frustration... but the times when I could focus well were a great feeling.

I had a chance to shoot the Mountain Gun again today. I remain surprised over how much more I like the "feel" of this revolver over the 625 .45 ACP... the thinner barrel with out the full under lug can't be more that a few ounces less that the standard 625... but it just "feels" better in hand and enough lighter in the holster to notice the difference.