Well first range trip went well. The doctor says my right arm will be fully functional again in three weeks after a round of physical therapy
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
As Traister wrote about this rifle: ".. recoil was violent. At each shot, my brain felt like it was bouncing around inside my skull. Five rounds of those heavy charges from a bench is all I care to fire at any given session." John Traister, "A Big Bore 94," reprinted in Wildcat Cartridges Vol. 2, p 560. I fired off 30 total, so I'm hurtin for certin. I actually made an "UGH" sound after each shot! Like some cartoon character.
I haven't worked up handloads for this one yet. Of the factory rounds the Horn. Custom 350 FP's were the standouts. I was not going for tight groups today, and had a black-on-black sight picture because I brought the wrong targets, but even so after dialing in I was getting 1 1/2" groups with those loads at fifty yards. The leverevolutions, which work so fantastic in my .30 WCF, were cruddy here and gave only a high, scattered group. Go figure. The buf. bore slugs worked well enough for bear at 25 yards, but I didn't try them at 50. I doubt they'd be tack drivers.
With that heavy Ackley custom barrel on it, the 94 peforms better than the reports I've heard from the factory Winchester Timber Carbines in .450 Marlin. The twist per the article is 1-in-20, so maybe that's why it's liking mid-weight rounds in the 350 grain range. Suits me fine. Anything in this state hit with that bullet from that shell is going to die very quickly. It generates 3400 ft. lbs at the muzzle and the reports on Midway USA are all five star. It's absolutely great bear or moose medicine.
The front sight is canted a notch to the right, which means the whole assembly shoots left badly. I have to adjust the rear sight way over to compensate, but in the end it still works fine. I may recut the front dovetail to square it up. I strongly suspect this happened during the process of switching it over from .458x2 to .450 Marlin.
The big worry is the mag tube, but Traister had done his work there. I packed it full and fired away, with no shifting of the tube. The front stock, however, DID shift forward about 1/8th of an inch. I'm happy as long as that mag tube stays put. Feeding was stiff but fine both going in and coming out. Ejection was without problems.
The shotshells worked fine, though instead of opening up my .410 tops were just blasted out the end. Oh well. I'll continue tweaking the design. As it is I got nice balls o' No. 5 at 20 yards--more than tight enough to bring down a lippy squirrel or stupid chicken. I have not yet tried Traister's interesting roundball loads.
![Image](http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/Gussick/gap.jpg)