"RonB" wrote in message
...

out the derringer and proceeded to scare the hell out of everyone. He was
prepared for the sound because he had shot it in daylight; but he small gun
shot a streak of flame about seven feet into the air with the thunderous
.44 BOOM. All he could see were the white tennis shoes of the assailants
going in one direction and the victim going in the other direction. The
sound and flame almost scared him enough to "run off myself!" ;0)
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I am familiar with that phenomena... I have a 3" barreled S&W .44 magnum.
Years ago, while studying an armed guard training facility as part of a
research agenda, I participated as an armed guard trainee. During the night
firing session the school trainer asked me to shoot the .44. This so the
trainees could see what a revolver looked like in the dark compared to their
9 MM and .40 S&W semi-autos. There was stunned silence... eyes wide open and
some mouths hung open. Of course if I'd used the 4" .357 magnum or .38
Special it wouldn't have been so dramatic. ;~)

BTW, some of my other associates, upon seeing the muzzle flash from that gun
in daylight, nick named the gun "The Dragon." The name stuck... It's an
impractical defensive weapon but it does work well on whitetails.