I’ve learned about the existence of this gun a long time ago from a friend, and ever since I wanted one. More than ten years later, an opportunity presented itself and I jumped the gun (pun intended).

So here it is, the legendary Ed Masaki Dragon, one of maybe 12 ever built. Don’t ask me how much I paid for it. Let’s just say, sending my son to college was a lot cheaper. Oh well, we only live nine times…

Shortly after purchasing it, I received an email from Dave Salyer, congratulating me for the purchase and providing a few recommendations. One of them was trying a rather unusual load of 160gr LSWC bullet over 3.7gr Alliant Bullseye. Since it doesn’t require any adjustments on my press (my standard load is 200gr LSWC over 3.7gr BE), I’m going to order some bullets from Brazos and give it a try.

I started testing the gun with my standard load of 200gr bullet over 3.7gr Bullseye. After dialing in the red dot I shot seven consecutive shots at 10 and X, then 8, then 10 again and my last shot was 7 at 6 o’clock.

The short line target fired at the timed fire cadence resulted in one rugged hole just left of the X ring and a couple of stray shots in the 8 ring at 9 o’clock. The recoil was very sharp, but light, it felt very similar to my Pardini HP, only a bit stronger.

Then I borrowed some 160gr over 3.4gr WST ammo from a friend, he said it was his short line load. Well, there was nothing on the box or the headstamp saying I cannot shoot it at 50 yards, so I fired 5 shots and got 49 with 1 X. The recoil felt a little bit less snappy, so overall this load looks promising.

The gun itself is tight – and I mean TIGHT! And the trigger, of course, is nothing short of amazing, even though I prefer a roll over crisp, I really liked how it feels, so I’m going to keep it this way.