Cream of Wheat, served HOT

[Czech_too]

I had picked up a new Pietta '58 New Model Army Target, .44 caliber, from Cabelas a couple of weeks ago. One the first outing with it I got the windage adjusted and pretty much settled on a 20 grain charge of FFFg. Problem was that the POI was several inches high. Today, rather than filing down the front sight, to adjust the POI, I decided to try adding some cream of wheat on top of the wad over the powder charge, then seating the RB. There was plenty of room in the cylinder chamber w/o the cream of wheat so that made for quite a 'leap' from the cylinder to the bbl. Got the Lee dippers out and started with .3cc's of cream of wheat. No change in POI. Went to .6cc, that dropped the POI a few inches. Things are looking promising here and there's still room in the cylinder chamber, so I go to .9cc's. That dropped the POI right into the black and I was able confirm it on the next five shots.

Just goes to show it pays to play around with the load.

By the way, I had already bottomed out the elevation on the rear sight. That would have made it to easy.

[KCSO]

Did your groupings tighten up any with the COW? Usually that will snug them up some too.

[bigted]

if you hits were too high ... then it be a good thing that you didn't file yer front sight as this woulda lifted the poi higher still.

that cow trick is sumptin I will try with my colt wanna-be's. if it drops the poi I would be a rather happy camper as I am looking at either dropping the hammer notch or building a higher front sight to drop poi into the aiming spot.

[Czech_too]

KSCO I can't say that the COW shrunk the group, so to speak. I had previously been able to keep them within the dia. of the bull, in this case 5 1/2" @ 25 yards but several inches high.

bigted One of these years I 'may' remember the 'formula' for all this but that's a subject for another thread.

[Czech_too]

Anyone else tried this by chance? The reason I ask is because I tried the same thing again last week and didn't get the same results. Not the first time I haven't been able to duplicate a previous experience, so I'll be the first one to say "You're full of it".

[waksupi]

Anyone else tried this by chance? The reason I ask is because I tried the same thing again last week and didn't get the same results. Not the first time I haven't been able to duplicate a previous experience, so I'll be the first one to say "You're full of it".

Nope, YOU are! [smilie=l:

[swathdiver]

Couple of months ago I fired 70 rounds with different combinations of powder, wads, cow, etc. The tightest 5 shot groups were with the ball closest to the cylinder mouth. 15grs of BP with 20grs of CoW or 35grs of BP with a wad. The best groups of all for that particular gun was the latter, at .88 inches. The former was 1.88".

[Omnivore]

Czech; If you can try it again, and get the same results, both with the COW and without, as before, using your best grip, aim and trigger control, then it's "verified".

Now; what physical properties of what, would be the cause of your POI shift I do not know. My WAG is that the COW results in a higher start pressure, which in turn would result in a faster, more complete burn of the powder inside the gun, which in turn would result in a higher launch speed, which in turn would result in less projectile-time-in-bore, which in turn will often result in less muzzle rise during launch. It has been observed that lower MVs (more time in the bore during launch) can result in a higher launch angle, and on that note you will see that handguns generally have "negative elevation" built into the sights, i.e. the front sight is higher over the bore than the rear when POA = POI, anyway. "Several inches" at 25 yards seems like a lot for the same projectile weight though, and anyway you'd have to chrono the two loads to test my theory. I have seen, in several instances, the POI from a modern rifle shift several inches at 100 yards with different factory loads (there and back, there and back again, repeatable) so such things do happen, for whatever the reason. That is why, when you find a load that shoots well in your gun, you stick with it. It is also good to know these things when you're trying to regulate a double rifle (or pistol) via load development. A different powder may react differently to the same change in the load too, I bet.