Trailblazer
03-05-2006, 09:41 PM
We had our club high power rifle silhouette match Saturday. It was pretty sloppy and greasy, having rained the night before, but we done it anyway. My main goal this match was to experiment with a globe sight facsimile I mocked up and an old Marbles tang sight I borrowed. I also loaded some of the HBC's for rams.
I have some inserts for the Lyman 17A globe sight but I don't have a sight. I wanted to see how it would work before I buy one. I cut a transverse slot in an old bead sight and then epoxied the narrow post insert for the 17A into the slot to give me the height of the low 17A which is .440". It held up through the match and worked fine so one Lyman 17A is on my purchase list.
The Marbles tang sight is one of the old ones with no windage adjustment. I didn't have the tang bolt so I used a through bolt with a nut to hold the sight on. I didn't drill and tap the front hole but the sight stayed in postion fairly well. I was trying to find out if the Marbles sights have enough elevation to get to 500 meters. It looks like it will make it, but just. The lack of windage adjustment was a pain. I shot two different loads and the second one prints to the right of the first one. Add in the wind coming from the left and I had to hold well off the targets to get close. To far off as I couldn't hold my elevation that far off target. The jury is still out on the Marbles tang sight. The new ones have windage adjustment but I don't know how much and the elevation is probably about the same, which is borderline so I haven't decided to get one yet.
I loaded the HBC at about 200 grains over 35 grains of WC852 for rams and loaded the Saeco 311 at 165 grains over the same 35 grains of WC852. I chronoed them after the match. The 165 Saeco averaged 1882 fps and the HBC averaged 1784 fps. Almost exactly 100 fps difference. The HBC shoots much flatter than the Saeco bullet even going 100 fps slower. Last match I used an additional 19.4 minutes of elevation to go from turkeys to rams while using the Saeco bullet for both. This match I used essentially the same elevation setting for the rams at 500 meters with the HBC as the turkeys at 385 meters with the Saeco. I only hit one ram with the HBC and it tipped right over. But as expected it shoots like ****. I shot a 10 shot group at 100 yards while clocking it. Nine of the ten went into a fairly round 4.4 inches and the tenth opened it to 6 inches. I will play with it some more because the flatter trajectory is a plus and it apparently is still carrying a good bit of energy at 500 meters. I sized them .311" in a Lee push through die even though this rifle seems to like .310". I don't have a .310" push through die so I need to adapt my Lyman .310" die to push through. I didn't crimp them either so I can try some with a crimp also. Beyond that are endless possibilities to try!
I didn't hit many targets but I climbed a little higher on the learning curve so all is good!
I have some inserts for the Lyman 17A globe sight but I don't have a sight. I wanted to see how it would work before I buy one. I cut a transverse slot in an old bead sight and then epoxied the narrow post insert for the 17A into the slot to give me the height of the low 17A which is .440". It held up through the match and worked fine so one Lyman 17A is on my purchase list.
The Marbles tang sight is one of the old ones with no windage adjustment. I didn't have the tang bolt so I used a through bolt with a nut to hold the sight on. I didn't drill and tap the front hole but the sight stayed in postion fairly well. I was trying to find out if the Marbles sights have enough elevation to get to 500 meters. It looks like it will make it, but just. The lack of windage adjustment was a pain. I shot two different loads and the second one prints to the right of the first one. Add in the wind coming from the left and I had to hold well off the targets to get close. To far off as I couldn't hold my elevation that far off target. The jury is still out on the Marbles tang sight. The new ones have windage adjustment but I don't know how much and the elevation is probably about the same, which is borderline so I haven't decided to get one yet.
I loaded the HBC at about 200 grains over 35 grains of WC852 for rams and loaded the Saeco 311 at 165 grains over the same 35 grains of WC852. I chronoed them after the match. The 165 Saeco averaged 1882 fps and the HBC averaged 1784 fps. Almost exactly 100 fps difference. The HBC shoots much flatter than the Saeco bullet even going 100 fps slower. Last match I used an additional 19.4 minutes of elevation to go from turkeys to rams while using the Saeco bullet for both. This match I used essentially the same elevation setting for the rams at 500 meters with the HBC as the turkeys at 385 meters with the Saeco. I only hit one ram with the HBC and it tipped right over. But as expected it shoots like ****. I shot a 10 shot group at 100 yards while clocking it. Nine of the ten went into a fairly round 4.4 inches and the tenth opened it to 6 inches. I will play with it some more because the flatter trajectory is a plus and it apparently is still carrying a good bit of energy at 500 meters. I sized them .311" in a Lee push through die even though this rifle seems to like .310". I don't have a .310" push through die so I need to adapt my Lyman .310" die to push through. I didn't crimp them either so I can try some with a crimp also. Beyond that are endless possibilities to try!
I didn't hit many targets but I climbed a little higher on the learning curve so all is good!