Paper patch testing at the silhouette range.
So Friday the local silhouette club was open for practice. I decided to test a few things out with my paper patch loads and I figured I would share my experience. The first thing I tried was shooting short brass. This was actually the second time I have tried this with the same results. Brass was .010-.015” short. I honestly could tell absolutely no difference in the way they shot compared to how the brass that fits my chamber exactly. Up until now I have been trimming after each firing but I may actually start trimming it a little shorter so that I don’t have to trim after each firing. I anneal after each firing and due to the way I have to size the mouth I do actually get some stretching after each firing which is why I am constantly trimming. Next up I tried a bullet that was about 20 grains lighter than the one I am shooting. Not only is it lighter. It is smaller. I had to use 9# onion skin paper. It was also cast from 20:1. I used the exact same powder charge though that I do with my other loads. So I sighted in on the rams with my heavier slower loads then went to the rail with the lighter bullet. Nocked down ram after ram. I kept going back from one bullet to the other without adjusting the sights. The hits were all in the same general area with the lighter bullet being about 1 min lower or less on the ram than the slower bullet was. The heavier bullets are going 1330. Not sure what the lighter bullets are going at with the Swiss loads I am shooting now but with OE they were going right at 1400 so I am assuming they are somewhat close. I only had 10 of the smaller bullets so it wasn’t a totally conclusive test but interesting none the less. I am going to try it again. So the next test I did was to put my old greaser load against my pp load. The greaser load is 120 FPS slower then my pp load. The wind and mirage were getting tricky as it was later in the day so I figure turkeys would be best way to see what the effect would be with the different bullets. Greaser load used a 540 grain creedmoore while the pp load is using a 536 grain elliptical. I got zeroed in and just held center on the turkey. Didn’t make any adjustments. The greasers were hit and miss. Horizontal stringing that I am assuming was coming from the variable winds and mirage but the paper patch loads were laying the turkeys down without much effort at all which is how they have pretty much been treating me all season. Just like with the other test I would shoot 2 of one bullet then switch over to the next and keep going back and forth between the 2 loads. The pp loads seem to eat the conditions much better than the greasers. The last test I did was to just send 1 damp arsenal patch down the bore over top of one of those Remington squeegee things. Didn’t dry the bore or anything. Just left it damp. Hit 7 turkeys in a row then missed one and went back over to the brushes and hit some more. I shoulda just kept doing the 1 patch thing a little while longer but by then I was running low on ammo anyways. So if your still with me here is a recap. The 20:1 bullets did better than I thought they would. Out of 10 shots fired they hit 9 rams and that sight setting was with the 536 bullet. Brass that is .010-.015 to short may actually be just fine for paper patch and silhouette or at least that does seem to be the case with my rifle. I am going to repeat all this stuff again. May try the short brass at a match next weekend and see how that turns out.
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