'74 Sharps 50 2 1/2 at 1200 yds.
I had a rather rewarding experience this afternoon. It's been so blasted hot here the past two months I fired my first rounds since about 60 days ago because we've had rain, rain, and more rain over the past few days and this afternoon it was running but 82F with cloudy sky which was most rewarding; not the hot boiling sun we've had for so long! I've been curious about how my C. Sharps 50 2 1/2 would perform with PP bullets from 1200 yards so yesterday I loaded up some 690 gr. PP bullets from a KAL mould using 114 grs. Swiss 1F with a .250" BM lube cookie and went to the range. It's been so muddy from all the rain I went down this morning on the 4 wheeler, used the weed whacker on the target mound as the Johnson grass was growing strongly and since I haven't had a chance to use Roundup on it....it had gotten rather 'jungle-like'! Had to go to the house and change clothes as when I got finished....my clothes were soaking wet from sweat! Boy...I LOVE LOUISIANA WEATHER!!:takinWiz::takinWiz::killingpc Didn't have a zero for 1200 but my 1000 yd. zero was 202 so I came up 50 pts. over that and first shot.....no hit on the 72"x72" mainframe! Had a good break so being suspicious that I had shot over....I came down 5 pts. and after a full 5 seconds got a BIG BONG back in sound. A look through the spotting scope showed a hit 4" above the bottom of the mainframe plate! Made a correction but too high as I got a hit just outside the 44" bull at 12 o/c. Came down 2 MOA and got a BONG.....low again at 6 o/clock about 6" outside the bull! Made a correction and got a BONG.....view through the scope showed a hit inside the 10 ring plate at 8 o/c! Wind picked up slightly and fired another...NO BONG that time and I feel sure that one went right because of a wind pickup! Fired two more rounds and those impacted right outside the bull at 11:30. Next two rounds fired I got another 10 in the 20" 10 ring plate and the last I fired went just outside the 10 ring about 2". My son drove up with my two grandsons just before I fired the last round and parked right beside my bench so I told him to turn his engine off and listen! Fired a round and a full 5 seconds later......BOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG!! Well....my son said...."Dad...mind if I try that?" I told him sit down and let 'er rip! After a slight bit of coaching on paying attention to using the spirit level inside the Distant Thunder front sight and how to place his chin slightly upon the comb of the stock....he fired a round and got a BOOOOONNNNNGGGGG!! He grinned big with that!! Couldn't take any photos of the target guys as I just wasn't going to drive my truck down the range road and screw the road up with ruts but here's a photo of my bench. It's one my son had made that I can pull anywhere on the range and the photo shows it a full 200 yards south of the 1000 yard firing line! Once upon a time I read a story about a guy getting crossed up on the plains with some Comanche but he quit shooting because he figured they were too far as he estimated the range at around 1200 yards. I wish that ole boy had been here today!
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