I'll take it...

First outing today with my new Pedersoli Silhouette, topped with a 6x Malcolm.

Loaded up a bunch of test rounds with the Lyman 535 Postell, home made beeswax and olive oil lube, over 70 grains of Goex 2F with a .030" over powder card. Below are the first three rounds shot at 100 yards getting her sighted in. It's my second time shooting BPCR, let's just say I'm hooked and not going back.

.8 MOA with the first load, yeah, I'll take that. Rest of the shooting went about the same. Pretty cool to get that out of 150 year old technology with rounds made out of scrap wheel weights and constructed on a $30 Lee loader. I should have started this sooner.

https://preview.ibb.co/jeZqcQ/20170820_171748.jpg

https://preview.ibb.co/gRXMj5/20170820_192032.jpg

I have the same model and scope on a now discontinued 40/65 chambering.

This 10 shot group shot off a bench (6 into 0.76" )

http://i.imgur.com/bU8WVKz.jpg

Very impressive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice BAW! Wow. Mine's only 3 into .73, it would have opened up for sure at 10 rounds. Just waiting for the pan lube to harden and I'll get some more loaded up to fine tune things tomorrow.

I had .600 compression to get the 70 grains in there, sure is true that Goex likes being crushed. Will run them over a chrono, be interested to see what the SD and ES is.

My reloading kit is in another province, knocked those out with a volumetric measure and a Lee loader, Lee hand press to squish the powder and bell the mouths.

This is my Sharps collection T to B; 45/70, 45/90, 50/70, 50/90 and the 40/65

http://i.imgur.com/6KviTv1.jpg

Even the old 50/70 shows impressive groups with open sights and black powder.

http://i.imgur.com/7Rj84YX.jpg

flashman,
are those holes a little elongated, or is there something going on with lense distortion?
keep safe,
bruce.

Good eye Bruce... I'm chalking it up to the angle of the backer; a piece of drywall at a 30 deg angle. We have some austere ranges here in NS.

Now-Fire a 10 shot group(include CBS)and track each round fired.
LG

Welp, here I sit at the range, waiting a few minutes for the next shooters, figure they might like a go with the Sharps... er, Sharpses?

Loaded up another 100 of the 535 Postell last night. Didn't have a ton of time to devote to Sharps business, have a couple of muzzleloader to get sorted for the upcoming deer season.

Anyway, my plan was to do just that, fire some 10 round groups and see how they performed now that I had a good idea they'll shoot, and to see how long a string I could fire before things opened up with no wiping or blow tube.

Started putting those big chunks of lead down range, and boy did the first three rounds look promising, making a nice clover leaf. Two more, and it was a sweet circular pattern, almost perfectly punched out. Cool, says I. So I keep going. Get to ten, things are looking great, so we press on (the Sharps and I that is.)

Then there's a flyer. Way low and right. Huh. Ok, it's not my best shooting day, had one too many cups of coffee this morning. Back at it and the Pedersoli puts it into one of those holes, not sure which one. Then there's another flyer. Hm. Pretty sure it wasn't me this time. Guess she's getting dirty after a dozen or so rounds rapid. Another flyer, this time well off from the other two. Then another. So, I guess that's it, she's fouled. Pick her up to do some wiping, and that's when I felt the scope jiggle.

D'oh. The windage screw on the right side had loosened off. And the tube was slipping in the mount, despite being cranked down fiendishly tight, to the point I was going to bust threads.

Oh well. Another project it is. I suspected the Pedersoli Malcom mount would be a problem without the recoil stop, and it is. I'll lap the ring and try some double sided tape on the inside. Adding insult to insult, the target ripped apart as I was pulling it off. Oops.

https://preview.ibb.co/jaw8hQ/20170821_175926.jpg

https://preview.ibb.co/gDDcbk/20170821_194520.jpg
upload my pics

What are you doing for fouling control?

LG

Started with a wipe every shot, one damp, one dry.

Went down to a wipe every three shots.

Still have to make myself a blow tube.

It'd be nice to revisit on a day where I can be sure if it's me, the mount or the fouling, but even after a dozen plus rounds today I didn't see any noticeable change in group size. Fired three foulers before I started shooting for group, clean cold bore she prints a few inches high.

Fouling control has to be constant. Do it after every shot.
Make sure the chamber is bone dry.
Get that load out to 300yds.
LG

For sure. But the intent here isn't for target shooting, it's for moose shooting... So I need to know how it performs with no control. The answer appears to be good enough.

For target shooting, for sure I'd do it the same way for every shot.

The one thing I had to give up moving out east (Canada) is long range shooting. The closest range over 100 yards is a three hour drive away. It's like eastern Maine here, there's just not many places you can see over 100 yards, much less shoot. You can't target shoot on public land either, unless it's in a season for which you could use that calibre for hunting. Insane, but there it is. I think I have a Crown land spot where I can get 500 yards plus, but I have to research township bylaws first. Ontario, no problem, head up to my favourite power line and bang away out to 1000 yards. Oh well. Makes me very jealous of everyone with access to BLM lands down there... what a long range shooting paradise!

Been reloading and shooting jacketed smokeless long range since I was a teen, so like 25 years now? This is so much more fun. Wished I'd picked it up years ago. So much fun. Basically lost all my interest in smokeless... the $.30 per round cost, same as surplus 7.62x39 up here, doesn't hurt either.

Wow! Nice guns and nice groups.

OK-First you said anything about a 'hunting load'.
You want at least 5 shots without chambering issues then.
I would also crimp the hunting loads.
LG

Well, I guess really it's both... I was working up a load to hunt with, and target shooting as a secondary use. So, you know, is a load that you can use for target shooting but mainly hunt with a hunting load, a target load, or just a... load?
No issue with extended strings, banged out 20 as fast as I could load through the carbine and 15 or so thriugh the silhouette. They actually foul the throat a lot less than the 405 HBs, due to sitting so close to the throat they prevent any blow by I guess. But there's a huge and very noticeable difference between the two. Crimped 10 to test, accuracy was not good. Even without the crimp, they're in there plenty tight going by my unscientific "can I spin it" and "how hard is it to pull on a press" tests.

I suppose all the signs are saying abandon the 405s and just use one load for everything in all three rifles.

Those groups look pretty good to me. More than good enough for hunting anyway.