1886 in the NRA Cowboy Lever silhouette Nationals

[Chill Wills]

I took the time this year to drive to New Mexico's Whittington Center to shoot in the NRA Lever Rifle Silhouette Nationals. It has been about a dozen or more years since I competed in them. This is a 200 meter match. Chickens at 50 meters, Pigs at 100 meters, Turkeys at 150 meters and Sheep (Rams) at 200 meters. Meters are about 10% longer than yards so 200 meters is about 219 yards.
Fun Fun Fun! The weather was mild and except for a brief downpour, you could not have ask for nicer conditions.

Being a last minute thing I had to poke around and use loaded ammo from other projects.
I found enough of one loading to use on turkeys and rams.
Another load for the Pigs and yet another for the 50m chickens

I have a Japaneses made 45-70 GOV 1886 Winchester rifle, not the take down and not the Browning. I purchased it new in 1999 to take the pressure off me putting SOOOO many rounds through my two real Winchester 45-70 GOV 1886's . I drilled and taped the receiver of the Jap Winchester soon after buying it to mount a receiver sight on it.

I thought I would share the details of the ammo here.

Here is a picture of the Large four cavity Lyman molds I use to cast 45 cal rifle bullets in mass. The top mold in the picture is Lyman's copy of the 405 gr RN gov bullet from 1873 and the second down is the Lyman copy of Marlin's 400 grain flat nosed lever rifle bullet.
I can make a lot of big bullets fast and a 20 lb lead pot empties before you want it to

For a chicken load, 15.5 grains of Trail Boss under the Lyman 457124 at about 1080 FPS
Pigs - 30 grains of IMR-4198 under the same Lyman 457124, 400grs in my alloy, for about 1350 FPS
Turkeys and Sheep used an unusual load but one that works outstanding accuracy wise.
It is 51.5 grains of IMR-4831 under the Lyman 457193 and accuracy really come together with the use of a Magnum primer. Standard primer loads would double the groups or even more at 200 meters. This bullet weighs about 420grs and exits the muzzle at 1375FPS. This is a near starting load that fills the case.

I am pretty rusty at this game and had no illusions about showing everyone how good I am I was there for fun and to get to be with a few old shooting friends. I shot the AA class with a 28 on day 1 and 30 on day 2. This is out of a 40 shot possible score.
The 45-70 is not a competitive choice and those shooting this game with the intent to do well are shooting faster lighter recoiling rifles like 30-30 Win and 32 Win special loaded to what ever level they think is a good combination of speed and lowest recoil. I on the other hand, had one of the few "45 cal. cannons" on the line. My targets jumped off the target stand when hit! Regardless of your choice of rifle and cartridge, this can be a good game for the cast bullet junky. ....like me.

In this game the 100 meter pigs are the gimme or the easy targets, and for some reason I did poorly on them both days hitting 7 for ten each time. Sheep at 200m went well the second day, and was the last target-set of the two day event. I must of had my head in the game finally and shot 8 of the ten ...and that felt good.

I think I want to get to the local match and shoot this game some more when the summer heat passes into fall and winter. I do much better in the cool and cold weather than heat.

[longbow]

Now that sounds like fun!

I'd figure a medium to large bore gun with cast boolits should be competitive at 200 yards. A .45-70 may not be the flattest shooting cartridge but 200 yards isn't real far either.

Sounds like a good shoot and good fun.

Longbow

[Baja_Traveler]

One of these days I'll get out to Raton, never have the vacation time so it may be another 10 years, when I retire. Shot a 35 in our monthly silhouette match last weekend with my Marlin Cowboy 45-70.

[Kev18]

Id like to maybe shoot some targets like that one day. I have an 86 in 40-82 from 1889. Do you need to knock down the targets or just hit them? I can imagine a 45cal heavy torpedo with low fps might have an arc at range.
There she is...

[Chill Wills]

Your Rifle is fine for this game. You have to knock them down and I am sure the old time standard load or today's equivalent would knock the rams off the target stands.
Reactive targets are fun! Not that shooting at rounds rings on paper is anything less, but the POW - CLANG and a large steel plate hitting the ground is very satisfying.
You have a great old rifle in a useful BP chambering. If the rifle barrel is up to it, a 3" group at 100 yards would be very competitive. Lesser accuracy is Okay too.
Assuming at least enough accuracy that the rifle could hit all the targets with a good hold when the trigger breaks, the game is ALL on the rifleman's offhand abilities. You stand on your hind legs and shoot like god intended a rifleman to do