Strange day at the range, really strange!

[oldracer]

Last Thursday I went to give my Pedersoli Gibbs rifle a bit of exercise since it has been a year since it has been out of the house! I usually shoot either 80 or 90 grains of FFG under a .060 card wad and a 540 grain grease groove Creedmoor pure lead bullet. I got set up and even remembered to pull up my note book to see the sight setting since I was only shooting to 100 yards this time. I have shoot at 200 and also 300 yards and the hits are always in a 4 inch circle on my home made "shoot-n-see" targets. The staff said it was set for 100 yards, so I loaded up, fired and nothing? No target and not even on the backer? A range officer said it looked like I hit over the top of the backer so I backed off the adjustment to what should have been 50 yards, nothing and still looks over the top. Next shot I aimed at the bottom of the backer and a hit but the hole was huge, a tumbling bullet it seems but at least it hit something, next shot slightly higher aim, NOTHING!

Then on of the ROs I know well came over and said did you know Doug died? No said I but I knew he had given up with his cancer treatment and a couple weeks ago I talked with him and he was very sick, only for a few minutes! Dammmmmm, three or four more shots and NO HITS so I decided to pack up and go home as loosing my mentor may have had an effect on me and my shooting, don't know so I'll try next week with one of Doug's Hawken 50 calibers I bought several years ago and see if I can do better?!
John

[Maven]

Very sorry to learn of the loss of your friend and mentor, or.

[oldracer]

Thanks for the reply. He taught me about 85% of what I know (I read a huge amount) about shooting black powder, building the rifles and pistol, doing many things such as making springs, fixing the cross hairs on my Unertl scope (he wouldn't try it but told me where to look for the instructions), trigger work, hammer work, stock finishing and above all shooting black powder well takes patience, lots of patience! When the family of Pilipino shooters, including the grand mother came over to see what the heck was making so much smoke, I took about 20 minutes explaining the whole idea of muzzle loading was about. I mentioned I spent 6 months with my first 45-70 Rolling Block getting the load developed so I could hit things at 300 yards, they came out with a huge burst of Tagalog and the dad said they all said they would never have that much patience! The had two beautiful girls and and I asked the mom how long did she take to have them and she laughed out loud......9 months of course. So I said many things you have to take your time with.......and the results are worth it, she had a huge smile on that note. I figure they'll get tired of the AR-15s in a few months and then......I gave them one of my cards in case!
John

[SeaMonkey]

The loss of old friends and mentors is always a very sad and depressing experience.

Heartfelt condolences.

May I ask which range in the area you shoot at?

[LAGS]

I feel sorry for the loss of your friend.
I too found out Saturday that a close friend and shooting buddy has cancer and when I saw him yesterday , he doesn't look to well.

[oldracer]

I shoot at the South Bay Rod and Gun Club in Dulzura CA. It is at the end (nearly the end) or Moron Road off of Highway 94. If you look on Mapquest.com and follow highway 94 and then go South on Marron Valley Road you will eventually see a large multi part cleared area and that is the range. It is an old image as there shows buildings that have been removed and doesn't show the covers on the smaller ranges.
John

I am getting an imuno-therapy drug called Libtayo which is not hitting me too badly but it has killed off the lung cancer areas in my left lung. A dose every three weeks and Medicare pays $6,000 for each one!
John

[LAGS]

Good luck on your treatment.
I did loose my dad to lung cancer two years ago.

[LoveND]

Which Doug are you talking about?

[oldracer]

That was Doug Knoell, one time record holder of the tightest 200 yard off have group with a Schuetzen rifle and also national champion with his home built 45-70 Sharps. He told me a story that shows how gullible some shooters can be. There was a fellow he beat several times usually by only 1 point or maybe 2. He pestered Doug to find what he was doing as he had the same cases, same powder, same load, same powder compression, newspaper wad under a milk carton wad and same bullet lubed with Doug's lube even. So Doug said well how are you putting in the milk carton wad, the guy said he didn't know so he was told that any printing HAD to be face UP or else poor shots.......When he told me he laughed and said it doesn't matter a bit!

He was a real wizard with his mill machine as he cut those parts for a Sharps, mounted the barrel and did all the wood work. I think his son has the rifle now?
John

[indian joe]

That was Doug Knoell, one time record holder of the tightest 200 yard off have group with a Schuetzen rifle and also national champion with his home built 45-70 Sharps. He told me a story that shows how gullible some shooters can be. There was a fellow he beat several times usually by only 1 point or maybe 2. He pestered Doug to find what he was doing as he had the same cases, same powder, same load, same powder compression, newspaper wad under a milk carton wad and same bullet lubed with Doug's lube even. So Doug said well how are you putting in the milk carton wad, the guy said he didn't know so he was told that any printing HAD to be face UP or else poor shots.......When he told me he laughed and said it doesn't matter a bit!

He was a real wizard with his mill machine as he cut those parts for a Sharps, mounted the barrel and did all the wood work. I think his son has the rifle now?
John

Would you take a bet that your mate Doug did not put his milk carton wads in the same way each time ??
Most fellers that shoot that well are absolutely consistent with the way they do stuff (even if they seem to be not thinking about it) - wouldnt matter which way up - but I bet he put em same way each time when he was shooting for the money?

[oldracer]

Another funny story he told me was at a big match at the range in New Mexico and at lunch time he finished his food/drinks so his cooler was empty and he dumped the ice a tad bit in front of his shooting spot. After a cease fire when he starting shooting again he just couldn't miss! Guess what....the next morning more than half the shooter had a pile of crushed ice in front of their shooting spots! He told me he won anyways!
John

[indian joe]

Another funny story he told me was at a big match at the range in New Mexico and at lunch time he finished his food/drinks so his cooler was empty and he dumped the ice a tad bit in front of his shooting spot. After a cease fire when he starting shooting again he just couldn't miss! Guess what....the next morning more than half the shooter had a pile of crushed ice in front of their shooting spots! He told me he won anyways!
John

[oldracer]

Well the 12.5 BNH bullets were the problem. I molded some pure lead bullets both in a 540 grain BACO Creedmoor mold and some 520 grain bullets with the Pedersoli mold and they tested at 6.1BNH. I also fired two rifles, an underhammer I built several years ago and also the Pedersoli Gibbs that started all this. They hit right in the center of my 8.5x11 home made shoot-n-see target. I have a couple hundred pounds of sailboat ballast which I need to cut up and then break out my big melting rig to make a bunch of ingots. I thing the harder ingots had some linotype added but I have about 100 to test and I plan to label each ingot.
John

[carbine]

Thanks for the follow up