Got a chance to put some lead downrange and am thoroughly confused...I'm shooting a 74 Shiloh Sharps 45-70. I tried two completely different loads.. first was a .442 400 gr cup base paper patch bullet, used no lube cookie, cardboard wad and 71.5 grains Swiss 3F(Avg Fps 1400.3 std Dev 6.69). The second load was the Gould 330 gr. grease groove bullet with 70 gr Swiss 2F and a cardboard wad(Avg Fps 1468.00 Std Dev 13.56).
As stated in other posts I have "old man eyes" and have great difficulty seeing the sights clearly... just got a EyePal in the mail yesterday and it helped quite a bit, but I struggled to see the target at 100 yds... the rifle came with a silver blade front and semi-buckhorn ladder sight on the rear... I shot both at 50 and 100 yds... all shots were low... about 3" @ 50 yds and 6" @ 100 yds... HERE IS MY DILEMMA... I think I would need a taller front sight, but how much taller... the distance between the front and rear is 24". Filing the notch in the rear sight deeper is not an option... It is silly to even try to do load development until I get something done with the sights.. the options are(as I see it... pun intented) get taller front sight and file it down to zero rifle @ 50yds with selected load,
consider putting a tang or midrange rear sight on(not sure if it would help clear up sight picture).. make a huge investment and put an appropriate scope on it.
Also, I was somewhat surprised by the velocity of the loads tested... the Gould was developed by moving back the bullet about .02 from the rifling and going with the compressed powder load that fit.. The paperpatched was just copying what someone else had used...not sure if it was right,,, found a lot of paper in the bore when cleaning after each shot...
I know it is a long post, but I should have titled something like, I can't see anything, cause my head is up my ... (butt)
Guess I got the front sight direction wrong.. If I shorten it, it should raise the point of aim.
HELP in