Bragging Time?

[Uncle R.]

:-D
1884 Trapdoor .45-70
RCBS 45-405 @422 grs.
Sized .458 & Gas Checked
Thompson Blue Angel Lube
W-W Case Rem. 9-1/2
60 grs. Volume Pyrodex Select R-S
(That charge is a full case - lightly compressed.)

This rifle mostly just hangs over the fireplace looking good. I'd shot it with black at 50 yards several years ago and remember that I was well pleased with the result - but I've never done any serious load work with it.
This year I loaded up twenty cartridges to take along deer hunting - just to let the guys lob 'em at yonder dead stump WAAaay over across the valley - just for grins. They fired a few rounds and decided that "Uncle R. is sure weird" and that was the end of that. :roll:
Saturday I took it to the range with the remaining ammo, and sand bagged it at 100 yards to see what it could do. The first two shots from a clean bore walked down the target, and then it started to group. I put four rounds into a cluster that I couldn't believe. It later measured at 1-1/8" and with iron sights and my aging eyes that's just incredible. I hated to fire that fifth shot, but with those tiny sights fading in and out and my eyes straining I finally squeezed it off. Sure enough it landed out of the group - for a final five shot group of 2-3/8" which I was still pretty happy with. [smilie=1:
I don't know a lot about BPCR but I'm thinking that's pretty good - right?
Uncle R.

[44man]

Me and my friend were shooting BPCR silhouette with Pyrocrap with some luck. Then one day I was spotting for him and seen flares go out in the grass and sit there and burn. Found out big chunks of Pyrocrap were shooting out without burning in the gun. We found the longer it was in the case, the more it shot out chunks. Fresh loads did not do it. We both switched back to blackpowder.
Pyrocrap is a great powder to start forest fires with.

[Uncle R.]

Yeah - it seems that Pyrodex ain't too popular on this board. As I wrote, I'm far from expert at BPCR. I chose the Pyrodex Select in an attempt to reduce or avoid the need for cleaning between shots, special lubes, blow tubing and all of the manipulations that I've read about shooters using in a quest for shot-to-shot uniformity during a long string. I have a little more experience with muzzle loading rifles, revolvers and shotguns - and using percussion cap ignition I prefer the real black - having found Pyrodex to be a PITA with frequent misfires and hangfires. I figured that a large rifle primer (even a 9-1/2) would light it up easily, and so it seems.
Obviously my limited shooting test doesn't prove anything, but it's mighty encouraging to see that old trapdoor making groups that some modern rifles couldn't match.
:-D
Uncle R.

[Buckshot]

..............Uncle R, not bad shooting a-tall. At 53 yo I feel your pain with working with iron sights at most any distance beyond arms length :-). Resolution just fades in and out.

..................Buckshot

[shooter575]

Uncle R,shooting any of them ol warhorses is a grin.Take that thing out to a public range when it is busy.Shoot groups like that and watch the modern boys have a hissey fit.Then pack up.Taint nothing better.:razz:

A few years ago in one of our former incarnations we did a our age post.I seem to recall that 60% or so were about 50 give or take a few.I was a few months younger than Ol Buckshot I do recall.Anyway most of us here feel the "old eyes"

[NickSS]

I usually use either straight black Powder or a duplex load with mostly black in the case. However, I did get a can of Pyrodex RS as a present from a young friend of mine so had to give it a try. I shot some up in my muzzle loader and then loaded up 50 rounds of 45-70 to shoot in one of my Shiloh Sharps rifles. I loaded a Lyman pb 405 gr slug that weighed 420 with my aloy, 65gr by volumn of pyrodex with a cardboard wad between the bullet and powder. This load was compressed almost .4 inches to seat the bullet. The ammo was only loaded for about a week before I shot it. Anyway, I was amaized at its accuracy. I fired six five shot groups from a sandbag rest at 100 yards and ended up with five ragged hole groups and one with two out high and three through a small cloverleaf. I then fired two 10 shot groups at the same range and ended up with groups well under 2 inches with both of them except one bad shot that I called which went four inches out of the group. I personally will continue to use black powder as I like the smell better and know that it is more consistent once I make a load up for each new lot I buy but if black goes the way of the dodo bird Pyrodex will work.

[Dale53]

When I was shooting "Cowboy", I won a can of Pyrodex Pistol. We were shooting on a "black powder only" range (but Pyrodex was allowed). I loaded up a bunch of .45 Colt Pyrodex loads and found that I was able to shoot 75 rounds before the gun started tying up and accuracy fell off. That is considerably more than I was able to do without cleaning using black. I was using Lyman's Cowboy 250 gr bullet (30-1) with Emmert's Home Mix lube.

PYrodex OR black powder are absolutely viable powders in the black powder Colt. With a 7.5 inch barrel it is no trick with Swiss black Powder to achieve 1000 fps. The "Old Boys" were not handicapped with the BP .45 Colt.

Dale53

[montana_charlie]

Take that thing out to a public range when it is busy.Shoot groups like that and watch the modern boys have a hissey fit.
I haven't fired on a public range in many years, but I did a bunch of that in Germany back in the 70's...shooting in muzzleloader matches.

One day, another club member and I were to meet a a local range on Hahn Air Base to do some practicing. I had my .45 T/C Hawken, and he had a new one in .50 caliber he wanted to get acquainted with. But, he had also brought along the 'longrifle' that he usually used in matches.
This gun wasn't the off-the-shelf type normally supplied by Dixie and Numrich back in those days. It was built 'for somebody' and my buddy got it because the original purchaser never completed the transaction. It was a Pennsylvania (rather than a Kentucky) flint pattern, and it was 'long'...noticeably longer than most. He had done some trigger work, and just wanted to test fire it a little.

We picked two adjoining benches at the range, and laid out our stuff with the Hawkens. Then we walked downrange to put up targets. During that walk, 'buddy' carried the flinter and (as he stood watching) I made a big deal about 'stepping over his barrel' as I moved around with the stapler.

Two positions to our left was a group of three G.I.s who were taking turns shooting one rifle. It was a scoped, bolt gun, and after each round of three shots, the guy with the poorest hit had to buy the next round of Heinekens (which only cost 20 cents back then).
Well they were a noisy bunch, and very proud of their shooting. On our trip down to the target line I had looked over their target and couldn't see anything which resembled a group...but they all seemed to be able to stay on the paper.

Back at the bench, 'buddy' made a big deal of loading and the process sucked in the beer drinkers. As he slowly (and carefully) went through the steps, the noisemakers were gathered around and heckling away.
When he was seated and the forearm was on the bag, he got his priming flask to fill the pan. That's when I asked if the front sight looked OK. Playing along, he pulled the gun back about a yard, licked his thumb, and brushed it across the back of the blade. That seemed to add energy to the heckling, and I think I heard something about Davey or Dan'l.

Well, when he finally fired that shot, I walked down to bring the target back for us to look at. I doubt that a bullet could have hit any closer to the center of the X.

The hecklers were absolutely silent...as 'buddy' put the rifle back in it's case saying, "Well, that one still shoots."

We went on to practice with the Hawkens for a while, and both guns did well. But it seemed that the party boys had lost most of their enthusiasm.
They seemed more content to stand around and watch, and the heckling never reappeared.

Funny how that goes...
CM

[Poygan]

Montana Charlie, A friend of mine used to shoot a muzzle loader at the Ramstein range and could be talked into friendly wagers with the folks with their scoped rifles. IIRC, he seldom lost any bets. He was also known to participate in friendly games of poker....

[straightshooter1]

IMO-and I am often mistaken, that great shootin' rifle will do better with black. I have had a little bit of success with Pyrodex, but always, at least for me, the black will do better and the felt recoil, again for me, is less.

Buckshot you sure are right about the eyes. I have a couple or three guns genuinely capable of incredible groups with open or aperture sights and, when the eyes are working right, they deliver.

The same guns, same loads, same shaky old geezer, but eyes not quite right and the groups are twice (or more) the size of the good ones.

Being just a bit older than you, and being diabetic, I have already had cataracts removed from both eyes. I think I will be able to shoot the open/aperture sights in the future despite the changes in resolution, BUT

I confess to hedging my bets by starting out at skeet and sporting clays. I don't kill a lot of the little clay darlings yet, but I'll bet they are scared when they see me coming.

Bob