Compression -- I'm now a believer

[mehavey]

Yesterday I had a friend give me some Swiss 1½ to play with, so I went to the web looking for what it liked as far
as loading/compression/wads/grease cookies in the 45-90 case. I found everything from load for "...little
if any... 2mm compression," to "... its likes to be compressed ½"...."

So today I went out and ran a100-Yd baseline against a Lyman 535 Postell #2alloy seated just short of the lands,
over a simple 0.062 Veg card & newpaper disc, set off by a naked Fed Match pistol primer:

73gr - no compression - 2" group

75gr - 0.095" compression - 1⁷/₈" group

78gr - 0.160" compression - 2¼" group

...then the heavens began to open as I finished the day....

81gr - 0.200" compression - this group: http://i45.tinypic.com/12550tl.jpg [smilie=w:

Needless to say, next weekend I'll see where the knee in this curve really is.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

If your interested in Accuracy, you will someday come around to compression.

Then again if your just into having fun. You will never learn much.

The Lunger
KW

[JeffinNZ]

I still maintain that the success is not as much that compression was used but that the 'load' for you rifle/bullet combination requires 81gr of powder. You just have to compress it to fit in the case.

[Whiterabbit]

that's testable! :)

[Don McDowell]

Yes like Kenny said at some point if you're interested in finding the accurate loads you'll be compressing powder. Just don't do it with the bullet , use a compression tool of some sort.
Because as Jeff said when you need more powder there's nothing left to do but compress it.

[montana_charlie]

Needless to say, next weekend I'll see where the knee in this curve really is.
You may not have worked your way up to the 'knee' yet ...

[mehavey]

"...may not have worked your way up to the 'knee' yet ... "Precisely. I have no idea where I am relative to where things start to fall apart again as loads increase.

[montana_charlie]

When you are compressing so much that your cases start to bulge ... making it hard to chamber them ... you have gone about as far as is reasonable.

You will probably have found a sweet load by then - maybe even two, at different levels of comfort.

[Don McDowell]

Precisely. I have no idea where I am relative to where things start to fall apart again as loads increase.

It's been my experience when you start compressing to much powder into the case you'll start opening the groups up.

[Lead pot]

And then when you think you got the cat by the tail you go out the next day with the same load and you cant keep it in the 10 ring.:?:?

[Gunlaker]

And then when you think you got the cat by the tail you go out the next day with the same load and you cant keep it in the 10 ring.:?:?

I've had that more than once [smilie=b: . I think that most of the time it's due to inconsistent handling of the rifle. Either bore condition or not holding hard enough. All of my .45 caliber rifles seem to really need a "kung fu death grip" to make them shoot well. If I don't pull the butt hard into my shoulder I'll have accuracy issues.

Chris.

[Lead pot]

Last Saturday my Daughter came out and wanted to shoot when she finished her hunters safety course so I set her up with the .45-70 Shloh I gave her and stood back and watched her to see why She was getting some oblique groups.
She was putting several shots on the target at 130 yards you could cover with a quarter then she would walk several shots and come right back again.
I got some tape out and taped a rolled up patch on the comb of the stock and I told her to shoulder the rifle and pull it in the pocket and get down and aim the rifle then I put some tape on her cheek over the rolled up patch and I told her to feel that patch under the tape I put on her cheek and remember this point when ever she pulls that rifle into the pocket.
Next I had her close her eyes and I said pull the rifle into the pocket and open your eyes to get her natural point of aim and she said it's way off to the right I said ok move your self around till you are on the target when you open your eyes and get a consistent tight grip on the wrist and shoot.
When all this was done she was cutting a 1 1/4" round single hole.

[Gunlaker]

That's one area where I know I need improvement. Getting the natural point of aim concept right really improved my off hand shooting. But I've got a ways to go as I sometimes get over confident, relax, and then pull one shot way left.

Chris.