A Good day at the range today.

[country gent]

Went to a local shillouette match today and had a great day with decent results for first time out with some equipment. The rifle I have shot a few matches with ( Iron sights ladder rear and globe front) I have mounted one of my mva malcomn scopes on it instead of the mva sights. A new bullet was used for the first time an Old west desighned 547 grain called the shillouette. Rifle is chambered in 45-90 and has 34" barrel. Load used was 70 grns old ensford 1 1/2 f a .060 napa rubber fiber wad compressed .120 and bullet hand seated onto wad. Lube was SPG in all 3 grooves. 2 deep long breaths between shots. I had 100 yd and 200 yd zeros but nothing farther, only estimates for this load bullet combination. Only hit the first chicken offhand at 100 ( just couldnt find a steady solid position but was right around it close. At 200 yds we shoot the chicken targets again from the sticks. I got 9 out of the 10 here. Missed the second shot. Everything went on call. At 300 yds I hit 7 pigs out of the 10 Light was chnging mirage coming and goping light wind (10-12 mph) from 10-2 picked ing up here. Only 5 turkeys at 400 wind picked up a little more and mirage got heavy in a boil light was going from light to dark due to clouds. 7 rams at 500 yds I got into a solid position and really was happy with this stage. New bullet performed really well at distance and rifle scope load set up performed and made me look good LOL. I need to due some dryfire offhand work to get the offhand better. And with the zeros from today that will help alot. While 29 isnt my highest score It was good for a second place tie ( unfortunatly offhand was used for tie breaker) so I got third.

[pworley1]

Congratulations. Any day you get to shoot is a good day.

[Knarley]

Good job............Congrats
Knarley

[country gent]

One eye or ear opener was that 547 grn old west bullets performance. Several were shooting 500 grain + bullets in 45-70s on the line and The ring mu hits made was a much louder resounding ring. The chicken at 200 took 3 diffrent chickens to get thru the strings as the clevis pins broke after 2-3 hits. leaving them dangling from 1 chain. LOL.

[Lumpy grits]

Why only 70 grains?:kidding:
LG

[country gent]

Was the starting load in the work up and shot into 1 1/2-3 moa from start. It is plenty accurate and hits more than hard enough. And another p[lus is the lowered recoil on my end. It hit the chickens of off of the sticks hard enough to breack 2 clevisis holding them to the chains. ( we shoot swinging targets) I dont see a need to put the extra wear on the targets or me. If shooting standing targets I would probably up the load for rams at 500 yds. With the swinging targets the spotter only has to see the target move or hear the ring ( perferably both) to score the hit. My shooting partner shoots a high wall in 38-55 and at times seeing his hits move the rams or hearing the tink can be hard to do. But in all honesty I put the test loads together and shot them retested several times and didnt see the need for more power or accuracy. This is still an upper end 45-70 load here. Most shooting black in 45-70 are under this charge slightly with a 500 grn bullet. I was after accuracy and not total performance. Loud smokey misses dont up the score on the card.

[country gent]

Ops miss typed there, should have been 1 1/2-2 MOA when testing not 3 sorry

[Lumpy grits]

How much are you compressing with 70gn in a '90 case?
FWIW: I have run 80gn(weight)3F Goex, in my '90 with a PJ Creedmoor bullet for many years, and have been very pleased with what the target sez to me.
LG

[country gent]

With this bullet around .120 from dropped with a 3' drop tube. This bullet seats right around .670 deep from case mouth for my chamber and lead. Its not as much compression as some are running but its working for me. Also this 1 1/2f which rends to fill case higher with a lighter charge wieght. I havent chronogra[phed it yet but zeros from wensday match were withing 2 mins of what was predicted for 1300 fps and estimated bc ( used lyman postell bc of .402 for starting).

[Lumpy grits]

My '90 load is shown 1354fps ave from a 30" Shiloh bbl.
Run about 4-6fps ES for 10 shots.
LG

[country gent]

I have a 34" barrel on the hepburn but am estimating velocity around 1250 fps right now. I havent chronographed it yet. But its shooting so good its going to be hard to change much.

[Lumpy grits]

Why settle without knowledge?
I'm get'n 1250+fps out of my 34" Shiloh in .45-70, with 65gns of 3F Goex.
LG

[country gent]

Right now my old pact professional chrono graph is down and to old to be repaired. Im waiting to get a lab radar model where there is nothing in front of the firing line. Sometimes you have to work with what you have. Also if the load is performing and accuracy is acceptable, consistent and repeatable along with what you need use it and practice more. Seen guys struggling to find a load for NRA Service rifle that would shoot 1/2 moa accross the coarse ( 200 yds, 300 yds, and 600 yds.) even though it only took 2 moa to shoot a clean score. I made high master service rifle and match rifle across the coarse and long range with loads that shoot around 1 moa day un and day out. Accuracy usnt what the load does on one given group or day but what it does over any given day and many groups fired.Sometimes a load does perform exceptionally in one set of conditions and falls apart with a temp or humidity change. I have been testing this load for 3 months now with this new bullet and it has performed to the above mentioned all along. When I do get the new labradar unit I will be chronographing it though.

[Lumpy grits]

The target does all the talk'n for me. :lovebooli
I start my group shooting at 300 yds. If it looks good then I work my way out to 600yards.
The load I spoke of in the '90. I have been shooting for almost 5 yrs now. The .45-70 for over 10 yrs.
Funny you speak of a PACT crono-That's what I use.
LG

[country gent]

My old Pact Professional was purchased when the first came out with them. It finally gave up the ghost (The printer went first but thru memory I was okay). It was sent back twice for program up grades to the ballistics program and added bullets. It was a dang good unit. I like the way the Lab Radar unit looks nothing in front of the firing line and velocity reading from same shot at up to 5 diffrent ranges. This will allow for figuring BCs of various bullets also. Looking at a july delivery right now.

[Lumpy grits]

Mine's and old combo crono and timer.
Sent it back years ago when the battery wouldn't hold a chg.
PACT updated it to the throw away 9v battery and it's be run'n ever since.
I do make sure to always use a fresh battery when I do a crono session.
LG

[Don McDowell]

FWIW , when I got ahold of that first batch of Eynsford to test, 70 grs 1.5 in a 45-70 behind a 530 gr postel from my lyman mould, was running an average of 1219 fps.

[country gent]

Thanks for the input Don I appreciate the numbers, Im probably not far from that velocity with this. The Old West 547 grn bullet seems to be performing very well so far. Im very happy with wensdays results ( other than offhand).

[Don McDowell]

I would imagine the velocity is about the same in your load. In the other test I ran that day, 64 grs gave that same bullet an 1170 fps avg. Still plenty enough umph to uncork the rams.

[country gent]

Im not overly worried about the rams as a solid hit with that big bullet should do fine. But the string of chickens ( I did hit 9 of them) took 3 of the swinging target to complete. I shear the clevis pins in 2 of them. May have to make a donation of those small clevis to the club.

[Hiwall55]

Had a good day at the Milan Range today,first time there.they had a 33 Buffalo shoot,3 banks of 11 buffalo from 175 to 280 yards all spread out and a time of 6 minutes to shoot your 11 targets.great fun plus I got a 31 score. These weighed between 60 and 75 pounds. I got first place so that was the cream on top .

[Lumpy grits]

O-f-s!
LG

[country gent]

??? O-f-s ????

[country gent]

Sounds like good solid shooting HiWall. More details as to load and equipment used would be nice to go along with the above. At the one local range I shoot Shillouettes they have a buffalo shillouette hanging has 3 diffrent gongs to it main body, center and hanging all ring diffrent and scored diffrently. Its a side match costs a dollar to enter. We shoot it from the 400 yd line.

[Lumpy grits]

??? O-f-s ????

Out fri'kn standing--------
LG

[Hiwall55]

I shot my Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 with 68 grains of Swiss and a Brooks creedmoor at 520 grains. I had one hit that didn't fell a big buffalo on the last bank, I guessed 2minutes of elevation and had to put another minute in and knocked him down that last shot.that left one and no more shots. Oh well. All shooting was done of of sticks and no range finders were allowed. It was hard to guess the range because all were scattered about like a real herd. Anyway great fun at the range and another match tomorrow

[Don McDowell]

Have you thought about just shooting that "buffalo" herd just using the ladder sight on the barrel?

[Hiwall55]

No ladder sight, I put one of the last Badger barrels on it some years back. Had to use my Kermit Hoke sight. Missouri BPCR regionals next weekend, hope to get another workout then.