This blind hog found an acorn!

[Gunlaker]

OK, maybe this won't be that impressive to you match shooters, but it sure makes me happy. And maybe the hog ain't so blind, given all of the information available on the Shiloh, BPCR, and this board :grin:

But I finally managed to find enough time to head back to the range with my C. Sharps .45-110 and shoot those paper patch loads at a longer distance. Unfortunately the farthest target stand we have is only at 230 yards.

(The odd holes in the 8 ring are rock chips from the guys firing smokeless magnums and spraying my target.)

The hole in the bull was my first shot and it was a trigger jerk so that's my fault. The remaining 8 shots went into 1.7" wide and 3.3" high. If I can tighten my vertical a bit I think I'll be onto something :grin:

The details are:
rifle: C. Sharps .45-110, Lee Shaver sights front and back.

load:
new Norma brass, trimmed to 2.875", partial sized (RCBS dies backed off 6 turns), and chamfered.
WLR primer, 100gr Goex Fg, wad stack comprised of 2 0.030" Veg King wads, a 0.15" lube cookie of 50/50 bees wax and olive oil, topped with another 0.030" Veg king wad.
The bullet is a Baco .444" money bullet in 20:1 alloy patched wet with Baco paper. Final diameter was 0.452". Finger seated into the case 0.10".

The good news is that there is room for improvement in some obvious areas:
1) I did not sort the bullets by weight.
2) my lube cookie was not of consistent thickness (I made it by pouring melted lube into very hot water and letting it cool), as it had bumps in the underside.
3) my patching technique could be more consistent.

Chris.

[SharpsShooter]

Gunlaker that looks purty dang good for a 230 yard group. Your wad stack would give me a headache to remember. Did ya use a blow tube or clean between shots?


SS

[Gunlaker]

Gunlaker that looks purty dang good for a 230 yard group. Your wad stack would give me a headache to remember. Did ya use a blow tube or clean between shots?


SS

Yeah, it is a bit funny. It started that way because I remembered that Kenny Wasserberger was telling someone that a 0.030" wad would not be enough (this was before I tried the lube cookie). Since I didn't have any 0.060" wads I tried 2 0.030" wads :-). That didn't work well at all, until someone (maybe Don McDowell?) recommended a lubed felt wad. Others said a lube cookie. So I just added that to my existing wads :-). I believe that Kenny Wasserberger uses a pretty complicated wad stack himself, and it sure seems to work. So basically I've just been copying ideas from other folks and arrived there. Guys like those, and Montana Charlie have definitely got me started on the right path.

BTW I wiped between shots. 2 wets, 1 dry, with a mix of Balistol and water.

Chris.

[montana_charlie]

Looks like you've got a handle on it.
I would be wondering why the patches come off in chunks, but if the rounds go into a small group it may not be important to find the reason.

I'm thinking your patch may be a little longer than necessary (goes too far out on the nose).
How wide is the strip you cut a patch out of?

If the patch starts out 1 inch wide, you might tuck a bit more under the base, if there's room. You don't want to fully close the 'hole'.

[Gunlaker]

Looks like you've got a handle on it.
I would be wondering why the patches come off in chunks, but if the rounds go into a small group it may not be important to find the reason.

I'm thinking your patch may be a little longer than necessary (goes too far out on the nose).
How wide is the strip you cut a patch out of?

If the patch starts out 1 inch wide, you might tuck a bit more under the base, if there's room. You don't want to fully close the 'hole'.

Yeah, my patches are the full width of my patch template. About 1.06" wide. The hole at the bottom isn't quite closed, you can see a tiny bit of the base on _most_ of my bullets. Although, like I say, I could be better at consistency :grin:

I surprised at how well this is going. I haven't even messed with different powder charges, primers, or anything much at all exept the wads. I'm really curious to see whether the huge difference in accuracy is entirely due to the very shallow seating depth, or whether that lube cookie is important.

The next batch is going to have more care taken for consistency in the patching (as well as weighing the bullets) and I'll see if I can shrink the vertical a tiny bit.

The funny part is that for the last while I've been playing mostly with my 1885 C. Sharps in .45-70. It'll do a bit better for vertical at the same distance than my .45-110 will, but I've never been able to get the horizontal where it should be. Sort of the opposite of this one. But overall, my .45-110 seems to be the more accurate rifle.

One of the things I wonder, is that maybe Goex Fg burns more consistently than Goex Cartridge. I do find it a bit trickier to evenly pour through the drop tube though.

I've got another off hand match next weekend, I'm going to try and load up a few PP bullets for the .45-70 and see if I can make them shoot well out of the 1885. I believe that their .45-110 chambers are potentially quite different than their .45-70 chambers. In my .45-70 the "freebore", if that's the correct usage of the word, is easily visible by the naked eye by peering into the chamber from the breech end. My .45-110 chamber looks completely different in that the rifling seems to appear almost immediately at the end of the chamber step.

Chris.

[John Boy]

Chris - a MOA or 2 to the right and that X ring wouldn't have had a chance for survival!:drinks:

[Doc Highwall]

Gunlaker, were you shooting off cross sticks and where were you resting the rifle.

[Gunlaker]

Gunlaker, were you shooting off cross sticks and where were you resting the rifle.

That was off of sand bags front and rear. I like to develop loads off of sand bags just to remove as many variables as possible. That group would be a bit bigger had it been off of sticks for sure.

Edit: and I was resting the rifle as close to the muzzle as possible. With the benches at my range that's around 1/2 way from the end of the forarm and the muzzle.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

Chris that's looking pretty good. I think before you go tweeking with the load, maybe try resting the gun in different spots.

[powderburnerr]

that was my thought ...........Dean

[Doc Highwall]

I agree with both powderburnerr and Don McDowell about testing the barrel in different places and is why I asked if you were shooting off cross sticks, it looks like vertical stringing from the barrel or forearm not resting in the right place.

[Gunlaker]

Well then that'll be the next thing I try :-)

I might make up a set of cross sticks for the bench, as my primary range has only 2 positions I can use cross sticks from (and only seated unfortunately due to the way the berms are layed out).

Chris.