First PPB shooting

[Claudius]

Today I tried to shoot at the distance of 200 meters the PP bullets sent me by Rob (rfd), they were conceived for his rifle, but they fitted well in my second newer Pedersoli Sharps. .444" slick, Seth Cole "canary" paper, 529gn and 16:1 alloy, 81gn swiss 1.5f, compression 1.5mm, bullets seated at 2.9mm, LDPE wads. The first fouling shot went high, the other 4 PP bullets went grouping well, considering that these PP bullets were conceived for Rob's rifle! Wiped the bore using 2 wet patches and 2 dry. I think that both solutions, DDEPP and uniform diameter PP bullets will give me excellent results.
Thanks again for your help, dear friends.

[rfd]

Very good, Claudio!

[flatsguide]

Claudius, good shooting on some of your targets and you are getting excellent advice as I have gotten also from the same fellows. I would look over your rifle and your sights to make sure everything is tight and secure with no loose mounting screws especially the stock mounting bolt. When you shoot how are you resting the gun. You may try to take the forend off. Please tell us what you shooting setup is.
Cheers Richard

[Claudius]

Hi Richard thank you for your advices, these are my 45/70 Pedersoli Sharps, they are identical except the stock. Everything should be tight there, but sometimes I have problems with the Pedersoli sights because they are not so well made.

I'm resting the barrel just after the forend, the stock rests on my shoulder and my hand.

[flatsguide]

Hi Claudius, “everything should be tight there” it should but I would make sure. I would suggest to try and remove all of the human error when testing loads. Use sand bags for both the barrel rest and butt stock rest. After loading and the rifle is resting on the bags and the Year sight is flipped up use finger pressure to one side or the other on the sight staff to make sure it is the same location shot to shot. It is my opinion that heavy recoiling rifles are very sensitive to any change of pressure from shot to shot and for best accuracy the rifleman needs to make sure it is held with the same grip, cheek pressure on the stock and same pressure and location on the sandbags. I’m sure you know this but it is good to say it as it makes me more conscious of it. I would look very closely for signs of leading after cleaning each time you shoot. With the .060 LDPE wad you are probably fine but I would still check for leading no matter how small for about ten shots, after that if there is no leading I would not worry about it. So eliminate as much as possible the human error, use sand bags front and rear front sand bag about 6 or 7 inches back from the muzzle. Eliminate as much as possible problems with the rifle, make sure the screws are tight, the sights are in the same position each time, remember the finger pressure and remove the forearm stock to eliminate the possibility that is effecting the shot placement. Only after the human error and problems inherent in the rifle are eliminated can one begin to find the most accurate load for that rifle. It is a nice accomplishment when it all comes together like this:

[Claudius]

I'm an "instinctive" shooter, I don't use any scope, just the sights you can see in the photo of my rifles. And I'm shooting at 200m only because your loads maybe perfect at 100m, but at 200m and above things change sometimes. In your other post here you mentioned the wind, that has strong influence on your accuracy, my range has often wind gusts at 5/10 kts, so when I'm unsatisfied with my shooting it's a wind's fault. In the last shooting sessions I understood that the bore wiping and the wads are very important. In the attached photo you can see a target at 200m with good 4 holes in the centre, the others were wind's fault.

[flatsguide]

Then you are all set Claudius, that center group is great and I’d say your ability, rifle and loads are all working. Good luck!
Cheers Richard

[Claudius]

Richard I'm not set at all because I have a lot of new things to learn, wind included.
In the attached photo you can see another target at 200m similar to the previous one with a lot of flyers and a very good central grouping. I used the GG Lyman Postell bullets and I have seen that with the PP bullets I get much less flyers.

[Claudius]

Today I had a very good day with the DDEPP bullets, found a better load and the 5 shots of 6 went in a 7 x 5.5cm group at 200m. Not bad, better than before.