If I were more of a fisherman then this would be put off until later in the year, but shooting and hunting has always overridden my need to wet a line. The 45/70 1895 Cowboy's front sight was/is in need of attention, along with trials to test the CCI 250 Magnum primers I had picked up because LRP just aren't on the shelves and my supply of CCI 200 LRP is exceedingly low. Would the magnum primers throw off the grouping too much? Sunday afternoon was freed up to begin the research.
The Skinner Alaskan aperture peep is a quality piece, but I am not enamored with the wide Partridge post they sell for the front sight. In the past I've filed the top of the wide post to an A point and proceeded to do the same for this one before firing commenced. That helped. Not perfected yet, but better for the 100 yard target in front of the berm.
My normal load with the standard LRP was fired 3X's to give a baseline on Target One. Those are shots #1, 2 & 3 just inside the Bullseye and nearly touching at the 7 o'clock position. These are cast from an Accurate mold out of range scrap. That 7 or 8 year old mold, marked 460-405C (lubed, sized and GC'd at 420 grains) what Accurate has numbered on their online catalogue for this boolit now is 46-405A. This is a big, wide FN GC design but cycles through the action without a flaw and impacts deer with an audible smack. The grease grooves are full of WWL 2500.
The remainder of the holes in Target One were made with Powder Coated boolit over the CCI 250 Magnum LRP. Yes, I know, adding an other element into the testing was not a wise thing to do. This rifle just doesn't like PC baked on these boolits and this time was no different. But, the Chrony showed higher velocity readings with the PC and CCI 250's. That was interesting, as the gunpowder charge was exactly the same. The grouping wasn't promising, though. As the target shows, the shots were hitting much higher with PC / CCI 250 than the standard Greased CCI 200 holes. (My eyes at 100 yards was being stressed with the 3" bullseye) As I've run out of Hornady GC's a controlled group was marked S for Sage GC while the others H for Hornady GC. I keep them apart and marked on the target for comparison.
With ten greased boolits in the cartridge holder waiting their turn Target 2 was stapled onto the backstop. Again, the only thing different in this load was the use of the CCI 250 Magnum LRP. These greased projectiles were sized and gas checked with Hornady GC.
By this time in the evening my eyes were getting tired, but I did my best to touch off when the sight picture looked good with the front post toward the bottom of the black 4" bullseye. Shots 2, 4, 7 & 9 are in the top of the bull, while the others went high. Even though this isn't an impressively tight group once again the Marlin proved its preference for WLL 2500 over PC. If visual fatigue had not been a factor, and taking more time between shots was implemented this may have been a better display for my effort. The sun was falling fast, which kept the rate of shooting at a quicker pace.
The Chrony showed a 52 fps ES for these ten shots with an average of 1,601 fps. (1,573 to 1,625, with the highest and lowest velocities removed the mean average was still 1,601.88 fps) I had foolishly convinced myself this was a 1,700 fps loading, but the Chrony corrected that faulty thinking. Still, I've seen what this load will do to multiple whitetails over the years and don't feel under gunned for what they've been crafted for.
My biggest Take Away is that the stash of magnum primers will not be a detriment for this loading of H4227 with a tuff of Dacron cushioned between the charge and base of the boolit. I'm getting strongly temped to attach a quality slender little 1X4X20 scope to the receiver to really wring out the accuracy potential this lever action can provide. I see that Skinner now offers a pretty base for a scope that also hosts a peep sight. If any of you have used such a set up will it come up to the eye naturally for fast shots on game like the Skinner does?
This was a late Sunday afternoon well spent. Maybe I'll go fishing with my brother before the summer is over......