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Author Topic: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit  (Read 2879 times)

Offline Sabotloader

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Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« on: September 11, 2017, 11:00:52 AM »
Sunday.... was suppose to be a cooler day here in north Idaho so I really wanted to get out and do some shooting.  In our current weather/fire conditions about the only place I feel confident shooting (to many years in the Forest Service) is the Rock Pit.  Basalt doesn't burn well and everything in contained in the interior of the rock pit.

Decided I wanted to do some sabotless western style shooting.  At first I taken the White Lightening out of the rack and was going to shoot it to get some velocities on the 50x270 bullet shown on the rifle.  It has really been a long time since I shot that rifle - even contemplated using this rifle during or Idaho ML season, Idaho rules are very limiting.  The Lehigh bullet shown would not be legal at that time but during rifle deer season - O ya!



Sunday when it came to go I changed my mind and went with the Western ULite and a 50x325 bullet.  This bullet often fits the bore without any modifications and the ones that do not just about fall down the barrel and do need a minor amount of knurling.  U-all would be surprised how little contact is need with the barrel to shoot accurately.

Again the goal was to collect some velocities to see how the bullet would graph out how the bullet would look when put through the ballistic calculator.

When I got to the pit I set up 4 birds on the rock wall at a 100 yards.  I wanted to shoot a couple of rounds to check hoe the rifle was shooting, it had been sighted in last year shooting the Lehigh/Bloodline 325's.  Loaded up a 120 grains of T7-2f, a MMP black sub-ridge, and 325.  Ignited the whole thing with a CCI #11 Mag cap (they are less expensive than the RWS Dyamint Nobel 1075+ placed on a Treso nipple that I had drilled the flash hole to .031 from the factory .028.  I really like the Treso nipple as the CCI fits very snug, the 1075+ even tighter making the breech water tight.  Hunting wet weather around here this is important to me.  It also, though, does create a small problem at the range.  After 6-7-8 shots the nipple post becomes so dirty the cap will not fit correctly and does not ignite reliably - so it is important at the range to clean the post after a few shots.

Back to the mission - my first shot on a cold clean barrel struck home without a problem.  Ran a moist patch and loaded a second round with the same results - bang - bird gone.  One thing I might mention the front sight on the rifle is an aftermarket setup.  A Williams Streamlined ramp, a Williams .343N Fire Sight and a Fire Sight Hood.  The Fire Sight completely covers the bird at 100 yards so I use a 6 O'clock hold placing the bird on top of the bead (actually slightly above) as the rifle is sighted in with a PBR that makes the bullet impact 2.5" high at 100.

After those two shots - set up the chrono off the muzzle of the rifle.  Took two more shots at the remaining birds on the wall and dispatched them.  Then to get some more shots in I walked 3 more birds down to the wall and got 3 more velocities.  The average velocity computed to 1848 fps.  Put the numbers through the Barnes Ballistic Calculator and printed this information sheet.



Seems like this should do the job for an open sight rifle through the ranges that I would normally shoot.

Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

Offline floatinghat

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2017, 07:46:00 AM »

" U-all would be surprised how little contact is need with the barrel to shoot accurately."

This always concerns/unnerves me.  I mountain bike in and always have the fear of the bullet seating changing due to vibration.  Losing accuracy and missing would be about my least concern.  How do you address this in the field?

Offline Sabotloader

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2017, 10:27:42 AM »

" U-all would be surprised how little contact is need with the barrel to shoot accurately."

This always concerns/unnerves me.  I mountain bike in and always have the fear of the bullet seating changing due to vibration.  Losing accuracy and missing would be about my least concern.  How do you address this in the field?

I guess I may have mislead you some - it is not so loose that I worry about it coming off the powder unless I were to drop the rifle on the muzzle.  But I would like to think I would be smart enough to check it.

Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

Offline floatinghat

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2017, 04:13:10 PM »

" U-all would be surprised how little contact is need with the barrel to shoot accurately."

This always concerns/unnerves me.  I mountain bike in and always have the fear of the bullet seating changing due to vibration.  Losing accuracy and missing would be about my least concern.  How do you address this in the field?

I guess I may have mislead you some - it is not so loose that I worry about it coming off the powder unless I were to drop the rifle on the muzzle.  But I would like to think I would be smart enough to check it.

I get you if walking, my fear is the jarring from the bike and seeing an animal where I have to take quick shot without time to reseat.   Although it's not a worry this season

Offline Sabotloader

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2017, 09:15:19 AM »
you are right is it is that loose - it does need to be tighten up both to keep it on the powder and probably so it can be accurate when shot!
Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

Offline JL

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2017, 09:13:02 PM »
Another great post Sabot. Thanks for sharing. I've been using 110 of FFFG instead of FFG and I'm not doing backflips over the recoil and accuracy. Do you think I should try the 2F?

Offline Duckslayer89

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2017, 10:04:12 PM »
Another great post Sabot. Thanks for sharing. I've been using 110 of FFFG instead of FFG and I'm not doing backflips over the recoil and accuracy. Do you think I should try the 2F?

I've been using 100 grains of 3f and i think it kicks harder than my 338

Offline Sabotloader

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Re: Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2017, 12:39:30 PM »
Another great post Sabot. Thanks for sharing. I've been using 110 of FFFG instead of FFG and I'm not doing backflips over the recoil and accuracy. Do you think I should try the 2F?

I've been using 100 grains of 3f and i think it kicks harder than my 338

I have been shooting all my life and I guess I have just grown recoil DEAF... I really think the ML that I am shooting kicks less than my 300 Win Mag.  So this load really does not bother me.  The sharp NOISE of the shot, to me, makes it sound like it is kicking harder.

I have also found that the use of a thumbhole stock seems to reduce the felt recoil a bunch as you thumb hole - thumb- collects a lot of the recoil.

I also use 3fff when shooting cap ignition, for the most part.  But the other day shooting across a chrono I found I lost a little bit of velocity with a heavy projectile - not much but definitely a loss.  I prefer the 3f for cleaner burning and easier ignition in rotten cold weather.

Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

 


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