this weekend both Saturday and Sunday - relieving my concerns about fire from shooting - what welcome relief!!!!
Naturally I was excited and wanted to go shoot! Checked out both farm site locations Sunday and both farms the field was full of dry ripe Garbanzo beans that have not been harvested - The Rock Pit became the next place on the list...
Headed to the Rock Pit this morning, go there early enough to get some cool weather shooting in. It really a soul remedy! It just felt good.
Took a Knight Ultra-Lite - 50 cal SS with Redfield 3x9x42 scope. Got to the pit and got things set up. 100 yards to the rock wall, 6 birds were placed on the wall.
Set up the work area on the tailgate of the pickup
I was loading two different bullets in MMP HPH-24 sabots. The first bullet is the bullet I would prefer to use on Elk during our rifle season. It is a Lehigh .452x265 CF-HP. This bullet has in the past proved to be more than reliable and definitly accurate.
The second bullet is for me a really great bullet deer bullet anywhere from 0 to 200-250 yards. Again wow! for accuracy and Terminal performance. It is a Lehigh .451x230CH-HP. Note that is a .451 - it loads great in tight 50 cal bore rifles like the CVA's, Traditions, and even some TC's. It also loads well in my Knights. The other advantage of this bullet that some sidelock shooters might want to take advantage of is that it is short enough that it will shoot accurately from a 1-48 twist percussion rifle.
For myself this bullet has kinda changed my mind about shooting a 45 cal. rifle. I do not have the need for an ultra long range ML here in northern Idaho so my need for the long range 45 is not there.
My first two shots loaded with 120gr. (V) BH-209 were shot at the two left hand birds on the rock wall. Two shots with the 265 gr bullets - two birds gone...
In my mind after these two shots - it really wasn't that much fun or skill needed to shoot the full sized birds at 100 yards on the wall. While picking on the the full sized birds I did notice several chips of birds on the wall in various places. I just thought 'what the heck' lets make this a little more fun and start shooting chips.
I loaded up one more 265 grain bullet - looked for a chip on the wall and spotted a 'bird chip' on the upper ledge of the rock wall. The chip was to be my next target. Moved and adjusted the bench and the rests to get me on the target. Bang! chip was history!
Ok so the 265's were doing what they were suppose to so I made the switch to the 230's... I really like these bullets!
I located another bunch of chips up and to the right of the 6 bird setup and they became my 'targets of opprtunity' for the next series of shots. I was becoming a bit concerned because the ambient temperature was moving up quickly. The long sleeve shirt I was wearing was way to warm - pulled it off and really wished that I had not worn regular long pants, but I wanted to do more shooting.
Move the bench again an got setup on the chips.... I had a little concern shooting the small chips, because the rifle was sighted in with the 265's so I wasn't real sure what the elevation change might be. I decided I would just use the same sight picture through the scope. Well it worked!
I hope you can see the chips in this picture... and in the second picture you do not see them or the rest of the birds...
Spent Winchester W-209's...
