House-esteria Oh what a Relief

[Sabotloader]

I hate being cooped up in the house and today I decided to do something about gathered things up and headed to the Rock Pit...

I had no real set plan as to what I was going to do - I was just hoping the snow had melted back enough that I could even get there... but it really didn't matter - even the drive out into the woods was going to be good!

I was easily able to get into the Rock Pit so it was now going to be a great day!!!

Setup the things I needed to get my shoot in.  The rock pit is an excellent 100 yard shooting area and I had it all to myself.  I walked 8 clay pigeons down to the rock wall and set them up for shooting.  Got the portable bench set up and the loading equipment set up on the tailgate of the pick up.

Since I had shot the 45 the last time I shot whenever that was I decided to take my rifle season 50 cal. Knight Ultra-Lite for this trip. In this particular rifle I shoot 120 grains of T7-2f started with a W209 primer.  I also used one of my most favorite bullets, Lehigh/Knight .458x275 grain Bloodlines.  IMO - they are probably the best all around bullets made.  The rifle was scoped with a Redfield Revenge Hunter scope - 3x9x42 with Range Finding Accru-Ranger reticule.

I should also tell you the rifle is slightly modified from what you would get from Knight in that I have taken the super light Kevlar stock off and installed the rifle in a DISC Elite thumbhole stock.  It is a few ounces heavier but I really do like shooting a thumbhole stock - even when hunting.  I have also removed the Mountaineer style bolt with the primer rails on the nose of the bolt and substituted a DISC bolt with a primer adapter.  This setup is much easier for me to get primers in the right spot while hunting or even shooting a range session.

After I got everything set - I started shooting the clays... everything went along swimmingly - one shot one bird... When I was nearing the end I shot one of the upper birds and the debris from that bird dropped down onto a lower bird causing it to slide on the rock shelf and lay itself down almost flat.  The bird remained intact but looking at it through the scope it was going to be a difficult shot.  I could not hit the bird by shooting a little bit low as the rock shelf protected it from a low shot.  It would certainly be easy to shoot over it and hope maybe/possibly the splatter of the bullet or broken rock pieces might get the bird.  I decided I wanted to try to get the bird by actually shooting it... I had the black edge of the bird and a bit of the orange of the partially flat bird in the scope and thought it offered enough of a target that I could get the bird.  Took the shot and the bird was gone!! - literally.  I felt quite good with that shot...

So good... I looked through the scope at some bird bits to the right of where I had been shooting.  There were 4 chips that were easily seen through the scope.  I felt really good about my chances at 'chip shooting' - the shoot continued. Loaded up for more shots and cleaned up the chips....

Then it started snowing - not just a little bit as it had been doing but snowing! Packed up and headed out...  Tuesday is suppose to be a really nice day - maybe just maybe!!!!

Here are a couple of photo composites showing the trip....

[oneshot12]

  yep your still doing some mighty good shooten  there Sabot !  keep it up,  cant  wait till  can get out myself  an put some  lead down range here shortly   

[TC_outdoorsman]

Just curious, do you clean your barrel between shots? Do you get much variation between cold bore vs after you have shot a few? I was getting a pretty big variation between my first and second shots but I suppose it could have been the powerbelts that I was shooting.

On a separate note I recently acquired a used Austin & Halleck 320 or 420 (I am not sure how to tell), I think I saw on another forum that you used to shoot one. Did you have any favorite loads you shot with it? I saw you had been shooting .451/260 grain Nosler partition and .458/300 grain Nosler Partition. Do you remember which sabots you were using and powder? Any other information that may be useful for me to know?

[Sabotloader]

Just curious, do you clean your barrel between shots? Do you get much variation between cold bore vs after you have shot a few? I was getting a pretty big variation between my first and second shots but I suppose it could have been the powerbelts that I was shooting.

I do run a damp Windex patch after each shot because in the rifle I am using a 209 primer for ignition and will cause a small 'crud ring' buildup down by the BP.  But essentially I always shoot a semi fouled bore.  Usually - but not always - the variation from first shout to following shots should be very small.  Do you shoot 2-3 caps before shooting that first shot - this can help.  But another problem can be the bore oil that you use in the bore and the amount that may be there at the first shot.  I use a very thin type of oil that normally is not a problem.

On a separate note I recently acquired a used Austin & Halleck 320 or 420 (I am not sure how to tell), I think I saw on another forum that you used to shoot one. Did you have any favorite loads you shot with it? I saw you had been shooting .451/260 grain Nosler partition and .458/300 grain Nosler Partition. Do you remember which sabots you were using and powder? Any other information that may be useful for me to know?

The difference between the 320 and the 420 was basically in the stocks - the 420 came with a really nice wood stock and a black composite stock.  The 320 just had the black composite.

I did shoot noslers from mine also most likely with MMP HPH sabots either the HPH-24 for the 451's or MMP Orange 458x50 sabots for the 458 Noslers... T2-2f 100 grains. was my common load at that time today I would easily go with 110.

Send me your email address and I can send you a bunch of information - I still have a file folder for the A&H with targets and information.

mike

[TC_outdoorsman]

Great, I will send you a PM.