Our club held its annual summer shoot-off and picnic this weekend. One of the competitions was to shoot at a target with a bingo sheet pasted on the backside: the score was to be obstained by adding the punctured bingo-table entries. This obviously favoured a gun with a healthy spread, so I unsuspectingly took some handloads for my Swedish m1867 rolling block, caliber 12.7x44, thinking they would do the trick.
I put up two targets at 100 yds, one with the bingo sheet, the other without to serve as a sighter target, but then forgot which was which.
I fired 6 shots from a table (short sleeves, bare elbows on plywood, no cushions or sandbags!), then looked through the scope. Nothing. A ceasefire was called, so I walked up to the berm, and realized I'd been hitting my bingo target, all 6 shots in one ragged hole in the black. So much for the spread:
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/nilsek/media/Metmans%20diverse/100yd_bingo_target_127x44_zpsd1535337.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
The other 4 shots were less successful: being a good sport I tried to move around the target to get a better bingo score, to no avail:
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/nilsek/media/Metmans%20diverse/100yd_bingo_target_127x44_backside_zpsd08c1f0f.jpg .html?sort=3&o=0
What was surprising is that it was not a particularly carefully-loaded set of 10 cartridges:
Lebel 8mm brass, fire-formed and cut to 40-41mm (mistakenly too short - these were defective brass that I loaded anyway)
CCI Magnum Rifle primers
3.1cc Pyrodex RS, lightly pressed (with the end of a fired 303 Brit shell)
milk carton wad
~2mm Crisco-beeswax cookie
450grain round-nose bullet (cast using Lee 50-70 mold)
My theory is that the Pyrodex load was not as sensitive to the poorly-sized brass as would be a smokeless load. With smokeless powder, consistency in the OAL and crimp would be critical since they will affect burn rate, thence pressure, thence trajectory.
I have to add that I've added target sights to the rifle, a front globe (home-made from a 1" scope ring and an old BSA sight) and a rear Pedersoli tang sight. My eyes are hopeless with open sights.
I put up two targets at 100 yds, one with the bingo sheet, the other without to serve as a sighter target, but then forgot which was which.
I fired 6 shots from a table (short sleeves, bare elbows on plywood, no cushions or sandbags!), then looked through the scope. Nothing. A ceasefire was called, so I walked up to the berm, and realized I'd been hitting my bingo target, all 6 shots in one ragged hole in the black. So much for the spread:
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/nilsek/media/Metmans%20diverse/100yd_bingo_target_127x44_zpsd1535337.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
The other 4 shots were less successful: being a good sport I tried to move around the target to get a better bingo score, to no avail:
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/nilsek/media/Metmans%20diverse/100yd_bingo_target_127x44_backside_zpsd08c1f0f.jpg .html?sort=3&o=0
What was surprising is that it was not a particularly carefully-loaded set of 10 cartridges:
Lebel 8mm brass, fire-formed and cut to 40-41mm (mistakenly too short - these were defective brass that I loaded anyway)
CCI Magnum Rifle primers
3.1cc Pyrodex RS, lightly pressed (with the end of a fired 303 Brit shell)
milk carton wad
~2mm Crisco-beeswax cookie
450grain round-nose bullet (cast using Lee 50-70 mold)
My theory is that the Pyrodex load was not as sensitive to the poorly-sized brass as would be a smokeless load. With smokeless powder, consistency in the OAL and crimp would be critical since they will affect burn rate, thence pressure, thence trajectory.
I have to add that I've added target sights to the rifle, a front globe (home-made from a 1" scope ring and an old BSA sight) and a rear Pedersoli tang sight. My eyes are hopeless with open sights.
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