Ever since I developed my 'ultimate' 44-40 load, I've been looking forward to trying it out at 200 yards. Although there was a bit of a breeze (20 km/hr or 12 mph), I couldn't stay away from the range any longer, so at lunch hour I slipped off for a quick shoot.
Rifle: An original Winchester Model 1873 chambered in 44 WCF (44-40) and received in the Warehouse August 1, 1889. It is in excellent, original condition, with a shiny, smooth bore with sharp rifling. I took a photo of this vintage '73 after the shoot, posted below ....
Load: 17.7 grains of 5744 with a pinch of cotton between the powder and the bullet to keep the powder against the primer.
Bullet: Accurate Molds 43-200B ordered to give a sized diameter of .431 ( http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-200B-D.png ) see photo below ...
and here's a photo of the bullet, pinch of cotton and case, to give you an idea of the amount of cotton I use. I don't weigh it. I just pinch off enough cotton to fill the space in the cartridge with the cotton lightly compressed between the bullet and the powder. ....
Shooting Setup: I set my shooting bag on a piece of 2 x 12 to give the right height. I rested my arm on the pillow. Here's a photo of the setup I used today ....
First Group (peep sticker on glasses):
For this first group, I stuck a small, round sticker about 1/4" in diameter with a 1/16" hole punched in the middle of it onto the front of the right lens of my glasses. This acts as a bit of a peep hole to sharpen up the rear sights for my 57 year-old eyes. This tended to make the front sight a bit more difficult to see. I raised the ramp under my rear sight two notches and fired a 'sighter'. I hit about an inch below the target, so raised the rear sight one more notch. I fired five shots and then headed down to check my target. Although I found the front sight difficult to see because the peep really reduced the contrast of the sight against the target, I got a five-shot group of 5 & 1/8" at 200 yards. I'm sure the rifle is capable of a group half that size, but it was the best I could do this particular day. Here's a photo of the target ....
Second Group (no peep sticker on glasses):
When I am hunting, I don't have a sticker on the lens of my glasses, so I figured I'd see how I could shoot without one. With no sticker, the front sight was easier to see but the rear sight notch was very, very blurry. I slowly fired off five rounds and went down to check my target. Very interesting! This time I got a five shot group of exactly 6" at 200 yards and the entire group was moved over about 3" to the right and about 4" down. I am sure this was due to a much blurrier rear sight notch, making the top and middle of the sight notch harder to figure out. I did find a consistent area within the blurry notch to put the front sight, since this second group is only 3/4" larger that the sticker-peep group, but obviously the sight picture has been altered due to the much blurrier rear sight notch. Here's a photo of the second no-peep sticker target .....
Concluding Thoughts: This fall, I'm planning to harvest a White Tail deer with this fine old classic. The load looks good enough out to 200 yards, but I will have to practice shooting without the sticker peep. Where I will be hunting, the shots are most likely to be less than 50 yards and no more than 100 yards. Nevertheless, I look forward to practicing at ranges between 50 and 200 yards this summer and fall. I think that with practice, I should be able to tighten up my 200 yard groups with no peep sticker on my glasses.
Rifle: An original Winchester Model 1873 chambered in 44 WCF (44-40) and received in the Warehouse August 1, 1889. It is in excellent, original condition, with a shiny, smooth bore with sharp rifling. I took a photo of this vintage '73 after the shoot, posted below ....
Load: 17.7 grains of 5744 with a pinch of cotton between the powder and the bullet to keep the powder against the primer.
Bullet: Accurate Molds 43-200B ordered to give a sized diameter of .431 ( http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=43-200B-D.png ) see photo below ...
and here's a photo of the bullet, pinch of cotton and case, to give you an idea of the amount of cotton I use. I don't weigh it. I just pinch off enough cotton to fill the space in the cartridge with the cotton lightly compressed between the bullet and the powder. ....
Shooting Setup: I set my shooting bag on a piece of 2 x 12 to give the right height. I rested my arm on the pillow. Here's a photo of the setup I used today ....
First Group (peep sticker on glasses):
For this first group, I stuck a small, round sticker about 1/4" in diameter with a 1/16" hole punched in the middle of it onto the front of the right lens of my glasses. This acts as a bit of a peep hole to sharpen up the rear sights for my 57 year-old eyes. This tended to make the front sight a bit more difficult to see. I raised the ramp under my rear sight two notches and fired a 'sighter'. I hit about an inch below the target, so raised the rear sight one more notch. I fired five shots and then headed down to check my target. Although I found the front sight difficult to see because the peep really reduced the contrast of the sight against the target, I got a five-shot group of 5 & 1/8" at 200 yards. I'm sure the rifle is capable of a group half that size, but it was the best I could do this particular day. Here's a photo of the target ....
Second Group (no peep sticker on glasses):
When I am hunting, I don't have a sticker on the lens of my glasses, so I figured I'd see how I could shoot without one. With no sticker, the front sight was easier to see but the rear sight notch was very, very blurry. I slowly fired off five rounds and went down to check my target. Very interesting! This time I got a five shot group of exactly 6" at 200 yards and the entire group was moved over about 3" to the right and about 4" down. I am sure this was due to a much blurrier rear sight notch, making the top and middle of the sight notch harder to figure out. I did find a consistent area within the blurry notch to put the front sight, since this second group is only 3/4" larger that the sticker-peep group, but obviously the sight picture has been altered due to the much blurrier rear sight notch. Here's a photo of the second no-peep sticker target .....
Concluding Thoughts: This fall, I'm planning to harvest a White Tail deer with this fine old classic. The load looks good enough out to 200 yards, but I will have to practice shooting without the sticker peep. Where I will be hunting, the shots are most likely to be less than 50 yards and no more than 100 yards. Nevertheless, I look forward to practicing at ranges between 50 and 200 yards this summer and fall. I think that with practice, I should be able to tighten up my 200 yard groups with no peep sticker on my glasses.
