The Great White Buffalo

Dogleg

Dogleg

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Where dem buffalo roam.
In our ongoing pursuit of avoiding work and have fun, we set this guy up yesterday at my range to shoot at with the Pedersoli rolling block and soon a few friend's Shiloh Sharps. 540 grain cast bullets from a Boomer Postell mould and 65 grains of Goex FF. It was basically the first chance to stretch it out a little because I was waiting for a MVA sight to show up. Not that 650 yards is much of a stretch, but it would have resembled work to get it to the 800 yard line. Can't have that.;) A little experimenting with sight inserts is going to be needed.





 
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A friend had it made about 5 years ago, after attending a shoot that had one. Since then its been sitting in his garage unshot, because he didn't have a place to put it. Eventually we got together, I had the range and he had the target. Story pretty much writes itself from there.

Its 1/4" and wouldn't be suitable for smokeless powder or likely even close range with the buffler guns.
 
Superbrad said:
That target is a little thin to hit when your bullet is going to be coming at it from an 80 degree downward angle...... :) ......

Looks like fun...... Buffalo gong.....
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I don't know what angle the bullets hit the target at, but it took 93 MOA to get from 100 yards to 650 yards. To my nitro-centric sensibilities it teeters on insane. That's a tad over 50 feet worth of come-ups.
 
The bullets hit at a much shallower angle than most people think. They feel like they have mortar like trajectories when you are cranking up the sights, but even at 1000 yards our rounds strike the target at less than ten degrees.

Chris.
 
Out of curiosity-just how loud of "bang" does plate this size make?
I use to shoot similar targets made out of 1/4 MS plate and when hit at 100 yrds with 30 cal lead projectile they were louder than shot itself.
We had to stop due to complains.
 
Dogleg said:
I don't know what angle the bullets hit the target at, but it took 93 MOA to get from 100 yards to 650 yards. To my nitro-centric sensibilities it teeters on insane. That's a tad over 50 feet worth of come-ups.
Click to expand...

lol...... That would be fun...... I used to play football and threw more than my share of Hail Marys back in the day....... :)
 
donor said:
Out of curiosity-just how loud of "bang" does plate this size make?
I use to shoot similar targets made out of 1/4 MS plate and when hit at 100 yrds with 30 cal lead projectile they were louder than shot itself.
We had to stop due to complains.
Click to expand...

I can barely hear hits at 650. There is all kinds of time to shoot, follow-through, take off your muffs, get the news from the spotter, make a sandwich, then finally everyone gets quiet to hear a tiny little "tink" sound. So much for big and slow. The same load on my 220 yard offhand plate makes a pretty decent whack, and barely swings a 12" gong on its chains at 330.
 
A lot of what you can hear depends on the wind direction it seems. I don't shoot a lot of steel, mostly NRA mid and long range matches on paper, but when we shoot the ram silhouettes at 500m they sound like a church bell and get hit pretty hard ( they are probably 40-50 lbs and have to be knocked off the rail to count ). We also have gongs out to 800m but they don't make nearly so much sound. I think the bottom of the gongs are often resting on the ground which kills the sound.

Chris.
 
you want to make a readily heard sound back to you get an old saw blade (the 5 or 6 ft dia. ones). The tempered steel will ring, easily heard at 800 yrds and with cast boolits they can be shot at close ranges as well without damaging the gong.
 
I've got some cheap Walker amplified ear-muffs that are some help hearing the hits. I quit using them long ago because as hearing protection they teetered on useless. With these comparatively quiet loads they are usable.
 
I was beginning to think you'd stolen the Old man's White Buffalo out of the field at home, but your buff is clearly a large cow. Dad's was 3/8" and didn't make a sound when it was hit, but it rested on the ground on sleepers and was propped up from behind with steel bars.

Banging away at these things is a great time. I think the mid-range trajectory of my Rolling Block with 500gr loads is something like 10 feet when shooting at Rams. It feels like a lot, but in reality, you're probably only inclining the barrel 3 or 4 degrees.

Maybe it's just the pic, but that rifle sure looks like a Rolling Block, not a Sharps.
 
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