Interesting Range Session

[dmurphy317]

I got up early yesterday and went to the public range up on the mountain side here in Colorado Springs. Temps ranged from mid 60's to low 80's over the 4 hours I was shooting. I only shot at the 50 yard line so I could work on loads without walking so much. I have my Magbolt and Great Plains up here with me so both got some use. I started out working with the GPR 54 and some .535 PRB's. Spent my time working on powder levels of Pyro P from 80 up to 105 (max allowed for 3F), looks like 90 is giving the best groups with that combination, around 2". I chronoed all the loads for comparison. The 80 grain loads averaged around 1600fps, 90 grains was just under 1700fps, 100 grainsaround 1775fps, and 105 right at 1800fps. I also tried 777 3F at 100 grains and it averaged right at 1800fps but didn't group any better than P and had a bit of crud ring, bassically it didn't create enough of an increasein velocity or accuracy to justify the extra cost. With P I can shoot PRB all day long without swabbing and can still load the gun.

In the Magbolt I was trying out the new 460 Bull Shops .503's I got a few weeks ago. I wanted to compare them to the load I have for the 460NE's that shoot so well in my gun. I use 90 grains of 777 2F with the NE and get 1.5" groups at 100 yards with them at an average of 1470fps. The Bull Shops averaged 1430fps with the same load of powder. I did try them with and without a wad and it made no difference in accuracy or speed. One thing that I noticed was that the bullet could be shaken off the powder fairly easily in both a clean barrel and a fouled barrel after swabbing, not good. If I don't swab it stays put and I can shoot 8 or 10 without any real increase in loading pressure. I am lucky in this gun in that it does not seem to have a problem with the crud ring. Groups with the Bull Shops were right around 1.5" at 50 yards so I need to work on them a bit more to get that at 100 yards but they show a lot of promise. I may need to order some in .504's to see if they hold better and maybe shoot tighter groups too. Or I could try the teflon tape trick that some on here have used to tighen up the fit. One thing I found interesting was comparing 777 2F to 777 3F, the 3F averaged about 20fps slower than the 2F with the 460 bullet and90 grainsof powder. I figured they would be close but I expected the results to be the other way around.

Overall I was pleased with the results but still have some things to work on before hunting season. I have a little time as my elk hunt is in Dec.

[cayugad]

WOW!! excellent range report and it sounds like you had a great time to boot.

[HEAD0001]

WOW +1. It sounds like Triple 7 is not helping you alot? I wish they would quit making all the other powder's except BP. It is all too confusing. Tom.