Great Plains FINALLY at 100 yards

frontier gander · 05-23-2008, 06:15 PM

Finally got the ol' .54 great plains flinter out at 100 yards today.

Weather, Just finished raining, drizzled off and on during the shoot out. Wasnt windy, which i was happy for. Very cool out, Mid 50's.

110g goex FFg, .018 Pillow ticking lubed with crisco,a tiny bit of olive oil and murphys oil soap.

.530 224g Powerbelt Round Ball.

First 2 shots above the bulls eye were my very first 2 shots. I was scared at that moment when i saw the group

Adjusted my sight down, Got 2 shots in the bulls eye, was happy with that group but it was still shooting to high.

Adjusted down and was real happy with the groups and the area they were hitting. "4 shot group" My last shot was a slight delay, i didnt wipe the wetness out of the pan "Learned my lesson on that"

As i was reloading , the sun just burst out from behind a mountain thats on the side of the house and just put a beautiful bright shine directly on my target that made it super easy to see the 3" black dot on the target.

My next 2 shots as you can see, did excellent due to the bright sun shining on my target and were directly center!

I wanted to take a 3rd shot but was to winded. I made the mistake of checking out a small field i cleared out some time ago and was happy to find 3 sets of deer tracks running through the small area. It'll be a hunting area one of these years!

Waaaaaay back there is my shooting bench. Everything of the left side, i am taking out another 8 to 10 feet and putting in clover/alfalfa mix and crab apple trees.

cayugad · 05-23-2008, 06:21 PM

Nice shooting there FG. It makes me believe all of us have a chance to shoot better.

I shot a flintlock today and I have to admit, I was trying a new bullet sabot combination, but I never shot so bad in my life. The rifle that normally layed them in a bulls eye was shooting four inches low at 50 yards. I checked the sights and they were tight. I checked the way I was swabbing and it was the same. All that I changed was from a .430 300 grain XTP to a .452 300 grain Barnes Expander. I figured with the excellent quality bullet like a Barnes, it would have grouped a lot better. When I shoot a 5 inch group at that distance, I am not having a good day.

frontier gander · 05-23-2008, 06:26 PM

Could also be the Powder. Pyrodex P in that Apex i had shot better with the tc maxiballs.

I need to get back to shooting at 100 yards so i can get back in touch. All this 50 and 70 yard shoot has my shooting eye all screwed up.

It was a fun day though.

I also learned now to put a cave of rocks behind that round ball. It turned the powerbelt gold nugget into powerbelt gold dust

I hate when that happens. Nothing worse than losing lead.

Tomorrow i will be setting up my bullet trap, i cant afford to be losing this stuff. Makes to darn good of a round ball!

Semisane · 05-23-2008, 07:59 PM

Nice shooting there gander. Every shot into "minute-of-boiler-room" on a deer, coyote, or hog.

I haven't pushed my .54 GP flinter up to 110 grains yet. Shot only one target with 105 grains and got a group three times the size of my 95 grain group, so I went back down instead of going up any more. That was on my first day with the flinter. Now that I've got a little experience with it under my belt I guess I should try some hotter loads again.

Have you tried .535 balls yet??

frontier gander · 05-23-2008, 09:51 PM

No, i dont plan on trying the .535's either. Its tight enough as it is. The .018 pillow ticking patches are really holding up real well with this. Probably could reuse them but hey, i have a whole sheet of the stuff

Bad news, Im running low on powder and will have to restock. Plan on buying a couple of 2f and a couple of 3f.

corey012778 · 05-23-2008, 09:57 PM

nice shooting thanks for the info on the apex.

Semisane · 05-23-2008, 10:12 PM

Quote:

No, i dont plan on trying the .535's either. Its tight enough as it is. The .018 pillow ticking patches are really holding up real well with this.

Just goes to show you how different barrels from the same manufacturer can be. Mine loads with .530 balls and .018 pillow tick fairly easily. Last session I used denim patches that measured .021/.022, depending on how I handled the caliper. I had to give the short starter a pretty firm bump to start the load, but they loaded fine. After discoveringhow much better my Zouave shot with .575 balls and a thin patch, instead of .570s, I figured I should try a larger ball in the .54GP with some .015 and some .018 patches. I've got some Hornady .535s on the way for a trial.

bronko22000 · 05-24-2008, 07:32 AM

Semi took the words right out of my mouth. Every one of them shots, even before the sight adjustment was "minute of deer". Too bad you are not closer than me. An guy that works with my friend quit ML hunting/shooting and he casted his own RBs. I have 5 - 3 lb coffee cans filled to the brim with 530" balls.
I'll never shoot 1/2 of them. I've been remelting some and casting 45 cal maxiballs and will also be casting some 50 cal REAL bullets with them. I figue I will still have about 7000 of more left.

oldsmellhound · 05-24-2008, 08:08 AM

Nice shooting gander! I'd say that the flinter is doing good. Interesting place for shooting you have too - for someone from the midwest it looks like another planet. Keep up the good work!

frontier gander · 05-24-2008, 10:21 AM

Looks to be a nice day out, so im going to take the mountain stalker out first and get that on sight. I'll have my sand trap set up before i go out, so i'll also be doing Powerbelt tests while sighting in.