I looked at the rack today and realized I had not shot my White Ultra Mag in .504 caliber in a long time. Since I intend to hunt the modern season with it, I threw the Nikon Pro Staff 2-7x32mm on it, and checked my notes. Sighted in for 75 yards... Well we would see.
I took out four kinds of powder and a brand new box of 500 grain Bull Shop conicals and a tin of RWS 1075 caps. The only thing I forgot was swabbing patches... but I figured who needs them with a White.
So I loaded up 70 grains of Triple Se7en 3f and a fiber wad, and that big conical slid down the barrel just perfect. Capped it and shot the first round on the clean barrel. That by the way is a 3X5 index card with some electrical tape on it. The first shot was good, so I just kept shooting.... That load looked pretty good.
Since shooting at the index card was kind of out of the question, I picked out a shipping marker on the box and took a shot. This time I left the wad off. I then aimed for that bullet hole and shot the rest of them. I still have not swabbed the barrel mind you. And the gun has fired perfect. That load worked pretty good as well although it hits a little to the left.
Now I looked in my range bag and found some dirty old swab patches. No solvent so I gave that a lick and discovered that black powder has a nasty taste to it... I swabbed the barrel and changed over to some Pyrodex P. Again I loaded 70 grains and my note book says no wad so.. I found a index card in the shooting bag and stole a little of the electrical tape off the other target and made a new index card target for the Pyrodex test.
The Pyrodex P shot perfect as usual, and really there was little fowling. Then for kicks, I loaded 120 grains of Graf's & Sons 3f powder and a 500 grain conical. I only took two shots. I marked them A and decided since I am not hunting elephant this year, I do not want to shoot those conicals with 120 grains of powder.
After that I broke out some pop cans and some REAL conicals I had lubed and sized down to .504. Those REAL with 60 grains of Pyrodex P are really accurate and fun to shoot. So I wasted a large number of them.
Finally I called it a day and went to clean the rifle. Breech plug was stuck tight. And I mean tight!!! So I put a cap on the end of the nipple and filled the barrel with hot soapy water and set it outside in the sun. Five minutes later I dumped it, and put the barrel lug in a vice and was finally able to turn it out. I have no idea why that breech plug got that tight. It never does that on my White, but I was glad I got it out. I was using Slick 50 one grease as my breech plug grease. Maybe it was the heat, or the extended firing.
Whites are not the new fancy rifles like people go after these days. They are old school open breech inlinerifles. But, I would not sell mine for the world. I can shoot all day, not have to swab, accuracy is outstanding, the bullets are cheap, and I can not think of any thing that would want to be on the receiving end of that conical. I think most my shots will be under 50 yards so if a deer steps out, I have a good chance of a solid hit...
old style inline but same great results
.
