I took a couple rifles out to the range today to see how they were going to behave. I checked notes and wanted to get back to just basic loads that I know works. Notes are a great thing. I wanted to try some conicals in my Thompson Center Black Mountain Magnum and I wanted to shake apart that cheap scope I threw on my Wolverine LK-II. The Wolverine has a Simmons 2.5X20mm scope is all. I know that Wolverine is a basic Knight rifle, and it likes basic loads like a .44 caliber 300 grain XTP and 80 grains of Pyrodex Rs. I also checked my notes and saw that under the Wolverine there was a notation of
WOW for the 300 grain Hornady SST in the supplied sabot with 90 grains of Triple Se7en 2f.
The Black Mountain Magnum being a Thompson Center, I wanted to shoot some maxiball and some 250 grain Saber Tooth conicals. So I started with the 250 grain Saber Tooth and aimed at the center bulls eye. The upper right corner shows what the rifle is capable of. I was kind of pleased as of late, I have problems with fiber optic open sights.. All this shooting was done at 40 yards as that is the distance I might be forced to shoot out in the woods. I was real pleased. The shocker in the lower left corner was the maxi ball. I lubed them with a soft lube I made up. I only loaded 70 grains of Triple Se7en with a wad. The accuracy was outstanding but I could not figure why they were shooting so low. They were basically shooting a true full cover sight hold. Where that front sight was is where it hit. I could live with this if I had to.
So I taped the target up and got out my little Wolverine. I loaded the 300 grain Hornady SST's with 90 grains of Triple Se7en (upper right corner) and to say I was shocked at the accuracy was an understatement. This little scope really was holding true. I was swabbing between shots because these sabots loaded hard. SO for the 300 grain XTP's I got out some green Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. I loaded 90 grains of Pyrodex Rs and shot that group (lower right) without swabbing at all. They loaded easy, and the accuracy was amazing. Other then the first shot on a clean barrel I shot three of them and it was a hole. So to prove I could do better I shot five more making that mess in the center of the target. Again at 40 yards.
After that I did some off hand shooting and knocked holes in the target and also discovered just how bad I was off hand. I shot off some shooting sticks as well. All in all both these rifles are ready should the call come down opening day to hit the hunting trail...
Back to some basics...
