Testing Montana X in Idaho

sabotloader · 01-23-2009, 04:11 PM

Headed to the farm this afternoon - it was cold but needed to get out of the house - sides any time you can shoot it is a good day.

The purpose of the trip was another test of the Montana X-Treme Bore Conditioner. My goal this trip was not to run any patches between shots at all. I intended to shoot 10 shots in a row. The gun was my White U-Mag, I had alcohol cleaned out the bore early in December to remove the Slip 2000 bore oil that was in it. I dried the bore with compressed air and dry patches. I then ran one damp (not wet) patch of MX several stokes both sides. Then during the month and until now I would run a dry patch every couple of weeks - just as a check. Today is the first time the gun has been shot with MX in the bore.

Plans changed slightly on the shoot site, I got a case of cold feet a bit. I ran one dry patch both sides before shooting, then I popped two primers and re-ran the same patch once. Loaded the first shot and with the range rod in the gun attached a piece of tape around the rod for a witness mark to judge the rest of the shots.

Touched off #1 and it surprised the heck out of me - it went where it was suppose to - usually I do not even shoot the first one at the target cause it is a bit wild until the bore is fouled. Here is where I broke my plan - I ran the original dry patch again - felt nothing dropped right to the breech plug. Shot the next 4 shots - no problem loading and took another range rod picture after #5 was loaded. By now my confidence was growing - but after shot #5, it went high, I was ticked... Guess that didn't help the next few shots. All shots loaded fine after that and after I finished loading #10 took another picture of the range-rod. I was so confident about the bore - I decided to shoot 5 more shots using a good and proven bullet, cause I was still ticked at the first group. Shot 1, 2, 3 and I knew I should quit, because I started thinking about Semisane's ML rules. So #4 is all his fault I was thinking his name as I pulled the trigger. Since I ruined the group #5 went very easy. I really think I could have gone right on shooting without patching.

The last thing I did on site was to run the original dry patch in the barrel. No patching had been done between shots, except after #1 - ran it right to the bottom and out without problem - flipped it and ran it again. Took a picture of the patch...

Target SEMI stinks - but you get to see the bad with the good.

Here also is a picture record of the loading...

Still with all of this It seems to work for me, but who knows if it is answer to anything. I can say go 'buy it' yet - gotta do more testing - which means more shooting...

Old/New · 01-23-2009, 04:26 PM

"Target SEMI stinks - but you get to see the bad with the good."

Does the 10 shot group semi stink because you violated Semisane's rule?

Actually, if you measure it, it's not bad at all for a 10 shot 100yd group!

sabotloader · 01-23-2009, 04:34 PM

Old/New

Actually the 10 shot group our Semi did not have anything to do with it - the thought never popped up, but I hate pulling a shot. I know when you shoot ML you have those really good days and other times not so good. I wish I knew when it was going to be a good day...

The only reason Semi entered the picture I was bound and detirmined to shoot a good group after those wild shots in the 10 shoot group. I decided I was going to shoot aknow good bullet and 1-2-3 and three looked really darn good and i was feeling it... then Semi's rules entered the thought track - I knew I was going to ruin the group so I concentrated and pulled the gun tighter to make sure it wouldn't happen... end of story

cayugad · 01-23-2009, 05:14 PM

Well that's some good shooting.. those rifles can do it all. As for Semisane, I think he might still be thawing out. I heard it got real cold down his way (his idea of cold, not mine).

Breechplug · 01-23-2009, 05:58 PM

Nice Shooting Mike, anyday you can shoot is a good day! From what you showed us your results are very good using the MX, if we all could shoot 1" groups there would be no need for this forum, we'd just be talking about the game we harvested. WE need people like you to test the newest and bring us the best, so we can all enjoy and shoot better at what we all like to do. Thank's for your test results and keep-em comming.

hunting junkie · 01-23-2009, 06:20 PM

Good shooting sabotloader, i was just wondering if you shot this gun that many times before with out the mx,or if you didn't was the patch as clean as that one was when you shot how ever many times before?

BIG.PAUL · 01-23-2009, 06:27 PM

So what powder and bullet were you shooting?

sabotloader · 01-23-2009, 07:03 PM

BIG.PAUL

For the shoot I did this afternoon, I was shooting 100 grains of T7.

One of the bullets was a bulk bullet I bought someplace in a zip lock bag...
.451/300 grain jacketed bullet
MMP HPH-12 Sabot

The other one was a
.458/300 grain Sierra ProHunter
MMP HPH-.457-.458/50 Orange sabot

Those were just shoot at paper bullets... in that gun and for hunting I shoot either a .451/260 grain Nosler Partition HP for whitetail or a .458/300 grain Nosler Partition Protected Point for elk in the same sabotsmentioned above but the powder charged is raised a bit to 110 grains.

The other bullets I would use for hunting are either a Speer .452/250 grain Gold Dot for whitetail and a .452/300 grain Gold Dot for elk.

revpilot · 01-23-2009, 07:47 PM

Sabotloader,

Nice shooting as always, those tight groups seem to be acommon thing for you.....Sounds like there really mightbe something to this MX conditioner. Is that a bore protector i see on your ramrod under the tape in the end of the barrel ?????

sabotloader · 01-23-2009, 08:12 PM

revpilot

Quote:

Nice shooting as always, those tight groups seem to be acommon thing for you

Thank you buton a good day - I kin do betta, actually the gun can shoot a lot better than I can...

Quote:

Is that a bore protector i see on your ramrod under the tape in the end of the barrel ?????

It is - I use them on every ram-rod I have to protect the crown. The only time I do not have one in the field hunting and hopefully I will only reload once.