The recent posts on sidelock shooting by a couple of forum members got me itching to do a little sidelock shooting.
A couple of months ago I bought a box of .40 caliber 200 grain XTP's and Harvester 45/40 sabotsto to try in the .45 caliber Green Mountain barrel I have for the Renegade.
The barrel is the LRH (Long Range Hunter) model with a 1:30" twist. I have a Simmons4X ProDiamond scope mounted on it.
I planned to shoot a wide range of powder loads, so I figured I would go withthree-shot groups instead of my regular five-shot groups, and shoot everything over the chronograph.
Most of the shooting was at 50 yards to save on walking,and because I was mostly interested in getting velocity readings.
Just for the heck of it I started off with a real light charge of60 grains of T7 FFG. Here's the target.
With that heavy 1" .45 caliber barrel this load shot like a .22 rimfire. If the gun didn't go bang and make smoke you would hardly know it went off.
The velocity was right around what I expected - like a real hot pistol load, but the group was much larger that what I expected.
I wiped with one side of one alcohol patch between those shots, and all of the other shooting in this session.
The charge was increased to 70 grains for the next round. Here's the target.
Again, hardly any recoil and a100 fps jump in velocity. Man, I really like that ProDiamond scope. Gonna' have to mount one on the Renegade's .54 caliber slow twist barrel.
Upped the charge another 10 grains to 80 grains and shot three more.
OK! Another 100 fps jump in velocity and a pretty good group. Now we're getting into the range of a hunting load.
Recoil still pretty light, but at least you know you're shooting.
Next up - 90 grains. Here's the target.
I had a slight hangfire with shot #1. I don't think I moved but well could have. I wonder if I would have had a one-hole group without the hangfire.
Still a pretty good group though. Note that the velocity increased only around 30 fps over the 80 grain load. Looks like the barrel may be maxing out with 90 grains.
Onward to a 100 grain load.
WOW! Another 50+ fps jump in velocity and a pretty good group. Notice the velocity on shot #3. I have no idea what might
have caused that. I didn't notice anything different when seating the bullet. Anyway, that third shot kicked the hammer back
to half ****. Don't like that much. Also notice that the group is moving upward towards the top of the target.
OK, that looks like the maximum load - but I'm going to try 110 grains anyway. I'm not really worried about that thick-walled 1" barrel.
Here's the 110 grain target.
Shot #2 was off the target and I wanted to see what king of group this load produced. So I changed my aim point and shot three more.
Notice the HUGH jump in velocity over the 100 grain load. That should produce a real flat shooting load, but
every shot pushed the hammer
back to half ****. I don't think I'll be using this load.
Well, the 90 grain load gave me 1800 fps and pretty good accuracy. A 200 grain XTP at 1800 fps should do in a deer up to 150 yards, and that's
all I need. Let's try that load at 100 yards with a 5-shot group.
Here's the target.
That'll Do!
Those four holes at the top of the target make a 1 & 1/2" group. Even the low flyer only opens it up to 3".
During that 5-shot sequence I had a misfire. Replaced the cap and had another misfire. Then I put a little Pyrodex in the nipple and got the shot off.
That may have been the low shot, but I don't really know if it was.
Well, it's a nice day and I'm really enjoying shooting. So I figured I would try some Pyrodex RS under that same bullet.
I started off with 90 grains at 50 yards. Here's the target.
Ya` gotta like that group!
That90 grains of Pyrodex gave me 1730 fps with a low deviation from shot to shot.
That's almost exactly 100 fps less than the 90 grain T7 load.
Let's shoot three more with 100 grains of Pyrodex.
Another decent group. The 100 grain Pyrodex load produced about the same velocity as the 90 grain T7 load.
Well, now it's getting late. Time for one more round. So I put a target out at 100 yards and took five shots with the 90 grain Pyrodex load.
Here it is.
I don't know what happened here. Look at the velocity difference between the first two shots and the last three.
The group is nothing to brag about either. I was shooting pretty fast. Maybe the barrel reached a certain temperature
that caused it. Anyway, it was a fun shoot and I found a darn good hunting load for this barrel.
Sunday Afternoon Sidelock
