I put fifteenrounds through the .45 GM LRH Renegade this morning - three five shot groups at 100 yards. It was a nice relaxing range session in perfect weather.
The shooting went slowly because I wascleaning and oilingthe barrel between each shot, and walking out to change the 100 yard target after each group.
Before starting the shoot I weighed out 15 charges of Triple 7 FFG and put them in Lane's powder tubes. The charges were 57 grains weight, which fills my Tru-View powder measure to the 80 grain volume mark.
I didn't get those famous one-inch groups, but I was pretty happy with the results.
Here's the first target shooting 200 grain .40 Hornady XTP HPs in Harvester 4540B sabots (the smooth sided ones)over that 80 grain volumecharge.
That shot at the top of the group, just under the 1" round dot, was the first shot of the group from a squeaky clean, cold, oiled barrel.
Then,I swabbed the bore with both sides of a very wet 91% alcohol patch, followed by both sides of a less wet alcohol patch, followed by a lightly oiled patch before loading the next charge.
I followed that swabbing/oiling routine for the entire shooting session.
This barrel has the 4x Simmons ProDiamond scope, which has 1/2" click adjustments at 100 yards. So I adjusted the scope five clicks up and shot another round with the same load. Here's the target.
Another two-inch group. The first two shots were the ones that hitthe one-inch dot. Man, was I grinning. I'm particularly happy that I've got a decent"clean barrel" shooter. I was also pleased to see that the click adjustments on that $40 ProDiamond were pretty reliable.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I was orienting the sabot upon loadingso that the lands aligned with the petals of the sabots, not the slots. Thiswas the first time I've tried that technique. I don't know if that made a difference, but the last time I shot these bullets in this gun I was getting four-inch groups. It's not a fair comparison though because those groups were with 85, 90 and 95 grains of Pyrodex P. So the powder may be what made the difference.
Anyway, I can sure hunt with a two-inch group. And several of you guys tell me the 200 grain .40XTP is a deer killer, so I'm good to go.
Just for the heck of it, I shot the last target with some 180 grain .40 XTPs that I had on hand for reloading.45 ACP rounds.
Here's the target with the 180s. The velocity jump was about what I expected, butI was surprised the POI was so close to the 200 grainers.
Shooting the .45 GM Renegade (Pretty Good But Not Great)
I'm a heavy bullet fan and lean toward the 300 grain Gold Dotsin my 50 calibers. I'm having a hard time building confidence in those40 caliber XTPs. My maximum shooting range is 175 yards. I'm comfortable with the 300 grainers out that far,but those tiny little 200s .....?????
