What a great day for shooting. Sixty five degrees of sunshine (
Sorry snowbound guys. 
), a blue blue cloudless sky, and a gentle breeze you could just barely feel kissing you cheek. Besides that, the other guys have left the camp and I have the rifle range to myself.
In my post last week on the first range session with the .50 Sinful Sister (
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/blac...-renegade.html)
Sabotloader suggested that the 300 grain Gold Dots needed more velocity to stabilize. So I kicked it up a little today.
I started off with a 75 yard / 5-shot group with
105 grains of Triple Seven. That load ought to be quite a bit faster than the 75, 85 and 95 grain charges of GOEX that I shot in the last outing. Recoil was certainly a little more noticeable.
Here's what I got.
That overall group is larger than I got with any of the GOEX loads.
But what's with the vertical stringing? Does anyone want to take a guess at that??? I shot two fouling shots before the first shot on target, and wiped the bore with both sides of a fairly wet alcohol patch between every shot. The second side of the patch came out almost clean, with about the same amount of color each time. So I think the bore was in pretty much the same condition each time. Also, I was using a stop collar on the loading rod. It was set so that the load was compressed 1/4" each time. There was no variable there. I rested the forestock and buttstock at the same spots on the bags each time. I did not hold the gun with my left hand - just let it rest on the bag. I paid particular attention to gripping the wrist with the same amount of tension with my right hand, and holding the butt against my shoulder with the same amount of pressure. The sight picture was good for every shot. I'm perplexed.
That first group was with
Harvester long black sabots, which shot slightly better than the short sabots in last weeks outing. But they're really tight getting down the first six inches of the bore. So I decided to try some
crush rib sabots. They loaded with what I would call "just right" pressure. Took five shots with the same 105 grain powder charge and got this.
I sure don't consider three-and-a-quarter inches acceptable for 75 yards. I'm looking for an inch and a half or less at that range. But at least this group is nearly equal in height and width, indicating some potential.
Let's drop down to 95 grains. With T7 that load should still be "hotter" than the same load of GOEX. Also, let's try the
long black sabots again.
Five shots later.
HOLY COW!!! Another vertical string. Why is it doing that with the long black sabots, but not the crush ribs?
Well it's time to try another bullet. I really wanted to shoot some 250 grains Gold Dots. But there were none in the bullet bag. How the heck did I run out of those??? Digging around I came up with some .458 300 grain Remington Semi-Jacketed Hollow Points. These are excellent hunting bullets and shoot great in my 45-70, but I've never had much luck getting tight groups with them in a muzzle loader. Let's try them anyway. Stuck them in some MMP Orange sabots and left the powder measure on the 95 grain setting.
Here's the target.
Not too bad. Getting close. That's better than I've done with those bullets in any muzzle loader. I'll have to work with them a little more in this barrel - but at another time.
The bullet bag contained a pretty good supply of .410/210 grain Gold Dots and some Harvester 50/40 sabots, and I wanted to give them a try. This is another combination I haven't been able to get decent groups with in any other gun. But what the heck, let's try. Stayed with the 95 grain charge and took five shots.
That's about the same as I got with that bullet/sabot combination in the Mustang and X7. I think I'm giving up on the 50/40 bullet combination forever.
One more try before I pack up and head for home. Let's go back to the 300 Gold Dots, but quit with the T7 and pile on some GOEX. Loaded up with 125 grains of FFFg and took the last five shots of the day.
Well, I still haven't found my hunting load for this gun. I guess I'll just have to do some more shooting with other load combinations. DAMN!!! Life is cruel.
More Range Time With The .50 GM/LRH Renegade
