Guys, I haven't shot a gun since mid-July when the heat and humidity took the fun out of it. We haven't had even a hint of fall down this way yet, but I couldn't stand it any longer. So I headed to the hunting lease mid-afternoon Friday and took the
Sinful Sisters along for the ride.
It was already late when I arrived but I wanted to try 250 grain Gold Dots in the .50 caliber. So I grabbed the gun and shooting gear and headed for the shooting bench (a short 25 yard walk from camp). Sweat was abundant by the time I put a target out on the 50 yard frame and walked back to the bench.
I loaded the gun with
85 grains of GOEX FFFg with the Gold Dot in a Harvester H5045SB sabot and took three very careful shots.
Now that's a target to make any shooter grin as though he were not totally sane. The gun was sighted in for dead on at 75 yards with 300 grain Gold Dots over 95 grains of FFFg. So I was really pleased with the point of impact with the 250's, as well as the group. Also note that the first shot from a cold squeaky clean barrel was right in there with the others. I wiped the bore with both sides of one 91% alcohol patch between all subsequent shots.
After putting out a fresh target I took three shots with
95 grain loads and got this one.
Not too shabby, huh?
By this time it was getting pretty dark. But I figured I had time for one more round with
105 grains. Here's target #30.
Our legal shooting hours end 30 minutes after sunset and that target was shot well after that. I could see the target pretty well through the Simmons 4X ProDiamond, but could not see it well at all without the scope.
My plans for a Saturday morning shooting session were shattered by arrival of two of the other club members with plans to bush hog and plow a couple of food plots. By the time we got that done, along with replacing a broken fan belt on the tractor and a sheared pin on the bush hog I was too beat to even think about shooting in the evening. But I dreamed about that first target Saturday night.
Sunday morning I grabbed the .50 again with plans to shoot the 250 GD's over the chronograph with 75, 85, 95 and 105 grain loads. I set everything up and started with the 75 grain load.
But DANG, the chrono would not give a reading when I shot over it. That poor thing is about 30 yeas old, and the readout screen is loose in the housing. I think I knocked the sensors out of alignment when trying to shake the screen back into place. Time for a new one I guess.
Anyway, here are the targets with each of those loads - all at 50 yards. I thought about shooting at 75 or 100 yards but the thought of all that walking in the heat convinced me 50 yards would be sufficient for this session.
The 95 grain load seemed to do best in this session, so I finished up with one more five-shot target with that load.
By then I had ENOUGH of the heat and sweat. So I packed up and headed home with the other two
Sisters unfired and disappointed. But DAMN, it felt good to be shooting again.
A Hot Time On The Range
How about "Flintlock Fantasies", "Hawken Hijinks" and "Operating Outstanding Omegas".
