Knight Disc and some 300 grain Speer Deep Curl

[cayugad]

I looked outside this morning and it was beautiful. Although they are calling for rain and snow later. After walking out on the porch with my coffee I noticed it was cold, in the 40's and windy. I kept looking at that sky and decided to shoot anyway.

Rifle: Knight (original) Disc .50 caliber with Lehigh conversion kit
Scope: Nikon 2-7x32mm Pro Staff
Powder: Pyrodex RS and Triple Seven 2f from 85-110 grains
Distance: 100 yards (range finder said 99 once and 100 twice)
Primers: Winchester W209
Projectile: Speer 454 Casull .452 300 grain Deep Curl
Sabots: MMP HPH 12 & HPH 24
Swab: Windex (dollar store substitute)
Weather: Sunny, WINDY, in the 40's

I decided to start out with 110 grains of Pyrodex RS, HPH 12 sabot and the Deep Curl projectile. This was something Sabotloader was curious about.



Shot #1 about made my jaw drop. I realize it was a clean barrel, but come on. What could I have done wrong? Actually the shot felt real good. So I refused to change a thing. I swabbed and fired three more with the 110 grain charge. 2-4 was a little better.

I then dropped the powder charge down to 85 grains and shot three more. Again, an inch and a half group. So I was not devastated. But I was hoping for better. All of the shots felt good. I swabbed between shots. And really took my time on making the shot count.

I then swabbed the barrel almost clean. I popped two more primers through it and got out a new jug of Triple Seven 2f (my last jug too ).

Since Sabotloader wanted to see these pushed, I loaded 110 grains of powder and a MMP HPH 12 sabot. The rifle actually did not load all that hard with the HPH 12 sabot.



At no time did I try to adjust my POA for the hits. I wanted to play fair. Shot #3 kind of surprised me coming out of the group the way it did. I then lowered the powder charge to 100 grains to see what would happen. I was still with the same sabot. #6 was not a surprise. That thing practically fell down the bore of the rifle when I loaded it. Why, I have no idea. And this got me thinking...

I then cleaned the rifle and went to the house and got some MMP HPH 24 sabots. I kicked the powder charge back up to 110 grains of Triple Seven. The 24 sabot loaded easier then the 12 but not all that big of a difference.

All in all they shot about an inch and a half group. I can live with that. At 100 yards the deer would never know the difference. BUT I would hunt off a fouled barrel, that's for sure. I do not remember the Disc being that far off before on a clean bore. I have been using bore conditioner on this rifle, and only dry patched the bore before the first shot.

The Lehigh conversion kit worked perfect as usual. Clean up was a snap. And this rifle with Triple Seven and a 110 grains of powder would be a real brute for deer hunting. I have no idea of the velocity, but according to the Triple Seven jug...100 grains of powder and a 300 grain T/C XTP 50/45 and a CCI #11 primer has a velocity of 1746 fps. How accurate that is I have no idea. Also what 110 grains with a Winchester 209 primer would do.. again, no idea.

[sabotloader]

cayugad

Thanks for taking the time to experiment...

Looking at the targets now I really do wonder why the visible difference between RS and T7.

I re-worked the second target a little bit, and when you look at it this way the first group might have developed into a real interesting group - and I hate to say this - had we conformed to Semisane rule of a 5 shot group. #3 reall could have just been one of those things.....



Here is a table I am working on - not finished yet but it might give you some thoughts about you velocities...

[Grouse45]

I think barrel heat is the culprit on the 3rd shots. I really believe you wont see that with Harvesters. Or atleast not as bad if they shoot to begin with.

[cayugad]

Those things are really moving there. Like I said, that might make a heck of a deer load with that 110 grains of Triple Seven 2f.

[cayugad]

I never thought of barrel heat. That might be. But I never noticed the barrel getting hot either.

[Semisane]

Inch and a half 100 yard groups will do the job all day long. I wonder about the barrel heat thing also with that pattern on the T7 target:

1&2 together, #3 low,
4&5 together, #6 low,
7&8 toghther, #9 low.

Was there cooling time between each of those 3-shot groups?

Regardless, those are good hunting groups. What would bother me is that clean barrel first shot being 5+ inches low. That's why I stopped using the bore conditioner. I got way too much inconsistency with the first shot for my liking. But I only tired it in two guns, and only with GOEX.

[cayugad]

It was funny... I shot that first shot and kept looking through the scope and could not see the hit. So I walked up there and at first thought I missed the whole darn target. Then saw that #1. And I figured it shot too good the day before when I was shooting. Something had to be wrong. But the next three made me feel better.