I took a couple rifles out to the range today to see how they were going to behave. I checked notes and wanted to get back to just basic loads that I know works. Notes are a great thing. I wanted to try some conicals in my Thompson Center Black Mountain Magnum and I wanted to shake apart that cheap scope I threw on my Wolverine LK-II. The Wolverine has a Simmons 2.5X20mm scope is all. I know that Wolverine is a basic Knight rifle, and it likes basic loads like a .44 caliber 300 grain XTP and 80 grains of Pyrodex Rs. I also checked my notes and saw that under the Wolverine there was a notation of
WOW for the 300 grain Hornady SST in the supplied sabot with 90 grains of Triple Se7en 2f.
The Black Mountain Magnum being a Thompson Center, I wanted to shoot some maxiball and some 250 grain Saber Tooth conicals. So I started with the 250 grain Saber Tooth and aimed at the center bulls eye. The upper right corner shows what the rifle is capable of. I was kind of pleased as of late, I have problems with fiber optic open sights.. All this shooting was done at 40 yards as that is the distance I might be forced to shoot out in the woods. I was real pleased. The shocker in the lower left corner was the maxi ball. I lubed them with a soft lube I made up. I only loaded 70 grains of Triple Se7en with a wad. The accuracy was outstanding but I could not figure why they were shooting so low. They were basically shooting a true full cover sight hold. Where that front sight was is where it hit. I could live with this if I had to.
So I taped the target up and got out my little Wolverine. I loaded the 300 grain Hornady SST's with 90 grains of Triple Se7en (upper right corner) and to say I was shocked at the accuracy was an understatement. This little scope really was holding true. I was swabbing between shots because these sabots loaded hard. SO for the 300 grain XTP's I got out some green Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. I loaded 90 grains of Pyrodex Rs and shot that group (lower right) without swabbing at all. They loaded easy, and the accuracy was amazing. Other then the first shot on a clean barrel I shot three of them and it was a hole. So to prove I could do better I shot five more making that mess in the center of the target. Again at 40 yards.
After that I did some off hand shooting and knocked holes in the target and also discovered just how bad I was off hand. I shot off some shooting sticks as well. All in all both these rifles are ready should the call come down opening day to hit the hunting trail...