Got out today to do some shooting. Reading some of Cayugad's posts the other day gave me an itch to shoot a sidehammer + test another barrel that I have used M. X-treme in. This was the first outing with this rifle with a treatment of MX so I was not sure what to expect.
When i got to the Dinger Farm I set everything up including a chronograph just for the heck of it. Never shot PRB's across a chrono. Does a .490 Round Ball have a BC? I mean I know it does but I have no idea what it might be - can not imagine it is real high. I am somewhat disappointed with myself as I did not put the 'sky screens' on the chrono because I felt there was enough cloud cover - now I wish I had - I will have to do the shoot over again to verify velocities - they seem somewhat slow to me for a 175 grain projectile.
Patching.... when I got the rifle out and set it up to begin shooting I ran
one dry patch. Then I popped 3 caps and ran the patch again. Then i loaded and commenced to shoot. No additional fouling other than the caps to clear the flash channel. Shooting 60 grains of T7-3f - the first shot hit where I hoped it would and easily was in the group. I was hoping to use the 1 patch for all of the shooting that I was going to do today and I could have but I worked my way through the first patch and had to use a second. I believe I could have loaded all loads today without patching at all. Twice today I did feel the begining of a ruff spot of fouling right above the breech plug - the dry patch worked through it very easily both times.
I shot 18 shots in all. 12 Shots were shot in the target and 6 additional shots shooting 5 clay pigeons placed at 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards. Due to my inability to keep the 'V' peep and the front bead in the correct line it took two shots @ 75 and 100. I find myself trying to 'peak & see' the target better - so allow myself to make the sights fit the picture I want to see. I remain an average open sight shooter - but give me a scope and it is a different story.
Here is the target...
At the end of the day I snapped a picture of the work area. You can see the two dry patches on the edge of the tail gate that I used during the shoot and the two windex patches and a dry patch that I ran at the end of the shoot.
Still do not know if the Montana X-treme is buying me anything - but I continue to work with it and it continues to work for me.