3-9-09 and 45º above zero.. There was very little wind today also. And sunny. I mean what more could a old boy from Wisconsin ask for.

So I looked at the Gun Rack and tried to picture which rifle has not been shot for a long time. There it was, my White Ultra Mag .504 sitting right in front of me. I have not shot it because it is one of them rifles (as most White Rifle owners know) that you shoot it, set the scope and its dead on for the next hundred years or so. But it is also one of them rifles that is just plain fun to shoot. "Normally" its very accurate, you don't have to swab if you don't want to, and the conical bullets are slip fit. So its easy to load, fast to shoot, and just goes off. So I decided to play with powder charges and to shoot this rifle foul. In other words shoot it until it starts to fail.

I set the target up at 63 yards. It was pretty cool, the snow was frozen hard enough to walk on if you took it easy and did not set your foot too hard. People who live in snow zones know what I mean.

I was using a bench rest. And the rifle has a 2-7x32 Nikon Pro Staff on it. Since it normally likes 70 grain of Triple Seven 3f, but my Bison likes 2f, I decided to see if the Ultra Mag liked 2f. With its long barrel is should take a stronger charge and burn the powder better then my short little Bison, so I set the rifle up with 90 grains of Triple Seven 2f and a Bull Shop 460 grain Conical. I was using RWS caps.



This is loading and shooting as fast as I can. I did swab once, more out of habit. But I did want to see if I was getting any kind of a crud ring. I actually did have a little hard build up down there. Swabbed it clean and shot. Believe it or not.. that is fifteen shots. Not too shabby in my book at 63 yards.

I then lowered the charge to 80 grains of Pyrodex P and changed to some 500 grain Bull Shop Conicals. I put a new target up next to the other and shot five rounds.



The Pyrodex P hits are marked in blue. I was not happy with that at all. So I changed back to 80 grains of Triple Seven 2f and the 500 grain conicals and shot at the same target. That big hole in among the Pyrodex hits is the results.

I then checked my rings to make sure they were tight. And decided to up that charge to 90 grains and the 500 grain Bull Shop. I have to admit the rifle was getting really filthy.



I had put over 25 rounds through this rifle, swabbed once, and it was still shooting. The five hits at that little corner target showed the start of fliers I believed.

I then had shot off the rest of the 500 grains, and could have shot a few more of the 460 grain, but decided to try something else. I got some home casted 320 grain REAL Conicals with a home made lube on them. I loaded 60 grains of Triple Seven 2f, and picked out a spot on the target of a big bucks head and started shooting as fast as I could.

I hammered that for about eight more and then the rifle was belching out a cloud of smoke on every shot. I figured it would fail soon. Finally the primers started to misfire. I was sure I could wipe that area out, but having pushed around 40 rounds through it decided to call it a day.

That Ultra Mag is an amazing rifle.