I've shot my .50 GM LRH Renegade (the second Sinful Sister) only once before, and even then I only shot two targets. I used 85 grains of GOEX FFFg under 300 grain Gold Dots and got real good results. That was back in January and you saw the targets in my report http://huntingnet.com/forum/black-po...botloader.html

So Sunday morning I decided to shoot her again, and start with a higher charge - 95 grains of GOEX. I put a target out at fifty yards and took five shots. Here's the target.




YEE-HAH!!!!! That's what I'm talking about!! You have to love a five-shot group like that. Man, the first shot from a clean dry cold barrel right in there with the other four that were loaded after wiping the bore with both sides of an alcohol patch.

So I confidently put a target out at 75 yards and took five more shots. Here's that one.



WHAT? How the heck is it even possible for a load that shot that first group at 50 yards to open up like that at 75? Everything felt right when I was shooting. I know I had a good steady sight picture and good trigger squeeze. Checked the scope mount - everything was tight. Checked the barrel in the stock - no wiggle, looks right.

Oh well, let's shoot another group. Except this time we'll use harvester long black sabots instead of the short ones. I've seen reports that the longer sabots sometimes make a difference.

Put another target out at 75 yards, took five more shots, and got this.




A tad better - but nothing to brag about. I won't be trying any 75 yard neck shots with that load.

Let's back the charge down to 85 grains and see if it does better. Another five shots produced this.



Once again, a little bit better - but only a little bit.

Would another ten grain reduction to 75 grains tighten it up more? Let's see.

Five shots later and I was looking at this target.



Well, that TOTALLY STINKS!

It looks like the 300 grain Gold Dot & GOEX FFFg combination is not going to be this gun's hunting load. I need to try Pyrodex and Triple 7 with this bullet, or another bullet entirely.

Let's search the bullet bag and see what's handy. OK, here are some .429 270 grain Gold Dot soft points and Harvester green sabots. We'll stick with 75 yards and the 85 grain charge.

Took the shots / here's the target.



Oh well, sometimes you get lucky - sometimes you don't. It looks like I'll have to play around a little more with this Sinful Sister before I find its 150 yard hunting load. That ain't all bad.

Shucks, here comes the rain. Hard too! This range session is hereby cancelled.