Today I hurried and got my work done so I could shoot before the rains came. I wanted to shoot the Hornady 300 grain FPB's that I had recently purchased. I was not sure which rifle I wanted to try them in and finally decided on the T/C Black Mountain Magnum .50 caliber.

Rifle: Thompson Center Black Mountain Magnum .50 caliber 1-28 twist with a 26 inch barrel.
Scope: Simmons Pro Diamond 4x32mm with Traditions QR rings
Projectile: Hornady FPB 300 grain conical bullets
Powder: Pyrodex RS 110 grains
Ignition: CCI musket caps
Distance: 25 yards for initial sight in, then back to 50 yards
Weather: cloudy, over cast, windy, 61 degrees, looks like rain.

I had remounted the scope into the rings a while back and was not sure where the rifle was going to hit. So I set the target at 25 yards. I wanted to shoot the Hornady FPB 300 grain conical bullets.



You can see the adjustments made. The puzzling part is after 1 & 2, I moved the scope to the left, but not up. Why this moved up I have no idea. Then I shot 3 & 4 and decided that was close enough to center of the bull so I moved the scope down and fired #5. I considered that pretty close to dead center bull.



Being worried #5 was a fluke, I shot two more.. 6 & 7 to make sure I was dead center, then made a slight adjustment to move off the bull one inch. I then fired #8. That looked good, so I took the target back to 50 yards.

Here it where things really got confusing for me. Or am I seeing this wrong...



Shots 9-11 I did not think should be that low. I made an adjustment of what I thought was about right and shot 12. Then I realized this scope moves 1/2 in at 100 yards instead of the 1/4 in like many other scopes. I wanted the scope to hit two inches high at this distance, and moved what I felt was the appropriate number of clicks. Shots 13-15 were at the right height, but why they moved off to the right, I have no idea. I also had ran out of bullets. Instead of getting another pack out, I decided to clean the rifle without removing the scope off the barrel, or the barrel out of the stock. Then I could retest it at a different time to see if the rifle needs further adjustment or what.



These show some definite trenching ability. I found where they were hitting back in the woods. They had blown a tree stump (small one) out of the ground there. I looked for any of the FPB's and could not find any of them.

Different forum members got my interest with their information on these conical bullets. I do believe they will be accurate to long range. Once I tame them to the scope and powder charge.

Some questions for those that shoot these... do they like a stiff powder charge or a lesser charge? I thought I remembered these being shot with a large charge which is why I went to 110 grains of Pyrodex. Also the card that came with them shows velocities for 100 grains and 150 grains. So the manufacturer must feel these handle still loads as well.

I also looked and the other packs I got were 350 grains FPB's. I for some reason took only one of the 300 grain. So now I have to play with a slightly larger conical. But they should not be that different you would think. I do believe they will make a good open field round in that rifle. Once I find the right powder charges. Any suggestions?