The weather was beautiful today. Almost too warm to wear a jacket and too cold not to. So you wear a jacket. But I wanted to shoot. The trouble is my left knee did not want to walk too well today. I am afraid that knee will have to be replaced this year. So against my better judgement, I took a few Tylenol to take the edge off the knee and decided to shoot.

I set the target at 35 yards. It was a fair distance for me to hike back and fourth in the snow. And I wanted to shoot a rifle I had not shot in a while. So I picked out the Thompson Center Black Mountain Magnum.

Looking through the cabinet of bullets, I picked out some 250 grain bonded shockwaves in .452, some 348 grain Powerbelts.. because I had never shot powerbelts out of this rifle, and finally some 200 grain .400 Shockwaves with some blue MMP sabots. I decided to use black powder in this rifle so a can of 2f Schuetzen black powder was selected. And this rifle is ignited with CCI musket caps.

For a swab solution I picked up some Rusty Duck Black Off. Its a good swab when shooting black powder, and I mix it weak, with a little isopropyl alcohol. So I was all set.

First up was the 250 grain bonded (blue nose) Shockwaves. I had five of them left and was determined to shoot them off. I used the Harvester EZ load sabot because this rifle has a very tight bore. According to T/C techs, this is the same barrel as you would find on an Omega. And with a 1-28 twist it is a good sabot shooter. So I was curious how it would do at this distance.



The first of the five was right at 12 o'clock on that bull. The next four made me smile. I was worried Murphy was hiding in the woods, but he never showed up for that little episode. And he was not missed either I might add.

I then was about to swab the bore but thought of the Powerbelts. These 348 grain Powerbelts were what I intended to shoot a deer with. The deer never showed .... cowards. And I had never shot them in this rifle according to my notes.

It should be mentioned that this rifle can shoot pellets. So normally 100 grains of anything is a good load. So I stayed with the 100 grains of Black Powder for the powerbelts.



The Powerbelts grouped all right. I only shot off three of them because of their cost. I did not swab at all. And they were HARD to load. This rifle really does have a tight bore as all the projectiles today were hard to load. But again, that was a good group. Does it make sense that they would be that much lower at this close range? And to the side? Maybe I should have swabbed.

Then I swabbed extra good. To the point of a clean patch almost. And loaded up the same 100 grains of powder for the 200 grain Shocwaves. The first one again, at high noon. But the next two started to climb. I decided not to waste these on paper. So I took the target down and picked out a paint can that was hanging on a nail in front of the Spruce blocks. Now I figured the rifle should be close as it is sighted in at 100 yards I believe ( couldn't find my latest shoot card). And this paint can was 86 yards away I believe from the last time I measured it.



I knew where the prior hits on the can were. I aimed just under the letter C and figured it would hit close to that. The round hit in the C so maybe this rifle is sighted in at 100 yards... as it might be on its way down? That ballistic stuff confuses me. Glad I never have to shoot too far.

After that I just had fun shooting Cheap Shots and some strange all lead projectiles. I believe they were Hunterman Boolets. And they shot real good out of the rifle. But I got to shoot, the knee is killing me right now. But hey.. you pay to play. And I cleaned up a lot of old bullets laying around.

This really is a pleasant rifle to shoot with that Simmons Pro Diamond 4x32mm scope. The scope is very clear and for this rifle.. seems perfect.