I had changed out rings on my Knight Disc from the plain matte to a matching camo pattern. I mean ... what the heck, might as well look nice too. So now all camo except the blue barrel of course. And these rings are lower to the barrel which I found very comfortable.
Since I remounted, I figured I would have to sight in again. Besides, I wanted to shoot more BlackHorn and see what I could find out about it and the rifle.
As I remembered.. it was 100 or 110 grains of BlackHorn I was shooting. I discovered later it was 110. But we loaded 100 grains of BlackHorn 209 and used CCI 209 primers. Ignition was flawless today!!
I opened a fresh 20 pack of Harvester 260 grain Scorpion Funnel Nose that come with Harvester EZ load sabots. Shots 1-3 were with the EZ load. I was shooting at 25 yards. There was no way the group should be that big. So back into the house and I found a bag of Nosler sabots. I believe they are MMP HPH 12.
Back to the range and decided to try something.. I took a patch, applied alcohol and swabbed the bore of the rifle. The patch came back filthy black and dirty from the three shots taken. I then ran a dry patch.
This time I loaded the same 100 grains and used the Nosler sabots. Man were they hard to load. I mean lean on the short starter to get them in and then they slid down pretty good. But this sabot was a lot tighter. The EZ load I did not need a short starter. And all you BH shooters have preached to me that you need a tight fitting sabot. Well I got one.
With no adjustment to the scope at all, I shot group one. That was much better. Then I made an adjustment, swabbed the bore again like before, and shot group #2. I could live with that.
So now being curious, I ran flipped the target so that the clean target was lower into the range trap, and moved it back to 53 yards. I actually got readings of 54, 52, 53, and one of 33.
Here is where it got interesting again. Swabbed, they shot high and right. The next shot on the fouled barrel they shot high. Swabbed, high and right, next one again, high. I did this same routine and discovered that if I swabbed they went to the high right area, and if I left it dirty, it stayed just high. Also I was kind of surprised the bullets hit as high as they did. But I was not going to change anything right now.
I had two of the Scorpions left out of my new 20 pack. So I hiked out and pulled the 50 yard target and went back to the bench. There were the nemesis paint can hanging back there daring me to shoot. So again 100 grains and I suspected it might shoot high, I really had no idea. So I aimed about two inches above the bottom of the gallon paint can, squeezed the shot at 86 yards. And that can did the most perfect one and a half somersault you ever seen. I could even see it in the air in the scope. When it landed I could see the hole.. 2 inches from the bottom.
Now with the can on its side at a slight angle to me, I aimed for the part where the bottom flat connects to the round sides.. half way. Squeezed the next one and again the can jumped. So I had to walk down there and look. Sure enough, right where the scope had been aimed. So it looks like this scope is dead on at 85 yards.
Questions...
How many of you have ever swabbed when shooting BlackHorn?
Do you think it helped in loading, accuracy, or consistency?
I used alcohol to swab with .. what do you use?
How come last time I shot, I had to pick the breech plug after 4 shots for ignition reasons, while today I fired off 20 and never had a problem? Could it have been weather, humidity, temperature was 32 degrees and over cast.. very muggy foggy like...