It seemed to me this rifle was pretty much worn out by shooting it so much when a few of us were developing a breech plug that would be 100% reliable igniting Blackhorn Powder. Sadly i didn't keep real good records, but it seems it had about 2000 shots through it, when it developed a loose spot in the barrel about 3" ahead of the load. Flounder suggested that the barrel may be bulged at that location. Myself, i couldn't recall any event that would have bulged the barrel, but i still sent the rifle to CVA to be examined at the loose spot. CVA sent the rifle back with a note saying the barrel had minor pitting, but was fine. The pitting i knew about, and it happened because i left the rifle dirty a lot of time when we were experimenting with breech plug design.

The breech plug modification.

Yesterday, i installed a scope on the rifle, and made ready to take it shooting this morning. Vials were loaded with 90g of Blackhorn, and a box of 300g 44 caliber XTP set aside, along with some smooth green sabot, and some W209 primer. Upon arrival up in them hills, the thermometer read 27 degree, so i had no desire to shoot from a bench out in the cold.










Firstly the target was shot twice from about 28 yard, and the scope adjusted as necessary. Then a move was made to 100 yard. After 1 shot, the scope was adjusted further, and 3 shots taken at the lower target.









Then the truck was moved out to 200 yard, the elevation dial was turned up 6 1/2 moa, and 5 shot taken at the top target. Since the barrel never got hot, there was no waiting between shots. Then the target was photographed, and taped.

From 200 yard another shot was taken at the top target, but as the trigger was being squeezed there occurred a surprising amount of creep. This threw me off, and the shot hit between the targets. Both the creep, and the poor shot surprised me, and i wondered if i had accidentally moved the elevation dial, so i moved back to 100 yard, and turned the dial down 6 moa. There 3 shots were taken at the lower target









Then a move was made back out to 200 yard, and the last remaining full vial was used to load the last shot which used the top target as the aim.