HuntingNet.com Forums - Tuning in the Bison

The green marks are old hits and do not count for this target. I just taped up an old one instead of wasting a new target. I was shooting my White .504 Bison. I took with me some Bull Shop .504 diameter, and some of my REAL conicals that I sized to .504/3 and used a home made lube. I also took some Pyrodex P, Triple Se7en 3f, and Graf's & Sons 3f along with some .510 fiber wads. The Bison now had open iron sights (which were hard to see for some reason) and all shooting was done at 50 yards.

The two red hits were from the Bull Shop .504 conicals with 70 grains of Pyrodex P. Something was really wrong with these or the rifle or something as they should have been slip fit. Even with swabbing, I did not think I was going to get the second one down the bore. I later put a caliper on them and they measured .506 diameter. This might have something to do with why they were so hard to load. So I fired two of them and decided that was enough of that.

I then loaded 70 grains of Pyrodex P and a fiber wad. I had casted a number of the 280 grain REAL conicals and ran them through my sizer. They are supposed to me .504 and they loaded like a dream. Not slip fit mind you, but not hard to seat. Group A was with the wad.

I then loaded the same thing but left the wad off. I shot Group B and was much more pleased with this group. The three that were marked were the first three. I then made a slight POA and changed the POI a little more to my liking. I have not tried to move the sight yet.

I then swabbed the barrel clean with 70% alcohol and some dry patches and loaded Graf's 3f black powder, no wad, and the REAL conicals. It did real well with that load as well.

Swabbed clean again and loaded 70 grains of Triple Se7en 3f and the REALs and shot without wads. Then for kicks, I put a wad in and shot one more. I was kind of surprised it moved out of the group as much as it did.

Also today was one of the first days I had to break the rifle down twice, wipe out the open breech, and the hammer striker, and nipple end of the breech plug or I got a lot of misfires. The hammer would fall and not set the #11 RWS cap off. If I cleaned the rifle, it immediately went back to behaving perfect. I was kind of surprised by this, but as long as I can get five shots off without problems of cleaning the hammer, I have no problem hunting like that.

This Bison is a small rifle. I think it will be a good walking around rifle. And with 70 grains and a REAL conical, I have little doubt I can plant a whitetail with that load at the ranges I will encounter.

So I have another rifle all ready and set to go. Although I am going to size the Bull Shop conicals down. The box says .504 but I am wondering if maybe Dan forgot to put them through a sizer or something.