It was an excellent day here... Terry is in Kennewick babysitting the grandkids - I was left home alone Terry had left me some guidelines to get done while she was gone (I prefer the word guidlines ot the term 'honeu-do-list') but it was was just to darn nice to stay inside or even do the chores outside that she wanted done. So what-da-think I did...

I drove to Little Boulder Rock Pit hoping I could punch may way in through the snow on the road... success.

It was really even a better day than this pic shows - the rock pit is just over the hill from here.



I spent most of the day shooting PRB's in the Pit. I took both the 54 and the 50 - I even took the 870 in case I got time to pattern the turkey gun.

I went though a lot of RB's but could never really get the performance from the 50 I feel I need... The old 54 was rock solid.

OK - you guys that know what you are doing... Here is a picture of patches I collected....



The top row is .015 Ox-Yoke pre-lubed patches... they held up real well.
The second row is .018 TC pre-lubed Pillow patches - I did not find one of them that looked like it held up at all.
Third row - bore buttons collected from down range - they all look good....

Why are the thinner .015 patches holding up better than the thicker .018 - they both load down the barrel with about equal force. It seemed to me I was all over the place with the .018's.

My goal today was to shoot off-hand at everthing (trying to get ready for the up-coming Rondy events...) I set clay pigeons out on the ground in the snow @ 25 yards and @ 50 yards. Then loaded up and tried to pick them off shooting off-hand. The 25 yard birds were easy with both the 50 and the 54. The 54 handled the 50 yard birds with relative ease also. Wish I could say that got them all with one shot each - didn't happen. The 54 has a tang mounted peep and globe site on the front. The 50 has a 'V' Peep and blade on the front. I really had trouble getting the 50 yard birds with it. I have decided I do not always get the blade centered in the 'V' peep - I am always a little up or a little down + trying to see the target. Decision - I am putting on a Tang peep site tonight or tomorrow. Then I am going to try to get a Glode for it.

Here are the targets... 50 yard Birds...



I became so frustrated with the 50 on the 50 birds - decided to set a target out at 50 and try it - see if it would tel me more.... It did - I suck at shooting open sights off-hand @ 50...



Even with all of my failures - IT WAS A GREAT DAY IN THE PIT and when I got home this afternoon Christmas came early or late - tell you more about that later.

I had to quit reading when you got to this part.OK - you guys that know what you are doing...

Blowing patches like that with that light a load? Is the barrel rough or do you need a larger ball. I all ways end up using a .495 and a .535 but I never could get a load that light to shoot accurate either, the lightest load that shot decent groups for me was 80 gr. Tearing patches up like that indicates a real problem, especially if you were putting wads under them. Lee

Quote:

I suck at shooting open sights off-hand @ 50...

Suck??? Are you kidding me? When I look at your target I see 4 out of 5 into a two-inch group off-hand at 50 yards. I hope to do that on a real good day shooting off-hand.

The patches that are blown.. are they old? When pre lubed patches get too old, they will blow out sometimes. Also I see you were you shooting Triple Seven. Triple Seven will blow patches, but with a bore button under them it should not have happened.

That rifle's been shot too much to have a ruff bore. Are the ball and patch loading real easy? Sometimes that will let gas slip by and that too will knock a patch all up. A thicker patch or larger ball can cure that.

With light loads, patches should not normally blow. Good shooting there..

Well I don't know a whole lot but my 54 cal will shoot a .530 ball and a .015 patch absolutely great but my 50 cal will not shoot a .490 ball hardly at all. I got some .495 balls and they made a world of difference. I would try moving up to a Hornady .495 and see what happens.

Lee

Those patches are from the 50 and both the barrel on the 50 and the 54 are glass smooth - excellent barrels. Why would the thicker patch which should be tighter burn more than the thinner patch?

I tried .535 in my Renengade on my first attempts last year and i could not get them down a fouledbarrel with a .015 patch. I have not tried .495 RB's in the 50 at all.

With your statement maybe I am tryng to shoot a 'to light load' but with the 50 it gives me 1700 fps @ the muzzle. And if I shoot them from the bench with rests both of them will break birds at 100.

I hate doing something that i do not know what I am doing = probably why I never learned to like vegtables as a younger person... but I am detirmined to master this thing - well maybe not master but get better.

The wads are to help insulate the patch from the heat of T7-3f on the bottom of the RB- Looking at the patches the .015 patches anyway the point at which the ball sits on the patch looks good to me... the .018's - I can not figure out why they are so bad and the thinner .015's look somewhat? better.

I will keep shooting and sperimenting som-mo

Semi

Ya but! Only one shot would havebroken the bird...and one would have chipped it....

aim a little to the left.

UC

Ah wer

They are two different kinds of patches.