Semisane

I arrived at the hunting lease Friday afternoon with a light rain falling.

Rain?? We don't care about no stinking rain. I want to shoot the new .58 Green Mountain Renegade!

Well our shooting bench has a cover. So as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard I can shoot in the rain.



So I hauled all of the gear out the the bench, quick stepping through the rain, and set up to shoot.

After setting a target out at 25 yards, I dumped 95 grains of FFg GOEX down the bore followed by a .575 cast ball in a .016 patch lubed with olive oil.

I took the very first shot with the sights set the way they came on the barrel and - HooRah! - plunked it into the bull.

The gun is real comfortable shooting with that load. Recoil is such that I could shoot all day without discomfort. I took two more shots at 25 yards. Here's the target with the first three shots out of the new barrel.





That ball and patch combination loaded comfortably. I could start the ball with either a very light bump on the short starter or a hard push with the ball of my thumb.

After adjusting the sights a little, I put a fresh target out at 50 yards and reloaded. Took two shots and adjusted the sight again. Here's that target.



I was really pumped after shots #3, 4 & 5 - you bet`cha! Especially because I was having a real problem with the sight picture at that range. These TC style sights with the "blade & bead" up front and "U-notch in a shallow V" at the rear are the type that give me the most trouble.

At about this point I'm getting "a little damp" from walking out to the target in the rain, and my nylon running shoes are getting squishy. (Yeah, I wear running shoes - but that doesn't mean I can run. ) When I remove a target from the frame it's so wet that I have to handle it gingerly and lay it out on the bench to dry.

With a fresh target out at 75 yards, I loaded up again and took five shots. I shouted a big Oh Yeah after shot #1 and a whispered a much quieter Uh-Oh after shot #3.



That's not a good 75 yard group. Is it the gun, the load, or the shooter? Almost certainly the shooter.

I went out looking for patches and found these.



Almost every one had tears or burn throughs around the ball - most likely from the very sharp edges of the lands and at the crown of the new barrel. I'm not going to worry about that yet. First priority will be to get a peep sight on this baby (new sight is on the way thanks to a forum member. )

OK, I won't expect much until the new sight is on, but let's try 100 yards anyway.




What with the rain, those sights and my eyes, I was not all that disappointed in that target. Was pretty much surprised I hit it at all at 100 yards.

Well the rain is getting harder, the wind is picking up, and I'm mighty damp. But lets try one more round anyway. I put a target out at 50 yards, dropped the charge to 85 grains, and tried a thick .024 denim patch. I had to use a foot long length of 2x2 to hammer the short starter to get the ball started. After starting I could seat it with the range rod without any difficulty.

Here are the patches from that round.



And here's the target.



Well, that STINKS! It's time to put this gun away until the new sight is installed - and time to put on some dry clothes and break out the Scotch.

cayugad

The .58 really is a pleasure to shoot. My load is 110 grains of Goex 2f and a .570 Speer ball. I use the pillow tick patch. I was concerned that the .575 might load hard, but was glad to hear you had no problems. I would bore paste that barrel and knock them ruff spots off, or shoot some conicals. I worked mine in with a Box of Warne Minnie Balls. I was shooting 60 grains of powder and could not hit squat with it. But just watching them hunks of lead hit down range was a good time.

I found that 110 grains and ball will shoot through two 4x4 treated hunks of post. I set two block of it (left overs) and shot the first thinking the second would catch it. Well it caught it all right. Knocked it 25 yards through the woods and passed right through it. That should knock down one of them southern whitetails for you.

Nice shooting for the first time out. You have no reason to be upset. Mine did not come with fiber optic sights. Instead it came with a nice brass front sight and a solid back sight. I can see that real well.

lemoyne

The indications are there. Should be a real good shooter. I would dp a bit of fire lapping by rubbing JB boe paste or polishing compound into a 11o ge load [ more powder is indicated by the pattern of the holes] and the switching to heavy duty pillow ticking [22 thousands squeez measure] I say 110 gr powder because every 58 I had shot that as a minimum load for serious accuracy. Lee

Semisane

Thanks Cayugad & Lemoyne. That's two votes for 110 grain loads, so I guess I'll have to try that.

Before I get aggressive I want to put about 100 rounds through it to see if the sharp edges come off the lands. I have some Beartooth lapping compound around here somewhere. If necessary, two or three patched balls with that on the patches will take the edges off quite nicely.

I thought I had some .570 Hornady balls in the shooting bag and intended to try those. But I must have shot them all up in the Zouave because I couldn't find them. I'm looking forward to an all day range session in good weather with the peep sight. That will tell the tale for sure. I think I'm going to like this .58. The Zouave may end up in the classifieds. After all, how many .58's does a guy need?

nchawkeye

I'm a bit suspicious of the patching...On the target it says T/C patches, but the first set look like some cotton material you cut in squares...

The reason I bring this up is that the groups in my .54 opened up one year and it ended up being old prelubed store bought patching...I now buy pillow ticking from WalMart and make my own lube...I even went through adding hornets nesting or a wad between powder and ball...

Semisane

My bad NCHawkeye.

The TC noted on my target stands for Table Cloth, not Thompson Center.

About two years ago I bought a four foot by eight foot table cloth at a thrift store which has a very tight weave and turned out to be perfect patch material. I cut a LARGE supply of patches from that sucker and use them in several guns.

For a while I was writing "table cloth patch" on my targets, but soon got tired of that and switched to the "TC" abbreviation.

I don't lube my patches until the day of a range session, or sometimes the night before.

nchawkeye

Gotcha...It looks like the threads per square inch in that material isn't as tight as the pillow ticking I get from WalMart...

How about dry balling...
I'd patch a ball up, ram her down and then pull it back out...This will let you examine the patching before it's fired...Then you know for sure if it's being torn at loading or burned at firing...

btw...I'd also check the crown, sometimes that's where the tearing occurs...

Semisane

Yep. Did that. The crown was pretty sharp, as all new GM barrels seem to be. I gave it a very light touch with a sheet of 600 grit emory paper formed into a cone.

BrushPopper

That's pretty decent grouping for the first time out.

Nice shooting set-up you got there.

Did the mountain-men really use ceiling fans? I'm learning new stuff all the time!

Semisane

Yes they did BrushPopper. But they were hand cranked by lovely Indian maidens.