I made a wise crack to Terry last night that if we made it to double didgit tempratures in the morning I wanted to go shoot the Triumph with the modified breech plug, well wouldn't you know about 10 this morning it made it to 12*. I started loading the equipment in the truck for the expedition. While I was loading here at the house the 12* really did not seem that bad, sides i was being a bit of a woos - 12* should not bother me at all i use to work in that kind of temp all the time - maybe age is getting to me!

When i got to the farm and started setting up - that 12* degrees was really cold - I mean really cold. Have i ever mentioned before the wind is always blowing at the farm - well this morning was know different. So with a 10-12 mph wind it really must have dropped the wind chill factor - my hands were freezing.... but I kept telling myself "you wanted to shoot BH in cold weather well now is your chance". The worst part besides being cold, I HATE shooting BH - it is just money flying out the barrel.

Bt the time I got the target out, the bench and the chrono set up I was thinking - this is really dumb! Who really cares?

I had already decided that I was not going to climb the ladder with powder I was going to start at 110 and then go to 120 grains of powder just for testing sake. Plus Tom and I wanted to know if there might be a velocity increase shooting the .458/220 grain Lehighs from a the 50 cal barrel vs. the 52 cal. with a 130 grains of BH. So that is what I was planning to last... then load up and go home, where it was warmer.

I believe the modified BP worked very well, in all I took 27 shots, 20 with a w209 and 7 with a standard CCI primer. All of these shots were instantaneous, no hint of a hang fire even with the light primers. I believe the modified breech plug helped get the necessary pressure and heat to the powder even though the length of the Speed Breech is probably longer than any other breech plug on the market.

While I was shooting, I was trying to visually monitor the build up of carbon in the flash channel. i did not clean it at all during the session, and i really could not see any build up at the entrance to the flash channel. When I got home I got the #21 bit and was goin to hand spin the drill in the flash channel. I was a bit surprised when the bit went all the way in the channel with very little resistance. I remember thinking "shoot this thing is clean!" But that is not quite true, I spun the drill by hand over the note pad and did get some debris out. With what i go out and my thoughts about how clean the channel might really was - there is no doubt in my mind I could have doubled - maybe tripled the number of shoots through the breech plug and still had no problem with ignition. I am also sure from past experiances that the factory 1/8" channel would be nearly blocked after 27 shots in this temperature.

Here is a picture of the debris from the plug. This was drilled right after removing the plug at home....



I really believe I have accomplished what I had set out to to do. And i feel a lot better that I did not screw up a fairly new Speed Breech - they are expensive.

Here is the target with velocities... They ony real bad group was the three shots that I tried with a Crush Rib because they were easier to load especially with a cold bore, but they really loaded easy... while the HPH-24's were pretty tight, not bad, but tight.



The last bit of my activity i just had fun.. I needed to get two more velocity shots for Tom with the 220's which i did. Then it was my time, but it was to cold to walk clay pigeons out in the deep snow - so i looked up in the winter wheat field and picked out targets to shoot. I ranged them with my range finder and picked out targets 200 yard + out there. Because of the snow I am not sure of the range finder accuracy but it felt that they were 200 and by the way the range finder was recording 8*.

Tom I agree, those 220's shoot really well at 200 - i was impressed. The final shots with the Lehigh .452/250 gr. DOA's and they were just as good... Wish i had taken a camera to get a picture of the spots on the hill side... but I know what they looked like....

You are a man of IRON Sabotloader.

I planned a range session with the Rescued Remington after the hunt last Sunday morning, but cancelled it because it was damp, windy, and forty-two degrees. No real reason to shoot in uncomfortable weather like that, eh?

42šs would have scared me back inside too, Semisane. I just hate cold weather.

Some very impressive velocities there Sabotloader. And 10šs with a moderate wind is cold, no matter where you're from. Nice groups too.

Semi

42*'s - shot o'dear - I would take that.... My furnace would love it as well as my checkbook...

Excellant Report Mike! You did a fine job on that Triumph's Modified BP, I never had any doubts.
So how much BH did you use for the Test, (Cost Wise)? I think Semi should duplicate the same test but only in 100 Degree Weather for us, LOL
(BP)

Very good report SL, man those Triumphs can shoot

That is dedication!!!!

12F and windy!!!!

In the 50cal that 220 is moving pretty good and running it through a calculator it looks pretty good out to 200 yards. The bullet is even still within it designed velocity. I used a .165 BC though.

Can you load one of the 458s in a Harvester black CR? They might be a bit too tight in a T/C. Some guys claim they get better fps using them instead of a 50x458 MMP. In those temps though i wouldnt want to try it.

The carbon in the plug looks minimal. Very similar to the build up in my NFPJs and Win209/BH209.

And very nice shooting, i would have been shaking so hard just hitting the paper would have been good. I dont mind the cold if there is no wind but i still draw the line at about 25F for recreational shooting.

Sure Breechplug, I can do that.

Sabotloader already has my address. So he can send the gun, breechplug, bullets and powder for the test. I'll return the gun as soon as I can locate his address in my computer. I think I have it filed under "sucker".

Gm54-120

Naw! it is just something I felt I had to do for my own information....

I think when Dave caculate the mathematical BC it computed out higher than than that. But I also believe all of his calclated BC's for his bullets are low.

I gotta tell you my finners were really cold....

I think i used SD plus 10%. I usually add 10-15% to his listed BC on the other bullets. It seems to work out about right but ive only had a few shots at 200 yards and only with the 40cals.