More Shooting with the .45 GM/LRH Renegade
 

You may have noticed from my other posts, I did a LOT of shooting with the .45 Renegade last weekend.

Here are three targets with the same bullet and powder charge, but with three different sabots.


First up - Harvester H4540B sabot. The first four shots were typical of what I expect with this load. Why shot #5 fell out of the group I have no idea. BUT, I've come to realize that if one of the sabot petals becomes stretched or deformed when starting the bullet, the shot will likely stray a little. I didn't notice that happening when I loaded #5, but I suspect that's what happened.





Next up - Harvester H4540BR (Crush Rib) sabots. Again, a stray on #5, dammit!



Next up - MMP Tan 45/40 sabot.

AH-HA, when I seated #2 flush with the bore I noticed that one of the petals was stretched out about 1/16" longer than the others and was a little crooked and almost touching the next petal over on one side with a wide gap between the petal on the other side.




I finished up by shooting some 200 grain .40 caliber XTPs. This was my hunting load last year and I killed two does with it. I sure wish Speer would make a .40/200 Deep Curl (although I really can't complain about how those XTPs performed).

Nice shooting, i really like those 180gr GDs and XTPs too.

And make that a 40-220gr GoldDot ML available in bulk. :D I agree with you though they should at least make a 200gr. Nosler just started selling a 200gr 40 for about $44/250.

SEMI, what's the twist on those GMB .45 cal rifles? Ray

Mine is 1:30" builder. My .50 LRHs are 1:28".

That's what i thought it was, although there web page for the LRH replacement barrels is confusing. the caption above the individual rifles says 1:30 on the .45 only and 1:28 on the other calibers. but when you scroll down to the individual barrels it says 1:28 for the .45 lol.. this is why i asked.. shot any big conicals out of it yet? just wondering how the .45 cal does with them.. thanks. Ray

When I first got that barrel two years ago I tried some .458 420 grain cast bullets from a Lee mold that I sized to .452. I didn't get the accuracy I wanted with them. But that was before I put the scope on the barrel, and I didn't use wads under the bullets. I probably ought to try them again. (The to-do list grows longer and longer. :o )

Big lead is a blast to shoot :biggrin:

Semi,

You need to stop at a 4 shot group. The 5th shot always stresses you out and you pull it.:biggrin: Nice shooting BTW.

Thats some pretty good shooting there semi. Got hate those flyers though

Good work, semi.

you know, I wish you would be a little more careful with your loading technique. That way you won't have an excuse for those flyers. And how come you didn't try 90 and 100 grs as I requested previously. I swear you don't listen to anything I say.
Anyway - not to bad shooting for and old guy....:)

Dammit Bronko, you're a tough taskmaster. I would very much have liked to do that shooting in five grain increments instead of ten. But I worked that range session in between a morning and evening hunt, and just didn't have the time for that.

I did start to pay a lot more attention to the initial seating of the sabot. As I did so it became clear that it's very easy to deform the petals when starting the bullet. Later that night I thought about putting the sabot into the muzzle with no bullet, then seeing how well the bullet will slip into the sabot. Has anyone tried that?

Semi I don't think that is wise. You would probably get more petal deformation or worse, an inadequate seating causing a void creating a possible dangerous situation. And Lord knows, we surely would miss your unique way with words and we also wouldn't have anyone else to pick on.