New Scope--Fancy Reticle
 

In the past month it seems like i haven't been shooting very good. I came to believe it was because one of my scopes was haywire. This turned out to be false, but by the time i figured that out, i was already leaning toward purchasing a new scope. This lean led to a purchase i couldn't stop.

The scope i ended up purchasing is Leupold 3-9 ultralight, with a fancy reticle.









The past few days saw me mount it, and shoot it at further and further distances. The rifle is the Accura, and the load was 115g of BH, pushing a 270g Deep Curl, in a Harvester smooth sabot, lit by STS primer. Yesterday, there was little breeze, and the package produced the following target at 201 yard.








The scope was set at about 8 power, and the second dot was used to sight the target.

This morning there was some breeze, but i had to do some shooting anyway; the result of this morning's shoot, is the following target.









The temperature was about 35 when i started shooting and about 39 when i finished. What i did was shoot, and load, and shoot and load. I didn't hurry, and i didn't wait for the rifle to cool. The top 3 blue holes were shot at 103 yard, and were shot first. It appears i wasn't so very steady. Then the bottom 3 blue holes were shot at about 200 yard (forgot to measure).

The bottom yellow holes were made after i switched to the MMP hph green sabot, leaving the load unchanged otherwise. Also, i changed the scope to about 7 1/2 power. I sighted the bottom target with the second dot.

Then i switched back to the original load using the Harvester green sabot, left the scope set at 7 1/2 power, and sighted the middle target with the second dot and made the green holes.

Then i moved back to near 100 yard and shot the top 3 yellow holes with the scope set at 4 power, and using the cross hair to sight the top target. Obviously, the groups aren't so very good, but they are what they are. One thing i think i am liking, is the ability to hit where the crosshair is pointed at 100 yard, instead of sighting in for maximum point blank range, and being 3" high. I think i will use this rifle to hunt turkey the week after next. It seems the fancy reticle will be fun to shoot at all ranges. The scope was turned down 2 clicks, and will be tested with more shooting, in the days upcoming.

That to me is good shooting. Anyone shooting 200 yards and hitting is amazing to me. I mean face it, these are not centerfire rifles. If it were my Ruger M77 in 7mm mag, I might not get to excited. But doing this with a muzzleloader to me is good shooting. I guess I shot too many rounds out of old rifles at close range. Nice shooting. Good luck with a turkey.

I rode the forest roads in my area today and actually saw five deer. They looked good and healthy, real dark coats still, and were near the road because the snow had melted (although it was snowing) and there was some fresh greens for them.

Nice shooting. If I hit an 8X10 sheet of paper at 200 yards I wouldn't know how to act. I guess I'll never know since there's nowhere for me to shoot that far. I admit I like it when a gun shoots 1.25" groups at 100 yards but a 3 or 4 inch group is plenty good enough to harvest a deer at 100 yards. Heck, that's what I shoot for, venison. For some reason I just never liked the taste of paper.

Pretty darn good Ron. I like those dots better then the circles, which seem cluttered to me. How much of the target did that dot cover at 200 yards.

On the road to where i shoot, i saw deer. Also saw turkey in the backyards of folk living along the road. Turkey were displaying too. There is no way for me to access these critters that i saw today. They all looked happy and healthy.

At 200 yard, the dot allowed me to see part of the bull on the outside, so it made for good aim. What i mean to say is, i could see red around the black of the dot when i had a good sight picture, however there was a way too much wiggle apparent. I could see my heart beat whilst trying to aim. I have changed the rest so it is more firmer, and am trying to make my shooting more better. Time will tell.

Yes, i agree totally, but i would like to post pictures of bullet holes touching on this forum. Hopefully, we both will do so one day. However, in our house, real success is determined by the contents of the freezer.

I do get excited when I shoot a good group at 100 yards. But it's nothing compared to the feeling I get when seeing a deer I shoot at drop in it's tracks, at any distance.

Yesterday, wife say she wanted to work on taxes this morning. She went on to say, before we did, i was to go shoot my rifles, while she did a couple of chores. It snowed yesterday afternoon and night, but this morning the sun shone, and there was little breeze. When i arrived at the place to shoot, it was 26*, but the air was nearly still. There were two rifles in the truck, so i ended up shooting them both.

The breech plug in the Accura had seemed to show a little flame cutting in the primer seat, so i drilled it some deeper so it would no longer work with the STS, but would be just right for the W209 primer. The breech plug and the Accura were clean, and i had used Montana X-Treme bore conditioner in the barrel. Also, i thought i would give the Harvester 260g PT bullet a try this time. The load was 115g of BH, the sabot was the short black, and the primer was the W209. The first shot with the rifle and the fancy new scope using the second dot at 202 yard was surprisingly high, but the next 3 were near where i wanted them to be. The 4 holes made with the Accura and the new scope, are the ones that weren't colored.













Then i switched rifles, and shot 4 more shots with the V2, which hasn't been cleaned for several shots. That load was the same 260g Harvester PT bullet, pushed by 115g of BH, in the short black sabot, but ignited by the STS primer. The V2 has a 4x scope mounted on it with a normal reticle. The aim was the top bull, and these bullet holes i colored green.

Ron, in my (very limited) experience with Montana X-Treme I found I could not get any consistency at all with the first shot from a clean barrel. I stopped using it because of that because I hunt on a clean bore and want to know where that first shot will go.