Black Diamond XR
 

Today I had the misfortune of leaning a rifle against a wall to clean and it slipped along the wall and fell to the floor on the scope. Since this rifle has a very inexpensive scope, I decided it would go to the range today and check it.

Rifle: T/C Black Diamond XR .50 caliber 1-28 twist 26 inch barrel
Scope: Bushnell Banner Dusk to Dawn 1.5-4.5x32mm
Powder: Pyrodex RS 110 grains & 80 grains
Projectiles: 200 grain .40 cal Shockwaves, 250 grain .452 Barnes MZ
Expander in red provided sabot, 460 gr No Excuses
Distance: 100 yards on two of three readings
Bench rest.
Weather: 70 degrees and sunny.. a little windy though

I took the rifle out today because I had not shot it lately and was concerned about the scope going out of alignment. My notes indicated I had sighted it in one inch high at 100 yards. So time would tell.



Shots 1-3 were not bad. I had #3 drop low on me for some reason. I was swabbing between shots. I only had three of these Shockwaves left. It was kind of a cleaning house day for me.

Shots 4-7 were the Barnes 250 grain MZ Expanders with the red sabots. #4 was totally my fault. It was one of those, on the bench, getting my breathing set, stock fit set, and made the mistake of laying my finger on the trigger just a second too soon. 5-7 was the last of the four bullets I had of that selection.

8-10 were the 460 grain No Excuses conical bullets. I know I shot three but could not find #10. Also checking my notes, I normally shot Pyrodex P with these. So the RS might have made a difference.

Some interesting side notes... the block of wood I was shooting against was Spruce. Now granted this spruce is dry. But the chunk is quite large and thick..



After shooting I happened to look behind the block



Now granted that is not water jugs, or phone books.. but that is a lot of wood to penetrate. I was kind of amazed it made it through there.

But the scope must be tough. It never went off its marks. And the rifle shot excellent. After that I tried a lot of bullets I had that I had one or two of this and that.. kind of cleaning out the bullet locker. The black diamond xr actually did a good job shooting all of them. Some better then others, but over all a real nice day to shoot.

Through that wood is crazy that is a tough bullet!!!

Barnes are an all copper bullet. I want to go out tomorrow and see if I can find them. I was shocked when I saw that they had penetrated that block. Especially from 100 yards.

Maybe you will get lucky and recover one would be nice to see what they look like!
That still has me thinking that is a great penetrating bullet period.

Jason

My guess is that they didn't open up or they couldn't have gone through that much wood. It'll be interesting to see.

Not surprised. I shot through a living tree in 2008? with the 250gr thor @ 50 yards. I think it was around 10" thick or there about. No tree stands in the way of a barnes! LOL

This thread was bad luck for me as well. 20 minutes after reading, i accidentally knocked the V2 over and ended up knocking the scope off target. It was 4" high @ 100 when i took it out to double check.

I was really surprised that $69.00 Bushnell Scope held up so well. And for a cheap scope it is nice and clear.

I like Bushnell's they are not that bad of a scope...

I'm not a huge fan of the Banners, but they do seem to be decent for the price. That being said, if you ever want to sell that Black Diamond please pm me. I love those guns and I've yet to see one that wouldn't shoot amazing.

Cayugad, that is some good shooting.