Another day at the range
 

I went out today to shoot my Hot Rod Hawken again.
Last week I tried a new bullet that kicked azz. I got a RCBS 11mm mould. It pours a 409 grain bullet that is .446" with lead that is about 6 BHN hardness. I paper Patch them to fit my .451 Green Mountain Hawken.




I shot three shots no cleaning. They did good so I tried another but it went a little wide. My first 100 yard group last week was this one.




I adjusted my sights a bit and shot another 100 yard group that was even better.



I wanted to try some more that were a bit harder. So last week I poured up two new batches of harder lead. One batch was about 8.5 BHN and the second batch was 9.5 BHN hard. Today I only got to try the 8.5 hardness. I shot a group using 80 gr of Pyrodex P and no over powder wad. It was ok somewhere in the 3" range at 100 yards. I decided to try an over powder wad, so I adjusted my sights from last weeks group. I shot two shots and wow that was good. SO I cleaned the gun and this time I was shooting for group. I cleaned between each shot. In this picture The tape is covering the first two shots. This three shot group is .858" If I were to peel off the tape the group for all 5 shots would be still under 1" group.



I also had a Limb Saver recoil pad installed. I had a gun smith do this one because I wanted the stock cut and a part of the brass left in place.





This gives me a better length but also WOW it helps on the recoil. The next time I go out I plan to try the 9.5 BHN hardness bullets but I think I found the golden ticket. Ron

Ron that is some dandy shooting. I'm just the opposite of you though. I prefer a shorter stock. You must have some long arms??

That's great shooting with iron sights. On the hardness thing. Is that considered hard or soft? Wouldn't you want a soft lead for a muzzleloader?

HA

I do have long arms. I have to buy shirts that are way too big so I have the arms the right length. Ron

I am guessing, that is the fast twist rifle barrel. That is some great shooting.

I too have to buy shirts that are way too big also. But not so much form my arms. I normally have to roll up the sleeves if you know what i mean.

the length of the shirt is what always kills me, i love a long torso and XL after one wash turns into a medium belly showin off shirt :D

Awesome shooting though! Gosh, I love it when i see stuff like this, traditional, open sight, simple conical. Inline accuracy!

Most of the time we strive for pure lead so we can get them down the barrel without a hammer. In the case of this mould I could use wheel weights and they would still work. The 1000 yard ML shooters are using 20- 1 or 30-1 lead that is harder than some of what I am using. 45-70 shooters typically shoot even harder yet. In the grand scheme of things the lead I am using most guys would call pure. Since I have a hardness tester I can adjust the lead hardness to tweak load performance.
Ron

This barrel has a 1-30 twist. I am surprised that the 1-30 can stabilize this bullet. They are flying true out to 150. I plan to try them out to 200 yards my next outing. Ron

Just curious as i know nothing about lead hardness and such. I use the pure lead i get from recovered powerbelts, very very soft that you can easily sink a fingernail into. How can you figure out the ratio of soft lead to mix with harder lead?