pluckit

A while ago I had replaced the plastic rear sight on my Traditions Pursuit with a metal sight and I had to remove the scope to do it so I wanted to sight the Pursuit in again. Previously the rifle was sighted in with 2 fifty grain Pyrodex pellets under a .45 caliber XTP in a Thompson Center Mag Express sabot. I wanted to get away from pellets and try to get it to shoot Blackhorn 209 and the new CCI 209 Magnum primers I got a while back. So I took it to the range today to see if I could accomplish something I have been unable to do. That would be to get a rifle to shoot consistently with Blackhorn 209. Well today I think I did. At least I believe the rifle was shooting as well as I was.
I started at 15 yards with 80 grains of Blackhorn 209 under a .40 caliber 150 grain Speer hollow point bullet in a blue Harvester crush rib .40/.50 caliber sabot just to put it on paper. Scope adjustments were made between shots.

Then a couple of shots were taken with the new open sights with an adjustment made between shots.

Close enough so I moved out to 75 yards to adjust the scope a little more.

It was grouping well so without wasting any more powder I switched bullets to a .44 caliber XTP in a green Harvester sabot with the same 80 grains of Blackhorn 209 to bring the shots into the bulls eye.
The first shot hit where it was hitting on the last target so another scope adjustment put it just under the bulls eye then a third shot just above it.

For the fifth target I kept the load the same and moved the target to the end of the range at 100 yards and tried to get serious. Too bad I lost the third shot.

I had to try that load again and see if I could keep the third shot in the group. I did and I was pretty happy with the way it is shooting. Especially since I hadn't changed the amount of powder I was using even once.
On target number #7 I decided to switch to .45 caliber XTP in a Thompson Center Mag Express sabot over the same 80 grains of Blackhorn 209, The same bullet that always shot well for me with two 50 grain Pyrodex pellets. Well after you see the target I think you will have to agree that that didn't work.
I only hit the target with 2 out of the 3 shots I took at it. I was simply amazed at the difference between the two bullets.
So I went back to the .44 caliber XTP in the green Harvester sabot and shot at this target at 100 yards.

One last target at 100 yards using the same load of 80 grains Blackhorn 209 under a smooth green .44/.50 caliber Harvester sabot with a .44 caliber 240 grain XTP in it and touched off with a CCI 209 Magnum shotgun primer.

Overall I think I was able to accomplish what I had set out to do today. And that was to find an acceptable 100 yard hunting load using Blackhorn 209 and shooting my Traditions Pursuit.

ronlaughlin

Your title made me think you were going back to the pursuit, not back to the Pursuit. Them last two shots looked good to me.

wabi

Target #5 looks like two bullets may have gone through hole 2.

cayugad

Pretty good shooting there. And I agree with Wabi. See how fat that #2 hole is.

pluckit

DANG! I didn't see that. I think you may be right. I thought it was strange that I missed the target on that shot. When I went down range to check the target I looked at the backer board to see if I could tell if one shot went through another hole but I couldn't tell.

Semisane

Well done Pluckit. That load and accuracy will do for sure.

wildeboer

You shot fine groups there, that rifle should take meat home.