Semisane

Naw Slow Burn, lots of guys are attracted to the Extra Virgin - but I've found the ticket to true happiness.

screamin

cayugad... I have a Lyman Deerstalker in 54 cal, same barrel just 4" shorter and I know you know that. I found some .023 cotton duck at wally world and mixed up different mixes of ballistol and water and hit the range. It likes an 8:1 water to oil mixed patch with a 530 ball. It also likes a 7:1 mix with a 535 ball and a .018 pillow tick but I can't find the target, I never tested this load at 100 yards and I'm thinking I should have.

I can't see that well either so I mounted the lyman sml peeps and use a post with a round top. It works fairly well but I think I need to paint the ball part white for hunting. My neighbor said he did this one time and it greatly improved the sight picture. I had cross hairs in there as well but started seeing double crosshairs so took them out.

screamin

I hunt in the wide open sage so 100 yard shots can be the norm. Here's a pic of the initial work up at 100 yards. Two 3 shot groups of 3. Since then I've piled up the 5 and 6 shot groups but can't find the targets. The rifle is pretty new and it seems the more I shoot it the more accurate it gets. The bottom single hole was a hang fire.

Semisane

Screamin, over the years I tried probably a dozen different patch lubes - some commercial and some home made. After a while I settled on olive oil as being as good as any and better than most. And as Cayugad said, the price is right.

Then a few years ago I bought a used and abused Remington 700ML with a badly frozen breech plug. I used Liquid Wrench to get it free.

The rest of the story is a Little weird. See it here: http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/blac...rro-world.html

Since then I've tried it in every one of my round ball guns, a .32, two 54s, and a .58, with excellent results. I grab a stack of a dozen or two patches, squirt on some LW, and massage the stack with my fingers to get the LW evenly spread throughout. Then I wrap the entire stack in a paper towel and squeeze/massage the package so the towel takes up as much excess oil as possible. The patches feel almost dry and are very pleasant to handle.

As Cayugad said, he tried it as wasn't impressed. I think Bronko tried it also with mixed results. Someone else here tried it and liked it a lot - I don't recall who that was. Anyway, I'm a confirmed LW guy at this point.

Slow Burn

well, I can't argue there...LOL

cayugad

I thought you had the Deerstalker. I almost purchased one of them. They really looked like a nice rifle to carry around. And you have shown they are good shooters. I never tried cotton duck, but I wonder if them old carhart duck cloth pants in my closet would work? Although as worn as they are they are no where near .023 anymore. I just wore them out. Wood cutting will take a good pair of pants and kill them.

That is great shooting. It makes me want to shoot more and more. I am wondering if I need a larger bulls eye at longer distances so I could focus on say the sights cutting the middle of it. Them little 2 and 3 inch bulls I use look awful small to me way out there.

I do know one person, he swears to it, and he said he shot a deer with a Lyman Great Plains rifle at 134 steps with a roundball and the buckhorn sights. In fact he said after he shot he was kind of upset with himself for even shooting. But it was in the middle of a hay field and he had a good rest. He said it ran about thirty yards and just tipped over.

I have seen how well Semisane shoots that Lyman Great Plains Rifle of his. One reason I wanted one so bad. I think I will be shooting that with olive oil and liquid wrench next week and see what happens. Although I have to drift the sight a little still.

screamin

I know what you mean about the spot looking so small on these targets. The red center of those targets I use is 3". At 100 yards the lyman post ball completely covers the spot. All I do is try to center the post in the target at that distance. It seems to work. I am going to go to a little smaller post from a Lee Shavers insert card and see how that works on a black background with red circle. I do know one thing, there is no way I could shoot this good with standard iron sights, the peep helps a ton. I think if the barrel on this rifle was 28" instead of 24" it would help a little more. Matter of fact, I've thought about picking up a trade rifle barrel and dropping it in this stock just for that reason. Get that sight out farther where I can focus better, I can't see to read without glasses anymore but for distance I'm good.

Any way, I'm finding that all the experimenting is half the fun.

BP_Hunter

So I gotta ask, with cast RB's, do you have to be careful how you align the sprue when you start the ball? Do you put the spruce facing in or out? One last question, do you use harder or softer lead for RB casting?

cayugad

I use as pure a lead as I can get my hands on. In fact recently a friend gave me a "large bar" of what he called pure lead. While casting I was going to cut that up and use it. So I put that chunk in a vice (about the size of a small bread pan loaf) and took my saws all out. It was all I could do to cut that thing. I am sure it is not pure lead. So I decided it is emergency lead. And a heck of a door stop. I suspect it is wheel weights and any other "lead" he had laying around.

I have been told it does not matter if the spur is up down, sideways, what ever. But I always put the spur up, facing out. Does it make a difference? Psychologically to me it does. It is how I was taught, how I have always done it, and will always do it. But in the case of a fast second shot, I pay no attention to it.

Something that happened last time I cast.. I had my lead too hot I believe. It was so hot that after I poured, I had to hold the mold for several seconds before the top stopped being a liquid. But the ball cast were about as perfect a ball as I have ever made. Just really nice, no spots, wrinkles, and the spur on a LEE mold never were too large IMO. I might start upping the temps of the lead when I cast. Just to see if this streak of perfect cast continues. Besides, its getting cold in the shop now. Sitting around that heater is not all bad. They are talking chance of snow Thursday !!!

Josmund

Late to the tread but that's some fine shooting there Dave.

Darn nice rifle to boot.