A New Bullet In The X7 & THE FIVE SHOT BLUES
01-13-2013, 06:57 PM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
A New Bullet In The X7 & THE FIVE SHOT BLUES
Well guys, I haven't had a range session since the beginning of deer season. But after sitting in a stand this morning in seventy-two degrees of 85% humidity, I decided to cut the hunt short and have a range session instead.
I was hunting with the Swamp Dragon with the .54 caliber ball barrel. But had the .50 Omega X7 in the truck.
Over the years I've shot thousands of bullets from my various .50 caliber guns - a variety of conicals plus 250 grain, 270, 300, 350, and 405 grain jacketed bullets in sabots.
But for some reason I have never shot .429/240 grain bullets. Never ever. Weird, huh?
Having recently ordered several boxes of .429/240 grain Speer Deep Curls and a supply of Harvester green crush rib sabots, I decided to try them in the X7.
The gun was sighted in for 300 grain XTPs and I had no idea where those 240 grain bullets might hit. So I put a large sheet of paper out at 25 yards with a dot in its center and took one shot. The bullet hit about four inches below and two inches to the left of the target dot. I then adjusted the scope by laying the gun in the rest with the cross hairs on the target dot, and carefully adjusting windage and elevation - without moving the gun - untill the cross hairs centered on the bullet hole. I love this "one shot scope adjustment" method.
Now on to a 50 yard target. I loaded the bullet over 85 grains of GOEX FFFg and took five shots. I was "mostly happy". But what the hell happened with shot #2?
Let's try that again.
I don't know if that shot out of the group was #2 again. But DANG!
Let's up the charge to 95 grains.
Not bad. I'd love to move the target out to 75 or 100 yards. But the back end of the rifle range is flooded (5" of rain yesterday), so I have to stay at 50.
I wonder what the same charge will do with FFg instead of FFFg? Here's what.
Now I like that! I had been using a very firm grip on the little X7. So decided to see what would happen with a very loose grip. I mean a very loose grip. I let the gun lay in the rest, did not hold the forend with my left hand, and only pulled it against my shoulder with my right hand to get full contact. Here's what I got.
It seems as though the gun doesn't much care how it's held.
WELL DANG!!! It's started raining again. I worked in one final target and upped the charge to 100 grains and got this.
I think I enjoyed the range session more than my last several hunts in the heat. But what's with that flyer on almost every target?
I was hunting with the Swamp Dragon with the .54 caliber ball barrel. But had the .50 Omega X7 in the truck.
Over the years I've shot thousands of bullets from my various .50 caliber guns - a variety of conicals plus 250 grain, 270, 300, 350, and 405 grain jacketed bullets in sabots.
But for some reason I have never shot .429/240 grain bullets. Never ever. Weird, huh?
Having recently ordered several boxes of .429/240 grain Speer Deep Curls and a supply of Harvester green crush rib sabots, I decided to try them in the X7.
The gun was sighted in for 300 grain XTPs and I had no idea where those 240 grain bullets might hit. So I put a large sheet of paper out at 25 yards with a dot in its center and took one shot. The bullet hit about four inches below and two inches to the left of the target dot. I then adjusted the scope by laying the gun in the rest with the cross hairs on the target dot, and carefully adjusting windage and elevation - without moving the gun - untill the cross hairs centered on the bullet hole. I love this "one shot scope adjustment" method.
Now on to a 50 yard target. I loaded the bullet over 85 grains of GOEX FFFg and took five shots. I was "mostly happy". But what the hell happened with shot #2?
Let's try that again.
I don't know if that shot out of the group was #2 again. But DANG!
Let's up the charge to 95 grains.
Not bad. I'd love to move the target out to 75 or 100 yards. But the back end of the rifle range is flooded (5" of rain yesterday), so I have to stay at 50.
I wonder what the same charge will do with FFg instead of FFFg? Here's what.
Now I like that! I had been using a very firm grip on the little X7. So decided to see what would happen with a very loose grip. I mean a very loose grip. I let the gun lay in the rest, did not hold the forend with my left hand, and only pulled it against my shoulder with my right hand to get full contact. Here's what I got.
It seems as though the gun doesn't much care how it's held.
WELL DANG!!! It's started raining again. I worked in one final target and upped the charge to 100 grains and got this.
I think I enjoyed the range session more than my last several hunts in the heat. But what's with that flyer on almost every target?
Last edited by Semisane; 01-13-2013 at 07:11 PM.
01-14-2013, 06:05 AM
#6
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
The flier is kind of a puzzle. Was it in any special sequence?
That flyer on the first target is really out of group. The others aren't quite as bad. I've often wondered if the sabot has something to do with flyers. Maybe that particular sabot had a flaw, or prehaps didn't release from the bullet properly for some reason.
01-14-2013, 06:42 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Virginia / West Virginia
Posts: 4,906
Beautiful gun semi. That exact combo is what I'm shooting out of my mk now, with 100gr RS.
I would "think" you should be able to stack em all day long with that rifle and combo. Not sure what to say about the flyer(s). ? Do you have any other powders to try? RS / 777? I noticed you didn't try 90gr either. I have one gun that loves 90gr for some reason.
Either way, nice shootin...no go kill something
(Looks like you should have some cold(er) weather creeping down your way, maybe that will help. 5" rain ain't no fun for sure.)
Oh, and I'm sure you saw my post on how those bullets perform on deer
I would "think" you should be able to stack em all day long with that rifle and combo. Not sure what to say about the flyer(s). ? Do you have any other powders to try? RS / 777? I noticed you didn't try 90gr either. I have one gun that loves 90gr for some reason.
Either way, nice shootin...no go kill something
(Looks like you should have some cold(er) weather creeping down your way, maybe that will help. 5" rain ain't no fun for sure.)
Oh, and I'm sure you saw my post on how those bullets perform on deer
01-14-2013, 07:30 AM
#10
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
SMI i think its the weather.you need to come out here for a range session.Its -20 this morning and a foot of new snow Itll keep your barrel from getting hot!!
