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Omega X7 - 240 Grain Speers - GOEX vs. Pyrodex RS

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Omega X7 - 240 Grain Speers - GOEX vs. Pyrodex RS

Old 01-21-2013, 10:11 AM
  #1  
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Default Omega X7 - 240 Grain Speers - GOEX vs. Pyrodex RS

I had results that surprised me in Saturday's range session.

I shot 5-shot groups with Speer .429 240 grain Deep Curls in a variety of sabots with both GOEX FFg and Pyrodex RS. All shooting was at 50 yards because the back of the rifle range is still a little wet and sloppy for walking.


The first target was with 95 grains GOEX in Harvester crush rib sabots. These load very easily in the Omega's barrel. Here's the target.





That group was not quite as good as I was getting last week. But my first target of the day always seems to be not quite as good as the following targets. Maybe I settle down a bit in shooting technique. Anyway, the first shot from a cold clean barrel was that one immediately above the bull - which pleased me.

Then, leaving the powder measure set at 95 grains, I switched to Pyrodex RS. Here's that target.





This surprised me. I knew I had a good hold for all of those shots. Accuracy with Pyrodex RS is usually about the same as GOEX.

Next, I switched from Harvester crush rib sabots to the regular Harvester smooth sabots, and loaded with GOEX again. The smooth sabots were tighter in the bore, but still loaded very comfortably. Here's that target.





Now that really pleased me. Let's try the Pyrodex again with the smooth sabot.

Here's the target.





Wow. Once again the Pyrodex group was poor.

OK. Let's try some MMP HPH-12 sabots with the GOEX. They loaded about the same as the Harvester smooth sabots. Maby a tad tighter, but not much.

Here's that one.





NICE! Let's see how the Pyrodex does with the MMP sabots.

Here's the target.





HOLY COW! That's hard to believe.

Now I know that with the same 95 grain load the Pyrodex is shooting faster than GOEX. So I reduced the Pyrodex load to 85 grains to see what what would happen.

The five-shot group looked like this.





That's a little better. But still not as good as the GOEX loads. It looks as though GOEX will be the powder of choice for this bullet in the X7 - a thing that does not bother me in the least.

Last edited by Semisane; 01-21-2013 at 10:32 AM.
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Old 01-21-2013, 10:31 AM
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Is that a really tight load with the MMP HPH 12? If it is manageable, even with swabbing, that might be the load for me with that rifle. That is good shooting.
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Old 01-21-2013, 10:32 AM
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That sort of make sense. Pyro is a bit hotter than Goex. 85 gr of Pyro might be closer to 95gr of Goex.

Did you crono the loads?

Although real BP would be more accurate anyway. It was for me, and it looks like you too.

You should do the same with 3F to see how it comes out.
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Old 01-21-2013, 11:02 AM
  #4  
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DIFFERENT POWDERS PRODUCE DIFFERENT VIBRATIONS just like different loads do.
You might try a different bullet and the results might be opposite or even a different load, it is really difficult to reach any firm conclusions by shooting the same load with two different powders that have different burning speed and different potential energy.
If you really want a comparison then find the sweet point of each powder and compare using those loads. I normally use both the load and the bullet that shoots best to try and compare.
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Old 01-21-2013, 11:19 AM
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If you really want a comparison then find the sweet point of each powder and compare using those loads.
I agree Lee. My objective for that shoot was to see how the different sabots behaved. One day I'll try that bullet with Pyrodex loads from 70 to 110 grains and see if there's a sweet spot. But I've pretty much satisfied myself that crush rib sabots are not the way to go in my X7. It seems I have one of the (few?) loose Omega bores.

Last edited by Semisane; 01-21-2013 at 12:45 PM.
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Old 01-21-2013, 12:35 PM
  #6  
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Good report Semi!!

Was that Goex Pinnacle?

Have you ever tried the FFF version of Goex before?
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Old 01-21-2013, 12:45 PM
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It was standard GOEX FFg quake. I use a lot of GOEX FFFg. I get a case of GOEX every year (technically a Christmas present from my wife) and usually get 15 cans of FFFg and 10 of FFg.
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Old 01-21-2013, 01:09 PM
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Ok thanks Semi. Good shooting by the way....
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Old 01-21-2013, 01:22 PM
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I would say those less condensed groups are due to too much drining.
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Old 01-21-2013, 01:31 PM
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yes, indeed, no question.
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