Cross Patch Follies
01-27-2013, 05:40 PM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
Cross Patch Follies
Well guys, I did it.
You probably saw my post on a plan to try shooting conicals with lubed cloth cross patches in my .45 caliber 1:30 twist GM barreled Renegade.
It was a pleasant seventy-two degrees when I returned from the Saturday morning hunt - too warm for hunting but about perfect for a range session.
So I hauled the Renegade and necessary gear the 25 yards from my little hooch to the shooting bench on the hunting club's rifle range, and prepared for a fun and interesting time.
After dumping 85 grains of GOEX FFg down the bore, I lubed two strips of .020 denim with Liquid Wrench and seated the base of a .429/240 grain Speer Deep Curl in the bore. It looked something like this.
It was pretty darn tight with just about 1/4" of the bullet length in the bore. But I used a short starter and proceeded to pound it in until the nose of the bullet was flush with the muzzle. THAT WAS IT. I could not get it even a smidgen deeper no matter how hard I pounded on the short starter. DANG, DANG, and DAMMIT!
Thinking I could use a ball screw to pull it out, I tried one. But there was no way a standard ball screw would start itself into the nose of that Deep Curl, no matter how hard I tried. It looked as though this experiment would be over without a shot being fired. The gun was out of action.
Mulling over my options, I walked back to my hooch and found a two-inch deck screw in a jar of miscellaneous screws and nails. Deck screws are a lot thinner and pointier than ball screws. I was able to screw that thing about a half-inch into the bullet with a Phillips head screw driver. Then I gripped the screw from the side just below the head with a pair of pliers and pounded upward on the pliers with a piece of 2x4. About six good hits got the bullet out. HALLELUJAH!
Realizing it was foolish to pound that jacketed bullet in the way I did (a little late, don't you think
) I thought I might try a lead bullet.
So I tried a .429/240 grain hard cast lead bullet, and switched to .016 thick patch material.
With the thinner patch material well lubed, I was able to seat it flush with the muzzle just fine. It was tight, but I could tell It would go down the clean unfired bore OK. I seated it on the powder charge with the steel Knight range rod with no great difficulty, and shot at a dot on a 18" x 24" sheet of paper at 15 yards. It hit about 8 inches directly below the target dot and cut a perfect hole in the paper. NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE.
Would a second shot hit in the same place? I swabbed the bore with two sides of an alcohol patch and one dry patch, and proceeded to reload. Uh-oh! I got about 1/8" of the bullet into the muzzle and it hung up tight. Not wanting a repeat of the deck screw & pliers fiasco, and not having any thinner patch material on hand, I pulled it out with the pliers and gave up on .429 diameter bullets.
Switching to .400/200 grain XTP's, I loaded one with the .016 patch material. It loaded just fine and felt nice and snug in the bore. It hit the target paper about four-inches above and six-inches to the right of the target dot.
Now for a second shot. As I prepared, one of the guys walked out the the range to see what I was doing. After a short bull session, I finished loading and took the shot. Pop - no BANG. Second cap, Pop - no BANG.
OH POOP! I dry balled that bullet. No big deal. Red faced, I removed the clean out screw on the bolster, worked in some GOEX, replaced the screw, and shot the bullet out at about the speed a two year old can throw a golf ball.
The second attempt to load another XTP was successful. But the bullet hit six-inches above and eight-inches to the left of the target dot. The two shots were over eighteen inches apart, at 15 yards. Besides that, one of them cut a keyhole slot in the paper.
Not wanting to give up, I decided to try 180 grain Gold Dots.
Well, the results were about the same as with the 200 grain XTPs - two shots wide apart with one bullet cutting an oblong hole in the paper.
Frustrated, I put a target out at 50 yards, took five shots with 85 grains of GOEX under the 180 grain Gold Dots in Harvester 45/40 sabots, and shot a nice one-inch five shot group.
Time for a beer!
You probably saw my post on a plan to try shooting conicals with lubed cloth cross patches in my .45 caliber 1:30 twist GM barreled Renegade.
It was a pleasant seventy-two degrees when I returned from the Saturday morning hunt - too warm for hunting but about perfect for a range session.
So I hauled the Renegade and necessary gear the 25 yards from my little hooch to the shooting bench on the hunting club's rifle range, and prepared for a fun and interesting time.
After dumping 85 grains of GOEX FFg down the bore, I lubed two strips of .020 denim with Liquid Wrench and seated the base of a .429/240 grain Speer Deep Curl in the bore. It looked something like this.
It was pretty darn tight with just about 1/4" of the bullet length in the bore. But I used a short starter and proceeded to pound it in until the nose of the bullet was flush with the muzzle. THAT WAS IT. I could not get it even a smidgen deeper no matter how hard I pounded on the short starter. DANG, DANG, and DAMMIT!
Thinking I could use a ball screw to pull it out, I tried one. But there was no way a standard ball screw would start itself into the nose of that Deep Curl, no matter how hard I tried. It looked as though this experiment would be over without a shot being fired. The gun was out of action.
Mulling over my options, I walked back to my hooch and found a two-inch deck screw in a jar of miscellaneous screws and nails. Deck screws are a lot thinner and pointier than ball screws. I was able to screw that thing about a half-inch into the bullet with a Phillips head screw driver. Then I gripped the screw from the side just below the head with a pair of pliers and pounded upward on the pliers with a piece of 2x4. About six good hits got the bullet out. HALLELUJAH!
Realizing it was foolish to pound that jacketed bullet in the way I did (a little late, don't you think
) I thought I might try a lead bullet.So I tried a .429/240 grain hard cast lead bullet, and switched to .016 thick patch material.
With the thinner patch material well lubed, I was able to seat it flush with the muzzle just fine. It was tight, but I could tell It would go down the clean unfired bore OK. I seated it on the powder charge with the steel Knight range rod with no great difficulty, and shot at a dot on a 18" x 24" sheet of paper at 15 yards. It hit about 8 inches directly below the target dot and cut a perfect hole in the paper. NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE.
Would a second shot hit in the same place? I swabbed the bore with two sides of an alcohol patch and one dry patch, and proceeded to reload. Uh-oh! I got about 1/8" of the bullet into the muzzle and it hung up tight. Not wanting a repeat of the deck screw & pliers fiasco, and not having any thinner patch material on hand, I pulled it out with the pliers and gave up on .429 diameter bullets.
Switching to .400/200 grain XTP's, I loaded one with the .016 patch material. It loaded just fine and felt nice and snug in the bore. It hit the target paper about four-inches above and six-inches to the right of the target dot.
Now for a second shot. As I prepared, one of the guys walked out the the range to see what I was doing. After a short bull session, I finished loading and took the shot. Pop - no BANG. Second cap, Pop - no BANG.
OH POOP! I dry balled that bullet. No big deal. Red faced, I removed the clean out screw on the bolster, worked in some GOEX, replaced the screw, and shot the bullet out at about the speed a two year old can throw a golf ball.
The second attempt to load another XTP was successful. But the bullet hit six-inches above and eight-inches to the left of the target dot. The two shots were over eighteen inches apart, at 15 yards. Besides that, one of them cut a keyhole slot in the paper.
Not wanting to give up, I decided to try 180 grain Gold Dots.
Well, the results were about the same as with the 200 grain XTPs - two shots wide apart with one bullet cutting an oblong hole in the paper.
Frustrated, I put a target out at 50 yards, took five shots with 85 grains of GOEX under the 180 grain Gold Dots in Harvester 45/40 sabots, and shot a nice one-inch five shot group.
Time for a beer!
Last edited by Semisane; 01-27-2013 at 07:13 PM.
Then again it can't be any worse than a cross patch , right ? 
01-30-2013, 01:32 PM
#9
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
I still think it's a sound principle. After all, some long range target shooters of old used cross patched paper bullets. The were long, soft lead, smooth side conicals. I may have to play with them again some day with a wider variety of bullets, patch thicknesses and lubes.
