It has been a cold winter. And shooting has not been possible some days, just due to winds and extreme cold. Last night was -24F below at the house, but the sun was out and a promise of warming up got me excited. Finally it got above 0šs and the thermometer said it was actually 8 above. Well that's good enough for me. I just hope it was not the sun shine on the thermometer causing the nice reading.

So I grabbed a couple rifles. One was a CVA Tracker Carbine that I mounted a red dot scope on. But a problem I faced shooting that was, the bright sun shine. We have new snow, so the bright sun made it almost impossible to see the red dot. Even with the lens filter.



The glare off the snow and the sun shining to the side of the rifle made that red dot near impossible. I even put the thing on the largest square that should be seen. I even suspected the battery died, but once in the house, in the dark it was plain as day. So we shot that rifle just a few times and decided to get the other rifle moving.

The other rifle was a 50 caliber Lyman Great Plains Hunter Flintlock. I wanted to try some bullets I cast for it. These were out of a LEE mold, .458 and in pure lead weigh 420-423 grains and sized down to .451 to shoot out of my .451 White Rifle, so I threw them in a sabot (MMP HPH 24) and loaded them on top of 70 grains of 3f Black Powder.



I set the target at only 35 yards. I did not feel like walking a lot through the deep snow, since I was shooting non scoped rifles.



The two hits low left were out of the Tracker Carbine. I just centered the bulls eye on what I thought was where the dot was. And it was hitting the bulls eye with a roundball. But the group to the right of the bull were the .451 420 grain all lead cast bullet out of the GPH.

At 35 yards that bull was a pretty easy target and I was going to quit as I was getting a little cold. But still wanted to shoot. Then I saw a small can of polyurethane that had hardened on me, and was in the back room. So I grabbed that and ran it out and set it on the box. I was sure it would explode or make a really neat splash.

Once loaded I shot aiming at the can and it did not move. I thought ... what the heck!! I missed. So I loaded again. Again the flintlock flashed and the gun boomed.. and the can never moved. Now I was mad. So I loaded up one more time and thought.. if I miss this time, I am going in the house.

I fired and the can never moved... I was devastated. So I put the rifle in the house where it was safe, and then I went to pick up the targets.





Needless to say, I was smiling when I gathered up the targets. It suddenly was not so cold. But having put the rifle in the house, I decided to call it a day, clean my two rifles, and get some coffee...

Overall it was pretty nice outside, and shooting again was a real pleasure. While granted it was bitter cold last night, at least it warmed up today and gave me a chance to make some smoke.

Those saboted conicals sure shot well Dave. They would stop a deer right now.
Even when it is cold now that it is February you can feel the power of the sun, the last few weeks I sure went through a pile of firewood.

It seemed all I did was run back and fourth from the wood room to the wood stove. I sure like my new stove. It really throws the heat. Plus a ceiling fan over the stove keeps the heat off the ceiling. But last night was so cold, it even kicked my oil furnace on.

I am heating my 4,000 sq ft shop with wood. Takes lots a wood but it sure saves on my LP bill.

I think your rifle likes that load.

I had the same problem with the red dot. Sold it.

HA

Really nice shooting Dave. Even though it was only 35 yds. I miss my GPH. Mine also shot good with conicals and moderate loads. That can got a real beating!

I had purchased a set of weaver bases for the Optima then changed my mind and got the one piece DuraSight. And discovered they fit on that Tracker Carbine. So I was going to put a scope on it, but did not want to waste rings on that rifle. So I threw the Red Dot on. Well I cleaned the rifle and took the Red Dot off.