Shooting PacNorWest style in the Rock Pit
 

Sunday.... was suppose to be a cooler day here in north Idaho so I really wanted to get out and do some shooting. In our current weather/fire conditions about the only place I feel confident shooting (to many years in the Forest Service) is the Rock Pit. Basalt doesn't burn well and everything in contained in the interior of the rock pit.

Decided I wanted to do some sabotless western style shooting. At first I taken the White Lightening out of the rack and was going to shoot it to get some velocities on the 50x270 bullet shown on the rifle. It has really been a long time since I shot that rifle - even contemplated using this rifle during or Idaho ML season, Idaho rules are very limiting. The Lehigh bullet shown would not be legal at that time but during rifle deer season - O ya!



Sunday when it came to go I changed my mind and went with the Western ULite and a 50x325 bullet. This bullet often fits the bore without any modifications and the ones that do not just about fall down the barrel and do need a minor amount of knurling. U-all would be surprised how little contact is need with the barrel to shoot accurately.

Again the goal was to collect some velocities to see how the bullet would graph out how the bullet would look when put through the ballistic calculator.

When I got to the pit I set up 4 birds on the rock wall at a 100 yards. I wanted to shoot a couple of rounds to check hoe the rifle was shooting, it had been sighted in last year shooting the Lehigh/Bloodline 325's. Loaded up a 120 grains of T7-2f, a MMP black sub-ridge, and 325. Ignited the whole thing with a CCI #11 Mag cap (they are less expensive than the RWS Dyamint Nobel 1075+ placed on a Treso nipple that I had drilled the flash hole to .031 from the factory .028. I really like the Treso nipple as the CCI fits very snug, the 1075+ even tighter making the breech water tight. Hunting wet weather around here this is important to me. It also, though, does create a small problem at the range. After 6-7-8 shots the nipple post becomes so dirty the cap will not fit correctly and does not ignite reliably - so it is important at the range to clean the post after a few shots.

Back to the mission - my first shot on a cold clean barrel struck home without a problem. Ran a moist patch and loaded a second round with the same results - bang - bird gone. One thing I might mention the front sight on the rifle is an aftermarket setup. A Williams Streamlined ramp, a Williams .343N Fire Sight and a Fire Sight Hood. The Fire Sight completely covers the bird at 100 yards so I use a 6 O'clock hold placing the bird on top of the bead (actually slightly above) as the rifle is sighted in with a PBR that makes the bullet impact 2.5" high at 100.

After those two shots - set up the chrono off the muzzle of the rifle. Took two more shots at the remaining birds on the wall and dispatched them. Then to get some more shots in I walked 3 more birds down to the wall and got 3 more velocities. The average velocity computed to 1848 fps. Put the numbers through the Barnes Ballistic Calculator and printed this information sheet.



Seems like this should do the job for an open sight rifle through the ranges that I would normally shoot.

Sounds like fun Sabotloader!! It truly is amazing how little bullet resistance is needed to shoot Accurate, These Paper Patched bullets are a testament to it! I have shot the BACO .444-400 Paper Patched bullets that load with the weight of the ramrod alone accurately all the way out to 500 yards with my 1:30 twist GM LRH TC Hawken sidelock and Peep sights. I recently started playing around with tightening them up in the bore for my style of hunting and am super pleased with my results thus far. I just don't trust a bullet that loads this easily for hunting, But accuracy is AWESOME!

When you speak of Knurling to tighten the bullet up, will it work with a softer lead Conical? I have a few different Grease Groove lead bullets that start out plenty tight but end up loosening up a bunch about halfway down the barrel, I've thought about trying to Knurl them but just haven't done it

Knurling a soft lead bullet is not a problem at all. But I do not think it will solve your problem.

It sounds like your bore varies in diameter and unfortunately it is tighter at the top than the bottom. So even if you were to knurl the bullet the knurling would be sized to the tightest spot in the bore and in your case that would be at the top of the bore so by the time it reaches the bottom portion - it again would be loose.

Sabotloader, It definitely seems this way? But it sure is odd that i have 3 Brand new fast twist barrels that do this, A Lyman Great Plains Hunter 1:32 Twist .54 Cal that I bought brand new in the box, A brand new unfired Green Mountain LRH .54 Cal, And my Green Mountain LRH .45 Cal which i bought brand new directly from Green Mountain. The only fast twist rifle i have that REALLY GRIPS a soft lead bullet all the way to the powder is my Stainless .50 Cal Green Mountain LRH, all 4 of these barrels with the right loads have shot MOA at 100 yards as long as i did my part. The New larger band custom molds i had Accurate molds make definitely made a BIG difference, but i stil notice this with 3 of the 4 barrels. This is NOT to say that this couldn't happen to 3 brand new barrels, just seems unlikely to me? My Paper patched bullets feel the same all the way down? My thoughts have been that these Faster twist barrels are rough on a soft lead bullet? They start good and tight, but about halfway down they start to loosen up. A Maxi Ball is HORRIBLE with just the front Driving band, I personally wouldn't trust a Maxi Ball to stay on the Powder

I have even thought of trying a little harder bullet, like 7-8BHN And see if that makes any difference? I recently had to harden my lead pot up a little bit for my Stainless .50 Cal since it won't shoot soft lead worth a darn. When i shot these they did VERY well, and loading the .50 was noticeably stiffer with the harder lead (which I didn't need in this Rifle) I need to get out and pour some .45 And .54s From the New larger band molds to test this, Maybe along with Knurling?

54bore, unless your bore gets tighter on the way down, all bullets will seem a little easier from the middle down as the bullet shapes to the bore. Knurling may help a small bit in your case but more than likely not. My Renegade was a rare one. It is identical bore dimension all the way down. I have found no deviation whatsoever. You usually find it a little tighter or open on one side or the other. But even with concentric dimensions my full bore maxi balls feel a little easier after a few inches.

My .50 Green Mountain LRH Sounds like the Renegade you speak of here, my new Custom bullet for it (Bullshop 460 Grain Similiar bullet) starts tight and stays tight all the way to the powder