Too Nice Not to shoot!
 

Today it was in the 50's again. This is just crazy for February here. I mean to sit outside without a jacket and shoot, in February. I have seen it when it was -30 degrees out this time of year.

So today I got the Lyman Great Plains HUNTER flintlock out. Not to be confused with my Great Plains Rifle. The Hunter has a 1-32 twist while the Plains Rifle is 1-60.

I usually just plink round ball out of it but wanted to shoot some sabots. I did swab between shots. I was shooting 90 grains of Schuetzen 2f black powder and Goex 4f as the priming powder. The reason I shot 90 ... that is what the measure was set at. Not real reason.

I started with some 300 grain Hornady XTP's and they loaded beautiful. I was using the short Harvester black sabots. Again, swabbing between the two shots. And why ... again no idea changed over the 240 grain, same sabots. Now why the 300 grain shot higher then the 240 grain I would guess barrel harmonics or something like that. But they did. The 240 grain grouped pretty good actually. But as the gun got dirty over the course of shooting the group moved a little. And there was a high right over the plate shot. That was a tick.... boom. In fact it was such a delay I was actually just starting to shift, lifting my head when it went off.

Then I got bored with paper so I put sticks out, changed over to round ball and 60 grains of Schuetzen 2f and shot at the sticks. It still amazes me how accurate this rifle is with round ball.

Over all a good day outside.

Very nice Dave. Seems like it would have been a nice day for a nature walk. Or is everything soaking wet from the melting snow?

Walking around in snow is hard on my hips and knee. Those things in the back of the picture against the wood line... those are planters that are about 2 feet tall. The planters have some roof steel in them and you can just see a bit of the planters under the steel. So the snow is still around 14 inches in the yards. In the woods it would be much worse.

The yard where I plow is almost back to bare grass. So I have a place to set up at least. I also plow my shooting lane. One reason I can not get more then 50 yards distance. But that's OK for now. At least I get to shoot.

Good shooting there Cayugad. And both of those are fine hunting bullets.

Using the same powder charge you should expect a heavier bullet to hit higher than the lighter one. There are two reasons for this. The heavier bullet generates more recoil, so the muzzle lift is greater. And the heavier bullet is moving at a lower velocity so it's in the barrel a bit longer as the muzzle is lifted by recoil.

That doesn't make sense... recoil isn't felt until the projectile (whatever the bullet/ball may be) exits the muzzle. The charge pushing that projectile builds pressure against the weight it's trying to push and you won't feel that until the projectile exits the muzzle. You're suggesting that someone has the reaction time to literally move the barrel upward the instant the charge explodes due to felt recoil vs when the projectile actually exits the barrel if the charge is more significant?? Once the projectile has left the barrel, no amount of movement by the shooter is going to change it's flight path.

We're talking milliseconds here... no one I know is humanly fast enough to feel any recoil the instant the charge ignites.

BPS

Not so BPS. Recoil begins the minute the bullet starts moving forward in the bore. You may not feel the early part of the recoil. But that bullet is moving forward and the rifle is moving backward together. It's physics ya' know - equal and opposite reaction.

Try this. Load the same weight bullet into a gun twice, once with a very light load and once with a very heavy load, and shoot them into paper at 25 yards. If the heavy load doesn't hit above the light load, I'll buy you a beer.

Now, using the same powder charge, load a light bullet and a heavy bullet and shoot them into paper at 25 yards. If the heavy bullet doesn't hit above the light bullet I'll buy you another beer.

I understand part of what you're saying considering that at a distance of 25 yds you're practically on top of your target BUT... let's say I've sighted one of my .50 caliber rifles dead on at 50 yards with patched round balls using a 70 grain charge of FFg. At some point during my shooting session I choose to load a 370 gr. MaxiBall conical bullet with the same charge and that bullet is going to hit higher? I don't think so.

BPS

May not make sense but it's true, I've seen the same many times... ;)

I know it's confusing BPS but Semi is correct. With a free moving barrel the heavier bullet will hit higher at ranges before drop or BC is an issue such as 25-50 yards with a connie or a RB. It's not that the shooter causes the barrel to rise. It's the natural movement of recoil itself that causes barrel rise. Physics can certainly cause headaches in people with a lot of common sense because sometimes it just don't make sense!

I suppose... as I mentioned earlier, I can see it happening at 25 yds because the projectile has not reached it's zenith of trajectory. Maybe I've never experienced it because I don't make a habit of changing projectiles in a rifle that I have sighted for one or the other.

Guess I'll have to give it a try sometime... :confused0024: maybe I can get Semi to buy me a beer, although he know's he's safe because there's slim to no chance I'll travel to Loozyanna to collect!

BPS