Post by Richard on Aug 16, 2017 22:04:08 GMT -5
Direct Ignition System
/.45 cal. smokeless/barrel length from breech to muzzle is 25 1/2"
Doug136 contacted me about problems he was having with accuracy shooting an “experimental” AeroMax bullet with a thin .012” jacket Kyle had made at his request. Doug is a good shooter and was having problems as compared with Kyle’s regular jacketed AeroMax’s so he gave me some to take back to NC and play with.
They also would not shoot good for me with 76 gr. of H-4198 @2869 fps. See group #1.
What I did find when I shot the first bullet was that its POI was three inches to the left and 1 ¾” low?
? Hmmmmmmmm? Well, I looked at my scope turret and found it had moved or been turned 2 ¾ MOA,,,,,,,,Yes, 11 quarter minute clicks! This had to have occurred in Kentucky sometime after the 200 and prior to the 300 yard match. It explains why my sighter shot must have been left off the paper where I could not see it? (my sigher bull was on the left side of the paper. Since I could only fire ONE sighter, I was stuck going to my record target where a 1.9” three shot group was barely in the very outer ring at 7:00. (100 and 200 targets all had the shots centered)Anyway, after chasing about 6 of these bullets around I gave up on them.
Next up I shot some “experimental” 300 gr. Fury secant ojive bullets Dennis sent me with the same 76 gr. of 4198………….Did not do too well. I also shot them with a 10/66 N-110/4198 duplex and they also did not shoot real well.
As soon as I switched to the 300 XTP with the same duplex, things tightened up a bit. I also shot them with a 10/62 N-110/N-120 duplex which did fairly well and gave me a lower ES.
For group #6 I shot the XTP with a straight charge of 73 gr. N-120 (this was the load I shot in Kentucky with the 300 AccuMax’s) For whatever reason these bullets strung vertically. The last two loaded a little tighter than the first three but not that much? If you look at my sheet, they went from the lowest velocity to the highest. 3, 4 and 5 which were fairly close in velocity also clumped together.
Target #7 contains two scope adjustments but 1, 2 and 3 (300 AccuMax with 73 gr. of N-120) shot in three tenths of an inch. #4 was and adjustment as was #5.
I wanted to get my zero set for the AccuMax as I had done prior to the Challenge.
On the side of my target board I set up a vertical scale marking 1 ¼”, 3 ¼” and 7”. I wanted to see where the marks fell on my scope reticule so I did not have to make physical adjustments for the various yardages. I now have them fairly close.
So with this same load, I held just on top of the first stadia line (down form center) at the orange 200 yard dot. As you can see from the picture, it was a tad high but shot very well just under ¾” (unlike the 2.2” group in Kentucky- but there is a story behind that!)
Using the same bullet and load I moved out to 300 and put the second stadia line on the bull. Here it was pretty close vertically but off to the right and only n ok group (2.8”)
For the final group I used the same load but switched to the AeroMax bullet and held the second stadia line but moved over to its “tip” for windage. Whatever happened here I have no idea? It strung semi-vertical and was big. The same bullet load shot under two inches for nyhunter who was using my rifle? %@#$&* muzzleloaders!
One member in particular was asking me about which powder was cleaner………..H-4198 or N-120? Both are very clean but I would give the edge to N-120. Last weekend my rifle, between Charles (nyhunter) and myself, put 48 shots of N-120 thru that barrel and the second thru the last shot loaded with the same smooth feel (#1 was a clean barrel). As you can see also 73 gr. of N-120 produces maybe 30 fps more velocity than 76 gr. of H-4198. Either of these powders coupled with a N-110 booster are also very clean. By and large, for the most part, the duplex loads more often produce lower ES’s along with equal accuracy. That is my opinion from shooting a lot of these loads. Your mileage may vary.
