Post by Richard on Nov 22, 2016 17:30:13 GMT -5
Well, the really good news is the wife is home from the hospital after 6 days with a colon “resection!”. She came home Sunday morning so that meant Richard could go shooting on Tuesday………………Which I did! Some interesting stuff here (at least for me?).
Since I sent my Sightron back to get a piece of “trash” cleaned out, I had to put my trusty old Leupold 16X MK IV back on. After firing one shot that was quite low, I dialed my crosshair to the bullet hole and then started making adjustments. Target #1 (no group)
Note the .9 fps ES!
For target #2, I upped the Clays a grain (7) and evened out the 65.8 to 66 gr. (I have to keep Droptine happy and not do 6/66 as he does not like the three sixes ) My thought here was to up the velocity a little since I lost some with the shortening of the barrel (due to the bulge). Now 26”. The group was not great but it gave me an idea of the velocity increase. You can see from the first grouping that I picked up some 30 fps. While I forgot to re set the chronograph the ES for two shots was only 8 fps.
Note: At this point I noticed that the 3” wide plate I have screwed into metal inserts in the stock forend, had loosened and the plate could slightly shift? This got tightened. (put some Teflon tape on those ¼ x 28 screws at home).
For the third group, I also upped the H-4198 to 67 gr. This only raised the velocity by about 6 fps. ES still good at 13 fps. The group was not bad at .630” Now, for whatever reason, I happened to grab the nut on the scope ring to test it for tightness?
SOMBITCH was loose? (the are the ½” nuts that hold the Burris tactical rings to the picatinny base) I actually took almost a full 360* turn on the rear ring and the same on the forward ring? These things almost NEVER loosen up on me as I have also put lock washers on them. When I took off the Sightron scope, I only removed the 12 torx head screws and then put the Leupold back on. I am thinking that when I initially put on the Sightron, that I only snugged those nuts and not tightened them. ANYWAY, they got tightened and I was back in business. Surprising that the last group was so good?
Next I went to the 300 gr. Accumax with the 7/66 load and low and behold, it shot some four inches low (from tightening up the rings) A second shot confirmed it. Then a scope adjustment (in the orange square) and I was zeroed at 100 yards.
The fifth group was shot with the 300 gr. SST Mid Way blem (with the grey tip) that had been giving me problems the last two times out. I made a concerted effort at home to size them exactly as I had with the FTX that shot so well----------------under size, knurl and resize. As can be seen, they worked very well.
Moving out to 300 yards with the 300 AccuMax and the 7/66 duplex, I dialed the same 3 ¾ MOA as I did with the Sightron?? Hmmmmmmm? Excellent group a .755” but low? So, I dialed my crosshairs to the group and shot another 4 shot group on a different target. The first three was just a tad over an inch with the fourth one opening it up to 1.8”. Considering the MK IV is only 16x as opposed to the 32x on the Sightron and my NF, I was well satisfied with the days results. It pays to keep a check on all your “nuts and bolts” as these muzzle loaders sure want to loosen stuff up!
Note the low ES's on all groups. These duplex loads are all thrown with powder measures...........NO weighting. The Clays is thrown with an old Lyman #55 measure and the H-4198 with a Harrell's measure. Since this particular model will only throw up to 64 gr. of H-4198 I have to set it for HALF of anything above that and dump it twice.
Since I sent my Sightron back to get a piece of “trash” cleaned out, I had to put my trusty old Leupold 16X MK IV back on. After firing one shot that was quite low, I dialed my crosshair to the bullet hole and then started making adjustments. Target #1 (no group)
Note the .9 fps ES!
For target #2, I upped the Clays a grain (7) and evened out the 65.8 to 66 gr. (I have to keep Droptine happy and not do 6/66 as he does not like the three sixes ) My thought here was to up the velocity a little since I lost some with the shortening of the barrel (due to the bulge). Now 26”. The group was not great but it gave me an idea of the velocity increase. You can see from the first grouping that I picked up some 30 fps. While I forgot to re set the chronograph the ES for two shots was only 8 fps.
Note: At this point I noticed that the 3” wide plate I have screwed into metal inserts in the stock forend, had loosened and the plate could slightly shift? This got tightened. (put some Teflon tape on those ¼ x 28 screws at home).
For the third group, I also upped the H-4198 to 67 gr. This only raised the velocity by about 6 fps. ES still good at 13 fps. The group was not bad at .630” Now, for whatever reason, I happened to grab the nut on the scope ring to test it for tightness?
SOMBITCH was loose? (the are the ½” nuts that hold the Burris tactical rings to the picatinny base) I actually took almost a full 360* turn on the rear ring and the same on the forward ring? These things almost NEVER loosen up on me as I have also put lock washers on them. When I took off the Sightron scope, I only removed the 12 torx head screws and then put the Leupold back on. I am thinking that when I initially put on the Sightron, that I only snugged those nuts and not tightened them. ANYWAY, they got tightened and I was back in business. Surprising that the last group was so good?Next I went to the 300 gr. Accumax with the 7/66 load and low and behold, it shot some four inches low (from tightening up the rings) A second shot confirmed it. Then a scope adjustment (in the orange square) and I was zeroed at 100 yards.
The fifth group was shot with the 300 gr. SST Mid Way blem (with the grey tip) that had been giving me problems the last two times out. I made a concerted effort at home to size them exactly as I had with the FTX that shot so well----------------under size, knurl and resize. As can be seen, they worked very well.
Moving out to 300 yards with the 300 AccuMax and the 7/66 duplex, I dialed the same 3 ¾ MOA as I did with the Sightron?
? Hmmmmmmm? Excellent group a .755” but low? So, I dialed my crosshairs to the group and shot another 4 shot group on a different target. The first three was just a tad over an inch with the fourth one opening it up to 1.8”. Considering the MK IV is only 16x as opposed to the 32x on the Sightron and my NF, I was well satisfied with the days results. It pays to keep a check on all your “nuts and bolts” as these muzzle loaders sure want to loosen stuff up!Note the low ES's on all groups. These duplex loads are all thrown with powder measures...........NO weighting. The Clays is thrown with an old Lyman #55 measure and the H-4198 with a Harrell's measure. Since this particular model will only throw up to 64 gr. of H-4198 I have to set it for HALF of anything above that and dump it twice.
