Long Range Muzzle loader Class IN A NUT SHELL.
Aug 23, 2022 20:53:54 GMT -5
YankeeReb, dennis, and 8 more like this
Post by Hank on Aug 23, 2022 20:53:54 GMT -5
So, here is a run down of the Hankins Long Range Muzzle Loading class held on August 20th and 21st, 2022.
I was up and at the range at 6:30 am Saturday morning, started my coffee and got breakfast underway. At 7:00 am Toby Osner arrived and right behind him was Mark Clemons. Around 7:30 or so Gary Smith pulled in. By 8:00 am all the students had arrived as well. We had 6 students for this very first long-range muzzle loading class. 5 of the 6 students had zero experience with smokeless muzzle loaders and some had no experience with muzzle loaders at all.
At 8:00 am The breakfast was done, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, fresh baked biscuits and real homemade sausage gravy. When I say we all ate good, I mean we all ate good. There was barely anything left for Lapua and Rogue.
After breakfast we all gathered round the meeting table and talked a little about what we were going to try to accomplish on this day and we then got started.
I had two brothers Tom and Chad, picking up two brand new muzzle loaders and Tom brought his son Lance along with him. Tom and Chads rifles were built using the Mesa Summit muzzle loader actions, a Brux #17-barrel, AG Composite stock and a Vortex Viper PST2 5-25X50 with the EBR-4 reticle and MOA adjustments. Tom had a 3-hour drive to get to the range and he told me he had to be on the road headed for home no later than 2:00 pm that day, they are into racehorses and had some horse trading to do that after noon, so I took Tom, Chad and Lance as my students and we got busy.
A student from Tennessee named Garret attended the class and he had purchased two muzzle loaders from me a few weeks prior to the class. One for himself and one for his boss that he hunts with. Both these rifles were identical to the ones Tom and Chad had bought except Garrett put on Trijicon scopes with a duplex reticle and non-exposed turrets. I paired Mark Clemons up with Garret and they worked together to get both those guns lined up and ready to go to the field for some long-range deer hunting.
Tim, from Iowa, come to the shoot and he brought a rifle that he put together from parts he purchased from Hank’s Precision Gun Parts. His rifle was built using a Stiller action, Brux barrel in the Sendaro contour with a 1-20 twist. Tim’s rifle had a Stiner scope mounted on it. I paired Tim with Toby Osner and they worked up a load using AA 2495 that looked promising and produced some very good groups.
Scotty from Oklahoma came to the class and brought a Savage Original muzzle loader action with a Magowan barrel. Scotty sent the action to Magowan for a re-barrel, they installed a 45-caliber pistol bore of .442 bore and .450 grove. The ignition system was the old original 209 primer system, although this system worked, it is not as user friendly as the HIS system with the large rifle magnum primers.
Gary from Missouri came to the class because he wanted a re-fresher coarse and needed some range time to just burn some powder. Gary’s summer schedule has not worked out for the Kentucky Challenges, so he was free this weekend and attended the class. Gary is always a big help with what ever needs to be done and is willing to jump in there and help in any way he can. Gary brough his RCBS charge master that operated on a DeWalt battery, and I must say the charge master saw a lot of use over the two days.
So, to start off, each rifle was inspected, the scope rings checked, safeties all worked, scopes were mounted correctly, and the reticles were level with the actions. The breech plugs were removed, and the bullet sizing started for each rifle. Everyone had their own reloading press and sizing die. I worked with my three students, Mark and Toby worked with their guy, Scotty was the only student that had shot his rifle prior to the class and his sizing die was already set so he was ahead of the game at this point. Once everyone had bullets properly sized and going all the way down the barrel, we bore sighted the rifles and re-installed the breech plugs.
Everyone had a bench of their own to shoot from, so we got each rifle set up in a front rest and a rear bag, once everyone was comfortable, we loaded the rifles. I had a target for each shooter set at 50 yards. Each shooter shot one shot at 50 yards to verify they would be on the target at 100 yards. After the one shot at 50 yards, we needed to make an adjustment on Garrets rifles, and he then shot one more shot at 50 yards with each of his rifles. Then we moved on to 100 yards.
Gary and I had already set up the targets on Friday evening at 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards, so once each shooter was dialed in at a particular distance, they progressed to the next distance. We got everyone zeroed at 100 yards and developed and drop chart for them all the way to 450 yards, Except for Garret, his scopes were not designed for this type of shooting so we zeroed him at 200 yards, and he will just have to do a hold over for anything past 250 yards or so.
My students, Tom, Chad, and Lance had their drop data all the way to 450 yards by lunch time. Tom, Chad, and Lance were amazed at the accuracy of these smokeless muzzle loaders and when they were able to ring the steel deer at 450 yards, you should have seen the look on their face when they heard the ring and saw the hit. They hit the deer exactly where they were aiming and they told me they would be 100% confident to take a 450-yard shot at a deer this year, with out a second thought.
So now it’s lunch time. We had some Angus Burgers on the grill, macaroni salad, baked beans, and some potato chips, Tom, Chad, and Lance ate lunch, loaded the truck, and headed back to western KY.
Now that I was freed up to work with the other guys and look in on everyone’s progress, I checked in with Mark Clemons that had been working with Garret from Tennessee. This is when I found out that Garrett had these Trijicon scopes that were not at all useful for the type of shooting we were doing, however we were able to get him on paper and shooting some very good groups. Garrett was not able to utilize the full potential of his rifles because of the lack of adjustability in his scopes. He was able to hit the steel deer at 450 yards by holding over, but not at an accuracy required to ethically shoot deer at that distance. His first thing to do this week was to order two Vortex Scopes with exposed turrets and replace those Trijicon scopes with something more user friendly for long range. Now don’t get me wrong, the Trijicon scopes were nice and were not cheap scopes, they just were not the correct choice for these rifles shooting long range.
Toby Osner was working with Tim from Iowa, and they had some real nice groups going until Tim’s Stiner scope went belly up. Tim was done for the day, until Mark Clemons walked over and handed him a Nightforce competition scope 15x60 power with a set of Hank’s Precision scope rings on it and said, “put this on your rifle and keep shooting.” Tim was grateful, and he was able to shoot the rest of the day and fell in love with the Nightforce scope, so that is probably on his list of things to get when he gets back home.
Now, Scotty from Oklahoma was being very patient and taking in all the knowledge he could, once I was freed up from my three students, I started working with Scotty s some. Between Mark Clemons and I we got Scotty lined out to 450 yards using his scope dials and set him up a drop chart in 50-yard increments.
Gary was set up on the farthest bench, we call that bench one. Gary spent the day working on and developing loads for his 40-caliber rifle for this upcoming hunting season, let me just say anything within 450 yards that Gary wants to shoot at is in for a rude awakening.
This pretty much filled up the day for Saturday and everyone headed back to their hotel room, weighed powder, and got a good night’s rest for the next day. I stayed at the range and cleaned up some for the next day.
So, Sunday rolled around, and we had Garrett, Scotty, and Gary return for day 2. Tim decided to head back to Iowa and my first three students got everything they wanted to get done on Saturday, so they were not there for Sunday. Toby, Mark, and I got another good breakfast going and once we ate, we started practicing the shooting skills taught the day before.
I set out some gallon jugs filled with water, I wanted Scotty to practice on these jugs, to help him build his confidence, The jugs were placed at random distances, I would range one, tell Scotty to look at his drop chart and make a scope adjustment, then without hesitation make the shot. He was 4 for 4 and doing very well until we got to the 450-yard jug, Scotty was getting excited by this time and he knew the dope for the scope, however he pulled the shot just inches to the right and missed the jug, had it been a deer, it would still be a very dead deer, but the jug came away unscathed. Scotty wasn’t having that, so he loaded up again and on his second attempt at the 450-yard jug, he center-punched it. Well, we were all happy for Scotty and that was the final shot of the weekend.
I must say, everyone had a great time, all learned what they came to the class to learn. Everyone now has the confidence to make and take those long-range shots at deer and other critters when afield with their smokeless muzzle loaders.
For anyone that is interested in attending the next Hankins Long Range Muzzle Loader Class please contact me. The date will most likely be the third weekend of August 2023.
Special thanks to Mark Clemon and Toby Osner for helping make this a successful class and for all the work they help do this summer on the range. A special thanks to Gary Smith for all his help at the range and for showing up at my house Thursday night to help me load all the stuff needed for a successful class on Friday. I Have a 30-foot gooseneck trailer and we had it pretty well loaded from front to back. Special thanks to my office help Tiffany and her husband Bob for coming over and helping with the lunch on Saturday.
Events like these take a lot of planning and work, time, and money. I could not do it with out the help of my good friends, Thanks to all of you.
Sincerely
Jeff Hankins.
I was up and at the range at 6:30 am Saturday morning, started my coffee and got breakfast underway. At 7:00 am Toby Osner arrived and right behind him was Mark Clemons. Around 7:30 or so Gary Smith pulled in. By 8:00 am all the students had arrived as well. We had 6 students for this very first long-range muzzle loading class. 5 of the 6 students had zero experience with smokeless muzzle loaders and some had no experience with muzzle loaders at all.
At 8:00 am The breakfast was done, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, fresh baked biscuits and real homemade sausage gravy. When I say we all ate good, I mean we all ate good. There was barely anything left for Lapua and Rogue.
After breakfast we all gathered round the meeting table and talked a little about what we were going to try to accomplish on this day and we then got started.
I had two brothers Tom and Chad, picking up two brand new muzzle loaders and Tom brought his son Lance along with him. Tom and Chads rifles were built using the Mesa Summit muzzle loader actions, a Brux #17-barrel, AG Composite stock and a Vortex Viper PST2 5-25X50 with the EBR-4 reticle and MOA adjustments. Tom had a 3-hour drive to get to the range and he told me he had to be on the road headed for home no later than 2:00 pm that day, they are into racehorses and had some horse trading to do that after noon, so I took Tom, Chad and Lance as my students and we got busy.
A student from Tennessee named Garret attended the class and he had purchased two muzzle loaders from me a few weeks prior to the class. One for himself and one for his boss that he hunts with. Both these rifles were identical to the ones Tom and Chad had bought except Garrett put on Trijicon scopes with a duplex reticle and non-exposed turrets. I paired Mark Clemons up with Garret and they worked together to get both those guns lined up and ready to go to the field for some long-range deer hunting.
Tim, from Iowa, come to the shoot and he brought a rifle that he put together from parts he purchased from Hank’s Precision Gun Parts. His rifle was built using a Stiller action, Brux barrel in the Sendaro contour with a 1-20 twist. Tim’s rifle had a Stiner scope mounted on it. I paired Tim with Toby Osner and they worked up a load using AA 2495 that looked promising and produced some very good groups.
Scotty from Oklahoma came to the class and brought a Savage Original muzzle loader action with a Magowan barrel. Scotty sent the action to Magowan for a re-barrel, they installed a 45-caliber pistol bore of .442 bore and .450 grove. The ignition system was the old original 209 primer system, although this system worked, it is not as user friendly as the HIS system with the large rifle magnum primers.
Gary from Missouri came to the class because he wanted a re-fresher coarse and needed some range time to just burn some powder. Gary’s summer schedule has not worked out for the Kentucky Challenges, so he was free this weekend and attended the class. Gary is always a big help with what ever needs to be done and is willing to jump in there and help in any way he can. Gary brough his RCBS charge master that operated on a DeWalt battery, and I must say the charge master saw a lot of use over the two days.
So, to start off, each rifle was inspected, the scope rings checked, safeties all worked, scopes were mounted correctly, and the reticles were level with the actions. The breech plugs were removed, and the bullet sizing started for each rifle. Everyone had their own reloading press and sizing die. I worked with my three students, Mark and Toby worked with their guy, Scotty was the only student that had shot his rifle prior to the class and his sizing die was already set so he was ahead of the game at this point. Once everyone had bullets properly sized and going all the way down the barrel, we bore sighted the rifles and re-installed the breech plugs.
Everyone had a bench of their own to shoot from, so we got each rifle set up in a front rest and a rear bag, once everyone was comfortable, we loaded the rifles. I had a target for each shooter set at 50 yards. Each shooter shot one shot at 50 yards to verify they would be on the target at 100 yards. After the one shot at 50 yards, we needed to make an adjustment on Garrets rifles, and he then shot one more shot at 50 yards with each of his rifles. Then we moved on to 100 yards.
Gary and I had already set up the targets on Friday evening at 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards, so once each shooter was dialed in at a particular distance, they progressed to the next distance. We got everyone zeroed at 100 yards and developed and drop chart for them all the way to 450 yards, Except for Garret, his scopes were not designed for this type of shooting so we zeroed him at 200 yards, and he will just have to do a hold over for anything past 250 yards or so.
My students, Tom, Chad, and Lance had their drop data all the way to 450 yards by lunch time. Tom, Chad, and Lance were amazed at the accuracy of these smokeless muzzle loaders and when they were able to ring the steel deer at 450 yards, you should have seen the look on their face when they heard the ring and saw the hit. They hit the deer exactly where they were aiming and they told me they would be 100% confident to take a 450-yard shot at a deer this year, with out a second thought.
So now it’s lunch time. We had some Angus Burgers on the grill, macaroni salad, baked beans, and some potato chips, Tom, Chad, and Lance ate lunch, loaded the truck, and headed back to western KY.
Now that I was freed up to work with the other guys and look in on everyone’s progress, I checked in with Mark Clemons that had been working with Garret from Tennessee. This is when I found out that Garrett had these Trijicon scopes that were not at all useful for the type of shooting we were doing, however we were able to get him on paper and shooting some very good groups. Garrett was not able to utilize the full potential of his rifles because of the lack of adjustability in his scopes. He was able to hit the steel deer at 450 yards by holding over, but not at an accuracy required to ethically shoot deer at that distance. His first thing to do this week was to order two Vortex Scopes with exposed turrets and replace those Trijicon scopes with something more user friendly for long range. Now don’t get me wrong, the Trijicon scopes were nice and were not cheap scopes, they just were not the correct choice for these rifles shooting long range.
Toby Osner was working with Tim from Iowa, and they had some real nice groups going until Tim’s Stiner scope went belly up. Tim was done for the day, until Mark Clemons walked over and handed him a Nightforce competition scope 15x60 power with a set of Hank’s Precision scope rings on it and said, “put this on your rifle and keep shooting.” Tim was grateful, and he was able to shoot the rest of the day and fell in love with the Nightforce scope, so that is probably on his list of things to get when he gets back home.
Now, Scotty from Oklahoma was being very patient and taking in all the knowledge he could, once I was freed up from my three students, I started working with Scotty s some. Between Mark Clemons and I we got Scotty lined out to 450 yards using his scope dials and set him up a drop chart in 50-yard increments.
Gary was set up on the farthest bench, we call that bench one. Gary spent the day working on and developing loads for his 40-caliber rifle for this upcoming hunting season, let me just say anything within 450 yards that Gary wants to shoot at is in for a rude awakening.
This pretty much filled up the day for Saturday and everyone headed back to their hotel room, weighed powder, and got a good night’s rest for the next day. I stayed at the range and cleaned up some for the next day.
So, Sunday rolled around, and we had Garrett, Scotty, and Gary return for day 2. Tim decided to head back to Iowa and my first three students got everything they wanted to get done on Saturday, so they were not there for Sunday. Toby, Mark, and I got another good breakfast going and once we ate, we started practicing the shooting skills taught the day before.
I set out some gallon jugs filled with water, I wanted Scotty to practice on these jugs, to help him build his confidence, The jugs were placed at random distances, I would range one, tell Scotty to look at his drop chart and make a scope adjustment, then without hesitation make the shot. He was 4 for 4 and doing very well until we got to the 450-yard jug, Scotty was getting excited by this time and he knew the dope for the scope, however he pulled the shot just inches to the right and missed the jug, had it been a deer, it would still be a very dead deer, but the jug came away unscathed. Scotty wasn’t having that, so he loaded up again and on his second attempt at the 450-yard jug, he center-punched it. Well, we were all happy for Scotty and that was the final shot of the weekend.
I must say, everyone had a great time, all learned what they came to the class to learn. Everyone now has the confidence to make and take those long-range shots at deer and other critters when afield with their smokeless muzzle loaders.
For anyone that is interested in attending the next Hankins Long Range Muzzle Loader Class please contact me. The date will most likely be the third weekend of August 2023.
Special thanks to Mark Clemon and Toby Osner for helping make this a successful class and for all the work they help do this summer on the range. A special thanks to Gary Smith for all his help at the range and for showing up at my house Thursday night to help me load all the stuff needed for a successful class on Friday. I Have a 30-foot gooseneck trailer and we had it pretty well loaded from front to back. Special thanks to my office help Tiffany and her husband Bob for coming over and helping with the lunch on Saturday.
Events like these take a lot of planning and work, time, and money. I could not do it with out the help of my good friends, Thanks to all of you.
Sincerely
Jeff Hankins.