1864 Springfield Dialed in at last

[billandbeaufort]

Well I just got back from the range and it's working well now! You remember that I had the only Sringfield in history that shot low (2"@25yd) (8"@50) and (16"@100)!!! Well bending the barrel was just to scarey so I bought three blank sight leaves and started. After three range sessions I now have a 6" group at 100 yards! Hey I like it! LOL That is with 62 year old eyes, the target looks like a fuzzy marshmallow with a bug on it! I'm just tryin to aim at the middle of the white fuzzy stuff! I'm going to keep at it til I can put 10 in the black (SR-1 200yd target reduced for 100yds) I have started to weigh my powder pre-chargers and minies. The minies are all over the place weight wise! Ijust get the heavier ones and file the nose til it weighs in right. Everybody calls them 460 grain I think but most are 490-493! The 575213 OS Lyman mold. At any rate I'm getting there!

 

[arquebus]

Well done Bill! The target (& rear sight) should look fuzzy, so don't be concerned about that, it's the front sight that should be in focus. Try using a 6 o'clock hold on the black as that may help you get a more consistent sight picture. I'm not familiar with the dimensions of the target you're using, but I use the B-19 target which has a 7" black (7 thru 10 rings) & a 1.75" ten ring. On a real good day I can keep ten shots from my Zouave within the 9-ring shooting from the prone position with a sling, that's a 3.5" group, but can generally expect to keep them within the 8-ring (5.5").

 

[kgrohs]

Bill, I have a nother suggestion for you I shoot similar rifles in n-ssa competion, take your lock out of rifle if your sear screw is tight back it out and bring it back till its just snug, then do the same to botumbler screw this will lighten trigger a heap, but don't leave screwss loose just snug, another question are using this rifle to compete with in mnlra competition? if not and your interested in playing take the rifle to a good smith and have a thick and 3/8" front site silver soldered on, and the rear site use the 600 yard tall rear and drill a 1/16" hole dead center, and 1/4"above bottom of rear site base, no sure what our using as a main charge but if you just want to punch paper use between 30-40 grains of 3fg and you will notice smaller group sizes almost immedately, before you do any site work do the lock thing first, then powder adjustment, by the way what type of lube are you using and were are you placing he lube. kjg

 

[arquebus]

In a prior post I said:

I use the B-19 target which has a 7" black (7 thru 10 rings) & a 1.75" ten ring. On a real good day I can keep ten shots from my Zouave within the 9-ring shooting from the prone position with a sling, that's a 3.5" group, but can generally expect to keep them within the 8-ring (5.5").

Just to clarify, I do my shooting at 100yds, if I'm shooting at 100m I use the B-17 target which is the same as the B-19 just scaled up a bit for the slightly longer metric distance.

 

[billandbeaufort]

Bill, I have a nother suggestion for you I shoot similar rifles in n-ssa competion, take your lock out of rifle if your sear screw is tight back it out and bring it back till its just snug, then do the same to botumbler screw this will lighten trigger a heap, but don't leave screwss loose just snug, another question are using this rifle to compete with in mnlra competition? if not and your interested in playing take the rifle to a good smith and have a thick and 3/8" front site silver soldered on, and the rear site use the 600 yard tall rear and drill a 1/16" hole dead center, and 1/4"above bottom of rear site base, no sure what our using as a main charge but if you just want to punch paper use between 30-40 grains of 3fg and you will notice smaller group sizes almost immedately, before you do any site work do the lock thing first, then powder adjustment, by the way what type of lube are you using and were are you placing he lube. kjg

Thanks, I'll try the lock trick. I use borebutter and just spread it in the grooves on the minie. I spray the inside of lock with Boshield, this helped a lot!

 

[kgrohs]

cool bill give the lock trick a try and It works, darn well, during the summer months get some beeswax and mix it with the borebutter (melt it) it will turn a green color almost o.d. and will stop it from running and getting greasy, it n-ssa competition we shoot 50 and 100 yards at clay pigeions at 50 and 100, 6"x6" tiles at 100yards and small styrofoam cups at 50 yards, some folks us unmodifeid sites and others modify them as I listed before, for hunting I jack the load up to 80 grs 2fg and them southern deer here in Georgia can stand a 472 grain rcbs mini. kjg