Griz44Mag
70 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 4,326
- Reaction score
- 4,387
- Location
- Republic of Texas, District of Krum
Yesterday was a good day to shoot. Overcast, gray, mid 60's.
I had been threatening to take the .54 out for some longer distances for a while, and finally did. The goal was patched round balls at maximum reasonable hunting distance.
My "go to" load for hunting out to 100 yards is 70gr 3f, .535 ball patched with .015 mink.
The rear sight is a Pedersoli "Ghost" Basically a stem mounted peep.
Target is an 11 X 17 printed target, but I mounted it on a B-27 size white backer to make getting on target easier. First few balls were low-low (of course). Through a graduated exercise of adding powder and raising the rear post I finally arrived at a load that would hit. By the end of the day, I managed to keep 10 consecutive shots on the 11 x 17 paper. (About a 9-10" spread) I considered that decent as the wide front factory sight would completely obscure the 11" wide paper in the sight picture.
The yups down the line 15 or 20 benches, shooting a suppressed AR were more than a bit disconcerted by the boom of 100gr of 3f under the extended bulletproof eyebrow hood that runs the entire length of the range. The smoke ball would curl up under the canopy and gently roll down the line. The reverberation was not unlike standing under a large church bell...
The whole point? Learning the capabilities of both shooter and gun. All told, a wonderful day to be making smoke and being outdoors. The high point of the day was having the yups 2 kids walk down to where I was. I stepped them through the process and may have started a new interest for them. Mom and dad agreed to meet up next weekend at the short range and I will take a .45 caliber long gun and let them shoot it, maybe even the Lyman Plains pistol. If we share our passion, we make new friends and engage new youngsters to the sport. We are all getting a lot older, and the sport is seems to be loosing ground.
I had been threatening to take the .54 out for some longer distances for a while, and finally did. The goal was patched round balls at maximum reasonable hunting distance.
My "go to" load for hunting out to 100 yards is 70gr 3f, .535 ball patched with .015 mink.
The rear sight is a Pedersoli "Ghost" Basically a stem mounted peep.
Target is an 11 X 17 printed target, but I mounted it on a B-27 size white backer to make getting on target easier. First few balls were low-low (of course). Through a graduated exercise of adding powder and raising the rear post I finally arrived at a load that would hit. By the end of the day, I managed to keep 10 consecutive shots on the 11 x 17 paper. (About a 9-10" spread) I considered that decent as the wide front factory sight would completely obscure the 11" wide paper in the sight picture.
The yups down the line 15 or 20 benches, shooting a suppressed AR were more than a bit disconcerted by the boom of 100gr of 3f under the extended bulletproof eyebrow hood that runs the entire length of the range. The smoke ball would curl up under the canopy and gently roll down the line. The reverberation was not unlike standing under a large church bell...
The whole point? Learning the capabilities of both shooter and gun. All told, a wonderful day to be making smoke and being outdoors. The high point of the day was having the yups 2 kids walk down to where I was. I stepped them through the process and may have started a new interest for them. Mom and dad agreed to meet up next weekend at the short range and I will take a .45 caliber long gun and let them shoot it, maybe even the Lyman Plains pistol. If we share our passion, we make new friends and engage new youngsters to the sport. We are all getting a lot older, and the sport is seems to be loosing ground.
