I have been spending the days between 45 conversions working on what I had. The only working barrel I received in my last order was the 40 caliber 1 in 16 twist model that's now mounted on Steve White's frame.
After shooting enough shots to about know what I'm doing I've come to the conclusion Steve might very well enjoy this rifle for some time. At this point I can say it has functioned as expected. Groups are about normal (for my shooting) for an accurate rifle of this type. Along with good groups I haven't noticed any function problems like a tendency for misfires or excessive pressure to the primer (using a reasonable load) but I have shot the rifle only about 80 times. That does not qualify as a long period.
One thing I had questioned was if shooting with a wad was a neccesity. To answer that question I submit the following image.
The target on the left was shot using a cork wad as shown on the target. The group size as seen is in the 2 1/4" range. That's fairly large compared to what I've been getting but it does not exclude the use of this type of wad because the load was built for a different wad. That wad is shown with the target on the right and on the same day the group shot is pretty typical of my normal results at 1 1/8".
The two targets seem to show that choice of a wad in sabotless shooting does make a difference. But that is not near the impact as what is not shown. To make the test fair I decided to shoot the same load with no wad. I didn't bother to post the image because a three shot group where 2 of the 3 don't touch the paper doesn't make much of a point. But needless to say at this time I feel the cjhoice of a fiber wad is worth the effort.
So the time has come to send it home. Steve will have the final say on the project as to if it can stand the test of time. Also he will get to determine if the shooting performance matches the desired. One thing about if being unique is the objective I think he's already achieved that. I don't know where you're going to find another one of these.
After shooting enough shots to about know what I'm doing I've come to the conclusion Steve might very well enjoy this rifle for some time. At this point I can say it has functioned as expected. Groups are about normal (for my shooting) for an accurate rifle of this type. Along with good groups I haven't noticed any function problems like a tendency for misfires or excessive pressure to the primer (using a reasonable load) but I have shot the rifle only about 80 times. That does not qualify as a long period.
One thing I had questioned was if shooting with a wad was a neccesity. To answer that question I submit the following image.
The target on the left was shot using a cork wad as shown on the target. The group size as seen is in the 2 1/4" range. That's fairly large compared to what I've been getting but it does not exclude the use of this type of wad because the load was built for a different wad. That wad is shown with the target on the right and on the same day the group shot is pretty typical of my normal results at 1 1/8".
The two targets seem to show that choice of a wad in sabotless shooting does make a difference. But that is not near the impact as what is not shown. To make the test fair I decided to shoot the same load with no wad. I didn't bother to post the image because a three shot group where 2 of the 3 don't touch the paper doesn't make much of a point. But needless to say at this time I feel the cjhoice of a fiber wad is worth the effort.
So the time has come to send it home. Steve will have the final say on the project as to if it can stand the test of time. Also he will get to determine if the shooting performance matches the desired. One thing about if being unique is the objective I think he's already achieved that. I don't know where you're going to find another one of these.