500 Yard 'Hotrod Hawken' peep sights

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Idaholewis

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I recently stretched my .45 Cal Green Mountain LRH barrel out to 505 Yards, i tried this 3 different times, playing with target size and color til i found the right combo. My best 3 shot group was 7 inches, My rifle is a 1" TC Hawken, barrel is a blued Green Mountain LRH (Long Range Hunter) My peep is a Tang Mounted Williams FP Hawken with TK (Target Knobs) and Gib lock. My front sight is a Lyman 17AHB Globe with a small post Lee Shavers bpcr insert, The bullets i were using for this was Buffalo Arms .444-400, and Paper Patched with 2 wraps of 9# onion skin paper and sent through a .449 Sizing die to 'iron the paper out' my powder charge was 70 Grains of Swiss 3F, if i can figure out how to post pics on here i will do so.
 
Dave, I am the guy that bought your Stainless .50 Cal Green Mountain LRH barrel, I absolutely love that barrel!! I just found a brand new unfired .54 Cal Green Mountain LRH about a week ago, i shot it today with a custom bullet i had made for it, i am VERY pleased with it! This was 50 Yards, first load, and first time this new barrel has been fired, 85 Grains of Swiss 2F powder, and my Custom .533 Bullet, This bullet weighs in just over 530 Grains, i had Accurate molds build this mold based off of the Lee S&W 500 bullet. Will try and post a Picture and see how it goes? Keeps saying file is to large, i dont know how to resize?
 
Looking from my target back to my truck, my shooting bench is setup there at my truck 505 Yards, and another picture from my gun. That Target is BIG, i opened a large box with a box cutter, painted it solid white, and added a piece of common printer paper 8.5X11 painted solid black in the center of the target to make as a bull, (I ended up not being able to see the black bullseye) I just centered my my fine post bead (Lee Shaver bpcr insert) in the center of the big white target 3ft wide, by 4ft tall and shot, i ended up with 3 shots measuring 7 inches
 
I was over at Buffalo Arms yesterday to get some powder and a few other odds n ends, I was visiting with Dave Gullo (the owner) There is a YouTube video of him shooting long range with Peep Sights, i asked him how far it was? He told me 1,163 Yards!! Sorta makes my 505 yards look REALLY small! Dave is a super nice guy, and a highly competitive long range shooter, here is a link to the YouTube video of him making that shot

https://youtu.be/YRaRCCZjdTM
 
Here is a closer look at the Williams FP Hawken TK with Gib Elevator lock, Here you can see my 500 yard mark I permanently scribed in it. I have Peep sights on all of my rifles, Think i have 5 Lyman 57SML's
 
Idaho what kind of groups can you shoot with that rifle at 100 yards ? Also your shooting a 400 grain paper patched bullet correct ? Do you know what kind of velosity your getting ? Im sorry for all the questions im thinking of building something like that .
 
Dougs136Schwartz said:
Idaho what kind of groups can you shoot with that rifle at 100 yards ? Also your shooting a 400 grain paper patched bullet correct ? Do you know what kind of velosity your getting ? Im sorry for all the questions im thinking of building something like that .

Here is a typical 100 yard target with this rifle, this is the same load i shoot the 500 yard stuff with above.



Here is a 50 Yard target, different bullet, and powder charge, i had this mold Custom built as well



Here is the Custom bullet beside the 11MM rifle bullet that Idahoron shoots, i shoot the RCBS 11MM bullet as well. I had 3 Custom molds built, This particular .45 bullet was based off of the .460 S&W currently in Accurate molds Catalog, i had a few changes made and this is the result, a .45 Cal bullet with a big WIDE Meplat. My other 2 Custom molds stemmed from the Lee S&W 500 bullet (i sent Tom at Accurate molds a sample Lee S&W 500 bullet to go off of) I have a .50 and the .54 in the other thread i started.
 
Dougs136Schwartz said:
Idaho what kind of groups can you shoot with that rifle at 100 yards ? Also your shooting a 400 grain paper patched bullet correct ? Do you know what kind of velosity your getting ? Im sorry for all the questions im thinking of building something like that .

Yes these bullets are 400 Grains and paper patched, i buy these from Buffalo Arms, they are .444 Diameter and weigh 400 grains, i patch them with 2 Wraps of 9# onion Skin paper and send them through a .449 sizing die to snug the paper up. Here they are patched and ready to go.




I try and take out as many variables as I possibly can, like weighing my powder charges by weight Grains on a scale to the 10th of a Grain, i place my charges in little vials. Another vitally important thing is the use of an over powder wad that seals the gasses behind the bullet as tightly as possible, my favorite is a .060 Vegetable fibre over powder wad, a wool felt over powder wad is fine to, but go oversize if using wool felt, example being with my .45 i use a .50 Cal Wool felt wad, and in my .50 Cal i use a .54 Cal wool felt wad, and in my .54s i use a .58 Cal wool felt wad. When pouring my own bullets i only keep the bullets that weigh within 1 Grain of eachother, a 10th either way beyond that goes back in the lead pot, i am REALLY picky with my bullet weights, when my molds are up and running really good my average is closer to 1/2 grain of eachother. I make my own Vegetable fibre over powder wads from Press mounted wad Punches, i have a punch for .45 Rifle, and .50 Cal, i buy my Vege fibre material in bulk 2 foot sheets, i can make a BUNCH of wads fast with these punches. Here is what they look like, this took me about 20 minutes or so



And the scrap
 
Picture of my best Group at this distance, as you can see my target is huge, i found that to be extremely important, along with the color White, hard to hit something you CAN'T see!




Here is a picture of my very first attempt at this range, i set a target below the rock, and 1 above it, i figured i could see, and possibly hear if i hit the rock itself, that is actually what ended up happening, my last shot connected with the rock, after the shot there were a few seconds of hangtime until i heard the 'WHOP' from the bullet connecting with the rock. Hitting the Rock gave me the confidence to Know i could do it! I went home and regrouped, making a LARGE target, the second attempt i had the target size down, but left it Tan colored cardboard, it blended in that old logging unit and i could barely make it out? I went ahead and shot, but i was having to do way to much guess work. I studied the surroundings and the color that stood out the best to me was white, Back home i headed to paint my target white, the next morning i was out there at daylight, i hung my BIG white target and drove back around to my shooting position, that target stood out like soar thumb in that old logging unit! I was excited to try it! It was easy for me to see, this is when i made the 3 shot group that measures 7 inches. Here is an angled picture looking up the hill after i hung the target, this shows just how big it is, 3ft wide, by 4t tall

My first attempt
 
Target size, looking back up the hill at the target you can see how big it is. It looked like a BILLBOARD up there!
 
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