Range Day with my White M97

I got out today with my "New" White M97 .451 for the first time. The rifle did exactly what it was supposed to do. It could have been warmer and it could have been less windy, and the snow drifts could have been below my knees instead of at my waste.

I picked my Lee .45 minnie ball as my get it on paper bullet. It did OK, not great, but OK and could use some more load development and monkey with the charge. But that will get done on a warmer nicer day. I had some problems adjusting the sight. I now have it adjusted to the lowest mark on the scale. It's shooting high at 25, but I decided to leave it along, I think that will take care of itself when I increase the range. Windage was the real bugger, I couldn't get that dialed in, next time, it just needs a little tweek, but I found my little tweeks ended up making big swings of POI, so I finally just stopped and shot some for groups.

By the time I got to the point I wanted to shoot some for a group, I'd ran out of my Lee Minnie's (about 288 grains). So I used my .45 REAL's they're close to 200 grains. They were very hard to load, I had to use a mallet to get them into the bore. All of the conicals I have in .45 were for my TC Seneca. I don't remember those REAL's loading as hard in the Seneca, but once loaded they seemed to shoot OK.

I only shot one sabot, it was a Hornady factory loading. It loaded very hard, I'm glad I had a range rod, doing that with the under barrel rod would not have been possible.

I wiped the bore before every shot. I used Pyrodex RS, because that's all I have on hand.

The one and only sabot is the lowest round on the target and is just cutting the black. All the others are REAL 200 gr bullets. I shot everything with 70 grains of the Pyrodex RS.
I saved the sample pack of Ed's bullets for when I pick up a bottle of 777. Today I just wanted to get it on paper and tweek it later. I thought of putting a scope on it just to see how well I could do with it, but found the scope I had available to go it won't fit with the rear sight in place. Which I suspect is the situation that caused the rear sight to be missing when I got it.

Now I've got my first cleaning session with the White. I always enjoyed the coffee can full of hot soapy water pumped thru the bore. But with my Knight and a peep on it, I don't want to dunk that peep in the water and I'm not going to take the peep off for every cleaning. I think I can get by with the soapy water flush since I'm using the standard sight on it right now. But if I upgrade to a peep for the White I'll have to change my process for that one too.

It was fun, and I'm always open to comment and advice.

it will be a shooter by the look of it.try some windex window cleaner on acouple of patches followed by some dry ones cleans up nice,then oil it up and your good.

I'd mount a scope on it and then you'd really see what that White can do.

Not bad for those bullets. Once you use triple seven ( prefer 3Fg in the .451) you will enjoy no swabbing between shots and no pumping soapy water baths. I just remove the breechplug an soak in a container of orange citrus household cleaner and run a couple of patches soaked in the citrus cleaner down the bore till clean, clean the plug, reinstall- I use teflon grease on the threads and run a good bore protectant oil patch down the bore and wipe off the outside the breech area, cleanup the hammer (I soak the business end in the same citrus cleaner) wipe the outsides with oily patch and done.

My Super 91's have blackice on them so outside cleaning isn't required, but I do it out of habit. The SS Model 97's get the wipe down as well.

I think you will be amazed with Ed's conicals and the accuracy you should get with them!

I don't do this every day BELIEVE ME, But this is what I did with my White M98 with 75gr of 777-3F at 75yds with my 350gr HP a couple of weeks ago. Two shots are in the same hole. I didn't dare try 4 or 5 shots. Figured I'd quit while I was ahead instead of ruining the target. GRIN

edmehlig said:

I don't do this every day BELIEVE ME, But this is what I did with my White M98 with 75gr of 777-3F at 75yds with my 350gr HP a couple of weeks ago. Two shots are in the same hole. I didn't dare try 4 or 5 shots. Figured I'd quit while I was ahead instead of ruining the target. GRIN

350gr HP.png

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You braggin or complainin... :lol: Great shooting Ed!!

Well the coffee can full of hot water doesn't work as slick as with MM's as it does with my sidelocks. So I will be trying some of your suggestions. I have a 3x scope on another rifle, that doesn't have a bell objective lens, that might work. Since scopes are forbidden here in Colorful Colorado, my only use for a scope would be just to see how well the rifle will shoot. I'm convinced the rifle will shoot much better than I can. So I've been considering what sight arrangement will let me shoot the best that I can. Now that a hot soapy water bath cleaning looks to not be a good method, the peep sight looks like maybe my best alternative. I have a Knight BK-92 with a Williams FP with target knobs, I like it. I was able to use the factory front sight bead on it. I would hope I could do the same on the White.

I will try the citrus cleaner and the windex. But something in the back of my mind tells me there is a certain type of windex that is best avoided, is it the formula with ammonia?

Ed that's an impressive target.

When I was cleaning it, I was looking at the trigger. On the back side of it I could see a spring, it looked like it was in there catawampus, yeah that's a word.It's never a good situation for a spring to be in. I reached in there and touched it and it popped into a horizontal position from front to back. At first glance I thought it might need to be in a vertical position, but I guess luckily for me the trigger is riveted together, and I couldn't get in there to monkey with it, I put everything back together and it works. The trigger does seem a little different, but it's still good. The spring looks to have a taper, the big end at the back and getting smaller as it extends forward. Can anyone tell me if that spring is now in there in the right orientation?

I'm thinking that the problems I was having with my windage adjustment is because there is enough slop in the elevation that it moves the windage a little when it goes up or down. It needs to be set and then move the windage. I'm not sure, but I will look to see if that the case when I shoot it next.

Thanks again, for all the comments. It's great to be able to pick your collective brains. Shooting the White has been fun and will be a lot more fun when it warms a bit.

I'd stay away from the ammonia from what I've read its not good on gun metal. Vinegar Windex should be OK tho....
I will have to look at one of my triggers an get back to you on that, don't recall the position of the spring without looking.

Looking at a NIP Bold trigger from the back of the housing the spring is horizontal with the bigger end facing the trigger back, there is some tension on the spring also. Hope that helps!

OK, thanks that is a big help. When I first noticed it, it was bent upwards like it should have been in there vertically. When I touched it with a small screwdriver it popped back into the position you described. Still works great. Funny thing when I was shooting it at the range just before the trigger broke I'd feel and hear a little spring twang, then it would fire. I'm not noticing that anymore, so I guess I stumbled into a fix.
I was thinking you had to be careful with which windex you used and stay away from the ammonia, I know it can be terrible mixed with steel.
I've never used the orange citrus stuff, my wife is a Murphy's Oil person,and they have a general purpose cleaner. But my next trip to the store I'll pick some up. I like using coconut oil, so orange citrus cleaner should round out a nice muzzleloading fruit salad.
Thanks for the help and checking that spring question for me.

I found a bottle of 777 yesterday, so I refilled my flask and resupplied my shooting box. So the next time the weather and all the stars align the right way I'll get back to the range. This time I'll use Ed's bullets.

You're in for a surprise using Ed's bullets. A good surprise! Once you get that little .451 figured out, you may be ready for a REAL rifle....a .504!!! (Ok Ed.....flame away... LOL!)

Batchief909 said:

You're in for a surprise using Ed's bullets. A good surprise! Once you get that little .451 figured out, you may be ready for a REAL rifle....a .504!!! (Ok Ed.....flame away... LOL!)

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LOL, Hey not everybody can handle those 50 cal Magnums! How you doing Jeff ? Stop by more often. Us DWB’s miss you!