700ml project

[jlink]

I picked up a fairly poor conditioned 700ml at auction a couple months ago for $30, it was missing a bolt, but I had on that needed the handle reattached so I figured why not, my brother in law had been bugging me to find him one our sell him mine. So after picking the gun up I was able to soak and remove the stuck #11 breechplug. I pushed out alot of rust. There is still rifling in the barrel but she is rough. I went ahead and put a 209 nose kit on it and and been trying to get the gun to group with my arrowhead 209 plug from my 700ml, before I bought one for this gun. I first shoot the gun with open sights at 50 yards with white hots and 300gr .458 hornaday with orange sabot. It shot would I thought was decent group at 50 yards open sights. Fast forward 2 months I have shot hornady 250gr SST and white hots, 240gr hornady cheap shot knurled up to .456/7 with T7. The best group I have shot with it was 25 yards with 300gr hornady .458 HP. I moved out to 100 yards and it was fringe minuet of pie plate! Now the first attempt in zeroing this gun I had a burris scope fail. This past weekend was the first time shooting it since I received a new scope. The bro inlaw that wants the gun (if i can get it to shoot) has an optima thats barrel looks the same or even worse than this 700ml but after fouling 3/4 shots will hold a 3-4in group at 100 yards. He isn't looking for a tackdriver just a reliable deer getter out to 100-125 yards. Thinking of giving the 458 bullets one more shot. Any recommendations of squeezing anything out of this gun that I"m over looking is greatly appreciated. Or maybe its a parts gun or smokeless donor actions.

 

[phalanx]

I would say ditch the pellets and start with 80grs 777 loose powder or another powder of your choice and start adding 5 grains until you find the sweet spot.

 

[jlink]

I'm not a fan of pellets, but that is what my brother inlaw likes because its easy. I dont want to burn up my current stash of blackhorn chasing my tail. I think i have an older can of pyrodex that came with my 700ml. I'll give that a try, before going with the 320 fury universals I had good accuracy with the nos 300gr BT and orange sabot.

 

[phalanx]

Worth a try, maybe 300gr SST if you have any. My friends are sold on pellets also. I don't hate them and have multiple types and they can be accurate but as you know when working up a load you're stuck with basically one choice which the gun/bullet may not like. I try to tell them pre-measured and in a tube is just as fast but....

 

[jlink]

Yeah, i tried to convince him he needed to shoot blackhorn 4/5 years ago since he only cleaned his gun once a year (well i clean it). but he didn't like having to measure it out. So back to pellets he went. I think i gave him a box of 300gr XTPs I wasn't going to shoot in my 45 colt revolver. Sent him the pic of my rifle shooting blackhorn and fury's. Told him $10 mad a lot of differences between his gun and the one I've been shooting for 4 years.