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Hey Guys,
With bow season fast approaching here in NJ I have recently started my ?big push? to get ready for the Fall season. With the purchase of the new house last winter and a very busy spring Striper fishing I really have a lot that I needed to get done on the Bow/Rifle/Muzzleloader/Shotgun front. Along those lines I have gotten two great sessions in at the rifle range over the last month. Finally, yesterday I got a chance to begin working on the Bow, Muzzleloaders, and rifled shotgun.
Since I will be posting this info on both an MZ and Shotgun site I will condense the info together, hopefully the respective members understand.
First off, I should discuss the guns. While, I was shooting my Henry Ball Savage 10Ml-II muzzleloader, my primary goal was to get two newer guns up to speed. The first is a Savage 10ML-I that I bought used for Mel and had restocked in a Bell and Carlson medalist stock that was kindly given to me by a member of both of these boards. I had the stock repainted by B&C and just got it back on Friday. The second gun is a customized ultra-lightweight Tar-Hunt Mountaineer limited edition Millennium series barreled action bedded in a Bansner Hi-tech stock and coated by Rogard (yeah, I know that is a mouthful...lol). After receiving this gun I scoped it with Talley lightweight rings and a Leupold VX-II 3-9x33 lightweight scope, (Thank Big 6x6). This gun fully scoped comes in at an incredible 6 3/4 lbs, possibly the lightest scoped 20ga bolt action rifled shotgun in the world. While I had purchased this gun close to year ago this is only the second chance I have had to shoot it since owning it.
While the original owner stated that he had taken several deer with the Tar-Hunt at range finder verified distances exceeding 200yds, (given this gentleman?s background I have no reason to discount that fact), the owner did state that he never achieved the type of accuracy I have achieved with my other Tar-Hunt Mountaineer, (.04? 3 shot group).
Surprisingly, my first range testing with the new Tar-Hunt was done about a month ago with Hornady SST slugs and was very disappointing to say the least. (In my other Tar-Hunt I have regularly shot 1-2MOA with these slugs.) Assuming the new gun should show comparable accuracy I visited the range with only the SST?s on hand. I quickly found that the accuracy with these slugs was so horrendous I was unsure whether I might have a problem with gun. Of course, after finding nothing wrong with the gun or scope it was clear that the next step would be to try some other loads.
This week I received some new ammo to test in the gun. I got another box of the SST?s to retest, and a box each of the Winchester Partition Gold and Platinum tips, both of which shot exceptionally in my other Tar-Hunt. Well as you can see from the first target below, the three shot group with the SST?s was once again so horrendous, (5?), that I didn?t even bother shooting the last two shots in the box!
Next I moved on to the Winchester Platinum tips. Once again, three shots was all I needed to see,(3?) and the concern was starting to build.
Even with the Winchester Partitions being left, (the load with which I had the .04? group with my other Tar-Hunt), I was really not very hopefully at this point.( I should also add that I had already shot in excess of 30+ shotgun and muzzleloader rounds on the day, and was certainly not shooting at the top of my game. Add to that the fact that the barrel on the Tar-Hunt was rather hot from the previous shooting and you can see why my expectations were extremely low for this last box of shells.)
Well as you can see from the targets below, the Partitions did in fact show an exceptional potential in this gun. While the five shot group did max out at 3.5?, it is the pattern of the group that really tells the more important story here. Within the five shot group you will also notice a beautiful three shot .09? group, with two additional shots distributed off that group in a linear diagonal pattern. As many of you might be aware, when shooting from a benchrest, this type of distribution off a central group is generally caused by one of two factors, (neither of which are the fault of the gun or ammo).
These types of results are generally caused either by a poor alignment of the rests, (causing a diagonal rearward movement of the gun upon recoil, as opposed to directly rearward), or the shooters form, (such as torqueing the wrist during trigger pull instead of just isolating movement to the finger tip). In any case, given the Partitions very promising results, I am certainly looking forward to get back to the range as soon as possible when I can really focus on shooting groups for size to see what this gun is capable of?All in all, based on this preliminary testing I am relatively certainly that this too may be another 1-2MOA gun. Given the fact that my primary reason for purchasing this gun was its incredible handling, light weight, and low recoil, exceptional accuracy would just be another bonus!
Adittionall, as previously mentioned, I also did some testing with the both of my Savage 10ML?s. Basically, I did a full breakdown and cleaning of both of these guns last week. That meant that part of the purpose of this range trip was simply to get the guns back up and running, and in the case of Mels new gun simply to see if it had any ?idiosyncrasies? we needed to know about.
As you can see from my first six shots of the day, taken with my HB, all it took was a few shots to get my form going and for the gun to settle in. After my first with the freshly cleaned barrel, the next 3 shot group came right in at .08?, (or about as good as I personally can shoot). In this case I was shooting one of the guns favored loads, the bonded 250gr bonded SST?s, with 41.5grs VV-N-110 and supplied sabot (2250fps average).
While I would love to say that I had great deal more to add on the muzzleloader front, most of what I got accomplished was simple "leg work" that would likely not be either new or interesting to most readers. However, I am happy to say that I did figure out two of the most important aspects I needed to know about Mel's gun in order to have a much more fruitful session next range trip...First, is the fact that it appears to have very good accuracy potential with a number of different bullets. Second is the fact that the gun is a unquestionably a relatively "loose bore" Savage. (The reason I don't have a lot to share from the session as I didn't have any HPH-12 sabots or Harvester Red crush ribs from Mels guns.)
So finally I'll end this portion of the report with a few pictures of the new guns, both the Tar-Hunt and Mel?s Savage 10ML.
JC
With bow season fast approaching here in NJ I have recently started my ?big push? to get ready for the Fall season. With the purchase of the new house last winter and a very busy spring Striper fishing I really have a lot that I needed to get done on the Bow/Rifle/Muzzleloader/Shotgun front. Along those lines I have gotten two great sessions in at the rifle range over the last month. Finally, yesterday I got a chance to begin working on the Bow, Muzzleloaders, and rifled shotgun.
Since I will be posting this info on both an MZ and Shotgun site I will condense the info together, hopefully the respective members understand.
First off, I should discuss the guns. While, I was shooting my Henry Ball Savage 10Ml-II muzzleloader, my primary goal was to get two newer guns up to speed. The first is a Savage 10ML-I that I bought used for Mel and had restocked in a Bell and Carlson medalist stock that was kindly given to me by a member of both of these boards. I had the stock repainted by B&C and just got it back on Friday. The second gun is a customized ultra-lightweight Tar-Hunt Mountaineer limited edition Millennium series barreled action bedded in a Bansner Hi-tech stock and coated by Rogard (yeah, I know that is a mouthful...lol). After receiving this gun I scoped it with Talley lightweight rings and a Leupold VX-II 3-9x33 lightweight scope, (Thank Big 6x6). This gun fully scoped comes in at an incredible 6 3/4 lbs, possibly the lightest scoped 20ga bolt action rifled shotgun in the world. While I had purchased this gun close to year ago this is only the second chance I have had to shoot it since owning it.
While the original owner stated that he had taken several deer with the Tar-Hunt at range finder verified distances exceeding 200yds, (given this gentleman?s background I have no reason to discount that fact), the owner did state that he never achieved the type of accuracy I have achieved with my other Tar-Hunt Mountaineer, (.04? 3 shot group).
Surprisingly, my first range testing with the new Tar-Hunt was done about a month ago with Hornady SST slugs and was very disappointing to say the least. (In my other Tar-Hunt I have regularly shot 1-2MOA with these slugs.) Assuming the new gun should show comparable accuracy I visited the range with only the SST?s on hand. I quickly found that the accuracy with these slugs was so horrendous I was unsure whether I might have a problem with gun. Of course, after finding nothing wrong with the gun or scope it was clear that the next step would be to try some other loads.
This week I received some new ammo to test in the gun. I got another box of the SST?s to retest, and a box each of the Winchester Partition Gold and Platinum tips, both of which shot exceptionally in my other Tar-Hunt. Well as you can see from the first target below, the three shot group with the SST?s was once again so horrendous, (5?), that I didn?t even bother shooting the last two shots in the box!
Next I moved on to the Winchester Platinum tips. Once again, three shots was all I needed to see,(3?) and the concern was starting to build.
Even with the Winchester Partitions being left, (the load with which I had the .04? group with my other Tar-Hunt), I was really not very hopefully at this point.( I should also add that I had already shot in excess of 30+ shotgun and muzzleloader rounds on the day, and was certainly not shooting at the top of my game. Add to that the fact that the barrel on the Tar-Hunt was rather hot from the previous shooting and you can see why my expectations were extremely low for this last box of shells.)
Well as you can see from the targets below, the Partitions did in fact show an exceptional potential in this gun. While the five shot group did max out at 3.5?, it is the pattern of the group that really tells the more important story here. Within the five shot group you will also notice a beautiful three shot .09? group, with two additional shots distributed off that group in a linear diagonal pattern. As many of you might be aware, when shooting from a benchrest, this type of distribution off a central group is generally caused by one of two factors, (neither of which are the fault of the gun or ammo).
These types of results are generally caused either by a poor alignment of the rests, (causing a diagonal rearward movement of the gun upon recoil, as opposed to directly rearward), or the shooters form, (such as torqueing the wrist during trigger pull instead of just isolating movement to the finger tip). In any case, given the Partitions very promising results, I am certainly looking forward to get back to the range as soon as possible when I can really focus on shooting groups for size to see what this gun is capable of?All in all, based on this preliminary testing I am relatively certainly that this too may be another 1-2MOA gun. Given the fact that my primary reason for purchasing this gun was its incredible handling, light weight, and low recoil, exceptional accuracy would just be another bonus!
Adittionall, as previously mentioned, I also did some testing with the both of my Savage 10ML?s. Basically, I did a full breakdown and cleaning of both of these guns last week. That meant that part of the purpose of this range trip was simply to get the guns back up and running, and in the case of Mels new gun simply to see if it had any ?idiosyncrasies? we needed to know about.
As you can see from my first six shots of the day, taken with my HB, all it took was a few shots to get my form going and for the gun to settle in. After my first with the freshly cleaned barrel, the next 3 shot group came right in at .08?, (or about as good as I personally can shoot). In this case I was shooting one of the guns favored loads, the bonded 250gr bonded SST?s, with 41.5grs VV-N-110 and supplied sabot (2250fps average).
While I would love to say that I had great deal more to add on the muzzleloader front, most of what I got accomplished was simple "leg work" that would likely not be either new or interesting to most readers. However, I am happy to say that I did figure out two of the most important aspects I needed to know about Mel's gun in order to have a much more fruitful session next range trip...First, is the fact that it appears to have very good accuracy potential with a number of different bullets. Second is the fact that the gun is a unquestionably a relatively "loose bore" Savage. (The reason I don't have a lot to share from the session as I didn't have any HPH-12 sabots or Harvester Red crush ribs from Mels guns.)
So finally I'll end this portion of the report with a few pictures of the new guns, both the Tar-Hunt and Mel?s Savage 10ML.
JC
