5Hrs At the range with Barnes TMZ, T-EZ, Hornady SST, PB AT

[Snowsolo]

These are some results of my time at the range today. This is basically my first time out with my Accura .50 V2 These are all 100 yd shots using 110 gr of BH209 and CCI 209M primers. I ditched the yellow sabots that came with my Barnes TMZ's and replaced them with Harvester Crush Rib Yellow Sabots (boattail.) The store I buy supplies from was out of the Harvester Balck Crush Rib sabots or I would have used them with my Barnes T-EZ flat base bullets. I had a STIFF 25 MPH wind all day out of the west. Sometimes the wind would blow my larger Champion Gander MTN targets off the board down range! The wind was directly left to right, I was shooting North. I REALLY REALLY like the performance of the Hornady SST 250gr! Hopefully I can tighten these groups up a bit when the wind dies down. But in all honesty I was extremely happy with all bullets shot today. This is my first muzzleloader and basically my first time out doing serious shooting with it. MAX Muzzleloader.com has all the FPS info on these bullets as I dont have the tool to measure that sort of thing. I print most my FREE targets and DATA sheets off that website too. Hey, it saves $4 or $5 on targets Oh I forgot, I cleaned the Breech Plug with a #32 drill bit and cleaned the flash hole with a nipple pick and whiped the plug clean with Montana X-treme 209 bore cleaner before eash 3 shot group. I did not clean the barrel between shots. I cleaned the barrel once before doing this 12 shot test.

Barnes TMZ Boattail 250 gr with Harvester Crush Rib Sabot Yellow 1 1/2in. group

Same setup as above 1 5/8in. group

Hornady 250 gr SST 2 shots 1 hole 5/8in. group

Barnes T-EZ Flat base with Barnes supplied blue sabot 1 5/8in. group

PowerBelt 245 gr AeroTip 1 1/4in. group

Harvester Crush Rib Sabots for boattail bullets.

 

[cvilorio1]

Snowsolo that is some great shooting especially in that wind. I like the way the SST group, but all of them are great and great report also. Keep at it.

 

[Snowsolo]

Snowsolo that is some great shooting especially in that wind. I like the way the SST group, but all of them are great and great report also. Keep at it.

Thanks CVILORIO! I have to tip my hat to you since you are the guy that I read some of my first readings on when I was deciding on loads to start off with. I saw you were shooting great groups with 110gr of BH209 and the barnes T-EZ. Do you use the supplied barnes blue sabot? You ever tried paring up that bullet with the Harvester Crush Rib Black sabots? For some reason the supplied blue T-EZ sabots dont hold up good and fall apart. I mostly find 2 petal sabots left after shooting, sometimes 1.

 

[Omega451]

Snowsolo,

I would recommend the Harvester smooth black sabots over the crushed rib sabot. The crushed rib will be really loose in the Bergara bore.

I have had good results with the Barnes .458 Socom bullet in the yellow crushed rib.


Great shooting.

 

[Marty1]

NICE range report... and awesome shooting with winds like that. :!:

Lots of different bullets too, including some Powerbelts.

 

[cvilorio1]

Snowsolo I really appreciate the comment you made, but I'm no expert and I really do learn something new every day from some one in this forum. I always have used the supply sabots that come with the T-EZ and have never tried any thing different with them and to tell you the truth I have never recovered any of the sabots after I shot them, to me if they work the way they are and so far they have and do what I want them to do I'm happy. Have you tried any other primers besides the 209m from cci, if you do decide to try something different send me you address in a PM and I will send you a 100 Fiocchi 209 primers to try.

 

[Snowsolo]

Smyers, thanks for the info. I'll pick a pack of those up too somewhere online and try the Black rib and the smooth and see what I can do with both and compare em.

Cvilorio, I havent opened up my breechplug, its still stock and so far have had no hangfires or any problems with my CCI 209M. Seeing I cant find Fiocchi's anywhere around here, Im just going to go with whats been working good so far. I've heard nothing but good things about the Fiocchi 616 primers, but like I said I cant find them around here, so to open my breechplug to .35 just to use them when the 209M are working fine is a gamble I dont want to take yet. Thank you for the offer and I will keep it in mind if I decide to stop using my CCI's. Actually, I might just get another QRBP just to have an extra and modify it just to try different stuff so maybe I will PM you. I would like to buy some PB AeroLites off ya too. Cant find them anywhere yet online or in the stores.

 

[sitsintrees]

Thats some fine shootin, in high winds to boot! What were you using for a rest?

 

[Snowsolo]

Thats some fine shootin, in high winds to boot! What were you using for a rest?

Thank you for the compliment. I use a cheapy Plastic MTM Predator rest I bought for$30 at Gander Mtn.. Has quite a bit of play in it in my opinion. With all the dough I've been dumping into my "new hobby" I decided to not spend $150 on a real nice caldwell lead sled. But I'll tell ya what, after shooting today and seeing all the play I had in my rest, I would love to try a real rest just to see how much of a difference it would make.


The stock rest area has quite a bit of freeplay in it. The higher up you take it, the worse it gets. Dont get me wrong, I didnt expect something super nice for $30. But for $30, I have no complaints about it.

 

[exMember]

man for the first time out with a new rifle, thats some damn good shooting!

Were the CCI's pretty clean in the frame area? Im not sure if i had sent you the link on how to keep it clean.

 

[sitsintrees]

I use a cheapy Plastic MTM Predator rest I bought for$30

Looks like it works well, you can buy a lot of goodies for what the price is for the LS but if you do a lot
of shooting its probably worth it. Oh and thats one sharp piece you got there, im a sucker for the camo stuff.

 

[Rick1]

Those shots were not all that bad, pretty good.

 

[Snowsolo]

FG, yes your info on the firing pin bushing worked great. All CCI's are clean as a whistle after shooting. Thanks for the great tip. Thanks to alot of you for all the good info. Thats why this website is great for first timers or a seasoned vet. You can always pick up some good pointers from somebody experimenting with something on this forum.