- Joined
- May 18, 2005
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Took the Accura out this afternoon - near perfect weather conditions with only the occasional light breeze and very comfortable temperatures. First fired the rifle at ~30yards to see how close my bore-sighting effort had been. Windage was very good but I was hitting about 7" low of my mark using 80 grains by volume of T7 FFg, a 445 grain UC short (my own casts), and Win 209 primers.
I made considerable adjustment upwards on the Leupold 3x9 Vari-X II and fired another load. That one went just below the bull so I prepared for the next shot while my friend Dave drove the target box out to the 100 yard position. Several shots were fired with that load (~10 more) and I found the Leupold's adjustment range was nearly max'd out to get near the bull. I don't know whether it was the limits of the scope's adjustments, not such good cast bullets, or if the rifling is too deep for good results with my conicals... but, regardless of the reason, I couldn't get consistent behavior from those conicals so gave up on them for the day.
I had brought along some 200 grain XTPs, blue MMP sabots, and a jug of BH209. After swabbing the bore with a couple of patches soaked with MAP and then several dry patches, I adjusted the scope's settings downward considerably anticipating the flatter trajectory.
My load then consisted of 90 grains by volume of the BH209, the little XTPs in blue sabot, and the same primers. Was surprised to find the first shot with that load was still quite high. After 4 or 5 more shots followed by scope adjustments, I was ready to try for a group. The last of those adjustment shots is shown along with the group below.
Have to say I am quite pleased with that level of accuracy and it's good to know that I CAN still shoot a decent group on a good day.
Dave had gone down and taped over my UC short shots and I guess I was firing at a target with tape over a hole (didn't realize it until looking at this picture). I just might have to re-think my opinion of the BH209.
There was almost no blowback as evidenced by the pictures below. These were taken after firing ~12 rounds with T7 FFg and I believe a total of 9 rounds with the BH209. Cleanup was easy as even the breech plug on this rifle cleaned up with relative ease.
My breech plug was wrapped with yellow Teflon tape and had a light coating of grease over the tape. I believe that omitting the grease would have prevented the little residue that did make it to the action. You can see a bit of the tape in the above picture.
Looking at the face of the action below, it appears next to nothing escaped around the primer.
Next time out, I'm going to try some of Batchief's cast boolits as well as some of Bull Shop's. I really don't understand why my own would not group... unless I had a batch of alloy in the pot that is too hard to fully obturate in the bore. I'm going to leave the setup sighted just where it is though.
She's lookin' better all the time. :wink:
I made considerable adjustment upwards on the Leupold 3x9 Vari-X II and fired another load. That one went just below the bull so I prepared for the next shot while my friend Dave drove the target box out to the 100 yard position. Several shots were fired with that load (~10 more) and I found the Leupold's adjustment range was nearly max'd out to get near the bull. I don't know whether it was the limits of the scope's adjustments, not such good cast bullets, or if the rifling is too deep for good results with my conicals... but, regardless of the reason, I couldn't get consistent behavior from those conicals so gave up on them for the day.
I had brought along some 200 grain XTPs, blue MMP sabots, and a jug of BH209. After swabbing the bore with a couple of patches soaked with MAP and then several dry patches, I adjusted the scope's settings downward considerably anticipating the flatter trajectory.
My load then consisted of 90 grains by volume of the BH209, the little XTPs in blue sabot, and the same primers. Was surprised to find the first shot with that load was still quite high. After 4 or 5 more shots followed by scope adjustments, I was ready to try for a group. The last of those adjustment shots is shown along with the group below.
Have to say I am quite pleased with that level of accuracy and it's good to know that I CAN still shoot a decent group on a good day.
Dave had gone down and taped over my UC short shots and I guess I was firing at a target with tape over a hole (didn't realize it until looking at this picture). I just might have to re-think my opinion of the BH209. There was almost no blowback as evidenced by the pictures below. These were taken after firing ~12 rounds with T7 FFg and I believe a total of 9 rounds with the BH209. Cleanup was easy as even the breech plug on this rifle cleaned up with relative ease.
My breech plug was wrapped with yellow Teflon tape and had a light coating of grease over the tape. I believe that omitting the grease would have prevented the little residue that did make it to the action. You can see a bit of the tape in the above picture.
Looking at the face of the action below, it appears next to nothing escaped around the primer.
Next time out, I'm going to try some of Batchief's cast boolits as well as some of Bull Shop's. I really don't understand why my own would not group... unless I had a batch of alloy in the pot that is too hard to fully obturate in the bore. I'm going to leave the setup sighted just where it is though.
She's lookin' better all the time. :wink:
