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- Dec 20, 2022
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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
After spending much of 2023 driving back and forth between our new home in MT and our former home in Eastern WA (Tina and I make our retirement income as Mom and Pop landlords, so I've been repairing and upgrading WA property to get it ready for market, selling it, and buying replacement rental property here in MT and getting it rented out), I'm finally here in MT full-time, and am back to playing around with hunting bullets (elk and deer) for my 50 cal Renegade.... just in time for MT's Heritage Muzzleloader season (sidelocks, pure lead bullets, no sabots, loose powder, iron sights
). This year I drew a special antlerless elk tag for the unit I live in, and used my .308 to kill a big old cow half a mile up the mountain behind my house after a late October snow storm pushed the elk to lower elevations. She didn't have a calf and was just groaning with fat.... Yum! However, I can still use my general (over the counter for MT residents) elk tag to kill another elk (as long as it's in a different unit), and I still have my deer tag, so I'm busy getting ready for the Heritage ML season that starts on 9 December. Here in MT we're blessed to be able to hunt in all seasons (bow, general any-weapon, heritage ML, and late damage control) with the same general elk tag, and to take more than one elk if we draw or purchase special elk tags, so I can hunt elk somewhere with some weapon almost continuously from the beginning of September through the 15th of February.
Last spring I bought a Hankins adjustable sizing die, and sized some Hornady Great Plains (HGPs) down so that they start with moderate thumb pressure (.501 for my Renegade). Because they have a tapered base that starts at .494, the sized HGPs load both easily and very straight with slight engraving on the top .501 bands, and the sized bullets are still tight enough at the bottom of the barrel to keep them from moving off the powder during a day of mountain hunting.
Last spring, before I got too busy with housing transitions, I also bought a Skinner peep for my Renegade, and had a gunsmith in Plains MT mount it just forward of the breech plug. The Skinner peep is rugged enough for mountain hunting, it has just right amount of adjustability, and when it's mounted just forward of the breech plug, I think it actually looks better on the rifle than the factory semi-buckhorn, and will be less prone to damage, catching on things, and so forth. I have the same peep mounted at roughly the same distance from my eye on my Henry .45-70 lever gun.
Next steps are lubing the HGPs, followed by some serious range time.
The HGP factory lube is spread more or less evenly over the whole bullet, rather than concentrated in the shallow grooves. Much of it comes off during sizing, so it seems necessary to improve the sized bullet lube. Does anybody know what the factory lube is? Any suggestions for lubing a bullet with shallow lube grooves? I'm set up for pan lubing, and have some SPG and some ALOX, but haven't given it a whirl yet. All thoughts and suggestions greatly appreciated!
After spending much of 2023 driving back and forth between our new home in MT and our former home in Eastern WA (Tina and I make our retirement income as Mom and Pop landlords, so I've been repairing and upgrading WA property to get it ready for market, selling it, and buying replacement rental property here in MT and getting it rented out), I'm finally here in MT full-time, and am back to playing around with hunting bullets (elk and deer) for my 50 cal Renegade.... just in time for MT's Heritage Muzzleloader season (sidelocks, pure lead bullets, no sabots, loose powder, iron sights
). This year I drew a special antlerless elk tag for the unit I live in, and used my .308 to kill a big old cow half a mile up the mountain behind my house after a late October snow storm pushed the elk to lower elevations. She didn't have a calf and was just groaning with fat.... Yum! However, I can still use my general (over the counter for MT residents) elk tag to kill another elk (as long as it's in a different unit), and I still have my deer tag, so I'm busy getting ready for the Heritage ML season that starts on 9 December. Here in MT we're blessed to be able to hunt in all seasons (bow, general any-weapon, heritage ML, and late damage control) with the same general elk tag, and to take more than one elk if we draw or purchase special elk tags, so I can hunt elk somewhere with some weapon almost continuously from the beginning of September through the 15th of February. Last spring I bought a Hankins adjustable sizing die, and sized some Hornady Great Plains (HGPs) down so that they start with moderate thumb pressure (.501 for my Renegade). Because they have a tapered base that starts at .494, the sized HGPs load both easily and very straight with slight engraving on the top .501 bands, and the sized bullets are still tight enough at the bottom of the barrel to keep them from moving off the powder during a day of mountain hunting.
Last spring, before I got too busy with housing transitions, I also bought a Skinner peep for my Renegade, and had a gunsmith in Plains MT mount it just forward of the breech plug. The Skinner peep is rugged enough for mountain hunting, it has just right amount of adjustability, and when it's mounted just forward of the breech plug, I think it actually looks better on the rifle than the factory semi-buckhorn, and will be less prone to damage, catching on things, and so forth. I have the same peep mounted at roughly the same distance from my eye on my Henry .45-70 lever gun.
Next steps are lubing the HGPs, followed by some serious range time.
The HGP factory lube is spread more or less evenly over the whole bullet, rather than concentrated in the shallow grooves. Much of it comes off during sizing, so it seems necessary to improve the sized bullet lube. Does anybody know what the factory lube is? Any suggestions for lubing a bullet with shallow lube grooves? I'm set up for pan lubing, and have some SPG and some ALOX, but haven't given it a whirl yet. All thoughts and suggestions greatly appreciated!
