The world of black powder cartridge, especially if you want accuracy in a rifle, involves many steps and quite a bit of experimentation. Today was the first. First step- fireform brass. To do that, I had to load up a number of rounds. I had 40 loaded with two different boolits for today. The load wasn't anything earth shaking, just a round that will fireform brass. I put in the Hadley eyecup and changed the front insert to what is best described as a "duplex" reticle picture without the small part in the center. This gave me a reference on the spirit level in the front globe and clear view of the 4in target I used at 50yds.
So here we are about to start chunkin lead downrange.
Recoil was noticeable with the metal butt plate and aiming while controlling cant by watching the spirit level is kinda like riding a unicycle whilst patting yer noggin, whistlin Dixie, and doing backflips. Accuracy as expected was, well, as expected. Some stuff gave a decent starting point and other showed promise that will be explored on the next session where I will go for accuracy.
Best group of the day-
The shorter modified 50/70 bullet did some weird things but I'm attributing that to lack of consistent compression but, a 10 shot string yielded two clusters of grouping with 4 shots touching in one and 3 touching in another that was 5in lower and 3 shots on walkabout. Again, today was all about fire forming brass and if I stumbled on a load or learned something else in the wacky world of black powder cartridge, then it's all gravy. Next time, I'll adjust the loading process on each type boolit and go from there. I'm feeling pretty sure this old critter will deliver if fed the right stuff.
Now for a name. As said in a comedy video about white folks naming their favorite guns, I think this one will get a name. Bill Cody called his roller Lucretia Borgia as it was fatal medicine on bufflers.
So here we are about to start chunkin lead downrange.
Recoil was noticeable with the metal butt plate and aiming while controlling cant by watching the spirit level is kinda like riding a unicycle whilst patting yer noggin, whistlin Dixie, and doing backflips. Accuracy as expected was, well, as expected. Some stuff gave a decent starting point and other showed promise that will be explored on the next session where I will go for accuracy.
Best group of the day-
The shorter modified 50/70 bullet did some weird things but I'm attributing that to lack of consistent compression but, a 10 shot string yielded two clusters of grouping with 4 shots touching in one and 3 touching in another that was 5in lower and 3 shots on walkabout. Again, today was all about fire forming brass and if I stumbled on a load or learned something else in the wacky world of black powder cartridge, then it's all gravy. Next time, I'll adjust the loading process on each type boolit and go from there. I'm feeling pretty sure this old critter will deliver if fed the right stuff.
Now for a name. As said in a comedy video about white folks naming their favorite guns, I think this one will get a name. Bill Cody called his roller Lucretia Borgia as it was fatal medicine on bufflers.
