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.30 cal. at 100 yds.

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George

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There have been some threads recently about shooting .32 caliber rifles at 100 yards, and they made me curious. I don't have a .32, but I have a .30, and I wondered what it would do at 100 yards. I've never shot it beyond 35 yards, because it's a dedicated squirrel rifle, in my mind. I shoot about 15 grains 3F for squirrels, but I used to shoot 25 and had some data recorded showing a velocity of a little more than 2100 fps with that. It was also originally sighted in at 25 yards with 25 grains, so I had enough info to calculate a trajectory to 100 yards. It showed the ball would be about 5 1/2" low at 100. I did a little trek thingie today and decided to give the gun a go at 100 just for the heck of it. Hadn't been out this spring, and it was a beautiful day for it, why not?

The barrel is by Bill Large, 38" long, straight, with a twist rate of 1:56". It has iron sights, silver front blade and low v-notch rear. I loaded 25 gr. 3F, a .295" home cast ball using .008" cotton patching and spit lube. Primed with 4F. I shot off a sandbag while draped over the hood of my Jeep. I used an old homemade target with a 2" square red bull on typing paper, but when I got ready to shoot I simply couldn't see the bull. Scratched my head a bit, then took a Sharpie and made a heavy sighter 5 1/2" above the bull and tried that. The calculations were pretty good, a three-shot group 2 3/8" exactly on elevation and just a tad right.

I think we sell our little guns short, they are capable of shooting better than we think.





Spence
 
GoodCheer said:
Please tell what your rifling pattern is.
I can't say for certain, but here is the note I wrote myself after I got the gun in 1976.

"The twist rate is 1 in 56 inches. It has 7 lands and grooves, the grooves are about half the width of the lands, and appear about 0.010” deep."



As far as I know Bill Large did a straightforward rifling pattern, no gain twist, etc.

Whatever he used, it is very accurate with any charge I choose to use.

Spence
 
Wow that's good shooting! I'm curious if there was a breeze that day?
 
That is one sweet looking rifle. But, more importantly, it is a shooter. That being said, I am amazed at how well it shot at 100 yards. Those little pea sized balls are so sensitive to wind. You must have been lucky enough to be shooting in a no wind condition. I don't know what the ballistic coefficient is for a .30 caliber round ball but I am not really surprised to see that for any given MV, the trajectory is not so much different from a .40 or a .45 ball.

A very interesting demonstration of what it is possible for a good marksman to do with a well made small caliber rifle under the right conditions. :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing your experience and for the photos. :hatsoff:
 
Nice rifle and decent group. I would not be supruised that this type of group at 100 yards would surprise the general public, but it amazes me that it surprises the poeple on this forum. All I can say is we need to do a bunch more shooting and way less reading and believing what gets written by the large number of arm chair experts.

There are a very large number of very experienced people who post on here but so much myth still gets perpetrated: flintlocks are unreliable, small balls wind drift much worse than larger balls (the ballistic coefficient of all spheres are roughly the same. .045 for a 32 cal and .070 for a 50 cal A .284 162 grain is .635. To contend that the increased BC of a larger round ball reduces wind drift is plain and simple silliness. On top of that a bigger ball has a larger area for the wind to act on and is usually travelling at a slower velocity and time of flight has a very large impact on wind drift), all small bores foul out after 2 shots, static electricity can set off black powder, and on it goes.

Very glad to see people out trying it for themselves and learning what can be done rather than believing everything we read.(I have learned a lot from posts on this forum but I have also read a lot of nonsense)

Keep on making smoke. It is the true way to prove what works.
 
Dean2 said:
Very glad to see people out trying it for themselves and learning what can be done rather than believing everything we read.(I have learned a lot from posts on this forum but I have also read a lot of nonsense)

Keep on making smoke. It is the true way to prove what works.

That's it. There are typists and there are shootists. Gotta pick who you listen to.

Frankly, I never even considered such shooting with my own 30. I can relate to the sighting issues for one thing, but more than that it's a question of goals.

Mine is a small game gun, and I've never shot it past 35 yards or with charges heavier than 20 grains of 3f. It's sighted in at 25 yards with 10 grains of 3f. I even use 3f in the pan for simplicity in the field.

It's a death ray on small game, and that's my goal for it. Fun to see results at longer range, but for me it's kinda like watching NASCAR. Nice to see what a great car and great driver can do, but I content myself to pickups and speed limits.
 
I waited for a day with light wind, then tried to set up so that I was shooting along the wind axis, not across it. There was a reported breeze of 3-4 mph. It's tough to say whether the group being a little right was from the wind or just that I had a really hard time getting a good sight picture. Growing old isn't for sissies.

Spence
 
Thanks for the information. I never shot my .32 calibers past 50 yards, now I'm going to have to try them at 100 yards to see what they can do.
 
a larger round ball reduces wind drift is plain and simple silliness.

Sorry, mate. That claim is plain and simple silliness. A big ball bucks wind much better than a small one. Do some bench rest shooting side by side with guys using big bores and compare 'X's' afterwards.
I have a friend who is a master shootr, ml'er and former Army sniper who has a .40 bench rifle. His 'groups' are all over the place. He won't event turn in his targets. Using bigger bores he brings home the bacon.
 
BrownBear said:
It's a death ray on small game, and that's my goal for it. Fun to see results at longer range, but for me it's kinda like watching NASCAR. Nice to see what a great car and great driver can do, but I content myself to pickups and speed limits.
Yeah, whatcha gonna shoot at 100 yards with a .30? I could kill a turkey at that range if rifles were legal here, but they aren't. Still, a fun project, and I learned something about my little gun, and that always makes for a good day. :grin:

Spence
 
Rifleman1776 said:
a larger round ball reduces wind drift is plain and simple silliness.

Sorry, mate. That claim is plain and simple silliness. A big ball bucks wind much better than a small one. Do some bench rest shooting side by side with guys using big bores and compare 'X's' afterwards.
I have a friend who is a master shootr, ml'er and former Army sniper who has a .40 bench rifle. His 'groups' are all over the place. He won't event turn in his targets. Using bigger bores he brings home the bacon.

I would appreciate it if you would do me the courtesy of quoting the COMPLETE sentence.

I did not say a bigger and heavier round ball does not in general buck wind better. What I said is it is not the higher ballistic coefficient of the larger ball that makes the difference. One must consider time of flight, mass and starting/terminal velocity. In general and within reason bigger heavier balls resist wind drift better than smaller lighter balls but this can vary greatly depending on velocity.
 
Im not a big fan of brass or a lot of engraving. Your rifle brings everything together very well. Interesting inlays that flow together. I would hate to ask a modern builder for a price on that kind of work! Overall it is a beautiful gun.

I have been wanting a small bore but money seems to get in the way.
 
Wow Spence that's a beautiful rifle. Would you take your money back for it???? :haha: Some good shootin' too. :thumbsup:
 
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