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- Apr 20, 2020
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With hunting season fast approaching, I spent the morning testing the sights and loads for my White Mountain carbine in .50 caliber. I have owned this gun for close to 20 years now and have lost count of the deer and game that it has taken. It has been a joy to carry, very reliable, accurate, and handy. I long ago added a musket cap nipple, removed the rear sight, installed a peep sight and filed the front bead to a post. For years I have shot and killed deer with 85 grains of Swiss 2F, a Lee Precision 250 grain R.E.A.L. bullet with the bottom groove lubed, and a wad between the bullet and the powder. This load has consistently, year after year given me 1 Inch, 3 hot groups at 50 yards and 3 Inch groups at 75 yards and I saw no reason to change anything. Please understand, in the area I hunt (mountain thickets) 75 yards is a loooong shot. Your shot is more likely than not to be under 50 yards. The longest distance I have taken a deer with this gun was about 60 yards while walking from my stand on a logging road, and it dropped where it stood. Only one deer shot has ran any distance (about 20 yards). Most fell over dead as I tend to take neck shots if possible.
However, today something changed and I can't really fathom it at all. The groups were 4 to 5 inches at 50 yards with the old reliable load and even worse at 75 yards. After some experimentation, I found that 80 grains of Swiss 2F, the Lee REAL and no wad brought the groups back to the old standard I had set with this gun. I was relieved and confused. Also, I have always weighed the powder charges and the bullets for this gun. Pouring the powder charge in a quick load tube and sorting the bullets by weight and lubing them. I ran out of those loads trying to solve the accuracy issue and resorted to a fixed measure and lubing bullets from a box of unsorted REALs. I could tell no difference between the weighed loads and the unweighed loads. It has always made me feel confident to weigh everything but I guess I was wasting my time with that labor. I am not saying I will stop doin it, just that I am wasting time. Beats watching TV any day.
I also had a can of Goex 2F with me and tried a few shots with it. There was no real notable difference between the Goex and the Swiss powder. This is a relief as Swiss is ridiculously hard to find, but Goex is regularly available. I do believe I get better performance with the Swiss than the Goex.
The other issue was, after years of using the factory provided ramrod to load before going into the woods and reload after taking a shot, I found the ramrod tips were loose. I also have cleaned the gun with this rod while in camp at night and even pulled a few loads with it. I guess T/C did not pin them in place and I had just never noticed. I do not need to lose a tip in the barrel on a hunt so I pinned those tightly in place after getting to the house.
I have not used this gun while hunting for the past 2 or 3 years, I had other rifles I wanted to shoot. I will admit since finding the load for this gun years ago I have not experimented at all. I simply fired a few rounds before the season every year to check sights, loaded it up and went about my merry way. I may spend a little more time experimenting as it was a pleasant morning with this gun. I have a T/C Maxiball mold and may try some of those in this gun.
The group in the picture is 4 rounds in just under an inch at 50 yards.
However, today something changed and I can't really fathom it at all. The groups were 4 to 5 inches at 50 yards with the old reliable load and even worse at 75 yards. After some experimentation, I found that 80 grains of Swiss 2F, the Lee REAL and no wad brought the groups back to the old standard I had set with this gun. I was relieved and confused. Also, I have always weighed the powder charges and the bullets for this gun. Pouring the powder charge in a quick load tube and sorting the bullets by weight and lubing them. I ran out of those loads trying to solve the accuracy issue and resorted to a fixed measure and lubing bullets from a box of unsorted REALs. I could tell no difference between the weighed loads and the unweighed loads. It has always made me feel confident to weigh everything but I guess I was wasting my time with that labor. I am not saying I will stop doin it, just that I am wasting time. Beats watching TV any day.
I also had a can of Goex 2F with me and tried a few shots with it. There was no real notable difference between the Goex and the Swiss powder. This is a relief as Swiss is ridiculously hard to find, but Goex is regularly available. I do believe I get better performance with the Swiss than the Goex.
The other issue was, after years of using the factory provided ramrod to load before going into the woods and reload after taking a shot, I found the ramrod tips were loose. I also have cleaned the gun with this rod while in camp at night and even pulled a few loads with it. I guess T/C did not pin them in place and I had just never noticed. I do not need to lose a tip in the barrel on a hunt so I pinned those tightly in place after getting to the house.
I have not used this gun while hunting for the past 2 or 3 years, I had other rifles I wanted to shoot. I will admit since finding the load for this gun years ago I have not experimented at all. I simply fired a few rounds before the season every year to check sights, loaded it up and went about my merry way. I may spend a little more time experimenting as it was a pleasant morning with this gun. I have a T/C Maxiball mold and may try some of those in this gun.
The group in the picture is 4 rounds in just under an inch at 50 yards.