New .45 Range Report

[Trench]

I've had a chance to do some load testing with my new rifle. Here's what I've played with so far.

52gr FFFg, .440 ball, .018 patch:

52gr FFFg, .440 ball, .020 patch:

60gr FFFg, .440 ball, .020 patch:

I've also tried 40gr with .018 and .020 patches but didn't keep the targets. Groups looked to be around 2.5in.

I had a chance to recover my patches this time out. It appears the barrel is going to need some breaking in. What I see, are cuts from the lands of the rifling. I went ahead and lapped the barrel today with some very fine steel wool and Remoil. I'm going to give the barrel some time to break in before I do much more load testing. It'll be interesting to see if the load combinations yield some tighter groups once the tears in the patches stop.

Here's the patches:

 

[msuspartan]

When did you go? Did you shoot at your match? Forgot it was today. Was working on my Traditions refurbish.
Looks like it really likes the .20 patch.
Will get you some .445's if you want. Let me know.

Talk to you soon.

Cheers,
DonK

 

[Trench]

I believe my club shoot is next Sunday. The only reason it likes the .020 patches is because they don't get totally cut through. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rifle does when the edges of the lands smooth out a bit. Hopefully the steel wool speeds that along.

 

[Trench]

Well, manure. My club shoot WAS today. Darn it! That's what I get for marking the wrong Sunday of the month on the calendar!

 

[nchawkeye]

You may be cutting those patches at the muzzle when loading, look at the crown and see if you have sharp edges...

You can also use a 10 inch strip of ticking, load the ball and pull back out with the ticking...This will let you know if the crown needs some smoothing...

 

[Trench]

I just gave that a go with my .018 ticking that got torn up so badly. The patching looked just fine. Then again, I did just do a lapping job on the bore yesterday. Hopefully that's all I needed. We'll see next time at the range.