Sixty shots at the pistol range today

[Barry Strickland]

The weather was great and I shot six targets ten shots each at 25 yards with Old Eynsford, Swiss, Goex, Scheutzen, Pyrodex P, and Triple 7. All were shot with 11 grains (volume). I haven't downloaded the chronograph data yet. I am tired, maybe tomorrow.

 

[Mean Gene]

Still it made for a pleasant day im sure.

 

[TNGhost]

Some pretty n ice groups there.

What pistol were you using?

 

[Eterry]

The upper right looks very impressive with a cpl fliers.

 

[user 43911]

O.K. I'll bite, what gun ? , what cal ?, because the powder sure makes some crisp holes in the targets.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I suspect that these groups were shot off a rest.

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

That’s impressive shooting if it was offhand.

 

[Barry Strickland]

I will apologize here now. I thought about after I went to bed and realized I should not have posted that here. For those that were curious I built a machine rest for testing muzzle-loading pistol barrels about a year and a half ago. Since that time I have shot over 800 rounds from it with different barrels of different calibers. It has been an eye-opener. After shooting pistol competition for fifty years I thought I had things pretty much figured out. I won't go into it all here though. Since this is a period-correct forum it would be out of place.
Have a good evening. Barry

 

[Kansas Jake]

Barry, why not. I think your post is germain to pistols.

 

[Desperate Lee]

Barry
Why not. I spent a lot of my younger years around Ed Shilen's barrel shop. His long range targets, one hole, from his machine rests always fascinated me. I for one, being a machinist, would love to see your barrel machine rest and learn more about your process. PM me if you like.
DL

 

[TNGhost]

I will apologize here now. I thought about after I went to bed and realized I should not have posted that here. For those that were curious I built a machine rest for testing muzzle-loading pistol barrels about a year and a half ago. Since that time I have shot over 800 rounds from it with different barrels of different calibers. It has been an eye-opener. After shooting pistol competition for fifty years I thought I had things pretty much figured out. I won't go into it all here though. Since this is a period-correct forum it would be out of place.
Have a good evening. Barry

I don't think you need to apologize at all. Certainly it pertains to traditional black powder arms, and there is not a single reproduction percussion revolver out there that is completely period correct, yet we discuss them all I for one am interested in the results of your experimentation, and think it would be a great boon to all of us here

Please share what you feel like sharing, I am sure that what you have learned are things that will make us all better shooters and that is one thing we all strive for.

 

[Eterry]

Barry, Ned Roberts talks about using machine rest rifles in the Civil war, so they fit in our time frame, IMHO.

I've always been interested in what the gun can do, so please give us the details.

 

[Relic shooter]

The weather was great and I shot six targets ten shots each at 25 yards with Old Eynsford, Swiss, Goex, Scheutzen, Pyrodex P, and Triple 7. All were shot with 11 grains (volume). I haven't downloaded the chronograph data yet. I am tired, maybe tomorrow.

As a fellow rifle & pistol shooter I've always worked towards shooting perfect scores by developing the ideal load for each pistol or rifle.. It's much more difficult to develop the perfect load without a solid shooting rest that is needed to maintain a rock solid platform that will accurately reflect impact & groups due to the small changes we make to the loads, lock, sights & trigger pull.
I never took the time to develop a solid machine rest like you have, so at the creaky age of 78 I remain just a fairly decent competitor having fun chasing hits off of my primitive sandbag

 

[Barry Strickland]

Since there is this amount of interest I will go ahead and give some information about the machine rest and some other basic information. That is until a forum moderator sees this thread and removes it and also slaps my hand.

Let me also begin by saying this was a project that first started out as being another article for Muzzle Blasts. I thought it would only take me a short time to write up the information and be happy. Was I ever wrong!

I dug through some pictures and found some that would give an idea of the machine rest and also the actual shooting position set up. I will do this over a few posts while I babble about it a bit.

 

[Barry Strickland]

I have changed some things as I went along this route, the first of which was the fixture would move around too much on the shooting bench when fired. To cure that I made a 3/4" plywood base with a board fastened to the rear of it. The base was clamped down to the bench and now all was happy.

note the fixture simply rotates the barrel upright for loading. I made a brass gravity powered lens shield for the scope to keep trash from getting on it when cleaning and loading. The split base has adjustments for both windage and elevation. The black knob in the rear is the windage adjustment. The oak handled knob adjusts the elevation. The axle is an interference fit into the pillow blocks. There is no slop in anything. I made a simple box lock for the percussion ignition.

You might note in the picture of the target frame the aiming point for the scope is the "X" above the target card. The alignment of the scope crosshairs to the "X" is very precise.

 

[Barry Strickland]

For my last comment this evening it will be on the six targets in the first post, specifically the top center target. The center to center measurement is about 2.6". This is the worst target I have ever shot with this fixture. The barrel used for all six of the targets is a Green Mountain 40 caliber. I might mention also on this particular barrel it is 12" long. It cranks up more velocity than you would first believe with a light powder charge. And no I am not condemning this barrel, it is actually quite good.
any questions just ask.
More info later, Barry

 

[Relic shooter]

Excellent workmanship on the solid rest & accouterments., thanks for sharing.

 

[Desperate Lee]

Barry
I really enjoyed the write up and the pictures you posted. Mighty fine job my friend. You say you did this for Muzzle Blast? Do you regularly contribute to them?
DL

 

[Barry Strickland]

Hi Lee.
If the info I sent you didn't answer your questions on the details I can further describe or take pictures for you.

No, not a regular at all. The last article they published was in 2015 I think. I have another one I sent in a couple of weeks ago that is pending. It takes time to write articles, for me anyway. I love to experiment and make things.
I am also a long time ham radio operator, call sign AB4QL. I have experimented with antenna designs for many years and one new design was as published in QST about five or six years ago, in fact it went into couple of different antenna design books. I have another design that I have not finished the article for at this time.
But, my real obsession is black powder, I have a very nice workshop that has all the metal and woodworking equipment I need and that is where I spend the vast majority of time. My present project is a flint pistol that I just finished the wire inlay on and now is time to start finishing the metal parts. Then comes the engraving, which I have never been good at. However, I keep trying and should spend more time at it.

I will try to post some more information on the barrel testing this evening. I think some will find it interesting.
Barry

 

[Barry Strickland]

Here is a picture of a target frame backer. The interesting thing here is the group size. There are fifty shots through this backer. I might note that the actual target cards are indexed on the front of the target frame. This backer was stapled to the back of the frame while I shot the fifty shots. The only thing that was changed in loading was the powder charge. Using 14, 17, 21, 24 and 27 grains with 10 shots each. The groups slowly shifted downwards a slight amount as the powder charge increased. The individual groups were as follows;
14 gr. 1.2"
17 gr. 1.5"
21 gr. 1.4"
24 gr. 1.5"
27 gr. 1.5"
The overall group size for the fifty shots was 2".
More to come later.