- Joined
- Aug 12, 2005
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I shot yesterday at 30 yards. I was impressed with the rifle. But Sabotloader asked me how well this rifle would hold out to say... 75 yards.
The rifle of course was still my Thompson Center Hawkin .50 caliber percussion. I was shooting RWS 1075 caps. Powder was 100 grains of Graf's & Sons 2f. And I was using a wet moosemilk patch with the cast .490 roundball I purchased from Gander Mountian.
Well that haunted me all night. So today I put another three inch Birchwood Casey Red Dot Bulls eye on the target, duct taped up all the old bullet holes so as not to confuse me.. Pulled up stakes at the 30 yard and marched it back to 75 yards. Well I discovered at 75 yards the snow was frozen too hard to drive the PVC legs into the snow. But I was able to find a spot at 72 yards where I could get it to stick with some bracing. So that's the best I could do Sabotloader.. 72 yards. Man that three inch orange dot is small back there. I actually got readings of 70,72, and 77 yards, but I got 72 yards more often through my Bushnell Sports Pro range finder.
This was holding that orange bull in a six o'clock hold making a 8 out of the front bead and the bull. The first shot on a clean barrel surprised me. The next two over joyed me.
I kept on shooting the ball without swabbing until it was time for shot #6. So I swabbed the barrel clean using Simple Green Cleaner, then dried it with alcohol, patched it dry, and popped a cap. Loaded and shot #6. I was not pleased with #6 but that's the way it goes.
At the end of the day the target looked like this... I stopped walking up there to check as it was a walk on ice packed snow. Where that one came from, I have no idea.
But to answer Sabotloader's question of how well would it shoot at 75 (72) yards.. Not to bad at all.
The rifle of course was still my Thompson Center Hawkin .50 caliber percussion. I was shooting RWS 1075 caps. Powder was 100 grains of Graf's & Sons 2f. And I was using a wet moosemilk patch with the cast .490 roundball I purchased from Gander Mountian.
Well that haunted me all night. So today I put another three inch Birchwood Casey Red Dot Bulls eye on the target, duct taped up all the old bullet holes so as not to confuse me.. Pulled up stakes at the 30 yard and marched it back to 75 yards. Well I discovered at 75 yards the snow was frozen too hard to drive the PVC legs into the snow. But I was able to find a spot at 72 yards where I could get it to stick with some bracing. So that's the best I could do Sabotloader.. 72 yards. Man that three inch orange dot is small back there. I actually got readings of 70,72, and 77 yards, but I got 72 yards more often through my Bushnell Sports Pro range finder.
This was holding that orange bull in a six o'clock hold making a 8 out of the front bead and the bull. The first shot on a clean barrel surprised me. The next two over joyed me.
I kept on shooting the ball without swabbing until it was time for shot #6. So I swabbed the barrel clean using Simple Green Cleaner, then dried it with alcohol, patched it dry, and popped a cap. Loaded and shot #6. I was not pleased with #6 but that's the way it goes.
At the end of the day the target looked like this... I stopped walking up there to check as it was a walk on ice packed snow. Where that one came from, I have no idea.
But to answer Sabotloader's question of how well would it shoot at 75 (72) yards.. Not to bad at all.