Forgive me fellas, this was a VERY rudamentary test. Actually it wasn't even a test. It was a matter of the rain quit for a couple hours, my wife got home from work, watched the kids, and I snuck out the back door for an hour.
I just had a hunch you guys would like a little feed back.
I normally shoot at a beautiful range two miles from our house. It closes at 5:00. That's the same time the store that my wife works at closes. She got home at 5:30 and by 5:45 I had a couple saw horses set up in the back yard with a 3/4 sheet of plywood and a lawn chair behind it.
Conditions were FAR less than optimal. NE wind at 10-12 mph. Evil eye from the wife for walking out the door when she walked in and a setting sun in my face....
So here's the skinny.
Rifle: Knight Disc Elite .45 cal with non plastic jacket breach plug conversion.
3-9X40 Pentax White Tails Unlimited scope.
CCI 209M primer.
I had two bullets and three sabots on hand. The bullets were Barnes 180 gr Expanders and Barnes 195 gr Expanders. The sabots were some MMPs that I baught seperately and the blue sabots that came wiht the 180gr Barnes (I think these might be a Harvester sabot), and the tan sabots that came with the 195 gr Expanders (these were packaged as Knight Red Hots).
All bullet sabot combos were too loose. The blue sabot 180 Expanders practicly slid down the bore like snot. Replacing the blue sabot with a MMP sabot helped, but it was still too loose.
The best fit came from the 195gr Expander with the brown "Red Hot" sabot. Still too loose, but at least it felt like it was engaging the rifleing.
The velocity is there. Now I just need to find the sweet spot.
100gr of BH209 with 180 gr Expander and MMP sabot
1. 2286 fps
2 2233 fps
3. 2292 fps.
1.5 inch group at 100 yards.
100gr BH 209 195 gr Expander "Red Hot" sabot.
1. 2263 fps
2. 2210
3. 2213
2.20 inch group at 100 yards
180 gr Expander with MMP sabot and [/b]150 gr BH209
1. 2718 fps
2. 2785
3. 2738 fps
Accuracy went even further south. This group measured just south of 5 inches.
Again, all loads fealt too loose. I need a tighter fitting sabot. I'm going to have to do some looking at the wonder wads.
Recoil from the 150gr load was surprisinglye mild. I'd compare it to a stout load out of my .30-06. Like a 200gr .30-06 load. Not for the weekend warrior, but very shootable. And at 2700+ fps.... That's a little scary. I was flat out shocked by the velocity. I shot one of my .22s over the chrony just to make sure it wasn't hay wire, sure enough 1149 fps....
My fear is that I will never find a sabot to stand up to a 150gr charge. So be it. I'd be happy with 2500fps.
Why the "poor" accuracy with a 100 gr charge? I was shooting as fast as I could. Had to get back into the house before the "boss" gave me hell.
My experience with smokeless and the 10MLII has taught me the iomportance of bbl cooling. I didn't allow for that here. It looks like that is going to be paramount with this powder.
Forgot to mention. 16 shots fired. NO swabbing. Every round loaded like the first. Fouling seemed very compirable to a CF.
"Smoke" was surprisinly pronounced. Not as much as produced by T7 or Pyrodex, but still a fair amount. Enough that my sight picture was completely closed.
So what have I learned and where do I go from here.
I need a tighter fitting sabot for the .45 Can someone recommend a wonder wad to help with this? I'm runing out of sabots.
Velocity from this stuff is remarkable. Keep in mind, you're essentially using a "drop tube" when measuring this stuff out of a flask. I will likely abandon the 150gr charge and start looking at a 130gr charge.
Good news: the Disc Elites with the breach plug conversion ignite it every time. Clean up was a snap. I tore the rifle down and was amazed at how littl fowling accumulated. I littleraly turned the BP out with two fingers. Very little effort.
It appears to be as finicky as smokeless loads out of the MLII. For tiny groups, prolonged bbl cooling seems to be in order.
Again, my experience is VERY limited.
I'm going to shoot it out of my 50 cal tomorrow. This rifle is a proven sub MOA shooter with T7. VERY interested to see what the resulst are.
I'm also going to shoot it tomorrow out of the .45 at a much sloweer pace. Going to mix it in with patterning my brother's new turkey gun. I'm also going to cut out some "swatches" from a magazine and place them between the bullet and the sabot. Not ideal, but I have got to tighten these up until I can find the correct wonder wad.
Initial impression: potential, potential, potentional.
Initial impression: tweaking, sabot, bbl cooling
I just had a hunch you guys would like a little feed back.
I normally shoot at a beautiful range two miles from our house. It closes at 5:00. That's the same time the store that my wife works at closes. She got home at 5:30 and by 5:45 I had a couple saw horses set up in the back yard with a 3/4 sheet of plywood and a lawn chair behind it.
Conditions were FAR less than optimal. NE wind at 10-12 mph. Evil eye from the wife for walking out the door when she walked in and a setting sun in my face....
So here's the skinny.
Rifle: Knight Disc Elite .45 cal with non plastic jacket breach plug conversion.
3-9X40 Pentax White Tails Unlimited scope.
CCI 209M primer.
I had two bullets and three sabots on hand. The bullets were Barnes 180 gr Expanders and Barnes 195 gr Expanders. The sabots were some MMPs that I baught seperately and the blue sabots that came wiht the 180gr Barnes (I think these might be a Harvester sabot), and the tan sabots that came with the 195 gr Expanders (these were packaged as Knight Red Hots).
All bullet sabot combos were too loose. The blue sabot 180 Expanders practicly slid down the bore like snot. Replacing the blue sabot with a MMP sabot helped, but it was still too loose.
The best fit came from the 195gr Expander with the brown "Red Hot" sabot. Still too loose, but at least it felt like it was engaging the rifleing.
The velocity is there. Now I just need to find the sweet spot.
100gr of BH209 with 180 gr Expander and MMP sabot
1. 2286 fps
2 2233 fps
3. 2292 fps.
1.5 inch group at 100 yards.
100gr BH 209 195 gr Expander "Red Hot" sabot.
1. 2263 fps
2. 2210
3. 2213
2.20 inch group at 100 yards
180 gr Expander with MMP sabot and [/b]150 gr BH209
1. 2718 fps
2. 2785
3. 2738 fps
Accuracy went even further south. This group measured just south of 5 inches.
Again, all loads fealt too loose. I need a tighter fitting sabot. I'm going to have to do some looking at the wonder wads.
Recoil from the 150gr load was surprisinglye mild. I'd compare it to a stout load out of my .30-06. Like a 200gr .30-06 load. Not for the weekend warrior, but very shootable. And at 2700+ fps.... That's a little scary. I was flat out shocked by the velocity. I shot one of my .22s over the chrony just to make sure it wasn't hay wire, sure enough 1149 fps....
My fear is that I will never find a sabot to stand up to a 150gr charge. So be it. I'd be happy with 2500fps.
Why the "poor" accuracy with a 100 gr charge? I was shooting as fast as I could. Had to get back into the house before the "boss" gave me hell.
My experience with smokeless and the 10MLII has taught me the iomportance of bbl cooling. I didn't allow for that here. It looks like that is going to be paramount with this powder.
Forgot to mention. 16 shots fired. NO swabbing. Every round loaded like the first. Fouling seemed very compirable to a CF.
"Smoke" was surprisinly pronounced. Not as much as produced by T7 or Pyrodex, but still a fair amount. Enough that my sight picture was completely closed.
So what have I learned and where do I go from here.
I need a tighter fitting sabot for the .45 Can someone recommend a wonder wad to help with this? I'm runing out of sabots.
Velocity from this stuff is remarkable. Keep in mind, you're essentially using a "drop tube" when measuring this stuff out of a flask. I will likely abandon the 150gr charge and start looking at a 130gr charge.
Good news: the Disc Elites with the breach plug conversion ignite it every time. Clean up was a snap. I tore the rifle down and was amazed at how littl fowling accumulated. I littleraly turned the BP out with two fingers. Very little effort.
It appears to be as finicky as smokeless loads out of the MLII. For tiny groups, prolonged bbl cooling seems to be in order.
Again, my experience is VERY limited.
I'm going to shoot it out of my 50 cal tomorrow. This rifle is a proven sub MOA shooter with T7. VERY interested to see what the resulst are.
I'm also going to shoot it tomorrow out of the .45 at a much sloweer pace. Going to mix it in with patterning my brother's new turkey gun. I'm also going to cut out some "swatches" from a magazine and place them between the bullet and the sabot. Not ideal, but I have got to tighten these up until I can find the correct wonder wad.
Initial impression: potential, potential, potentional.
Initial impression: tweaking, sabot, bbl cooling
