Saturday With The Sinful Sidelock

[Semisane]

I spent a pleasant day Saturday with the Renegade.

I have three barrels for this gun. The original TC .50 caliber, plus a .45 caliber Green Mountain Long Range
Hunter (1:30 twist), and a .54 caliber GM round ball barrel (1:70 twist).

I've already confessed to the sin of putting scopes on the two GM barrels so I don't want any guff about that. :lol:

I mounted the .45 GM LRH barrel and grabbed a box of 200 grain .40 XTP's, some Harvester sabots, a pound of
GOEX FFFg, and headed for the shooting bench.

I ended up shooting seven 5-shot targets with various loads, and one target with my .22 Hornet (for reasons I'll explain later).

I swabbed the bore between every shot with both sides of three alcohol patches and two sides of one dry patch. It was
a lot of swabbing, but every shot was on a clean dry bore - just like when I'm hunting.

I started off at 50 yards with 70 grains of powder. Here's the target.

DANG I'm good. Well, I thought so at the time anyway.

Bumped the charge up to 80 grains and shot another target.

Still not bad. That flyer might have been mine (maybe I'm not as good as I thought).

OK, try ten more grains of powder. Here's the 90 grain target.

Well, it looks like it's starting to open up with the higher charge.

Let's try this - go back to 80 grains and use a Crush Rib sabot instead of the smooth high pressure sabot. Here's the target.

Nope! That didn't improve anything.

That first 70 grain group was real nice. Lets try 70 grains again, but at 75 yards.

Hoo Weeeee! Guys, when I took that fifth shot I kept telling myself "don't blow this, don't blow this". So, of course, I blew it.

Well you just know I had to try that same load at 100 yards. Here's the target.

WHAT!!! How can a load shoot a near one hole group at 75 yards and open up like that at 100? Maybe it was my fault. Let's try again.

Well it gets worser and worser.

At this point I was wondering if shooter's fatigue had set in and was screwing with my 100 yard shooting. So I broke out
the trusted .22 Hornet with a "known to be accurate" load and shot five at 100.

Looking pretty good. So it seems the poor 100 yard groups with the Renegade may not have been MY fault. :wink:

Time to clean the guns and pour some Scotch. A most pleasant day indeed!

 

[k]

great post semi-groups like that show to sightin at the longest distance one plans to shoot at game......karl

 

[cayuga]

Nice shooting. Some of them groups are very good. And I see nothing wrong with a scope on a traditional rifle. You made me realize that I have one of them barrels in stainless steel. I will have to get it out and shoot it some more.

 

[bernieg]

Now i see how you get groups like that!! Scopes, gun rest, an whatever. Here i thought i wasen't shooting good at 50 yds. 3 inch groups offhand with a old kit gun i bought for 50 bucks!

 

[Semisane]

Shucks bernieg, I can shoot three-inch off hand / iron sight groups too. Of course, the target has to be at fifteen yards. :lol: Never was much of an off hand shooter. Fun to play around with, but when it comes to game, I want to find a rest. That's why God made trees.

My 65 year old bi-focal eyes stink with open sights, though I can do fairly well with a peep. Hit me with a zinger if you want, but I'm done apologizing for scoping some of my sidelocks. :wink:

 

[TJJ]

Great report semi, them eyes ain't gettin no younger. I've scoped all my shootin irons too, it's that or a real chance of a missed or poorly placed shot. Nice pics.

 

[Bucker]

sinful

Hell I'd take you in my campo anytime Semi! I got 53 year old eyes and i can't shoot that good, I need ya' to back me up :lol:

 

[bernieg]

Sorry guys i didnt want to rile you up. My tri focals is the only glass i have. I do have some patience at 72 to work it out.

 

[big6x6]

That's a nice looking rig! Shoots good too!

 

[Huntin_Dawg1215]

I thought I was the onlyone that had acope on my sidelock. Thats a great looking rifle, good looking shooting. I've hadmine scoped since 1999, would not have it any other way for hunting, better shooting and another thing that most people do'nt realize is it is safe, better target I.D. IMO

 

[Semisane]

I thought I was the only one that had a scope on my sidelock.

Hey Huntin Dawg, doesn't it feel good to be out of the closet. Sure, people will still talk about you, but you get to a point where it doesn't hurt so much anymore. :lol:

 

[Semisane]

Sorry guys i didn't want to rile you up.

Shucks bernieg, ain't nobody riled. I'm just looking forward to adding seven more years (is that when they give you the patience?). :wink: Maybe if I trade in my bifocals for trifocals I'd do better with iron sights.

 

[Huntin_Dawg1215]

Semisane, it don't matter what people say about me, I have fun anyway and that is all that counts, the rest is just a game.

The only things that really matter is God , Family, Baseball and Hunting, everything else is a game.

 

[rks1949]

Semisane,I've still not put a scope on my Grey Hawk,and my groups show it! :lol: I did install a set of fiber optic sights,and that helped a bunch. I use the GH for tree stand hunting,and try to keep my shots at 50yds. and under. The sights do really help in low light (60yr. old eyes,and bifocals). I can't shoot tight groups with the gun past 50yds,but it's MOD ( Minute of Deer) accurate at that range! Ron

 

[excess650]

My Grey Hawk is 50cal and 1-48" twist. For some reason or other it doesn't seem to like PRB or conicals, but shoots sabots pretty well. Typical 3 shot groups at 50 yards are 1" with iron sights(peep rear), TC sabots with 240gr XTPs over 75gr or 90gr Swiss ffg. It shot TC 250gr Shockwaves just as well.

Swiss ffg is likey to produce higher velocity than Goex fffg, but costs more.

 

[rks1949]

My Grey Hawk, (54cal, 1-48 twist) seems to like the Lee Real Bullets that I cast! Infact I can shoot it without wiping the bore between shots. Ron