Range Day, Fun Day

[HTR2133]

I finally made it to the range today with my ML after weeks of research and hunting down and ordering new supplies. I changed to loose T7 Powder from pellets and to XTPs .44- 240 grain bullets in a harvester sabot. Container of Pre-saturated windex patches, another of pre-saturated muzzle magic patches and pre-measured, labeled charge tubes and some organization made for a truly fun day! My goal was to get better performance for lower cost and I believe I achieved that today. Thanks to the members of this forum wealth of info given and shared!

I was impressed with my little budget 2004 CVA Optima Magnum. The gun will definitely shoot better than I can. I shoot the ML better than my centerfire 30-30 lever action in fact!

• I started with 65 grain by volume under the above bullet at 50 yards. The group was incredibly tight with 2/3 overlapping. POI was dead center just a few inches low with my scope set for former loads (T7 Pellets 100 grains and TC CheapShots).
• I went up to 70 grain by volume and the group was equally tight, POI raised about 1/2 inch at 50. Could tell to really see anything I needed to stretch out to 100. So my last shot of 3 w 70 I shot a 100 yard target. POI was still center just about several inches lower. I adjusted scope to raise POI.
• I went up to 75 grains and while I can't say my group was really any better than my others at 100 yards, this is the load that just "felt" right. Can't really explain it. I think the load with this bullet will do everything I need it to do and I don't imagine I will ever shoot a deer further than 100 yards anyways. I made a final scope adjustment and my final shots with this charge were almost perfect. The gun shot Powerbelts well, but this combo was noticeably better for me.
• Since I had the time and the stuff already prepped and more importantly since my cost per shot is resembling affordable now, I figured what the heck let's try the 80 grain charges too. These did impact higher at 100 but grouped equally well. My final shot w/80 grain charge I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't run a windex and dry patch between shots. That was my worst shot of the day and loading was a real pita!
• The loose T7 is soooo much cleaner. The windex patches were getting my bore amazingly clean with ease. 1 windex patch ran both sides, followed by a dry patch. No crud ring, which I battled with the pellets. Breech Plug stayed much cleaner as well. This also made shooting/cleaning much more enjoyable.
• Plastic fouling was a complete non-issue, which surprised me
• These sabots are darn tight in my gun! Especially with a clean barrel which is counterintuitive. I noticed after I would run a solvent patches (after 6 shots) the next loading was the toughest. I guess a fouled barrel provides some lube of sorts? Or maybe it is the windex patch; not sure.

Super fun to shoot this much with my ML and experiment and learn a bit! I'm hooked and I want a sidelock too!

Thanks again for a great forum and all the help!