Posted By: bigbore442001
Did some shooting this afternoon....... - 08/22/2010 11:44 PM
Coming up on September 10th I will head north to the Great White Mountains of New Hampshire to sit over some bait for a black bear. I want to do something different so I am planning to use my muzzleloading barrel in 50 caliber( I had taken it to Florida this past February and shot two large wild boar ) with my Ruger SRH in .480 as a secondary arm.
I noticed that off a rest it is phenomenally accurate. I get nice tight groups so I know mechanically it is accurate. Now the big thing is when I shoot offhand, it all goes to Hades. I have not shot a heavy specialty pistol in a while during what you can call hunting practice and it sorely shows I need to do so.
This barrel started out as a G2 rifle barrel. I asked the gunsmith to cut it to 16 1/2 inches. I assumed it would have an overall length of that but he cut it from the breech plug face. So the actually overall length is closer to 19 inches. The first couple holds a rather long breech plug until you get past the front of the frame. In a way it is a blessing because the added length may burn up more powder thus gaining power.
I figure that the same load I used on the wild boar, two H777 fifty grain pellets with a 240 grain XTP sabot load would harvest a black bear humanely. I ran out of pellets so I switched to loose H777. I noticed that it has more volume in the bore as evident by the change in the mark on my ramrod. As I shot I had a few 300 grain TC Polytip sabot bullets. I shot them off and made a discovery. I know I should have a chronograph but I sort of destroyed mine. When you shoot sabots the plastic sabot falls to earth at a certain distance. I noticed that the black sabots used with the 240 grain XTP's had fallen about ten feet shorter than the red sabots used with the 300 grain polytip bullets.
I am wondering if the heavier sabot rounds are creating a more efficient combustion of the H777 powder? If so, should I go with that particular round?
Anyways. After work I am meeting Dad at the range. I know I need more practice and what a better way to destress from a day of work than to spend some time at the range preparing for a bear hunt.
I noticed that off a rest it is phenomenally accurate. I get nice tight groups so I know mechanically it is accurate. Now the big thing is when I shoot offhand, it all goes to Hades. I have not shot a heavy specialty pistol in a while during what you can call hunting practice and it sorely shows I need to do so.
This barrel started out as a G2 rifle barrel. I asked the gunsmith to cut it to 16 1/2 inches. I assumed it would have an overall length of that but he cut it from the breech plug face. So the actually overall length is closer to 19 inches. The first couple holds a rather long breech plug until you get past the front of the frame. In a way it is a blessing because the added length may burn up more powder thus gaining power.
I figure that the same load I used on the wild boar, two H777 fifty grain pellets with a 240 grain XTP sabot load would harvest a black bear humanely. I ran out of pellets so I switched to loose H777. I noticed that it has more volume in the bore as evident by the change in the mark on my ramrod. As I shot I had a few 300 grain TC Polytip sabot bullets. I shot them off and made a discovery. I know I should have a chronograph but I sort of destroyed mine. When you shoot sabots the plastic sabot falls to earth at a certain distance. I noticed that the black sabots used with the 240 grain XTP's had fallen about ten feet shorter than the red sabots used with the 300 grain polytip bullets.
I am wondering if the heavier sabot rounds are creating a more efficient combustion of the H777 powder? If so, should I go with that particular round?
Anyways. After work I am meeting Dad at the range. I know I need more practice and what a better way to destress from a day of work than to spend some time at the range preparing for a bear hunt.