Wisconsin Rapids mid-range match with my .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

Chris,

Thanks, it's good to know you're following along on my .44-77 journey and hopefully get something out of my efforts.

I am hoping that adding a second felt up front adds enough to the wet surface area that it pushes all the fouling out the barrel. The fouling that was left behind wasn't dry and hard, in fact it pushed out very easy with a slightly damp patch, but it was there and that bothers me.

If the second felt isn't the answer I make some new washers that a little bit bigger in diameter.

I'm really puzzled as to why it was left behind. If anything my .44 bore wipers fit tighter than my .45s and those have worked great. The brushes are .45, the felts are .45, the only thing different is the rubber washers are smaller to allow for the smaller bore. Are they too small? I don't think so. Maybe two washers back to back would work better.

There has to be a way to do this in one pass! And I'll find it. I do watch my bore pretty close while I'm shooting. I watch the wiper and patch as they fall from the muzzle. If anything seem out of order I visually look at the bore and if there is any doubt I'll wipe again. I usually have wet patches standing by just in case I feel a need to run one through and of course dry patches are always present. For whatever reason I didn't have my wet patches on hand at Rapids. All I had that was within reach was some partially dry out (damp) patches leftover from 300 yards that morning. I had just use two wet and a dry at 300 and planned to use the wipes at 600. The 2 plus 1 really worked well, but it takes a lot of time and requires more effort from the shooter which does wear on me eventually.

This was my first paper match in a year! I wasn't well prepared for the gong match, I was little better prepared for last Saturday's match. I will be much better prepared for Lodi (I hope!).

That last shot that came up a 7 @ 6 I'm pretty sure was my only 7 for the match. I think I just was careless and didn't have the rifle pulled into my shoulder the same as the other shots. It isn't much more than 6 inches from the bottom of the 10 ring to the top of the 7 ring! I find the 600 yard target harder to shoot than the 800 yard target. The only target I know of that is worse than the 600 is the 500 yard, it has very skinny rings.

At most of these paper matches, mid-range and long-range, you pretty much have to shoot better than 90% to win and every point matters! It will often come down to one shot. Mark and Matt both made mistakes that I sure they would like to have to do over, they both shot well and they made a little less errors than I did. I enjoy seeing others shoot well and I enjoy seeing new names at the top. Again, congratulations to Mark and Matt! They both shot very well. Matt did it with an Arnie Seitz 2-D EPP! Mark did it with some old greaser bullet I'm pretty sure!

[beltfed]

WHO KNOWS:
May be that Mark Sch is "leaning slightly" in the direction of Paper Patch,
even DDEPP s. He now has a 371345E for his 38-50..
Arnie

[Distant Thunder]

Well, I have tried my best to influence those around me to follow the righteous path of paper patching and give up the dirty habit of greasing their bullets, but I'm only one man. I do appreciate the help of others who are devoted to the ONE true way that is paper patching.

I am still playing around with this Sharps set trigger thing and I thought I had it pretty good. I put my RCBS scale on it, which is probably not the most accurate, and it wouldn't break at less than 5 pound. Not quite what I want in a target rifle. So I turned on the screw some more.

Now I understand that the adjustment screw on a Sharps is NOT supposed to control the weight, but only controls the sear engagement, but less engagement would be good.

So now I've got it so the trigger is breaking at 3 1/2 lbs. now and the should be plenty light for my old fingers. If I turn the screw any more the rear trigger will not set.

I don't like set triggers! I much prefer a well adjusted single trigger. It is what it is. I hope to shoot tomorrow and test the improvements I made to my bore critters and my trigger.

[tarbe]

Thanks for the discussions, gents.

Newbs like me lap this stuff up like little puppies.

BTW, Wisconsin native here. Even did a highpower silhouette match at Lodi in the early 80s when in school at UW Eau Claire.

This thread is making me homesick!

[Distant Thunder]

tarbe,

It's good to know you're onboard! Welcome to the great sport of BPCR!

Whereabouts in Wisconsin do you call home?

I've been here in Wisconsin and the UP for the majority of my life and it is definitely in my blood. I've been active in BPCR competition for 25 years and over those years Wisconsin has offer some very enjoyable, friendly, fun matches. Unfortunately I'm tucked way up here in the NE corner and I am a long way from everything and with no like minded shooters active in my area. So I travel solo to all the matches I can. Sadly we have lost some of those matches as the guys doing the work get older and the effort to put on a match stays high.

Most of the ranges near me are from 100 to maybe 150 yards because most of my fellow tree dwellers think that IS long range. Getting older myself makes me tend to avoid long drives on my own, but I have to make a bit more of an effort to support the matches we have still being held anywhere near me. I would encourage others to do the same when they can.

One of the reason I finally decided to have this .44-77 barrel put on my Sharps was to give me an excuse and hopefully some much needed encouragement to travel to a few more shoots. But, then came the darn China Virous just when things didn't need to be more difficult.

Now we have rioting gangs in the southern part of the state and I'm thinking our weak governor will do absolutely nothing effective to bring things under control. There is a powder keg here and all it will take is one spark. Left unchecked this does NOT end well for any of us.

Sorry, I'm not sure exactly how I ended up on this soapbox! I'll climb down now. Carry on!

[Distant Thunder]

As I said earlier my homemade bore wipers did not remove all of the fouling during the Rapids match. They tended to leave a sizeable amount of fouling in the first 3 inches of the bore. This fouling was wetted and soft but just didn't get pushed out the barrel. I really don't understand why that was. I could get rid of the residual fouling by using a slightly damp patch on the jag as I push the wiper through the bore instead of a dry patch I normally use.

I'd go with the damp patch except the amount of dampness could be hard to control. Wet is wet, a patch can only hold so much liquid, but damp is a grey area that may be hard to keep consistent. Too damp would leave excess moister in the bore, not damp enough may not push the fouling out. What I need is a wiper that pushes all the fouling out of the bore every time without having to go with wetter or dryer depending on conditions.

So I have revised my wipers to have two felts on the front. I plan to test these this week and see if they work better.

   

I had to remove more of the brush to make room for the second felt, but I have that down to a science now. The above picture show two .44 caliber wipers as they are now.

[Don McDowell]

Using the bore wiper system from BACO, with two felts wet in a 7-1 napa oil and water solution, with a 2 inch dry patch pushing the wipers, fouling has not been a problem.

[Kurt]

Jim,
I think your problem with the wipes is the bottleneck of the .44-77 that acts like a squeegee when it enters into the throat it's not like a straight wall chamber, especially if the felt is a little over sized it looses most of the moisture.

[Distant Thunder]

I'll get there, Don, I'm just a little behind you on this!

A single felt has work well in my .45-70. I can't remember if I ever used felts with my in my .45-90. I know I started with just a wet patch on the brush and that work well too.

I have just a single felt on my .40-65 wipers and that has worked very well.

There seems to be something about the bottleneck that is different, not really surprised.

[beltfed]

So far, my bore critters are working well both in the 40-65 and in the 38-50
I have one felt at the tip and one felt on the shank, then rubber squeegeee washer, then
Delrin nut
Both felts get real black, so they are both working to remove the fouling
The follow up patch seems to be just barely picking up anything more.
I think maybe the rear felt has a better chance of removing what the front one leaves
behind, because the nylon bristles in the middle scrape more crud loose
beltfed/arnie