Tried some Olde Eynsford

[TedH]

I been lurking here a while, and been getting some pointers for a BPCR newbie from Don for a few months. I have a Pedersoli Sharps Sporting Rifle, and been trying to come up with a good BP load. I started off with Grafs (Schutzen) 2F in my 45-70 with the Saeco 480 bullet. After much experimenting I settled on a so-so load and used it in my first Silhouette match last month. With 70 gr of powder, a .030 wad, and the 480 gr bullet cast from wheelweights, I was getting 1138 fps, 15 feet from the muzzle, and a 5 shot group of 2.5" @ 100 yards on a good day.
Don suggested I try some Olde Eynsford, so I picked up a couple pounds the other day. I loaded 70 gr. through my drop tube, and compressed it another .275" to get to my normal seating depth. Tried them out today, and boy oh boy, this stuff looks promising. My velocity jumped to 1320 fps, with a spread of only 19 fps for 6 shots. My first shot from the clean bore I didn't count in the group, but the next 5 had three holes touching and the other two were also touching but about an inch away from the others. Total group size was slightly less than 2". I also found that the cases were MUCH cleaner, and after 12 rounds just using a blow tube the bore cleaned up with one wet patch and one dry patch. Going to try some more this weekend, and play with the charge and compression a little, but so far I think this is going to be pretty good stuff.