some paper patch experimenting

[Gunlaker]

A while ago I bought a new lot of OE 1.5 and I had a hard time getting it to shoot well in most of my rifles. My C. Sharps 1874 with Dan T's PP chamber seemed to work reasonably well with it. Nothing amazing, but decent accuracy out to the ram line.

Yesterday I decided to try a few experiments and compared the load I'd recently shot at the rams with a couple of others. For whatever reason I decided to use some old Winchester brass that I used years ago in this rifle, instead of the Starline stuff I usually use. The WW brass holds a few grains more, so my usual powder charge required almost no compression, compared to the 0.1" or so that I normally use.

I shot these rounds for prone practice on the 600 yard target reduced for 200 yards, but shot at 219 yards, so the x-ring is less than a minute of angle. The first shot was a couple of minutes lower than the load with Starline brass so I came up 2 minutes and shot the remaining 9 rounds to see what kind of score I could get.

The first 5 shots went into the x-ring which really surprised me. Then I got to thinking maybe I could get the other 4 into the x-ring. Well you know how that story ends :-). I jerked that one high into the 9 ring, but followed it up with 2 more x's. The last shot was rushed as they called for a cease fire and I also put that into the 9 ring but low.

In the end I ended up with 7 x's with a group size of 1-3/8" at 219 yards which is better than this rifle has ever shot at that distance. The two 9's were definitely my fault, so I'm going to have to spend some more time with that Winchester brass and see if it was a fluke. The only real difference I can see is that there was nearly no compression.

I'll be pretty happy if it works out!

Chris.

[Hiwall55]

Chris, I got one of those cases of powder too, try the starline, but 3 grains less and see how it does.

[Gunlaker]

Chris, I got one of those cases of powder too, try the starline, but 3 grains less and see how it does.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing.

Chris.

[Kurt]

Chris that is some fine tight holding for sure!!
I'm expecting a case of 1.5 OE today when Fed X gets here.
I use it for the .45-100 and the .44-90bn. It shoots well loaded with light compression. Treat it like Swiss.

[Gunlaker]

I haven't used the stuff a lot in my PP rifles. In my grease groove shooters I've had good results with lots of compression, but have with Swiss too...

One of the better OE 1.5 loads in my .45-90 PP rifle was with my first case of OE 1.5 and using Kenny's wad stack, the one he uses in his .45-110. It shot some really nice groups. Interestingly, when I brought it to Phoenix several years ago, at 1000 yd practice it shot with the exact same sight settings as my Swiss load with just a single LDPE wad.

If this new load works out to be consistent it'll almost be sad as I only have a few cans of that new lot of OE 1.5 left :-)

Chris.