New bullet

[Don McDowell]

Thing is tho the difference is, you can keep all the shots in the black of a 600 yard target and still loose by a bunch of points, but in a steel match you can keep 10 shots on a 36 inch gong at 600 and probably win.. The accuracy requirements are quite a bit different.

[Distant Thunder]

While the competition is just as intense with both steel and paper matches there is no way you can logically argue that paper does not require a higher level of accuracy to win consistently. There is a difference between hits anywhere on a steel target all counting the same and putting more of your shots in the 10 and X rings than any of the other shooters on a paper target.

I don't mean to take anything away from the steel bangers, I enjoy both types of matches, but I do believe I get a better picture of how well my bullet/load is preforming when shooting at paper targets.

Tomorrow I will be bangin' steel with my .44-77 and I'll have a big grin on my face!

[Don McDowell]

Steel is fun to be sure. But if you skip one in to a steel target it counts the same as one that's a "pinwheel" Skip one into the x ring, and it's a miss...

Have fun tomorrow with that 44.

[Don McDowell]

600 yard fishtailing winds from 7-9
82 grains OE 1 1/2

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

What are the dimensions of that target?

[Don McDowell]

Jim the whole target is 8x4. The white bull is 22 inches.
The wind while it wasn't bad was a bit of a fishtail tail wind coming from the left, Windage adjustment went for 5 left to 12 and back to around 6 left. Elevation went down 9 from the first shot.

[Distant Thunder]

That helps put the shots in perspective and tells me that looks pretty darn good!

[Don McDowell]

Jim it does look pretty decent, but I can't help but wonder if it can't be tweaked just a bit. But with that said if that was the only bullet I had, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to load up enough to go to a match .
I think I'll test drive the next batch at 82 grains with the RP 9 1/2 primer, to see if that will improve over what this BR2 is showing, and I think just for kicks and grins, drop another test lot to 81 grains.
This 77 is so far telling me it doesn't like quite as much powder as the other 2 45-90's

[Don McDowell]

Then take it to the next level and go to 900, and see what it says.

[Don McDowell]

Little load refinement seems to be working well with this new bullet at least at midrange distance
Hope to wring it out a little att 1000 and hopefully it hold up as well as it did in the match in Cheyenne yesterday