Getting Back into It

[Flash Pan Dan]

Howdy All,

I want to get back into shooting BPCR Silhouette. I have a Pedersoli Rolling Block and ’74 Sharps both in 40-65. The last time I shot BPCR Silhouette was in the early nineties and I didn’t do that for very long. But I thought a lot about getting back into it.

So I want to give it a try shooting PP bullets. So with that goal in mind I bought and read Randall Wright’s book. I got a selection of slicks from Buffalo Arms, got some different types of paper and proceeded to load and test some loads. Then I came across this forum and I was confused. You folks are talking about shooting a PPB game with which I am unfamiliar. I understand what you are doing I just don’t know how you are doing it. My best load so far is;

.402 400 grain bullet with 2 wraps of tracing paper giving me a bullet diameter of .4085
55 grains of 2Fg Schutzen compressed .290
Newspaper wad over WLR primer
Stretched and annealed Starline brass fire formed and unsized.
.030 veg wad
COL of 2.725 inches.
I am putting a slight taper crimp
This load gets me a 2 ¾ vertical and 1 ½ horizontal groups at 200 yards

I can not seat the bullet out any further than this or I start bumping into the rifling and I cannot use any other wads because of the COL limit. My question is do you patch to less than bore size? Or how are you able to seat the bullet out so far and get more powder in the cartridge. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also any recommended reading would also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dan

[bobw]

Dan when it comes to patching theory there is 2 ways: patching to groove dia(like your above load) or patching to bore dia. .400" or a little less.Your COL length of 2.725" tells me your chamber has some freebore in it, I don't believe that will be conductive to good results for patching to bore dia. You are getting excellent results now, I'd stay with it.Play with different primers and wads if you want to and different fouling control. You might even try FFG KIK or FFG Old Eynsford powders for more velocity. When you patch to bore dia you can seat out as far as you like because the whole ppb is in the bore, with a chamber that has a freebore that allows you to seat a patch to groove dia bullet like you have as far out as yours is will allow a patched to bore ppb to over obdurate in the freebored sec then make it engrave and swage back down as it enters the rifling. My line of thought is keep doing what you are with the same alloy as seems to be working. Depending on which Randy Wright book you have it may be out of date and Orville Loomers is the best I know of. USE the search function here and on the Shiloh sight reading all you can. Welcome bobw

[Kurt]

Welcome Dan.

First I don't know what PPB is.
Your getting 2 3/4" vertical with 1.5" wind @200 I would say that that is pretty respective.
Your groove diameter patched bullet will shoot good but you loose a lot of powder space unless you have a considerable amount of cylinder free bore that will let you seat the bullet farther out of the case.
Most including me shoot bullets patched from .002" under bore diameter to maybe .001-002" over bore diameter this will let you seat the bullet out to get more room in the case for your wad stack and powder.
I match loads are patched .001" to .002" over bore diameter for my chamber design I use.

Kurt

[Flash Pan Dan]

Thank you gentlemen for you advice and education. I am satisfied with the accuracy but I am concerned that I will be ringing a lot of rams with this load unless I hit the thing in the right spot in the rump. I will try a different powder or maybe some 3Fg to see if I can get more velocity.

[rdnck]

I don't think that you will ring rams with that load. A 385 grain 640 Saeco at 1102 fps will take them down. They go down slow, but they go down. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Flash Pan Dan]

Took it out to try the load at distance on the rams and you were right rdnck, the rams do fall slowly. I did have a problem with fouling. I had to wet patch twice followed by dry patching the chamber. But even doing that my accuracy dropped off a bit the more I shot. I was using a mixture of Ballistol, water, and Murphy’s oil soap to wipe between shots. The fouling was considerably worst in the last ten inches of the barrel. I attributed that to the fact that is barrel is choked. But still the fouling was pretty bad there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. By the way I did order Mr. Loomer’s book from Shiloh.

Thank you all for helping a fellow out.

[Ironramrod]

Dan, Re: the fouling you might try pushing a .40 cal nylon bristle brush down the barrel w/ your damp patch folded over it. If you can't find a rifle brush locally to try a pistol brush will suffice for a test drive. One pass w/ this combo followed by 1 dry patch should do the job for you. The nylon brushes seem to work a lot better than the phosphor bronze brushes for this job.

Regards

[Flash Pan Dan]

Thank you Ironramrod I’ll give that a try that. Currently I am in need of a source of paper. As I mentioned I am patching to groove diameter and have been using tracing paper. But I have found out that the tracing paper I am using may not be the type I should use. It measures .0016 but the label does not tell what it is made of and when I tried to wet patch with it I found it did not take the water very well. I understand this is not a good characteristic for this paper to have in this use. Can someone suggest a paper type I can use in approximate the same thickness as noted above?

[Ironramrod]

Try here for paper, www.thepapermillstore.com They have a good variety, and they will send you some sample sheets to examine. I use the 9# 25% cotton paper. Also, some shooters are using Seth Cole 7# and 8# paper w/ good success. Paper for patching can often be where one finds it.
Regards

[Kurt]

That paper mill paper will run about .002-.0022" thick. He is already at .4085" using .0016 paper.
Dan, use your paper and wrap your bullets dry and go out and shoot