45-70 and 2 FG KIK

[Eric Johanen]

Out yesterday at 200 benched with the Rough Rider 45-70. Load used: Winchester neck sized brass, Federal large pistol primer, notecard under primer wad punched when seating primer. Sagebrush/ PJ 535 grain money bullet (I bought a bunch of these to save time casting for practice use) They shoot well but not as good as my cast bullets. 70.0 grains of KIK 2 FG and a .060 vegi wad. Bullets seated with 2 grooves exposed and I need just a slight bit of thumb pressure to fully seat. Cleaned between shots with 1 damp and 1 dry patch. 3 shots to center up and 8 nice 10's and 1 6 O'clock X. Had a clean target going and managed to put my last shot in the 9 ring at 5 O'clock! Last 7 shots came up as 4 10's, 2 X's and again last shot a 9 at 12 O'clock! Some days you can not get a break!! One thing I have noticed is using the MVA apertures is the annulus rings are pretty thin for my ageing eye's. I find it much easier to use the thicker annulus rings on the Distant Thunder apertures mounted on my 45-90. I have to dig around the parts bins and see if I have some on hand that are wider for the MVA front globe sight. Light and wind changes and a good day for practice.