What do we really know about the transonic zone?

[Distant Thunder]

Arnie and Don,

Everything you are saying about sticks and barrel resting is true 100% and I've been through it all with each of my other rifles and I'll have to struggle through it all with this rifle too!

Going through all the different variable just with one's cross sticks can take time and the past to seasons have been generous with time. There are a half a dozen things I need to sort out with this rifle yet and I have only been shooting it for a year now, it could be a while before I sort it out, but sort it I will.

In my notes, which fill volumes, I keep a pretty good track of what has worked and what has not with each rifle. Those thoughts fill my mind in the days that follow a match, weeks sometimes, as I sort out what I've learned at the last match. I think that is what I enjoy most about shooting in matches, second only to the time spent with friend razzing each other and occasionally engaging in a serious discussion of all things BPCR. At a match you put everything you think you know on the line, literarily, every time.

I hope JKR appreciates having a rifle that has preformed very well without causing him too much head scratching! He is a good student and a fast learner, to his credit. My .45-90 Shiloh was that way, all the others have required some level of determination to get there. It's all part of the game and I enjoy the challenge and the process. This .44-77 has been interesting and fun.

My goal has always been to do better than the last time at each match I go too. That usually ends up being 3 steps forward and 1 or 2 back. While my scores alone this year may not show my forward progress I have actually made a good deal of it in the positive.

In my experience it can take 1 to 3 years to ring out a rifle to where I feel I'm able to use it to the highest level in matches that it is capable of. And so begins year two with my .44-77. The thing that puzzles me the most is that from early on this rifle has shown that it is capable of really fine accuracy and part of that is that it responds to sight correction, even a 1/4 minute correction, very well and consistently. However, when I get out to 500 or 600 yards I haven't always had the same result. One relay at 800 with the winds we had that day isn't enough to show anything for sure.

Saturday at 600 my 2-D elliptical had 18" of vertical, but even that disappointing result was consistent with what I have seen with this bullet and THAT lot of Swiss 1 1/2. The other bullet I shot at 600 at least came close many times. It's a bit hard to make to much of an assessment of a load based on 6 shots with the switchy winds we had Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing the scores and that will tell me a little more about my performance.

At Rapids Arnie sets up mostly round gongs in a progressively small arrangement. You try to get centered up good on the first in a series, the biggest one. As you move to the next one, which is smaller and likely shot up some, you again have to work on centering it up good because your eye will not see it exactly the same as the pervious gong if only because of the difference in size not to mention all the other changes it presents being an entirely different target, in a different location and so on. By the time you get to the last gong in that group you're basically dealing with just a 10-ring size target or maybe even a bit smaller. It becomes pretty easy to leak one off the edge if everything else is going well. If you're having any problems with your load or fouling or your STICKS you may be lucky to leak one on to the gong! Changing loads in the middle of a string is never a good idea!

I think for load development you are by far better off shooting the entire string at the same target whether steel or paper. It's also probably better if other people aren't putting holes/hits on the same target at the same time! It is only a game and it is fun, but it ain't necessarily easy!