50-70 Thoughts

[Mike]

Well, I now have an elevation setting for 200 yards. My shooting wasn't very good because my eyes are troubling me but I at least never missed the target. So, all is still positive. My 26" barreled .50/70 has a mid-range sight with the older scale on the ladder. That scale goes from 0 to 4.0 while the newer sights have scales that go from 0 to 2.0 in the same length. Anyway, on this old scale I raised the rear sight from 0.88 for 100 yards to 1.10 for 200 yards. Now I need to reload those cases, use some better shooting glasses, and try it all again. Shoot sharp, Mike

[J.B.]

Good to hear Mike. These are only 'ballpark' figures but given my long range MVA post, I had the setting of 36 pts for 200.. 67 for 400 and 98 pts for 600 yds. This may at least give some idea of 'come ups' for the given ranges. I've marked down 141 pts for my 800 yd setting but from memory this was fairly erratic. With the bullet I was using and given the shorter sight radius, one & two min adjustments in elevation were taking me over the plate or dropping at its feet. I was pretty impressed to be getting out there but one moa means a lot at that range with the ' Small fifty' and 450 grn bullets. At least thats how it panned out for me.
Interesting to follow your trials.

rgds.. Gavin.

[Caprock]

Read where they buried Hickoks big fifty with him. Years later when they dug him up and moved him it turned out the Big Fifty was a 50-70 so the term had differing definitions depending on the source.

[Mike]

I'll have to read more about Hickok. And, yes, the "big .50" was a description of the bore size and not the case length quite often. Shoot sharp, Mike

[Mike]

More shooting was done with the 26" barreled .50/70 by C. Sharps Arms. For a bit I was having trouble with my windage settings. That trouble was all me, mostly from over-adjusting, going too far. Last week I finished a target and needed one more (I hoped) adjustment, which I made but did not check with more shots fired. So, today I set out a target and fired just five shots. The results I do like! This was at 100 yards, five shots using the 450 grain bullet from a Lee mold over the Walters' wad and 65 grains by volume of Olde Eynsford 2F. Now I must hope that my windage won't change when shooting is done at 200 yards. Shoot sharp, Mike

[Don McDowell]

Looking pretty good.