Shot the Big Gun

[Don McDowell]

Took advantage of the break in the weather to work with the 16 lb barreled Shiloh 45 2 7/8.

Tried it at 1000 yds the other day but couldn't get on target, so today we moved up to 600 and went to work. Took a few rounds to get it on target but once we got it there it all turned to smiles. Was alternating between 108 grains of OE 1f in Norma cases and 105 grains in JBA. Both cases used the Napa rubber cork wad, muzzleloader original dry lubed felt wad, and the BACO 446 535 money bullet cast from 16-1 and wet wrapped Seth Cole 55w, 7/8 inch wide patch, seated .25 into the case.
Not spectacular, but sure something to give some confidence. Really happy with the vertical on this , the left right stuff was from trying to chase the wind a bit.Wind around 5 mph, and switching back and forth from left to right and tail wind to head wind.. Now need to get a bunch of cases prepped, looks like this rifle is going to be busy this season.

[Snocat]

Looks warm there hopefully its heading our way ! long range shooting sure looks fun. You have alot going on with that load! And I thought there was a lot of steps in a Greaser load for 500 meters. Lol That target is the Boss ! It would have saved me a bunch of ammo the other day . Next time your at Napa pick up some big bore tire plugs for the hay rake. Lol Glad you got out for some trigger time ! Snocat

[Don McDowell]

It was warm yesterday, and today is supposed to be pretty good, but it sort of goes to pot tomorrow and doesn't recoup much for the next 10 days. Weather guessers think there might be a bigger storm starting thursday than the one we had last week.
I used to have that target on top of that old Merril rake, the idea was it would be portable.. turns out the rims are shot, so no so much with the portableness.

[Gunlaker]

Nice rifle Don! Is it a 30" barrel or longer?

I have a bull barrel rifle on order that's basically the same rifle. It was going to be a 25 pounder like Kenny and Jimbo's guns but on my way to Worland I'm going to stop by Shiloh and change it to a 16 pounder.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Kamloops and will bring my 14 lb #3 in .45-110. I'll be shooting greasers at steel mostly, but I have brought along some PP loads with Kenny's wad stack, loaded with 100gr of Swiss F. I've had decent results with PP in this rifle, but better when using GG. BACO 458535M over 93gr of Swiss 1.5.

Chris.

[Gunlaker]

Don I just noticed that you are using a .446" bullet. That really surprises me. My 14 pounder has a really tight bore and a .444" bullet with 55W Seth Cole is all that can be pushed into the bore.

[Don McDowell]

Chris this rifle has the 7 degree leed in it.

[Kurt]

Don is that Ricks rifle?? if it is it should shoot pretty good from the pictures he posted using it.

Chris I think a 16 pounder would be a good choice over the 25 pounder. I sent Kirk a 1.3" round Krieger blank .44 barrel and a .44-100 straight reamer to chamber it and told him to keep it as long as possible and it turned out a nice 35" round no taper rough rider that is just a shade over 17 pounds and that is almost more then I want to drag around and in the gun cart it tips over backwards if I don't have a couple 100 round boxes of ammo in front LOL.
I shot it at the Q one year and shooting the offhand bucket I could hold it steady for 4 or 5 seconds before having to let it down but it shot well enough that it put me in 13th place.
But the heavy rifles sure eat the recoil to make them a pleasant rifle shooting the large capacity rounds.

[Don McDowell]

I think the rifle is shooting just fine. If you transposed that target onto a 600 yd target, I'm pretty sure it would score in the 80's, one fella told me he thought it would go 90's, I don't think it's that good , but as there are two distinct tight groups, with some double up hits in both, there are two fliers I called that were due to the trigger tanker, I'm not figuring on changing anything in the load. Just need to spend a bit more trigger time with the rifle.
The thing that is surprising to me is how far a minute of change on the sights will go. I thought the 40-90 with its blistering speed was a touchy bugger till I got snuggled in behind this thing.

[Gunner500]

Don, nice looking set up and rifle, I've never shot matches of any kind, only worked up loads here and went hunting.

I bought a rifle last week, it can with a rangebox/cradle? and wooden ammunition blocks, as well as a big 40 round shell belt, I can see the need for patches, wiping stick etc.

Thinking about rigging out my own range box for here at the farm, I have to ask, what's the rubber mallet used for?

Thanks.

[monkeyboy]

Don, nice looking set up and rifle, I've never shot matches of any kind, only worked up loads here and went hunting.

I bought a rifle last week, it can with a rangebox/cradle? and wooden ammunition blocks, as well as a big 40 round shell belt, I can see the need for patches, wiping stick etc.

Thinking about rigging out my own range box for here at the farm, I have to ask, what's the rubber mallet used for?

Thanks.

There are some places where a 5lb mallet is barely enough to get your cross sticks in the ground!