600 Yard .50 Cal Patched Roundball

[Idaholewis]

This is something i have wanted to try for a year now, I finally got a chance to Swing at it Yesterday Morning. It was a Perfect Morning for it, Dead Calm. My Setup, A TC Renegade Stock with a Lee Shaver Super Grade Long Range Soule Tang Sight, A Green Mountain .50 Cal Barrel 1:70 Twist, I have a Tall Lee Shaver Adjustable windage Front Globe sight mounted in this barrel, (I needed his Taller front sight to be able to get a 100 Yard Zero)
  The Load was 80 Grains by Weight of Swiss 2F Powder, .020 Denim Patches from Bulk material that i Cut from a Home Made Cutter i fabricated that fits in my Drill Press, Patches Lubed with my Rendered Bear Fat/Bees Wax/Lanolin Mixture. The Balls are my Home Cast .495s from a Lyman Mold, They are Weighed and Kept to the 1/10 of a Grain, The Sprues Removed in my Vibratory Tumbler with Powdered Graphite.

 Target is a Ranged 600 Yards, The Target is an MR-1, Official NRA 600 Yard Center, The Black Aiming Bull is 36” Diameter. That BIG Target gets Small again when it’s 600 Yards out there




Recovered 600 Yard Ball, This was Shot #1 that Went high, over top of the Target. It left the Barrel Weighing 184.1 Grains, and stil weighed that Exact 184.1 Grains When Recovered, The Little .495 Ball Was Out of Steam, I stil wouldn’t want Hit with it though 


Another Pic of the Recovered Ball Beside a Fresh New one from the Same Batch

[Idaholewis]

I was hoping to be able to Shoot a Group on Target, Then on to my Gong. But as you can see in the Video i got Ran off by Wind, What Started out as a Beautiful Calm Morning, Turned Breezy/Windy.

 I am looking forward to testing accuracy at this 600 Yard Range, I stil have everything loaded up to do so, I just need a Perfect Calm Morning, about 4:30-5:00am is my Best Times. I hope to get back to this in the next Few Days

 Working up the Load i chose, I first tried .018 Ticking But the Patches were Blown. In this Photo you can see my 3 Shot Group at 60 Yards, they are covered with Target pasters, This load was Discarded. I went to a Heavier Denim Patch, and Also used another Patch as an Over powder Wad, This load Shot EXCELLENT, The 3 Shot Group made 1 Large Hole, Same 60 Yards. Both loads were 80 Grains by Weight of Swiss 2F Powder





I have This Bore polished out well, Like a Fine Mirror

[Bigsmoke]

At 600 yards, I am impressed you were able to keep it in Bonner County.  Sorry you were forced off the range by wind, I'm thinking that target was in collusion with the wind, it didn't want to get punctured.  I recollect when I used to go back to Friendship, I always signed up for the first or second rotation.  After that one was fighting the wind quite a bit.
Sorry not to see you this month.  Was planning on heading up your way, but the CdA rendezvous was cancelled and the Moscow rendezvous was cancelled, and the Lacy, WA Jazz Festival was cancelled, and the Tall Trees rendezvous was cancelled, so we cancelled our trip.  Hopefully next year will be better.  See you sometime.

John (Bigsmoke)

[Idaholewis]

At 600 yards, I am impressed you were able to keep it in Bonner County.  Sorry you were forced off the range by wind, I'm thinking that target was in collusion with the wind, it didn't want to get punctured.  I recollect when I used to go back to Friendship, I always signed up for the first or second rotation.  After that one was fighting the wind quite a bit.
Sorry not to see you this month.  Was planning on heading up your way, but the CdA rendezvous was cancelled and the Moscow rendezvous was cancelled, and the Lacy, WA Jazz Festival was cancelled, and the Tall Trees rendezvous was cancelled, so we cancelled our trip.  Hopefully next year will be better.  See you sometime.

John (Bigsmoke)

 This whole Virus thing, Well i have my opinion on it anyway, better leave it at that. I will say that i Changed ABSOLUTELY nothing about my Day to Day Routine. Would love to meet ya Sometime John, Looking forward to it 

[Ohio Joe]

I'd say making paper on the second shot from 600 yards is nothing to sneeze at for sure!!! 

[One Shot]

   Idaholewis, Do you know what your velocity was at the muzzle and more interestingly at 600 yards?

[Ohio Joe]

  Idaholewis, Do you know what your velocity was at the muzzle and more interestingly at 600 yards?

I'd kind'a like to know as well... The Lyman Black Powder Handbook shows about 1700 fps at the muzzle and tapering down to 569 fps at 300 yards... My guess is with your elevation you're getting a bit better then that?

I can see why he said there's not much left on velocity at 600 yards with a patched ball load.

But I expect Idaholewis will be along with his numbers (which will be interesting to compare to the Lyman Handbook) as they should differ because of elevation and humidity levels from where the Lyman Book test took place... There are notable differences in eastern ballistics compared to western ballistics, especially when it comes to elevation and humidity... 

[Idaholewis]

I didn’t gather any Velocity Data on this Load, But i will get it from this Exact Load this morning  I have a few more Patch/Ball Combos i want to Test in the Rifle.

Here is one that kind of amazed me, This is my .54 GPR, One must remember that Swiss is noticeably Hotter powder.

[Idaholewis]

For anyone that might not be able to view a Video

 My previous post Video is of 100 Yard Chronograph Data i collected from my Lyman GPR in .54 Cal, Using a .530 Ball, Same 80 Grains of Swiss 2F Powder (My “Go To” Powder Charge for almost everything) The 2 Shots over the Chronograph Read 1,176, and 1,180 Fps.

 The Closest load in my Lyman Blackpowder Handbook & Loading Manual (2nd Edition) To what i figured the load i was shooting is gonna be this one, This is a .535 Ball Instead of .530, and Powder is Goex 3F instead of Swiss 2F, Close as i could Get. According to my Lyman Book the .535 Ball is 957 Fps at 100 Yards. My .530 Ball is Doing 1,180 Fps, that is a Difference of 223 Fps, Which is Quite a Substantial Difference.

[Winter Hawk]

That's pretty impressive, 1178 fps @ 105 yards!  I may need to borrow my chronograph back from Wormbobsky and see what the velocity is of the .45 Hodgepodge rifle at 100 yards, just for giggles.  Be interesting to see what you get at 600 yards if the chrono will record it.

~Kees~

[Idaholewis]

I wasn’t able to shoot today, to many other projects needing attention, I am geared up for tomorrow morning 

[Idaholewis]

I put 4 Shots over the Chronograph this morning, Same Exact load i just recently shot to 600 Yards

My Rifle, Chronograph, and Target 55 Yards out







The extreme Spread was only 11 Fps, Hard to beat that. Since Accuracy is my #1 Goal in this Stuff, This is Good Proof why i feel it’s Well worth my Time to WEIGH my Charges in Grain WEIGHT to the 1/10th of a Grain on a Good Trusted Reloading Scale, I Have a Nice Volume Measure, But i never use it, Unless its to do a Quick Check of Volume to Weight in Grains with a “New to me Powder”


I Then Shot a 3 Shot Group Test with a New Patch/Ball Combo (.495 Ball, .019 Compressed in my Calipers, Pocket Drill from Joann Fabric) Lubed with my Bear Fat/Beeswax/Lanolin Mixture, And a Patch for an Over powder Wad


A few of the Patches I collected, They look Great 

[One Shot]

  Good shooting at least you did not take out the chrony....Respectable velocities. Thank you for sharing.