a little fun with paper patched bullets and the .45-2.6

[Gunlaker]

I've had this rifle for a little while but haven't done too much with it. It's a 15lb Shiloh Long Range Express (or maybe it's a #1) with a 1:16 twist Ron Smith barrel and Dan Theodore's paper patch chamber for the 2.6" case.

I'd previously tried using 100gr of Swiss 1.5 and a 540gr Baco money bullet but recoil was pretty stout with the muzzle velocity well north of 1400 fps :-).

This morning I dug it out of the safe and shot it with 105gr Swiss Fg and a slightly lighter PJ Money bullet. Accuracy was good, and the first string of ten shots averaged 1365 fps with a SD of 4.0 fps.

On the second string I had a few problems caused by my patches freezing up, but otherwise the rifle and load look promising. I might even bring it to Phoenix this spring if things progress well

http://www.bcsingleshot.com/Photos/Rifle...dmoor2.JPG

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

Chris was that shot at 1000 like the spotting board shows?

[Gunlaker]

Don that board is from last year at Phoenix. That was my personal best target at 1000, 89-1x shot with the Borchardt using greasers. The unplotted pin at the top was the last shot which was an eight. If we hadn't have been too chicken to get a bit more aggressive with the windage we might have convered a few of those nines to tens. But then we might have also converted those nines to sixes :-)

Today I just shot at 200 meters. Unless we get a warm spell, I won't likely be able to shoot past 300 until Phoenix in the spring.

I was happy with how the .45-2.6 shot though. I think I need to lengthen my patches just a touch. I couldn't find much in the way of patch remnants on the ground, the breeze took them away, but there seemed to be a touch of lead in the bore. That big powder charge seems to hit the bullets a bit harder than the 2.1" and 2.4" cases.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

Phew, had me nervous for a moment there, figured if that's the way that gun was shooting, not much point in most of us showing up at Phoenix. LOL

How long is your bullet? Most bullets from 1.4 to about 1.3 I use a 7/8ths wide patch.

[Gunlaker]

Yeah that Borchardt can shoot as long as I'm having a good day :-). The first LR match I shot it in was Byers last year and it worked very well for me. But then conditions weren't super tricky last year, although I did get a couple of surprises. I might retire the Borchardt from competition, or use it as a backup gun. If so, it'll either be replaced with this .45-100, or my Long Range Express in .45-90 ( GG shooter ).

My PJ money bullets are 1.451" and I patched them 0.760" up the shank. I just eyeballed where the ogive started so may have to go a touch longer maybe. I think they are a touch less slippery than the BACO bullets, but maybe less succeptable to nose-slump-flyers. I also have the BACO elliptical PP bullet to test yet.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

I hope to get my man cave finished in the next week, and then I want to get some .444 bullets cast at a 1.4 inch length to test in the hi wall. See if I can come up with a good patched bullet for it in time for Phoenix. If not I may try some postell's from a mould I have that throws mostly .457 diameter, to see if they'll work a bit better in the tight bore this barrel has than the .458 money bullet blocks.

[bruce moulds]

onya chris.
another option to lengthening patches is to harden the alloy.
12:1 has proven to work well here, producing less drop than 16:1, and allowing slightly shorter patches.
less drop is not a big deal, but it signifies reduced time of flight which translates into reduced wind deflection.
your twist should allow 1.5" long bullets, but the recoil thing is a very real one.
those o.d.g. must have been tough buggers shooting the 2.6" case droptubed full of powder to well over 100 gns and 550 gn bullets in 10 lb rifles.
keep safe,
bruce.

[Don McDowell]

Bruce I wonder about the tough part.. I read in one of the books, that a left handed shooter should never fire one of the creed moor rifles from face forward prone as it would stop his heart...

[Gunlaker]

I think those old shooters were pretty tough. I'm a lefty so maybe that's why I like my rifles heavy. I should time the shot break with my heart rate to get a little jump start :-).

I think those guys generally shot coarse, relatively slow burning powders but I'm not 100% sure. In Perry's book there is a sentence that says something like "muzzle loaders burn lighting powder to good advantage". I used to think that this meant fast powders, but later learned that Lightning was a brand name.

I ad a .45-90 highwall that weighed 10.5 lbs and shot it prone at about 1350 fps for a while. I could never get consistent with it due to the recoil. For me, a rifle near the legal weight limit shooting a 535-540gr bullet at 1350-1375 fps seems to be about where I can control it well. The stock shape has a lot to do with it though. For some reason I can't shoot highwalls as well as a Sharps.

Chris.

[Kurt]

A lot of shooters that say their rifles don't shoot well is do to their tolerances for recoil. If your recoil sensitive you will never get the full potential accuracy the rifle is capable of and they put the blame on everything but their ability to handle the rifle.
You read a lot on these forums of people buying a large caliber like the .45-110, 120 or the .50-90 for their first rifle and they cant get it to shoot well or they start downloading the round so they can handle the rifle.