45-70 and 3fg OE

[Eric Johanen]

Out today with the 45-70 Shiloh Rough Rider. Put the globe and tang sights back on and shot up some old loads I put up with the Sagebrush PJ 535 grain Money Bullet. 70 grains of OE 3 fg with a .030 vegi wad. Fired neck sized Winchester brass and a CCI bench rest primer. 10's and X's on the SR target at 200 yards benched. Groups were a bit larger that the 67 grain load used previously with the .060 BACO poly king wad. I'll try the 67 grain loading again. For my last shot I used a round from the Merrill gong match last weekend. BACO .458/500 grain RN with 70 grains of KIK 2 fg. Impact was 12 inches higher that the MB load. Vertical line drawn down would have put it in the middle of the 10 ring at 9 O'clock. That MB sure does not spend much time in the barrel! Very flat shooting load and I can see why when using that bullet and 1.5 OE it was shooting so much higher with the 500 yard setting on the ladder of the semi buckhorn barrel sight at 500 yards on the gong targets. (Remember I was at a whisker over the 450 yard mark for those close misses) I'm going to test the MB with 70 grains of OE 1.5 using the target sights and see how they group next time out.