Original paper patched bullet designs?

[Distant Thunder]

Today was the 40-shot gong match at Merrill, WI. As always there were 10 shots each at 200 (5 offhand), 300, 400, & 500 yards. My purpose today was to get sight settings and get an idea of the accuracy of this 490 grain ppb in my .50-70. I was a bit disappointed that the gongs were black for this match, They have most often been white and I believe that white would have been easier to see on this dark overcast and very humid day. The sights I have on this rifle are a bit limiting in fine adjustments. The front sight is an MVA Beach combination sight with the .025" pinhead option. I can see this fine bead against a light colored target, but not against the black gongs. So I had to use the blade which is quite wide and worked well at 200 and 300 yards. Not so well at 400. At 500 yards it is way to coarse a sight to be effective.
The rear sight is a Distant Thunder Buffalo Hunter Sporting tang sight. It is a close copy of the original sporting tang sight that Sharps offered for their rifles. For windage it has a dovetailed aperture that is locked in place with a set screw once the no wind zero is found. Windage adjustment while shooting is Kentucky windage. Elevation is by a friction slide and there is a scale engraved in .050" increments on the face of the staff. The friction is adjustable by a set screw in the right sight of the slide. I did have the slide move up during my offhand at 200 yards. It cost me one miss when I went from offhand to shooting off sticks.

I managed to hit 3 gongs offhand at 200 (a good day for me), I missed the first off the sticks with the slide having moved up, giving me a total of 7 at 200.

At 300 things went a little better, on the first sweep I missed the stupid little diamond just over the left point. I hit a total of 9 at 300.

At 400 things didn't go as well. On the first sweep I had a lot of trouble trying to get the elevation centered and I found the turkeys impossible to see behind that wide blade. I only hit one of the 4 turkeys and I missed two other gongs as well, my total at 400 was 5.

I put on a estimated 500 yard sight setting, looked at the gongs through the sights and said, "That ain't happening!". I could only make out a couple of the bigger gongs. My spotter talked me into giving it a try anyway, so I took 2 sighters and called quits. It's hard to hit something you can't see.

All in all I was happy with the accuracy of this 490 grain bullet. It shot flatter than I had estimated it would and if I could see the gong I could hit it out to 400 yards. That's a long ways for hunting sights I think.

The disappoint I had was in the 40 shots I fired 6 would not chamber. When I knock those bullets out on the rifle the paper was crumpled or folded back. I'm using Seth Cole 55Y and this is the thinnest paper I've ever used. It has proven to be a challenge to work with both in the cutting of the patches and wrapping the bullets tight. Being this mold is cut to give me a snug fit for this groove diameter bullet in the long freebore my chamber I'll have to come up with a solution to the chambering problem. The mold was cut specifically to use 55Y paper.

Two things have occurred to me, I've been dry patching, maybe wet patching would be a bit tighter. Or I could size the patched bullets down just bit, .0005 to .0010". The good things about the 55Y is it shoots very well in this rifle and all I can find of the patches is the fold over at the base. I have not yet found any other part of a patch. So if you like fine confetti this paper is as good as I've seen.

What are you other patchers who use 55Y finding for result and what suggestions can you offer that may help me sort out the problems I had today with this paper?

DT