Continuing development with the .44-77.

[Distant Thunder]

One of the ways I look at my groups lately is by breaking them down into 3-shot groups. This is an out growth of the way I view my target when shooting long range or when I'm spotting for someone.

What I do is look at shots 1, 2 & 3 as a group. Then I look at shots 2, 3 & 4, then 3, 4 & 5 and so on. When I look at it this way and I see that each 3-shot group is near 1 moa I figure the load is actually shooting pretty well, not throwing shots all over. The center of the group moves around some as the conditions change, but each 3-shot group is small and triangular.

When shooting long and doing this I am making my correction based on the 3 previous shots and not correcting off one shot. If one shot is suddenly out the group I have to look for a reason and I may or may not correct on just that one shot. If something has changed in the conditions that I missed and I can identify that is what happened I will correct accordingly.

With BPTR a group or a string at a match is shot over a period of 15 to 20 minutes or more and the conditions are changing in small ways during that time that can be hard to see and tracking the 3 pervious shots can show that change better than you can see it. The idea is then to correct the center of the group to the center of the target and not just one shot.

If you look at the sequence of the shots number one was low and right. May not have been the best break on that first shot! The at the end of the group 6, 7 & 8 began to fill in the center of the group some. No way to know where 9 & 10 would have gone.

I'm also thinking that some of that could be my heartbeat, I can see it in the scope as I'm sighting. I've really seen it when shooting a longer ranges from the bench with my .270 and a higher power scope. At 300 yards on 12X it's 1 1/2 inches and very easy to see. Frustrating really. At 220 yards through the 6X scope it appears to be about 1 inch. I can not hold a 1/4 minute like a really good shooters can, on a GOOD it's a 1/2 moa hold for me!

I was impressed that the thin paper shot so well. I don't use it much because it's slippery and I find it harder to wrap with than my 9#. I had to go to the thin stuff with this mold because the 9# is just too tight to chamber easy. These slip in the bore nice with the thinner paper and they shot well.

Now I just have to get over to Rapids to shoot in Arnie's match so I can see if these shoot better at 600.

Another thing about these 8 bullets, these were the first ones cast yesterday and after about the 10th bullet they settled in at 509.8 to 500.6 grains for the balance of 50 bullets. The other 42 will be saved for the match at Rapids. I have no more time for any casting or anymore load development between now and the 31st. I'll just go ahead and load for the match and see what happens.

That's one reason there were only 8 shots, if they shot well I wanted enough to shot at 600 yards at Rapids. I only cut 9 of these thin patches and I patched 9 bullets, but I dropped one and had to toss that one out. I have no doubt that 2 more shots would have gone into the group. The real test is at 600 yards.