Lincoln County Gun Club 200 - 500 yard gong match.

[Distant Thunder]

The accompanying results from the email I received regarding the July 3rd gong match held near Merrill, WI.

There were actually more shooters than listed but for whatever reason some did not turn in a score card. One shooter I know was shooting 2 different rifles testing loads in each and for that reason did not turn in a card.

It was 93 degrees with humidity in the 55 to 60% range. Winds were coming right up our backsides and switching from 5 o'clock to 8 o'clock and made staying on target at 500 yards in particular difficult at times. I'm not sure of the wind speed but it was definitely gusting to 15 to 20 mph at times. We didn't have any down rage flags to watch this time so the trees and what we could feel on our backs were all we had to guess when to shoot.

JKR shot a relined high wall in .38-55 200, 300 and 400 yards and I spotted for him. I have to say that little cartridge made an impressive showing for itself.

When He switched to his Shiloh .45-70 with my lucky #6 elliptical paper patch bullet and OE 1 1/2 I was even more impressed. We are allowed only 2 sighters at each distance and with the shifty tailwind it really wasn't enough to get a handle on the switches and get centered up good. I think he only missed one on his first sweep of the targets and by then I had a good idea of what was a good wind. On the second 5 I had him hold up a few times and the result was 5 shots in no more than 7 inches and 4 of those you could have covered with a coffee cup! Pretty impressive for OE in those winds. It's actually fun to spot for Jim with his Shiloh and that bullet, they go right where they should every time. He finished with 30/40 (if I remember right), good shooting, Jim!

I'm still working with my .44-77 and my "Metford" paper patch bullet. I sure could have shot better especially offhand (5 at 200) where I waited until the last target to connect! That's really average for me, but I always start out with higher hopes.

The switchy wind made it tricky to stay on at 500 and I leaked 3 into the dirt. The gongs, for the most part, are of generous size and include 2 pigs, 1 each at 200 & 300, 2 turkeys at 400 and 2 rams 500 just to make sighting with irons more of a challenge.

Because I was shooting with a scope I was in modern class. I like my scope and with my eyes aging more quickly that I'd like I will probably not stray too from it anytime soon.

The second shoot at Lincoln County Gun club has finished! Here's the results...

Traditional Class:
Tim Bonnie - 31
Matt Steckel - 22
Tom Deshoyer - 14
John Drescher - 11
Mark Steckel - 10

Modern Class:
Jim Kluskens - 33
Zachary Kania - 15
Corky Atkinson - 13

Looking over the list I can think of at least 4 shooters who did not turn in a score card for whatever reason. This was the second match at Merrill since they were reinstituted this year and the turnout was pretty good with a few new shooters included.

These matches are very relaxed and just fun matches with no big prizes on the line, just bragging rights and I for one am happy to see Jeff Berg take on running them. I've been going to these matches for something around 20 years I think and I would hate to see them end.

If anyone in the area is interested in finding out more about the matches I would be happy to pass along Jeff's contact info, just PM me.

I won't really be able to get a true idea of how my .44-77 load is shooting until August when I have a series of paper matches to shoot. I believe the load is doing well, the shooter I'm not too sure about. I do know I am enjoying the heck out of this rifle and cartridge I only wish I had gone down this road 17 years ago.

[Distant Thunder]

Dang but this posting is not easy!

[Kurt]

" I had him hold up a few times and the result was 5 shots in no more than 7 inches and 4 of those you could have covered with a coffee cup! Pretty impressive for OE"

Jim, that is pretty common using OE

[Don McDowell]

The 44-77 and it's cool factor is the fun part.
Sounds like all had a good time.

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

It's shooting with friends and the ribbing we dish out to each other that I enjoy. For just plain good fun a small gong shoot is the best!

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

This is the first time I sat in the scope spotting for an OE shooter and I was impressed. I will say that JKR is a better shooter than many so if it works he can really make it look good.

[Don McDowell]

Small gong matches are fun.

OE works a lot better than many think.

[Kurt]

Jim,

I burn a lot of the OE and I get better results using it over Swiss. I have have used Swiss starting the iron shoots and switched to the OE before the shoot was over and it pulled me out at the finish.

I do a lot of load development when I get new lots of powder and I use the best for the matches and I usually use the OE loads after firing a bunch or=f rounds before the matches begin with several different bullet profiles seeing which holds up the best and it's almost always the OE loads.

I have seen a lot of variations with Swiss these last years and just last spring I got a new case of Swiss but I cant get it to shoot as well as I do with the 2F OE in all of my calibers I shoot.

But we all use what we have confidence using.

Kurt

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

The biggest reason I hold back on trying is the unknown factor. And I think that is true for other shooters too. The other thing is that a have a good bit of Swiss on hand.

I have tried some of the new lots of Swiss including one 2013 lot that shot just horrible in a friends rifles. I tried it in my .45-70 and it shot really bad. I was just able to hold paper at 1000 yards with it using the same charge weight I always use in that rifle. I bought a pound from him just to see if maybe I could make it shoot. I tried it in my .40-65 with 3/16 inch compression and it shot really, really well in that rifle. That is more compression than I usually use with Swiss. One pound isn't enough to do much development with so I'm just going to use it my .40 and be happy.

My good lot of Swiss 1 1/2 is from 2013 which is about the time people started having trouble with it, but mine shoots well in all three of my rifles, my .45-70, .44-77 and .40-65. I have no idea how much compression I'm at in my .45-70 or my .40-65 with my Swiss, but testing in my .44-77 showed that .150" was best.

My understanding of OE is that it requires a good bit of compression which doesn't surprise me being a GOEX powder. I usually run .200 to .250 compression with my GOEX 2F and it will shoot nearly as good as my Swiss. In my .44-77 the fouling was just too much to deal with in the bottleneck case, though it shoots well.

I will have to eventually try some OE and see what happens. I'm not sure when that will happen, it seems other things keep eating into my shooting budget! Seeing how JKR's .45-70 shot with OE does make me feel more at ease about giving it a try.

[JKR]

Jim,
Before I make any proclamations, I’d like to see how it does in a paper match. Results here at home at 200 yards look pretty good though.
As you can imagine, I’m compressing the bejabbers out of it to get 88 grains along with a poly wad and a felt wad into the case. I should say that this was with Winchester cases which have more capacity. I didn’t have enough to do much testing but this load produced a couple real good 200 yard groups so I decided to bring it to the match. I still think the magic is in your lucky # 6!
By the way, I was also using an OE load in the 38-55 for 400 yards.
JKR