GAHUNTER60
Senior Member
Mainly to shoot my 1-66” Traditions Hawken rifle, for which an accurate and consistent hunting load has evaded me. And, yes, DNR ranges remain open, although they have closed every other shooting station to maintain social distancing.
Last time, I concentrated on working with real black powder. Yesterday, I worked with Triple 7. To my surprise, the Triple 7 produced considerably better groups than my Goex ffg groups a few weeks ago. Below is a group I shot at 80 yards with 90 grains of 777, and 240-grain Hornady PA bullets:
As you can see, that load really grouped well, albeit a little low. Before taking a file to my front sight (the rifle has fixed sights), I decided to see if I could raise the POI by upping the amount of powder to 100 grains. Below is my three shot group with the same bullet:
Notice that only two of the shots show up in the photo. The third one is out of the frame, about eight inches below the center of the black. That makes this load unacceptable in terms of consistency.
I guess I need at least one more range session to confirm the accuracy of the 90-grain load, and then I can, very carefully, start filing the front sight to move my POI to dead center.
Then I’ll have an accurate deer rifle zeroed at an optimum hunting range of 80 yards.
While I was at the range, I also shot my Thompson Center Hawken at 100 yards just to confirm that the load I settled on earlier of 90 grains of 777 and a 385-grain Hornady Great Plains bullet remained my load of choice:
It does!
Last time, I concentrated on working with real black powder. Yesterday, I worked with Triple 7. To my surprise, the Triple 7 produced considerably better groups than my Goex ffg groups a few weeks ago. Below is a group I shot at 80 yards with 90 grains of 777, and 240-grain Hornady PA bullets:
As you can see, that load really grouped well, albeit a little low. Before taking a file to my front sight (the rifle has fixed sights), I decided to see if I could raise the POI by upping the amount of powder to 100 grains. Below is my three shot group with the same bullet:
Notice that only two of the shots show up in the photo. The third one is out of the frame, about eight inches below the center of the black. That makes this load unacceptable in terms of consistency.
I guess I need at least one more range session to confirm the accuracy of the 90-grain load, and then I can, very carefully, start filing the front sight to move my POI to dead center.
Then I’ll have an accurate deer rifle zeroed at an optimum hunting range of 80 yards.
While I was at the range, I also shot my Thompson Center Hawken at 100 yards just to confirm that the load I settled on earlier of 90 grains of 777 and a 385-grain Hornady Great Plains bullet remained my load of choice:
It does!
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