New shooting opportunities

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Recently hooked up with a black powder club about an hour and forty five minutes from me. They are a charter club with the NMLRA and have shoots every month from May to October. I participated in their October shoot which was a turkey shoot and got first place by shooting a 45 with one in the x in the 25 yard offhand match. This has got me pumped to do some more matches come spring. Today I took my .54 cal CVA sidelock out and shot at a 5.5 inch target at 50 yards off the bench. I managed to get groups between 2 and 2 1/2 inches. Couple of questions here, first is this a decent group for a ML with open sights off the bench at 50 yards? Second, I know the club uses NMLRA 6 bull targets for their 50 yard bench shoots but I can't recall the diameter of the bull on those targets. I'm guessing its 6 to 8 inches overall with the black being between 4 to 5 inches. Your feedback is welcome as always.

Don

[flintboomer]

The 6 bull targets measure a tiny bit under 5 7/8 inches and the black measures 2 7/8 inches.
No matter what anyone tells you, shots in the practice bull do not count. I got suckered on that one quite early in my black powder shooting by someone who saw the 10x and told me that it would count if I only shot 5 times.
Lesson learned: don't listen to someone who is afraid that you might be capable of breaking their record.

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Took my 50 cal CVA Kentucky out this past weekend and managed to get a 1 and 1/2 inch group at 50 yards. It was only a 3 shot group and I need to get out again to see if I can do this consistently but its got me fired up. I don't think I'll win any trophies at Friendship but I think I'll get a respectable score at the local club.

Don

[Dogshirt]

Have you worked up your optimum load? Experiment with a thicker patch, drop your powder charge 5 gr, BOOST your charge 5 gr. Does your rifle like a .490 ball, or does it prefer a .495? Are you using 3f powder or 2f. These are ALL things that contribute to your optimal load. And it gives you more opportunities to get out shooting.

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The charge was a scant 75 grains of Pyrodex RS topped off with a little bit of 3f Scheutzen for reliable ignition. On top of that was a .490 round ball wrapped in a .015 prelubed patch touched off by a Remington #11 cap. I tried 70 grains of RS and 50 grains of Pyro P. The lighter charge of RS and the thicker patch yielded larger groups. The pyro P gave me 3 shots touching once then a horrible group after that baffled me. I have not tried a .495 ball yet and I could play with the finer powder a little more. I have settled on the .015 patch as the best option thus far.

Don

[flintboomer]

Have you looked at your patches after firing? My luck with prelubed patches is that some of them are rotten which means that they shred when fired and that causes inconsistant, usually open patterns.

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Didn't this last time out but will next time. I was using the same patches when I was shooting the lousy groups and when I shot the 1 1/2 inch group.

Don

[Hanshi]

All the groups that I shoot nowadays are lousy.  With more load development groups of 5 shots well under 2" are quite possible.  Also the more you shoot the better the accuracy.  Good luck. 

[Dogshirt]

75 gr?? For target shooting nothing I have takes a charge that big. My wife's .50 only takes 45 gr for her target load. I shoot 60 in my .54 GPR.  However I can't speak for Pyrodex, I haven't allowed it in any of my rifles.