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Ric, How many shots per group? curmudgeon

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Now, that's a darn good question.

Ten rounds

Bullets?  or boolits

Regards,  Woody

Woody,

Boolits please,none of those FLGC designs shall be proferred as compliant for this competition.

Any number of lube grooves,Pb or GC shall be in order,boolit diameter from 22 to 50 or larger

My own arm for this competion shall be my recently acquired Remington 1903A3. Need to see what she will do as I have just discovered a cast bullet rifle match bi-weekly nearby and my loading and unloading skills will be ramped up. 

45nut

Gosh, Deputy Al, my apologies for making people cast, load, and shoot! Whatever was I thinking? My apologies for the extra burden. I hope you shoot well! Better nudge Marie towards the bench, too!

Ken - A blanket prize shoot is a good idea, but I don't care to deal with it this time around. Doing the scoring and posting, along with shooting, will be enough for me to deal with. Have you thought about starting up a match with that in the rules for sometime this spring or summer? As it is, this is also posted on other boards, and I'm not going to chase people around.

I did take out the 96 and 38 Mauser to do some test groups just now. The 96 was throwing them into a cluster of about 2 inches, so may get to play this time around. I had two separate groups for it, as i raised the sights up two hundred yards to put them onto the paper. as it was, three were on, two just below. The M38 wanted to horizontally string, so needs a bit of load work. These were the Oldfeller bullets. I want to get out my Turk and try the Buckshot and Oldfeller dou of bullets, plus i have a Lyman mold that has shot well in the past. I suppose i better dig out the Swiss rifles, and the Krag, too, just so none feel neglected. Some of them haven't been shot much recently, and could use the exercise!

Ten shots for group certainly does wring out the load AND the shooter.  Its been an eye opener for me with some loads I thought were shooting pretty good - just didn't cut it at 100 yds or inconsistencies became more apparent.  Heres a photo of a heartbreaker target - 9 shots in 1.7 inches - but one shot headed west. ( operator error )  Still under 3 inches for the entire group.  Who said IMR-7383 didn't work with cast?  This load chronos around 2000 fps.

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Ten shots for group certainly does wring out the load AND the shooter. Its been an eye opener for me with some loads I thought were shooting pretty good - just didn't cut it at 100 yds or inconsistencies became more apparent. Heres a photo of a heartbreaker target - 9 shots in 1.7 inches - but one shot headed west. ( operator error ) Still under 3 inches for the entire group. Who said IMR-7383 didn't work with cast? This load chronos around 2000 fps.

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Vly;

I agree 100% with your comment about ten-round groups.  I've been using ten rounds-per-combo for a couple years now, at least.  I find the results are more valid, and more accurately reflect the true accuracy of a load.  Besides, I get to shoot more, and that's always a good thing!  I will admit that after seven or eight rounds of an energetic .416 Rigby load off the bench, I sometimes wish I was using a five-round routine (or THREE...????).  Just have to grit the ol' chompers and concentrate HARD on trigger and sights and ride out the recoil.

Vly,  You are a goood shooter and an honest man, counting ALL the shots in a group. 

Waksupi,  Just got back from the range with a respectable, but not sensational, group to mail off tomorrow.  thanks for the pre=-Winnemucca tuneup.

Regards, curmudgeon

I got the first target in today from Trapdoor, and it looks like he's kinda serious about the whole thing. All shots were on a single piece of paper, with no tape or glue to gather the holes in. I'm going to try getting a couple groups shot this week, one from the 96 Swede, and one from the .358. The test will be more on my eyesight than anything, I believe!

I glad to hear you guys are getting some shooting in.

Thanks for the "fudge day", Ric.  I shot the target on 4-25, but I've had my hands full cussing out deputy D.A.'s and doing the usual "subpoena dodge" that becomes a good idea just before I go on vacation.  Kinda distracting. 

Don't anyone think this target will cop the prize--I couldn't hit a bull on the ass with a bass fiddle that day.  No alibis, no excuses--the safest thing to have been was what I aimed at.

Hopefully, this experience will exorcise evil spirits, bad omens, combustion quirks, and other things that go bump in the night before rat strafing in Modoc and NCBS.  I agree that 10-round groups are more valid--also more humbling, more comprehensive, and far more prone to attract Mr. Murphy to the event.    

Hear ye, Hear ye!

Now, finally, I am announcing the results of the recent cast bullet benchrest match. Some sent more than one target shooting slightly different combinations, so I added them in so the load information would be available to all.

There were some serious shooters here, obviously.  I quite frankly expected better bribes than were tendered, however!

Thanks for participating!

Good evening Ric,

Thanks very much for hosting the match. It was great fun.

Randall in Houston 

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Man-o-man that was the best group I ever shot with any rifle with iron sights. Since then I have come fairly close with the same load and same rifle. That was a new to me 4 cavity mould and a new powder. It looks like that will be my go to load replacing the old load of 32gr 7383 & 200gr Lee which shot purty good but left a lot of unburnt powder behind. I didn't get a chance to shoot the scope class, I just got a cranky 7BR back last Friday that couldn't hold a 4 inch group when I had it put togather about a year ago. The man redid his bedding and recrowned it and gave it back and said try it now. I did an hour ago and got about a 10 shot 1 1/4 inch group. A little load development will get it under an inch I'm sure. I just picked a load out of the air to try it out 26gr WC846 with Saeco #71 160gr. Thanks Ric for all the work you put into these matches for us. I know it's a lot of time taken from other things because I run 2 pistol matches a week plus a 22 rifle match and now a air pistol silly wet once a month. Don't know how I ever found time to work before I retired. If anybody lives in the area you are welcome to join us, we have a blast. Here's a link to our website.

   http://www.dp.net/~emsc/

Thanks again Ric

Pb head

PbHead - No problem. as long as no one is in a hurry, I can do a little at a time. I got a digital caliper that makes the measuring much faster for me.

I wish I could have submitted my Sharps targets from this week. I've got a load now that went into .8 inch this week, and managed to keep eighteen shots in an inch and a half yesterday, with a couple wandering out about .75 inch. So now I can load for a competition coming up in a couple weeks. 

Thanks Ric,

It was a lot of fun.-JDL

I also wondered about those one hole groups. I guess if you shoot a couple hundred, they eventually tighten up into the same hole,as the backstop is chewed away. As in the past with magazine writers, I find people's keyboards shoot much tighter groups, than do thier rifles.

When you give a person a chance to put up, or shut up, I kinda guess they have to shut up if they can't back things up. I am pleased and refreshed to find the majority of us are normal, with a respectful abilty to stretch a story, without having others figure, "BS", in big red letters. 

Ric, the only way I can be sure of shooting a one hole group is to only shoot one shot. I do get one hole groups once in a while but then again I always go with at least 10 shots a load sometimes up to 25. A good load will be one hole at times but it can be a big hole. I think a true one holer should be 5 in a hole no bigger then 1 1/2 times bullet dia. God bless anyone young enough to see good enough to hold that tight. It is nice when you get a good target and you like to show it off. You'll notice I never post a picture of a bad one and there are a lot more of them. I go to my monthly cast boolit shoot in the morning and no matter the resuilts I will post my record targets. I'm shooting scope class this time with a reworked 7 BR that wouldn't shoot. It was rebedded and recrowned and appears to be OK now. we'll see.

Pb head

As I said here is yesterday's match target, 20 rds, 10 on each for record. Not too good, have to get a load worked up. Soo many powders to try don't know where to start. By the way only three guys shot in scope class and I finished last out of the three. I normaly shoot millitary issue class with 03-a3 or millitary modified with a Yugo 48. I mostly do good with the 03-a3 and run hot and cold with the Yugo.

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[/url">http://www.hunt101.com/img/161000.jpg[/img][/url]     

I think your right Ric. It's starting to be a real obsession. Ever since I retired March of 98 that's about all I do. I guess I should get a life. I get up in the morning, go to my local coffee shop, have 3 cups of coffee and BS for an hour, come home and either cast boolits or reload ammo most of the day and maybe go to the range. That's on most days, on Monday and Thursday afternoons I have to go to E.M.S.C. one of my clubs to run pistol pin shoots. The last Friday of the month I run a 50yd offhand 22 rifle sillywet shoot and now I  and another fella run an NRA outdoor air pistol sillywet shoot the 3rd Sunday of each month. Even with all that I still shoot 3 Saturdays a month at 3 other clubs for NRA sillywet pistol and cowboy lever action rifle both hunter class and long range. Somehow I still manage to squeeze in 2 benchrest cast boolit matches a month, one the next to the last Sat. of the month and one the last Sat. My wife shoots all the pistol matches with me and the 22 rifle 50 yd. If only I could get her to cast and size boolits. I'd slow down but I'm having too much fun. It is costing a lot more cash these days to keep it up what with the price of gas and reloading supplys and equipment [ never have enough ]. I think I fear getting too old or sick to do what I enjoy the most and am trying to get as much in as fast as I can. Should I seek professional help with my addiction?

Pb head

Pb head

My friend, you have already done that. You are here on this board. Although, I'm not sure if it curative, or enabling.