I have a T/C Triumph and shoot Barnes 250gr Spitfire TMZ with about 120 grains of BH209 and it shoots decent. I was thinking once it cools down abit, I'd try to find out how good I can really get it to shoot. I wouldn't mind shooting the round-robin OCW method at about 5-6 separate targets or so, but in what powder increments (by volume) would I need to show a significant amount of change? Thanks.
What powder increments for checking best accuracy?
- Thread starter tpcollins
- Start date
Love that Range-Time
M/L propellants are very forgiving and I'd say to stick to 5- Grn. increments (by volume). There is always a Min - Optimum - Max. Obviously you want the optimum and seriously doubt that it is going to the 120gns. I could guess but it really takes "your" range-time to determine this. Perhaps the folks at BH-209 can give you some suggestions. I know I have seen optimum loads published for BP and Pyrodex. .....
Be Safe !!!
M/L propellants are very forgiving and I'd say to stick to 5- Grn. increments (by volume). There is always a Min - Optimum - Max. Obviously you want the optimum and seriously doubt that it is going to the 120gns. I could guess but it really takes "your" range-time to determine this. Perhaps the folks at BH-209 can give you some suggestions. I know I have seen optimum loads published for BP and Pyrodex. .....
Be Safe !!!
I used 10 grains with my experiment. I intended to use a magnum load of 150 grains for some long distance shooting. I stopped at 120 grains when my groups started opening up. I settled for 90 grains and figured accuracy and putting one where it counts is greater then ft. lbs and velocity. As it turned out 90 grains worked extremely well on a large deer.
Wild Bill Bucks
New member
We tested 5 ML's of different kinds about 2 years ago, just to see whether they would shoot the advertised 150 grains of powder, with any kind of real accuracy. We found that NONE of the rifles would shoot 150 grains at 100 yards without spreading a 3 shot group a good 8 inches. When we backed the rifles down to 130 grains, they started to produce groups of about 5 inches. When we backed the load down to 100 grains, the groups finally got down to 3 inches, but our best groups with all 5 rifles came at the 90 grain load, with good solid 1" groups and some of them were clover leafs.
We were using Pyrodex select, with 240 grain bullets, with Hornady .44 magnum hollow point, pistol bullets and MMP short black sabots HPH 12 I think was the number. Two of the rifles were centerfire ML's with shotgun primers, and three of them were sidelocks, and percussion cap #11 fired. All the rifles had a 1 in 48 twist.
We used loose powder, that was measured very carefully, to get as good a comparison as possible, and used a lead sled to take away as much shooter problems as possible. All of the rifles were fixed with 4X scopes of various kinds that had been sighted in at 25 yards using 90 grains of powder as a starting place.
Rifles were spit cleaned between rounds, and let cool so we would not get any heat problems with the sabots. When we shot these rifles the weather was around 55 degrees and absolutely no wind at all.
We only tested the Hornady bullet, and did not fire any round ball or maxi's as we figured the heavy loads would produce more blow-by than the sabots did. The sabots started loosing petals at the 110 grain mark, and had real problems after 120 grains(probably why we could not get any accuracy after that point)
Conclusion: There are probably some advertised rifles that will actually shoot 150 grains accurately, but we didn't own one. All of the guys that were there are still shooting 90 grains and haven't changed a thing.
Hope this helps.
WBB
We were using Pyrodex select, with 240 grain bullets, with Hornady .44 magnum hollow point, pistol bullets and MMP short black sabots HPH 12 I think was the number. Two of the rifles were centerfire ML's with shotgun primers, and three of them were sidelocks, and percussion cap #11 fired. All the rifles had a 1 in 48 twist.
We used loose powder, that was measured very carefully, to get as good a comparison as possible, and used a lead sled to take away as much shooter problems as possible. All of the rifles were fixed with 4X scopes of various kinds that had been sighted in at 25 yards using 90 grains of powder as a starting place.
Rifles were spit cleaned between rounds, and let cool so we would not get any heat problems with the sabots. When we shot these rifles the weather was around 55 degrees and absolutely no wind at all.
We only tested the Hornady bullet, and did not fire any round ball or maxi's as we figured the heavy loads would produce more blow-by than the sabots did. The sabots started loosing petals at the 110 grain mark, and had real problems after 120 grains(probably why we could not get any accuracy after that point)
Conclusion: There are probably some advertised rifles that will actually shoot 150 grains accurately, but we didn't own one. All of the guys that were there are still shooting 90 grains and haven't changed a thing.
Hope this helps.
WBB
Wild Bill Bucks
New member
tp,
We shot each rifle, one at a time, and were not in a hurry, so I would imagine probably 4 or 5 minutes between loadings.
We shot each rifle, one at a time, and were not in a hurry, so I would imagine probably 4 or 5 minutes between loadings.
4-5 minutes, that's interesting. Some of the other muzzleloader forums recommend 15 minutes (when using sabots). I just ordered a hand held IR digital thermometer so I'll actually be able to check the barrel temp before shooting and see how long it takes to return back to that same temp. I'll probably wind up using a cooling rod anyway to speed things up. Thanks.