I and my son shot lever action silhouette this past saturday at Atglen Sportsman Club. We both used the same rifle and ammunition trading back and forth between relays 1 and 2. I must say that at least with this rifle I have found the Holy Grail, or as my son said "this isn't a good load for this rifle, this is THE load for this rifle" Impresive would be an understatement.
First let me say the rifle and load performed well, my score was low average for me, but when the trigger broke the bullet hit where the sights were aimed.
The rifle is a Uberti 1873 24" straight stock rifle. Marbles tang, and 3/32 ivory bead front, sights.
The load: Starline brass, CCI#300 primers, hand cast bullets from Accurate Molds 43-220 in 30-to1 alloy, DGL lube and Swiss FFG powder. The powder charge is 2.55cc compressed about .2 inches with a powder compression die to where the bullet base will make solid contact when seated. Bullets are then crimped with a Lee Factory Crimp Die.
I need to/want to chronograph this load. Chickens were landing on top of the berm or imbedded into the berm. Chickens, pigs and turkeys were jumping and ringing like bells. When a neck shot on a turkey caused it to spin end-over-end I couldn't believe it. We went down range with the target setters and saw that the targets were not being damaged . They did however have large bullet splatters on them. WOW! I can only guess the slightly heavier bullet, good velocity and soft alloy makes for high energy transfer???
After practice, two fourty round matches and some playing around we put 120 rounds thru the rifle. I did blow from breach to bore a few times as the barrel was getting hot, but no cleaning. When all was said and done the bore looked like maybe some old RED DOT loads were fired thru it, or maybe some cheaper 22lr ammo. Very visible rifling, very thin fouling and very easy clean up. Before I put the rifle in a case I ran a very loose patch soaked with Balistol thru the bore. Four hours later at home a black slurry was easily pushed out with a tight patch.
Accurate, powerfull, shoots all day and easy cleanup.....thats it I'm hooked. This rifle will never see smokeless powder again ! The dirty looks and odd comments from other shooters is just icing on the cake. " hey who is shooting the howitzer down there"
Thanks to John Kort
Your advice and information was very helpfull and I gave you the credit to the good folks at the match, and Jack too.
Does anyone have info for the Eastern Regional Match ? I was told it is at McKean County out side of Bradford but can not find info on the web.
Thanks to all
David