Shooting out to 250 yards

Last week I took my Hot Rod Hawken out to the range.






I am shooting the RCBS 11mm bullet. They are .446 and I paper patch them and size them to .446.





I posted about shooting this load out to 100 yards and it did very well.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID14/2600.html


After the last trip I wanted to shoot it with a little harder lead than last time and I also wanted to get a start on sighting it in out to 300 yards. Well last week the weather was perfect very little wind. The harder lead shot ok but not great. Not as well as the lead mix I used from the week before. I switched back to that lead. I got the rifle sighted in out to 250 yards. I ran out of distance at that improvised range. I am going to have to find a place to shoot out to 300 yards.

I was not shooting for groups just getting the distance down. Wind at that distance was a factor. Horizontal spread was up to 6" at 250 yards but vertical spread was right on, at the most 2". At one point I did get a 4" center to center group at 250 yards but I had to watch the wind and shoot between gusts. I call them gusts but they were less than 5 MPH at most.

After I got the initial sight in done I started to shoot my steel gong. I have shot a lot of different bullets in muzzleloaders. Most are conicals and most of them are paper patched. my paper patched 500 S&W bullets are so accurate it is scary. These 11mm bullets are on par or maybe a bit better than those bullets. So far they are impressing me.

After load development then sight in, I move on to dependability shooting. That is where I shoot the load more in a field situation with improvised rests and varied distances using the range finder to set the sights at distances from 50 yards to 300 yards. I did a little of that last week with my 6"x 12" gong. Like I said this bullet is an amazing bullet.

I sight my hunting ML's out to 300 yards. I never take a first shot beyond 150 yards. I sight them in that far just in case something bad happens and I need to put another on in an animal. I don't want to be held back by lack of preparation.
Also practicing at 250 to 300 yards makes those shots under 100 yards even easier.

Next time I want to confirm the sight in, and finish out to 300 yards. After that I will be shooting gongs and milk jugs. Ron

Man thats impressive shooting. What powder and how many grains are you shooting.

80 grains of Pyrodex P. Ron

What kind of aperture do you like for the front sight?

The insert for the globe front sight is a Lee shavers BPCR long range insert. Here is a link. Ron

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=12372/Product/GLOBE-SIGHT-INSERTS

Ron, I have a question for you. After initially sizing the bullet and then wrapping, when you run it through the sizer again is there a trick to keeping the paper from ripping? I've noticed that its pretty tight with the paper and it tends to rip in spite of being lubed.

I need to know more about your process.
What bullet your using and how big is it?
What sizer your using?
What is the hardness of the lead you using?
What paper are you using and how thick is it?

All of my lead is melted and tested. I like my bullets to be about 6 to 7 BHN. This is a pinch harder than pure but it is still very soft lead. Pure virgin lead will work just fine. I use it a pinch harder but pure is fine.
When I am doing my 50 cal bullets they come out of the mould at .501. The paper I use is 25% cotton onion skin. The cotton helps keep it from tearing. The onion skin paper is .002 thick.
The pattern is hard to explain. Here is a picture but I cut off a part of it but you get the idea.



If your are now doing this and your paper is tearing the problem you are having is probably some where in the questions above. My guess is
#1 your lead is too hard
#2 Your paper is too thick

I don't lube my paper before it goes through the sizer. Lube will cause the paper to fail. Ron