Final card of the winter season

Even though it had rained heavily and the range was very squelchy under foot, I managed to get to the Club and shoot the last comp card of the season; round 10 of the Kent Black Powder Winter League.

Round 10

 

It seems I saved the best till last. Not only was it the best card of the season, it was a personal best AND the first time I have ever shot over 90 [just!]. It also meant my running average exceeded 80 for the first time. A bonus on the day was the weather. Although overcast, the shooting glasses proved useful, and the wind helped blow the smoke off the range.

 

It also marked the end of my batch of 0.354 lead balls that I obtained from Pedersoli by way of Krank's and G.T. Shooting in Surrey.  The next time I'll be shooting 0.350 lead balls swaged by Hornady. I'll try these with my current 0.010 lubed patches, but may have to go to the 0.015 to get the accuracy back. This means I have to lube-up the 0.015 dry patches I have. Although I'm looking at mixing up a beeswax/tallow/lanolin combination, several members of the Club have recently switched from Wonderlube to a simple soap/water lube. I don't have the exact details but it appears they just use a liquid soap with a small amount of water added. The down side though seems to be that the patches have to be relubed before every shooting session as they dry out fairly quickly.

 

Current stats

 

Detail score: 90.1

Running average: 80.6

Personal best: 90.1

Barrel count: 209

Cards shot 16



Round 9

A late start to the shooting meant that after acting as duty RO for several details, I only managed to complete one detail. As it was near to midday, the sun was directly behind the target making it impossible to use my shooting glasses. This meant using bi-focals and a shooting hat, with the distance part of the lens being used, rather than the intermediate part.

Round 9 - 81 ex 100

Beside two flyers off to the far left, most of the group was slightly low and to the left. The load was changed slightly, with 10.3gns of Krank's fine, 0.354 ball and a 0.010 patch, to see if the group tightened up. No change seen so I'll revert back to 9gns for this ball/patch combination.

The score of 81 did not affect my running average. My shooting stats are as follows:

Stats

Detail scores: 81

Running average: 79.9

Cards shot: 15

Personal best: 88.1

Barrel count: 196

New load

For rounds 9 and 10, I plan to increase the powder load from 9gns of Krank's FFFg to 10gns to see if it tightens up the groups shot. I'll still be using .354 balls with a .010 lubed patch. Once the two cards are shot, I'll start looking at loads based around .350 balls.

As promised - current stats

After round 7 and 8 had been shot, scoring 81 and 84 ex 100, my shooting stats are as follows:

Stats

Detail scores: 81 & 84

Running average: 79.9

Cards shot: 14

Personal best: 88.1

Barrel count: 183



Round 7 and 8

Shot rounds 7 and 8 of the Kent BP league inorder to get ahead of the Christmas and new Year range closures. Using my normal loads, I added the extra component of wearing specialist shooitng glasses rather than the normal bi-focals. Although the prescription was several years out of date, the 'intermediate' lenses proved ideal for keeping the pistol foresight and rearsight sharp, while keeping the target slightly out of focus.

Round 7 - 81 ex 100

Round 7 scored only an 81 ex 100, but with a good group that was slightly low. The low flyer was due to an incorrectly seated ball. Lesson learnt!

For round 8, I tried to deliberately raise my sight picture.

Round 8 - 84 ex 100

A much better grouping in terms of elevation, but not tight. I might need to increase the powder load to try and tighten the group. Set a PB though - the first time I have managed to get all 13 shots in the black.

I'll post my new average etc once I've checked my stats book.

Round 5 & 6

It was only 6.3degC but it was a good day to shoot rounds 5 & 6 of the winter BP league cards. There was bright sunlight throughout and no breeze.

Round 5 - an 83 ex 100

On the round 5 card I managed to get 11 of the 13 shots on to the black. No 10's or V-bulls and all the scoring shots either 8's or 9's.

Round 6 - an 88 ex 100

On the round 6 card I was a bit disappointed to drop 3 shots in to the white, but pleased with the two shots in the 10 ring. My positioning and sight picture was more consistant with a nice grouping of shots just below the 10 ring.

My normal setup was used: 9gns of Krank's Fine, .354 ball and Ox-Yoke 0.010 lubed patches.

Stats

Detail scores: 83 + 88

Running average: 79.4

Personal best: 88.1

Barrel count: 157

After shooting the two cards, I also tried out a new setup to see if it worked OK: 9gns of Krank's Fine, .350 ball and a 0.015 dry patch lubed with 'aqueous cream'. The cream, available in 500mg tubs from the 'Pound Shop', worked OK but seems to a bit on the thick side and needs further diluting with added water or oil. I will see what gives the right consistancy.

Trafalgar meeting

No shooting this weekend as I went to the Trafalger meeting at NRA Bisley to restock on black powder bits and pieces.

Got spotted by another Club member and ended up being roped in to help out with RO duties for the Classic [pre 1919] and Veteran [pre 1946] class Service Rifle competition [shooting tin-hat targets at 200yds]. Lots of fun, and a great chance to see rifles such as SMLE, No. IV, Long Lee, Ross, P14 and some odd calibre training rifles in action.

After a chili and chips lunch at the Army's club house, a stroll round the arms fair resulted in purchases of .015 lubed patches, No. 11 percussion caps, .350 lead balls and 1kg of Swiss No.1 powder.

Still need a few other things, so I'll generate an order to Krank's to get those.