Learning Curve at the Range!!

[Ken Hartlein]

I finally got my Ron Heilman tang and globe sight on my rifle and since I'm going to Boaz, KY Saturday to shoot a gong match I thought I might better go to the range and see where I was hitting. I thought I would be the only one there seeing as how it was Thanksgiving day, WRONG!! Lots of Muzzleloader shooters there as tomorrow is the first day of MO muzzleloading season. I shot at 25 yards first to see if I had the globe centered on the barrel "0" with the tang set to "0". I got lucky, I shot one at 1/4" to the left of the center line and two 1/4" to the right so I left that one alone. I had the tang set for .26 and it was dead on at 25 yards. I moved to the 200 yard range and readj the tang to 1.50. I was using a post insert for the 25 yard range, now I changed to a crosshair. I fired two rounds, went down, no holes!! I was shooting at a 12" target on a piece of cardboard 3' wide by 5' tall!! OK, I readj to 1.25, fired two more, NO HOLES, I was getting a little worried! Ok, now I readj to 1.00, fired two more, DANG, NO holes. I was beginning to think I had barrel or sight problelms. Remember now, each time I fire, I had to walk the 200 yards round trip, it was really overcast and I couldn't see the holes with my spotting scope. Ok, readj to .75, fire two, down range, OH OH, no holes, now I'm beginning to panic!! Ok, now I readj back to my 25 yard setting of .26, fire two, down range, and there are two wonderful holes, 23" low and about 3" to the right of center. I didn't worry about the 3" right, because by now the wind is blowing pretty good left to right. I did a quick calculation and set the tang to .37, fire two and go down range. What is going on, NO HOLES AGAIN!!! Back to the rifle, STUPID me, I had set the tang for .57 instead of .37! Oh well, now I adj to .30, fire two more, and get two holes about 6" low. Now I readj to .38, fire two more, go down range again, now we're having fun, I'm two inches high, and a nice 2" group. By now it is so dark I can barely see the target, much less the sights so I call it quits and call it .37 at 200 yards. I am wondering how many trees I killed about a 1/4 mile downrange when I was shooting at 1.5 and 1.25?? ha ha. It was a fun day, I left and had Thanksgiving supper with a best friend, had turkey and everything else, chocolate pie, hot coffee and a great visit.

[Ken Hartlein]

I forgot to mention I was using a Lyman 535 grain postell, 66 grains of 1979 goex FFg, .030 circle fly wad, Lee Stone lube, starline cases (45-70), and fed 210 primers. Sporter #1, 30" half heavy. The Lee Stone lube worked really good, I fired the entire day with only running a dry patch down the barrel twice during the entire string of shots. The lube put a beautiful lube star on the muzzle. Sorry about the long post above.

[deerhuntsheatmeup]

Ken, It is killing me to have not shot my Shiloh yet. It came in Wed. and with family here from all over, time has not allowed a shooting outing yet. Looks like you are on the way to good shootin', don't you hate dopin' those first sight settings? Later, David Barfield

[Ken Hartlein]

David, I know what you mean, I've had mine since Sept, this is only the 4th time I've been able to shoot it. I didn't have a clue on the tang sight settings, I really thought they would be much higher for 200 yards. The way it's shooting now I can see how you could easily shoot 1/2 mile with these guns. I might not hit anything, but you could very easily shoot 1/4 to 1/2 mile. The tang sight is getting 10 yards of range with .164 of elevation from 25 to 200 yards, but I'm sure that will change around 300. I have to shoot 480 yards saturday, so I'm going to be lost again, we can only shoot 275 at the public range, and it got dark on me before I could even get that far. I just hope someone at the shoot Saturday can give me a ball park range for 480, so I'm not too embarassed!! David, get that Shiloh out and shoot it, believe me it's a hoot!! Besides my muzzleloader this is the most fun I've ever had shooting. I'm seriously thinking about selling all my cowboy action guns so I can buy another BPCR!!

[rdnck]

Ken--Come up 41 points from your 200 yard setting and you should be on at 480. Shoot straight, rdnck.

Chairman
Caddo Lake Chapter
FES

[bubba]

Ken
In case you haven't heard, you'll need to bring you're own lunch to Boaz Saturday. Joe had to quit providing the eats a couple of months ago.
Also don't be suprised if you find a short fat guy drooling all over your new rifle. Had mine ordered since Feb and the anticipation is killing me.
Greg

[ffffgdave@yahoo.com]

next time you have a housefull (go to wall mart and buy bunch of foam earplugs before), and ask if anyone one wants to shoot your black powder sharps.. i think you will be surprised who says they want to go.... you could possibly wind up with a sharp eyed young lady going along who can out shoot all of you. its incanny how well some can shoot (given proper shootingand safety instructions,even tho they dont shoot regualarly or ever before.. if fact it can be unnerving tobe outshot with your own gun.. of course i realize you havent even gotten a load worked up yet... good luck dave...

[Lead Pot]

Dave my 22 yr old Daughter out shoots me all the time with the the .40.
Sitting hear thinking back when she was barly six I handed her the 39 Marlin put the barrel of the rifle in the fork of a young tree and told her to put that brass ball right in the groove of back sight and line it up on the can.You know she rolled that can all over the yard.

Kurt

[Kelley O.Roos]

Ken H.,

Try 50 to 53 minutes up. Let us know the setting and how much up.

Kelley O.

[Trigger Dr]

Ken, Check your E-Mail Not PM but E-Mail
Jim

[Ken Hartlein]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. Looking forward to meeting you Bubba, you are welcome to shoot mine. Joe emailed me and told me about the lunch, I think a thermos of hot coffee will be good also, it's supposed to be 19 degrees here Saturday morning. Trigger Dr. I couldn't pull that atttachment up, but thanks for trying. If you could resend it I will try to print it.

[Trigger Dr]

Ken, this is the attachment you wanted.
I thought that I had posted it last year right after I got back from Montana, but could not find it. Maybe it will be of some help to others on the forum.

CALCULATING ELEVATION SETTINGS FOR MINUTES OF ANGLE

Knowing your bullet drop for any given range is important, and your sight radius as well.

Example using a 38" sight rqdius, a bullet drop of 1659 inches or 158,5 minutes of angle at 1000 yards.

1. Sight radius X 2 = Diameter
2. Diameter X 3.1417 = Circumference
3. Circumference divided by 360 = degree
4 Degree divided by 60 = amount of sight movement per minute of angle


EXAMPLE
38"x 2=76"
76" x 3.1417 = 238.7692
238.7692 divided by 360 = 0.663
0.663 divided by 60 = 0.011 inch of sight movement per minute of angle.

If when calculating the 1000 yd setting, I use the usual 0.010 inch increment for each minute of angle (158.5 x 0.010 = 1.585) instead of the required 0.011 inch increment (158.5 x 0.011 = 1.7435) my calculated sight setting will be 0.139 inch (1.744 - 1.585 = 0.139) or 12.6 minutes of angle low. This translates into 10.5 feet at 1000 yds. to be on target, I have to raise my vernier sight 1.744 inches above the 100 yd zero.

CALCULATING SIGHT SETTINGS FOR INCHES

Sight radius divided by inches = sight adjustment per inch
Example
38" divided by 36000 ( number of inches in 1000 yds) = 0.00105 or 10 1/2 thousandths of an inch
Using this formula with a sight radius of 38" and a bullet drop of 1659 inches at 1000 yds

38" divided by 36000 = 0.00105
1659 x 0.00105 = 1.714 inches above the 100 yd zero

You can also use this to figure correction for windage drift.
Trigger Dr

[Ken Hartlein]

I just love this forum and I love these rifles. Thanks again guys for the settings they really did help. I came in 3rd at the match today, shot 25/40, I guess not too bad for the first ever buffalo gong BPCR match and the first shoot with my new rifle and new Heilman sights. I can't say enough about the Ron Heilman sights, they are VERY VERY good. It was so easy to level the rifle with the bubble in Ron's globe and VERY easy to see. Rdnck you were really close on the setting, here is what I recorded at the shoot; 219 yds - .39, 265 yds - .48, 328 yds - .56, and 400 yds - .76. I cleaned the 265 yard gongs, zeroed the 219 off hand gongs. I just could not hold the rifle steady offhand, I hope a lot of practice will help with this. Ok, OK, before someone rats me out, I came in 3rd, but there was only 4 of us at the shoot!! ha ha. The other three of them were seasoned shooters and I still managed to beat one of them even though I zeroed on the off hand swinger at 219. I got to meet "Bubba" and he is a real nice man, very helpful to a new BPCR shooter, thanks Bubba.

[JeffinKy]

Ken,

When i left you had a score of 25 and you hadn't even shot the
219 yard off-hand string yet... What happened??
I guess that 12 in a row went right to your head now didn't it??
Humbling isn't it?? Now you see whay i was so happy
to hit it 4 times.

Glad you made it to the shoot and that you finally got your rifle
out to shoot it here. It sure shoots well.
You may want to stay with that GOEX load if it shoots as well
as it did today.

Great shooting with you today. Take care and i hope to see you next month.

Jeff In Ky.

[bubba]

Ken
If the e-mail address in your profile is correct, check it. And be patient, it'll take forever to download, but I think you'll like it.
Greg