Mucking around with groove dia. PP and some Polish powder

[martinibelgian]

Tried some new things recently: Both different bullet and powder. The bullet is actually the one I am using to shoot military rifle - it is shorter and blunter than my usual bullet, designed to have a longer shank and shorter nos - this in order to stabilize in a 1:22 twist of a no.2 Musket Martini
This bullet weighs 520 grs, cast at .450, and is patched up to .459.
In essence, groove-dia. Cartridge OAL is such that the bullet is seated hard into the lands when the cartridge is chambered. other details as follows:
R-P cases
WLR pimers
68 grains of ZlotyStok ZS5 (Fg) gunpowder, a polish brand recently available here. Pretty dusty stuff, dull grains - but quite a bit cheaper than Swiss.
Card overpowder wad, powder somepressed so as to arrive at the correct OAL.

Fouling management was done by using bore pigs, followed by 2 VFG wads pushed with a dry patch. Shot at 75m (82 yds), this gave me following target:


1st 2 shots were high in the 10-ring, followed by the 2 high shots in the 9-ring. A sight ajustment then brought the remaining 6 shots in the 10-ring, with most in the X-ring.
All shooting prone, unsupported, with 2-point sling. This load might have some potential , so warrants some more experimenting

The rifle is a Greener GP, rebarreled to 45-70, with a Ron Snover Metford segmental rifling barrel, and Rex Holbrook front and rear sights - my 1st real BP target rifle.

[Don McDowell]

Looks worthy of follow up for darn sure.

[Perentie]

Just curious. How do you push the bore pigs through a Martini?
I have one still in .303 but changed the pin so I can easily remove it to pop the breechblock to clean from the back.

Keith

[martinibelgian]

Keith,

A flexible cleaning rod works wonders, no issues pushing through a bore pig, or patches for that matter. Not so easy as the straight push with a Sharps or Hiwall, but still quite feasible. Just make sure the rod isn't too thick, so that it can flex and 'make the bend'. Whether you clean it with the block in place or removed actually makes no difference - unless you have an action with the received drilled at the back, of course. But only the later small BSA's were done so.

[johnl]

Nice looking group. Hopefully not a stupid question, what is the size of your paper target and where did you get them from? Thanks

[martinibelgian]

Standard ISSF pistol target,the 10-ring is jut a bit less than 2 inches (10cm). So the x-ring is a smidgen under 1 inch (2.5cm). And each other ring adds 2.5cm to the rest, in each direction. As these are just about standard targets this side of the pond, no problems finding them - all clubs stock them. As you can see, mine are 're-used' targets

[John Boy]

Look at the polish of this black powder!
http://zlotystok.com/en/prochemist/
Who is selling it in the US?

[martinibelgian]

Actually, it is pretty dull and has quite a bit of dust - no shiny grains like Swiss powder. Nice pic, but not really what I am seeing. Still, the accuracy potential seems to be there.

[desert deuce]

Looking at the target you may have stumbled on to something very interesting.
Maybe a match made in heaven, paper patched bullets and Polish powder.
Take 'er to a match and see what happens.

[rdnck]

Looks good to me. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[rdnck]

Looks good to me. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[NMLRA Past Pres.]

Thanks for the heads-up:

The (well arranged) Zlotystok website does not include a U.S. distributor.

Please point us to a U.S. source. Thanks.

All the best,
Kevin Tinny

[martinibelgian]

There is a distinct probability that they don't even have a US distributor...

[Kurt]

Maybe they bought out KIK........

[martinibelgian]

Poland and Slovenia is different, and we never had any KIK available here ... But I shot another target this evening which seems to confirm the earlier results, this time with HDPE wads. 10 out of 11 shots in the 10-ring, and the 1 which gave a 9 at 6 o'clock I actually felt on loading: it had a different 'feel' from the other rounds (less resistance when chambering). Mind you, it still cut the 10 ring, but it wasn't 50% inside, hence a 9...
I haven't had a chance to chrono the load though - something not possible on this range. Still, I feel confident enough about this combination to take it along out for next match, which should normally be next month.