Posted by Carl/NYC
on 11/8/2009, 4:00 pm
173.77.204.139 | Message modified by user Carl/NYC 11/8/2009, 4:10 pm
So the weather was just about exactly perfect here in the NYC area today. Not a cloud in the sky, no wind and just about 70 degrees. I mean, weather doesn't get any better so I decided to meet friend Stan out at the range and do some shooting.
I went down to the basement early this morning and looked through my rifles to see what I felt like shooting when my eyes fell upon "Big John", my Light American Sporting Rifle. On a whim I'd offered this gun for sale once but nobody bit and I took it off The Trade Blanket in a few days. This is definitely one of the many guns I'd have been sorry I sold if I had sold it because it's beautiful to look at, comfortable to shoot and shoots "spot on" as long as the shooter does his part.
I normally don't enjoy shooting when there are lots of other shooters on the line and today was one of those days but I liked the guys who were there so I unloaded my stuff and "commenced to shooting" Big John" with a 100 grain 2fg load of Elephant and a .610 home case ball in it.
I was using patches I'd bought from John some time back and they were a bit thin. John? Those 500 to a bag patches. What were they? 10/1000 I guess. With these patches the gun was easy to load and was shooting 4 inch groups at 50 yards, off hand, all day.
People started to notice how well I was shooting and finally one of the other shooters commented about it but I assured him that the gun was a veritable tack driver with a tighter patch and that years of using my right hand as a hammer had left me with a hand that didn't feel quite like it used to so I shoot thinner patches because loading was more comfortable. On one of my whims, I said "Here. Watch."
I reached into my shooting box and pulled out a patch I'd made of some thick pillow ticking. It's AT LEAST 18/1000 thick and I needed a mallet to load that .610 ball using that patching. Now people were watching because the promise was that the gun would shoot better with the thicker patch.
To make a long story short, I capped the gun, shouldered it, aimed, fired and took the "X" out. What are the chances when shooting off hand that you can predict that? The only comment was "You should use those thicker patches all the time!" It was pretty funny.
By the way, I noticed a significant difference in kick with the exact same load but with the thicker patch. It makes a difference.
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