Huntingtherut

Im shooting a T/C Black Diamond 50 cal. I use 90 grains of black powder with240 gr hollow point hornady sabots. Off of a rest aiming at the bullseye, my hiting points are at 50 yards +2, 100 yards +3, 150 yards+1, 175 yards -5. Basically, my bullet seems peaked out at about 100 or 125 and is dropping 6 inches from 150 to 175. Does this sound right?? Any feedback would be beneficial. Thanks

Wingbone

It sounds right. As the bullet starts slowing down, the incremental drop gets more noticable. You'll get even more incremental drop from 175 to 200 yd.

oldsmellhound

That definitely sounds right. Most loads in any ML (with a few exceptions such as the Savage smokeless) tend to drop like a rock after 150 - 175 yards. Your sighting in sounds good for hunting - basically from 0 - 165 yards or so, you can hold dead center on a deer's chest and pull the trigger. Probably not a good idea to try shooting farther than that unless you have a range-finder and practice a lot.

dmurphy317

Something about those results doesn't sound quite right to me. Are you using a scope or open sights? It could be that at the longer ranges your sighting error is influencing the results. I have run the ballistics with BC's of .12 to .25 (depending on what bulletyou are shooting Hornady lists .16 or .205) andvelocities from 1400 to 1800fps at altitudes from 0 to 5000 feet and can't find anything that matches your long range results. I can't argue with the results you are getting because they are what they are.

It seems you should be getting around 1600fps +/- so with a BC of .18 (in the middle of listed BC's) and 1000 feet the chart should look something like this with a scope and a 6" PBR sight in. This is a compromise between the 44cal and 45 cal bullets that honady lists.

Name: 45 Cal, , 240 grn
Ballistic Coeff: 0.180
Bullet Weight: 240
Velocity: 1600
Target Distance: 129
Scope Height: 1.500
Temperature: 70
Altitude: 1000
Ballistic Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Range Elevation Velocity Energy ETA Drop Max Y 10mph Wind Deflect
0 yds -1.50 in 1600 fps 1364 fpe 0.000 sec 0.00 in -1.50 in 0.00 in
25 yds 1.00 in 1516 fps 1225 fpe 0.048 sec 0.43 in -0.49 in 0.15 in
50 yds 2.56 in 1437 fps 1100 fpe 0.098 sec 1.80 in -0.13 in 0.82 in
75 yds 3.06 in 1364 fps 991 fpe 0.152 sec 4.24 in 0.53 in 2.04 in
100 yds 2.38 in 1296 fps 896 fpe 0.209 sec 7.85 in 1.52 in 3.74 in
125 yds 0.44 in 1234 fps 811 fpe 0.268 sec 12.73 in 2.89 in 5.90 in
150 yds -2.95 in 1179 fps 741 fpe 0.330 sec 19.05 in 4.70 in 8.61 in
175 yds -7.90 in 1130 fps 681 fpe 0.395 sec 26.93 in 6.99 in 11.80 in
200 yds -14.53 in 1088 fps 631 fpe 0.463 sec 36.50 in 9.81 in 15.44 in
225 yds -23.00 in 1053 fps 591 fpe 0.533 sec 47.90 in 13.20 in 19.53 in
250 yds -33.39 in 1022 fps 556 fpe 0.605 sec 61.22 in 17.20 in 24.01 in

Of course, this is only theoretical, only actual performance counts in the field.

lemoyne

90 gr black powder with Elephant powder differing from Swiss by about 20 percent it might make a difference what balckpowder you are using. Since different guns can give quite a bit different velocities with the same load it would be best to chrony your load. Considering that bullet has a low BC [I used it for a while if I remember correctly it has a BC of .17 so David is so close as to make no differance, the trajectory as you posted it is in the fight ball park. If thats a problem for you, try the 200gr Shock Wave 50/40 it has a BC of .267 will shoot accurate in a lot of guns has a high sectioal density[ much higher than your .45 240 gr] and with a 100gr of Swiss will give you a much flatter trajectory. I have used this bullet on deer and boar and it is very effective. Lee

gleason.chapman

Your bullet is in the right ball park with a BC of around .15 to .20, see this. Chap

HuntAway

Huntingtherut

Thanks for all of the info guys. After all of the discussion, I actually checked the bullets and they are Traditions, not Hornady's. If im not mistaking, I think they are actually the same bullet though.Theybal cois.205 and seem to shoot pretty flat out to 150 yards. The trajectory chart on the back of the box shows them dropping a little morethan I am seeing at 150(-2.9) and
175 (-7.1), but not much more. Other than that,I am pretty consistent with the chart. I think I am going to shoot againjust to make sure, but feel pretty confident. I appreciateyour time and help. If anyonehas any more info for me, I would be glad to listen. I'm always up for some good pointers. (For instance, does the first shot out of a ML with a clean barrell shoot different than the 2nd, 3rd and so on??) I've always heard different theories about this and it always confuses me. If thats true, what is the best practice to use. Should I take a dirtybarrelled gun in the woods after a few practice shots?? Thanks again!!!!

gleason.chapman

100g of 777, Toby Bridges site:

http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/Technical.html

Chap

HuntAway

Thanks Chap,

Some people have some issues with PR Bullets (Chuck Hawks for one), but I've found the 340 gr PRDC very accurate with 100 gr T7. I haven't shot it at 110 T7 as recomended for "their" (DC's) ballistics. I think I might shoot some over a chrony tomorrow for poop's and giggle's.

Wait out.