MountainDevil54

Well first off i am walking to my shooting bench out in the back yard. I havent been home since friday. Im walking along and SOB! I look down and follow a trail, its coming right past my shooting bench/shooting lane.

Yep!

Elk had been using the trails we cut this september! They walked every trail we have cleared out, just checking things out before hitting the trail boarder'ing thick forest.



Allright, Enough of that! Lets get to the good stuff!

Just the Accura with the new Bushnell Sportsman 3-9x32 scope and TC Gorilla rings/mounts. Scope is crystal clear and plenty of eye room.


76grains ( weight) Pyrodex RS, CCI inline MZL primers and 250gr Ballistic Tip Thors.


After one shot,


They are a bit cleaner than the Winchester 777 primers but they fit pretty loose in the breech plug. My last shot, the primer actually had swelled up a bit and made removal a 2 fingernail job.

Good thing:
These primers cut down the crud in my barrel GREATLY. How great? I never had to swab between shots during this range session!

The group sucks but thats on me, i havent shot this rifle since late September and i am rusty with this one. I got the hang on this on shot #3. Thats where it was shooting when i put it up after my brother in laws hunt.

Hey, it happens.... doesnt it?..... Guys?.....




So im really happy as far as being able to reload without having to swab. The crud in the bore is gone, the mess however is still there but.... This is my baby so its going to be cleaned no matter what at the end of the day.

I took this for my girl friend but i found it interesting. Check out the glare off that sucker! Holy smokes.

No Camera flash, Just the sunlight,

revpilot

I guess you dont have to go far to elk hunt ........... thats awesome. If i could only talk my wife into moving out west....

gunrac

Hit that pipe w/some sand paper, an I'll ship you some root juice off the bottom of a barrel full of walnutz. LOL

MountainDevil54

Took the Accura out again today but with 295gr Lead Powerbelts this time. My first 2 shots measured 1 5/8" center center. I wanted to see how it would react if i let the barrel cool down for a few minutes so i did so and just checked out the elk tracks to find where they came from. Once i got back, i primed the Accura and touched the trigger off. I was very surprised at how much higher it shot on a fouled barrel that was cool. On my first 2 shots i just shot and loaded up and shot again.

Zero fouling resistence while loading up the powerbelts! I am happy as heck with these CCI primers. On friday i will be picking up a couple more packs just to be sure i dont run out.

These also were hollow points, i get my best accuracy with the Aerotips so it will be interesting to see what happens when i get the Aerotips in.

Load was 70gr (By weight) Pyrodex RS.

MountainDevil54

tried some 348gr lead powerbelts with 100gr RS (volume) and they didnt like that charge one bit!! I get really good accuracy with that charge and the copper series 348's but the lead series, Nooooo way! I cant wait till i get to scrub all the lead out of my barrel tonight :lol: The best part, zero swabbing. These CCI's are the cure to my bore crud.



Next time i will try 80gr and see how the lead powerbelt groups.

driftrider

If you're shooting Pyrodex, I'm betting that you'll get better accuracy if you swab between shots. Just because you're able to load the next bullet without swabbing doesn't necessarily mean that the fouling isn't causing accuracy issues. To be perfectly honest, for a scoped ML fired from a bench at 100 yards, those groups aren't that great. I'd be just barely satisfied with those groups at 200 yards from my Savage. Try allowing the barrel 2-3 minutes between shots to cool, and swab between shots for consistent bore condition, and you might see those groups shrink a bit.

Good luck,

Mike

MountainDevil54

of course they arent that great. 99% of the time im shooting the copper clad powerbelts with know charges. This lead stuff is different. Im thinking i'll be needing to cut back of the charge to get tight consistency. Overall though, im just trying out this new primer so i can reload at least 2 shots easily and maintain accuracy.

245 AT @ 100 yards with open sights. The tight cluster in the middle is wit swabbing, the other 3 shots, the BIG group were with 777 primers during the summer without swabbing. Horrible crud build up in the bore with the 777's. The CCI's have cut the crud down to zip and my Accuracy is now reasonable.


I'll have to see what it does with 80gr and see if theres any crud down at the bottom with the lighter charge.

Pglasgow

Jon, I wouldn't want to be an elk which passes within 100 yards of your muzzle .

The sucker is going down. So was it a cow tag that you drew?

MountainDevil54

lol no cow tags or bull tags this year. just a doe and a OTC bear tag. Im saving my bull points for a trophy unit.

Pglasgow

If you put the cow tags 2nd choice (you can do that even when applying strictly for a preference point for 1st choice) then if you draw ... you keep all your points and can take a cow anyway.

That's good country down your way. Alot people may not realize it but the state's 2nd largest elk herd is there (its just so much of it is private property). I called for a friend at the Bosca del Oso during archery. I saw two black bear on that trip also. Lots of deer. but most of the elk were off the property on private property at higher elevation.

Below is a photograph of the northernmost Spanish Peak and the others are from my hunt on Saturday.