Martini Henry fun today

[smle-man]

Took the Mk IV to the range today. Temp at the range was 103F, light wind and probably 10% humidity. Shooting at 100 yards I was at first getting vertical stringing. I shot groups of 3, anything more than that and accuracy dropped off quickly. My grease cookies apparently aren't greasy enough. Probably too much beeswax and not enough olive oil. After 12 rounds (swabbing every 3 rounds) I let the barrel cool a touch and then went back at it. This time the vertical stringing was gone and I got some very respectable (for me) 3 round groups, about 3" maximum outside to outside. I am using a 480gr .466 bullet and Pyrodex RS equivilant to 80gr of FFg by volume. I even took several shots at the 400 yd plate off hand and although I didn't hit it I sure scared it! I had two lots of cartridges, one in which I used a purchased .45 greased felt wad between the GC and the bullet base and the other a piece of ungreased felt that I snuck out of my wife's sewing basket. The ungreased felt rounds seemed to shoot a bit better and since the felt is red I could see the remmnents of the red felt wads laying about 10 ft in front of the firing line where they dropped off the bullet. All and all a fun day even if it was a bit hot!

[BruceV]

No matter how hot the temperature, it's always cool to get to the range.

[dogtag]

You may find that real BP will improve accuracy.
The smoke will definitely look better.
And the Boom will be Boomier.

[JB White]

I had some fun too. Took my 10 yr old neighbor shooting for his first time. Once he got used to the .22 I moved him up to the 310 Cadet.
Then I loaded .480 roundballs ahead of a VF wad and 2f APP (topped with a 50/50 filler) for a bit of close in plinking with the MkII. The roundball loads won't win any matches and they aren't really economical, but they make a great softball load for younger and newer shooters. They can split apart 1x6 pine "tombstones" and bounce 1 gallon plastic jugs around without any punishment.
The kid had a ball out there grinning from ear to ear the entire day and is already asking to go again. Of course he will. :)

[TheDoubleD]

Good on you JB!!!

[JB White]

Thanks, but it was as good for me as it was for him. The local kids remind me of myself when I was that age and learning to shoot. Now I've got parents interested as well.

[TheDoubleD]

Here is another one of your Illinois kids, during her visit to Montana earlier this month.

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The gun was a Martini and it's mine and she didn't give it back for two weeks.

[JB White]

Two weeks?!? I've had to pry a couple of mine away a few times but they always came back the same day. LOL

[TheDoubleD]

Actually JB, the only compalint she gave, was Grampaw your out of ammo...meaning she was out of ammo...I had dig in the closet to get more.

[JB White]

When my son was younger, he ran out of ammo so I parked him in front of the reloading bench. As we worked, I showed him all the price stickers on the components and informed him that soon enough he's have to provide his own. The ammo lasted a lot longer after that.

I'm a grand uncle several times over but no grandkids yet. (I didn't get going until well into my 30's.) I'm pretty sure my attitude will be a lot different towards them when they do arrive. Let their folks show them the price tags :)

[TheDoubleD]

Did the same thing with my son. Taught him how to cast bullets and reload.

One day he cast up a coffee can full of .45 ACP's. Cool thinks me, save me some time.

Later, I see hinn diligently at work at the reloading.

About a week later I decide I wanted to shot some 45's and only could find empty brass.

I asked the kid about it and he reminded me I had told him if he wanted to shoot them, he had to load them.

Best I could come up with was "didn't I tell you, you had to check with me before taking the guns out to shoot?"

"Oh", he said, " you were at work, so I asked mom first."

What could I say. That was a nice advantage living there, we had a back yard shooting range.

The kid turned out to be a pretty good shoot. Glad he didn't get into Martini's back then. What I am saying. A couple of years ago when we lived back east and few miles from him, I was doing all the Martini loading. :)