Boyd Allen
Active member
It had been a good while since I had been to the range for the sole purpose of shooting and working with my own equipment, so even though triple digits were predicted, I went.
The fellows who had rangemaster duty were friends and it did not take long to get a cease fire so that I could drive down in front of the benches and unload my rifle, loading equipment, rest, flags, and cleaning equipment.
The time till the next cease fire was spent assembling wind flags, setting up my reloading equipment, positioning my rifle on the rest and rear sandbag, and stapling a target on a frame.
I have several barrels for this particular 6PPC. Today it was the Hart 13 twist 6 groove that went to the range on my Viper. I consulted my notes, adjusted my Nielson seater, made a guess as to how much to back off my load, given that the temperature was 12 degrees hotter than when my last notes for the barrel were recorded, and loaded up two.
Those two were used to foul the barrel and touch up my scope setting, and seemed to indicate that the load wasn't too far off, but when I reloaded the same load and shot three, one took off from the other two, and the bolt had a click at the top making me think that I should have backed off a little more, in deference to the heat. I backed it off a little more, and loaded three more.
It was at this point that I noticed that although it had been my intent to be near jam, I could feel no resistance that would have indicated that the bullet was being engraved as I closed the bolt.
Long story shorter, my notes were flat wrong. I had to start from scratch, load long, push back to jam, and then adjust for my desired depth from there.
At that point, having gone from jump to .003 off of jam, with high neck tension, I noticed stiff bolt lift and decided that I needed to back off again. My next two shots, shot in favorable conditions, had paper between them, and were about as badly out of tune as I see.
It was at this point that I remembered a post by Gene Beggs in which he explained that the distance between nodes for the typical 6PPC is about 1.2 grains. Figuring that I was probably in the middle of two nodes, and knowing that my Harrell measure's detent value (6 from one number to the next) is about .1 grain of 133 ( a little less actually) I dropped my charge one "click" (number)to approximate .6 gr., loaded up a couple, waited for the flags, and put two through the same hole. Problem solved.
After that, the rifle gave me a good indication of what the flags were telling me, and I officially pronounced it in tune. I made an entry into my range book, also indicating my previous error. By that time, it was hot, I was dry, and it had been over six hours since my McDonald's drive through breakfast, so I began to plan my departure.
Before I packed, I asked a one of the volunteer rangemasters if he wanted to shoot my rifle. He did, so I changed the setup at the bench from correct handed to right handed, let him practice a little, dry firing to get used to the rest, scope and light trigger, and then let him shoot a couple of three shot groups, his first over flags. The second one was about an even two, the smallest that he had ever shot.
At this point I would like to officially apply for commission from a Benchrest gunsmith, as yet to be determined, and Sinclair International, to whose web site and catalog I directed him.
Additionally I would like to apologize in advance to his wife for the temporary discord that the cost of acquisition of all the necessary bits and pieces may bring. There is no telling what those six shots will end up costing him.
After that, I packed, departed, and hit another McD's drive through for refueling and to begin rehydration. It was a good day.
The fellows who had rangemaster duty were friends and it did not take long to get a cease fire so that I could drive down in front of the benches and unload my rifle, loading equipment, rest, flags, and cleaning equipment.
The time till the next cease fire was spent assembling wind flags, setting up my reloading equipment, positioning my rifle on the rest and rear sandbag, and stapling a target on a frame.
I have several barrels for this particular 6PPC. Today it was the Hart 13 twist 6 groove that went to the range on my Viper. I consulted my notes, adjusted my Nielson seater, made a guess as to how much to back off my load, given that the temperature was 12 degrees hotter than when my last notes for the barrel were recorded, and loaded up two.
Those two were used to foul the barrel and touch up my scope setting, and seemed to indicate that the load wasn't too far off, but when I reloaded the same load and shot three, one took off from the other two, and the bolt had a click at the top making me think that I should have backed off a little more, in deference to the heat. I backed it off a little more, and loaded three more.
It was at this point that I noticed that although it had been my intent to be near jam, I could feel no resistance that would have indicated that the bullet was being engraved as I closed the bolt.
Long story shorter, my notes were flat wrong. I had to start from scratch, load long, push back to jam, and then adjust for my desired depth from there.
At that point, having gone from jump to .003 off of jam, with high neck tension, I noticed stiff bolt lift and decided that I needed to back off again. My next two shots, shot in favorable conditions, had paper between them, and were about as badly out of tune as I see.
It was at this point that I remembered a post by Gene Beggs in which he explained that the distance between nodes for the typical 6PPC is about 1.2 grains. Figuring that I was probably in the middle of two nodes, and knowing that my Harrell measure's detent value (6 from one number to the next) is about .1 grain of 133 ( a little less actually) I dropped my charge one "click" (number)to approximate .6 gr., loaded up a couple, waited for the flags, and put two through the same hole. Problem solved.
After that, the rifle gave me a good indication of what the flags were telling me, and I officially pronounced it in tune. I made an entry into my range book, also indicating my previous error. By that time, it was hot, I was dry, and it had been over six hours since my McDonald's drive through breakfast, so I began to plan my departure.
Before I packed, I asked a one of the volunteer rangemasters if he wanted to shoot my rifle. He did, so I changed the setup at the bench from correct handed to right handed, let him practice a little, dry firing to get used to the rest, scope and light trigger, and then let him shoot a couple of three shot groups, his first over flags. The second one was about an even two, the smallest that he had ever shot.
At this point I would like to officially apply for commission from a Benchrest gunsmith, as yet to be determined, and Sinclair International, to whose web site and catalog I directed him.
Additionally I would like to apologize in advance to his wife for the temporary discord that the cost of acquisition of all the necessary bits and pieces may bring. There is no telling what those six shots will end up costing him.
After that, I packed, departed, and hit another McD's drive through for refueling and to begin rehydration. It was a good day.
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