December 2012 Cody Turkey Match

[SPG]

Gentlemen,

The monthly turkey match for December was held in what many called less-than-ideal conditions. Strong wind and cold wind-chill temperatures made for a somewhat daunting match. As there was plenty of hot coffee and fresh donuts, all survived, however.

Winds were sustained at 25 mph with gusts to 45. Windage of between 6 to 10 inches was required with a .45 rifle. Mr. Phariss took a photo of the top three strings to give an idea of the difficulty of out-guessing the wind.

60 yards, turkey head target, plank rest.

Strings-
Steve Garbe- 16.246"
Dan Phariss- 16.689"
Robbie Robinson- 18.246"
Wilson Crawford- 48.389"

Equipment-
Wilson Crawford- .50 Hawken, .490 swaged ball, 90 grs. Swiss 1 1/2Fg, ticking patch, mink oil, CCI #11 caps, wiped, open irons.
Steve Garbe- .45 Phariss/Vincent, 1-60 Green Mountain, .446 cast ball, .015 ticking, cut at muzzle, 1-7 water soluble oil, 65 grs. 3Fg Swiss, CCI #11 caps, wiped, lollipop rear sight, pinhead front.
Dan Phariss- .50 Phariss/Dickert flintlock, MacLemore barrel, .495 cast ball, 107 grs. 3Fg Swiss, .024 denim, 1-7 water soluble oil, wiped, shaded iron sights.
Robbie Robinson- .40 Garbe/Vincent, 1-48 Green Mountain, .395 cast ball, .012 linen, 1-7 water soluble oil, 50 grs. 3Fg Swiss, RWS caps, wiped, aperture rear sight, globe front.

This winds up the turkey matches for 2012, which are easily are the most popular matches in Cody at the moment. We will open the ball in January with, no doubt, balmy temperatures and gentle breezes. If you find yourself in Cody on the first Saturday of the month, come and shoot. Plenty of hot coffee and donuts as well as sage advice on the fine art of turkey whackin'.

[Dphariss]

Here is a picture of the sighter/backer targets of Dan, SPG and Robby



By way of explanation from my perspective.
I somehow put 4 for score and #4 sighter in the hole at the left side of the Turkey's head and 8-10 in the same hole to upper right of his head. But could not get close to the "X". 1-4-5-6 were out as much as 3.25".
 #6 I held closer to the head since 5 was over 2" left with about 8" of hold off and it went right to the sights. So I should have held center but this might have put it off the sheet which REALLY adds to the string. It was a day where one really learns what the wind is capable of.
 Robby probably lost the aggregate when the wind suddenly shifted to 6 oclock from 8:30-9:00 just as he broke the trigger and the ball went WAY out, right to the sights of course. Like my #6 only worse.
All three of these rifles are capable of short strings and would be competitive anywhere, but today it just was not possible to shoot a short string. Most of my shots struck 6 to 8" to the right of the point of aim.
These targets are graphic evidence of why 10-12" strings are often the best we can get.
Holding 3" left twice put one shot about 2 3/4" UP wind of the X (#6) and 3 1/4" DOWN wind (#1). The shooter  can easily lose vertical as well unless very careful when holding off the target. My vertical dispersion for the score shots was a about 1", this tells me the load is good, unlike last month. Steve consistently read the wind better than I did, as he often  does and his target shows this even though we were very close in the total string.
Being a turkey match we do not have aiming points. The shooter shoots the target like it was a turkey and having a zeroed rifle is a must.

Dan

[Bull Shannon]

Wow!  Tough conditions for shooting, to say the least.  I suppose there where a lot of wool capotes being worn?  Congrats to the participants as well as to those who finished at the top.

[PPatch]

Considering the conditions - good shooting!

Dan; why the 107grs in the .50, that rifle just like that? the other two were shooting 65 and 50 grs . Is "water soluble oil" code for a Ballistol and water mix?

Dave

[Dphariss]

Considering the conditions - good shooting!

Dan; why the 107grs in the .50, that rifle just like that? the other two were shooting 65 and 50 grs . Is "water soluble oil" code for a Ballistol and water mix?

Dave

Its a blue water soluble cutting oil from Carquest. I originally bought it to make coolant to re-profile a barrel. Patch material is soaked then air dried to remove the water.
I was shooting a 50 cal, Steve a 45 and Robby a 40.

The guy that made the barrel, Jim McLemore,  test fired it for accuracy with 120. Now that I have the patch material problem fixed, I hope, I may try 120 again. But it shoots better than I do as it is. 
Frankly a lot of shooters never test their rifles far enough to see what they shoot best with or they use low quality barrels, barrels with excess machining and/or contours that are not conducive to best accuracy. Also this rifle weighs almost 18 pounds so recoil is not a factor. Steve's Vincent styled rifle has a 1" x 42" barrel and is much heavier than many people care to own. With the lollipop tang and a globe front it has very, for a traditional ML, sophisticated sights. But I built it years ago as a match winner, it does this routinely.
Generally speaking my rifle bucks the wind much better than Steve's 45 or Robbies 40 as a result I have no desire to look at lighter charges.  It should be making better than 2000 fps but I have never checked it. This keeps the ball above the transonic velocity range where drag is the highest and drift the greatest past 60 yards.

Dan