5 Will Get You 10

It has been a while!  There are a few reasons for this.  I didn’t want to report back on the 38-55 Trapdoor project until I had some firm results.  I also just plain got busy.

For a long while I couldn’t buy any of the correct brass for this relined barrel.  The 38-55 comes in 2 lengths.  The longer 2.125” is the original standard.  A slightly shorter version came about several decades ago because nobody was making brass and a short brass could be made out of another, similar case.   Anyway, in the great “Obama’s going to steal my brass” hording scare of 2013, I found I was out of luck.  I did manage to find a work around for testing.  It was still possible to get “38 Basic” brass, which is way too long and ungodly expensive.  I picked up 20 cases and cut them down for testing.  Finally, about a month ago, Starline came through with standard cases.

Load testing was interesting.  I still have a long ways to go, but I at least know what not to do.  Like the 45-70, it doesn’t like light bullets.   I’m currently at 320 grains and looking to try bigger.  The higher loads are bad as well.  I’m currently at 44 grains and will be trying less.  I tried 1 batch of FFFG.  Typically, I don’t experience much difference with grain size changes.  On this rifle it made the pattern triple in size.

So today, now that I had some brass and a load, it was time to take the old soldier to a match.  It was a bit breezy, but I can’t really blame that much.  I’m incredibly pleased with how light the recoil is.  As it stands, the gun is shooting as well as my rolling block.  I’m convinced it has a ways to go.

You’re probably wondering by now “Why 5 Will Get You 10?”  Was there some Double-or-Nothing bet we don’t know about?  Take a look at this target.

I shot this today in the match.  5 in the black, and the other 5 floating about 1/4 inch away.  A 5% reduction in group size should do the trick.  Of course, if I'd just adjusted my sights up 1", that would have worked too.  Hopefully, I'll be updating this blog a bit more frequently now that I'm shooting the old girl again.