44-40, A Little Something Different

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Bryan Austin posted this 4 weeks ago

100 Yards

Gusty Winds

How does gusty winds affect the 44-40 at 50 and 100 yards?

Today I decided to shoot 10 shots at 50 and at a 100 yard targets, placed inline, one behind the other. This way each shot penetrated both the 50 and 100 yard targets. This can give us a view of how each shot opens up between 50 and 100 yards. HOWEVER, the winds today were at the worst I ever plan on shooting. Down in the holler, the winds were 5 gusting to 10 and swirling. Winds at the top were at least 10 to maybe 15 and increasing as the day progressed. These shot were made between 10am and 11am. Temp was a mild 60 degrees and clear skies. Cool in the shade and warm in the sun.

Each shot was marked as fired, and several minutes elapsed between shots while I walked down to 100 yards and back to mark each shot.

One consideration - the 50 yard target had a .20" thick cardboard backing. Each shot made it's own "clean hole", thus it does not appear that this had any ill-effects on shot placements at 100 yards.

50 Yard Impacts

The 50 yard shots were already poor compared to many previous calm wind shots. The 10 shot group opened up to 4" with the gusty winds, but all appeared to behave as expected in such conditions.

100 Yard Impacts

The 100 shot placements seemed to opened up rather even across the board with a few that remained fairly tight, in sequence! Over-all the 100 yard shots did well in such gusty winds as expected. The groups opened up from typical 4" groups to nearly 8". Basically nearly doubling in size at each 50 yard intervals.

Shots 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and 10 opened up, both at 50 and 100 yards
Shots 3, 4, 7 and 9 remained tight at 100 yards.

The third "target" is an overlay of both, showing how each shot opened up between 50 and 100 yards.

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org

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pat i posted this 4 weeks ago

Good write up. I wish I would see some 5 to 10 mph winds around here. This year has been terrible as far as wind. I wish more people were like you when talking about how accurate their rifles are. There's a big difference between 50 and 100 yards. A lot can go wrong, and does, in that extra 50 yards.

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MarkinEllensburg posted this 4 weeks ago

What is the elevation difference between the two targets? Did you just use a much larger piece of paper for 100 yards, not knowing exactly the drop from 50 yards? Nice overlay of the two groups.

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Bryan Austin posted this 4 weeks ago

Oh, I failed to mention that I did not "check for elevation drop" during this particular shoot. The reason is that I was alone and it is basically impossible to line up both targets for POA without help or a laser....thus the laser topic I posted a few days ago.

I plan on shooting this again in a month or so when I can get some time off work to visit my nephew in SC. Then we will go all out. Get it all lined up and even set up the chronograph for each shot.

However, the basic POA I was using is typically a 3 3/4" drop at 100 yards when zeroed in for 50 yards

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org

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Aaron posted this 4 weeks ago

Wonderful work Bryan. Thanks for writing this up.

Where do you crimp on that bullet? Over the driving band or on the driving band with a taper crimp?

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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Bryan Austin posted this 4 weeks ago

I use a taper crimp with the Redding 44-40 Profile die (soft lead). Right on top of the foreword driving band of the 43-214A. The diameter of the bullet, the die I used to resize, and the Reloder 7 powder charge work well with each other.

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org

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Aaron posted this 4 weeks ago

Very nice. I looked that bullet up on the Accurate site. Nice bullet.

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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Wilderness posted this 4 weeks ago

Great stuff Bryan & really interesting that the bullets made it through the first target without losing direction.

Your technique/finding has other applications. When I was still shooting a .32-20 my 100 metre groups were always rather more than twice the size of my 50 metre groups. I called it "trumpeting". I blamed transonic issues, though it could just as easily have been my worse aim at 100. At 50 m the rifle grouped best around 1250 fps, so would have been subsonic at 100.

I tried to fix the 100 m groups by loading subsonic at muzzle, but 50 m groups opened up, so no joy there either. I blamed the 20" twist for that, since the same bullet (#311008) loaded subsonic in 10" twist Marlin .30-30 shoots very well all the way to 200 meters.

Your two target technique offers the means to separate real trumpeting from differing precision of aim at two distances.

You are only as good as your library.

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Bryan Austin posted this 4 weeks ago

I think an example of that would be shots 4, 7 and 9. The hit pattern on the 100 yard target is a bit different than the 50 yard placements. Interesting!!

"Trajectory hits" for shots 1, 5 and 9 actually "increased in elevation" at 100 yards, while shots 2, 6, 8 and 10 dropped. Could be velocity/wind. Shots 4 and 7 had virtually no trajectory, up or down.

Will be fun to shoot some more and compare, especially is more favorable conditions.

Making sure the POA on both targets is marked will help a lot for the next group!

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org

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Bryan Austin posted this 3 weeks ago

2nd attempt at the double target, checking for bullet drop and group spread.

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org

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Wm Cook posted this 3 weeks ago

Your project is an exemplary example of creative thinking. That overlay showing shot by shot comparison was pretty trick.

You shot 3.5” @ 50 yards on your first test. 2.0” on the second. I assume the wind cooperated some there. I wonder what your 50 yard agg would be if you shot through the same .200” backer at 25 yards.

Great work, thanks for the education. Much appreciated. Bill Cook.

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Bryan Austin posted this 3 weeks ago

I wonder what it would look like if I could actually shoot...LOL

I actually thought about 25, 50, 75, 100 and 200.

In the past, my 25 yard shots were about 1", Then the 50 at 2". With 100 being 4"...and my previous 200 yard shots chiming in at 8" inches, and even my 300 yard shots at 24 inches....seems pretty consistent for an amateur who casts, loads and shoots.

If I could learn to actually cast, load and shoot better, I think it would be extremely impressive for a 44-40 at 1,350fps loads.

Current results for general ranges.

25 yards - 1"

50 yards - 2"

100 yards - 4"

200 yards - 8"

300 yards - 24"

If I had private access to longer ranges, I might could try a lot more. If I can get a tree or two cut out of my way, I think I could pull off 200 yards or even 300 yards in the winter time where I can take my time and not be bothered.

44-40 Website -https://www.44-40.org