Well TTurner and I went out for our annual "who's better" shoot. I choose the "Antique Military Rifle" Postal. I shot a 1897 dated Finn M39, he shot a Trap Door Springfield. My loads were carefully worked up: everything weighed, sized and seated within my ability to be consistent (311299, @314 with the top band at 311, 17 gr Al 2400,a WLR and 0.001 neck "tension"). Tim did his usual of a handful of this and that and maybe a dead cat or two, mixed in just for fun. Anyway when we started out, we shot the first two targets and he was holding on the frame and got a decent hand sized group. On my two targets there were about six out of 10 shots, in a wide pattern, the rest not on the paper. Well it looks like the match is over. Well we shot the next two targets and his groups get even better, my first target is not great but at least the five shots are on the target. The next target has four shots in 1" and the fifth shot not in the group (maybe two in the same hole, but I wouldn't put money on that). When we collect the targets I get a how the hell do you go from that to this? If I felt that I was being slapdash, uncaring or just plain lazy I might expect to see such results. But when you put that much effort into shooting accurately, you expect to shoot accurately. Tim thought I had a rifle that was too clean and it took 30 shots to settle in. I checked the bullet hardness and they were ~15 BHN with AL gas checks, However there were a couple of lots and I did not check every bullet. Oh well, any day at the range is better than one at work. If any theories arise (other than Dave you suck) come up, let me know.
Thanks,
Dave