I've been trying to get to the range for the last two weeks. As soon as I had ammo loaded, etc. the weather got very bad.

On Monday, I had my annual eye exam. They dilated my eyes, and I couldn't see clearly enough to shoot for another 4 hours.

On Tuesday, the sun came out - sorta - and I loaded the van and headed out. A mile down the road I could see some 30 miles away to where the range is. "See" is only metaphorical. There were purple clouds obscuring the mountains where the range is. I turned back and headed home. An hour later it was hailing. Seriously.

Wednesday it's closed.

Today is Thursday.

It was going to be cold (38 F when I was at the range), but no rain predicted. I headed out in time to arrive right when it opened at 10AM. Except I took a wrong turn and drove 15 miles (2-way) out of the way. I still got there about 10 after 10. The wind was HOWLING. I put FIFTY POUNDS OF WEIGHT on the base of my target stand, and it still got blown over. The wind was slightly quartering from behind, so I 'pressed on'.

I started with the .25 Krag. Some of you may remember several years ago that my youngest did a class project in which she correlated bullet type and penetration. The cartridge she used was the .25 Krag. One of the bullets she used was a solid made by Barnes, https://www.midwayusa.com/product/519052/barnes-banded-solid-bullets-25-caliber-257-diameter-90-grain-spitzer-boat-tail-box-of-50  that they don't make anymore. (Barnes #25793) I had five cartridges left over from that work, and I figured I would use them to sight the rifle in. First shot (3126 f/s) didn't hit the paper target. I thought I saw a new hole 'low', so I adjusted the scope accordingly and shot the second round. It hit the target, now only about 8" low, and perfect windage (3142 f/s). Couldn't extract the cartridge. No amount of grunting or muscle could get it out. I put that rifle away and got out the .416x348 Win on the H&R receiver I recently built.

I attached the Magneto Speed and prepared to shoot. I had planned to use three of the cartridges I had loaded with 350-grain Speer Deep Curl (#4491) to "sight in", and then use the rest at 100 yd. The hammer wouldn't stay back in the kocked position. How many times have I fired this rifle, at least 100. AT LEAST. NEVER a problem with the trigger. 20 rounds fire-formed. Three live rounds fired. MANY MANY dry-fires. No problem. NOW, AT THE RANGE, the trigger doesn't want to work. I can make it work by pushing it forward while I kock the hammer. I fire all ten rounds I have with me. The Magneto Speed catches all of them, and the groups at 50 yards are VERY encouraging. I move on to the next rifle - the Remington rolling block chambered in 12.7x44R.

I have 20 rounds of four different bullets. Five each a flat-nosed jacketed, a HP jacketed, a cast "Minie", and a 'plain' cast. I load one of the flat-nosed jacketed and let fly. Haven't got a CLUE where the bullet went. Certainly didn't hit the target. Hmm... Case looks good, and at 1768 f/s, velocity is 'about right'. I load the second round and let fly. I see a piece of plastic fly downrange. Hmm.... what could that be from? The only possibility is the Magneto Speed. But, I checked for alignment after I attached it, and the first shot was fine. It looks OK. At first. Then I look closer. The front has been shot off (the bayonet). Destroyed. I have no idea what happened. All I can think is that maybe the bullet came out "wobbling" and hit it. Doesn't matter. Destroyed.

At that, I decided to quit while I was behind. I packed up and went home.

Really now. Doesn't it SEEM like there are FORCES working against me here? Good thing I'm not superstitious.

I will have a "range report" detailing the .416's data in the Reloading subdirectory. http://thehunterslife.com/forums//showthread.php?t=19937

Paul

Paul, the angel of luck pees in the frizzen of my musket very often too. Maybe we should change our names. ......Paul H

As j0e_bl0ggs put it, "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all".

I think I'm going to have to disassemble the receiver on the Krag to get the case out. I'll work on the H&R trigger today. I'm pretty sure I know what it is: A broken or misaligned spring. Remember the one I mentioned that did not have a recess to fit in? That's the one that returns the trigger to it's 'forward' position. I'm about 90% sure that's the problem. If it is, the question will be, "How do I prevent this from happening in the future?".

I also took the Anschutz chambered in .22 Hornet and the CZ-450 chambered in .22 Mag. Didn't even break them out of their cases.

Paul

So, I put the .25 Krag in the Tipton gun vise and removed the scope. Grabbed a 1/2" wooden dowel to use as a drift, and then blocked the lever "open". The first very light tap, and the breech block moved. It was trivial to get it the rest of the way open. In fact, it was surprisingly easy. The case came out with the light tap of a cleaning rod. All in all, everything a little 'too' easy. The case had a flattened primer, but the primer pocket is NOT enlarged. Overall, the case looks fine.  I'm wondering if this thing doesn't have a propensity for sticking cases. Hmm...

On to the H&R trigger.

Paul

:frown :angry:

"No problem" at home.

Took the forearm off. Took the barrel off. Pulled the hammer back. NO PROBLEM!

Tried it several times. No problem.

Put the barrel back on. Pulled the hammer back. No problem.

Put the forearm back on. Pulled the hammer back. NO PROBLEM!

I thought about "temperature" when I was at the range, but couldn't imagine that that was the problem. Still can't. But I have no idea WHAT the @#$%^&* problem IS!

Problem "fixed" - for the moment. Now will have to keep an eye on it. The good news is that even if not working properly, it can still be made to work in a "two-handed" operation. Since it's a single-shot, that's not as big an issue as it would be for a repeater.

Paul

I went back and checked my reloading log, and the first bullet out of the .416x.348 Win was NOT made by Hornady, but rather Speer. It was the Speer 350-grain "Deep Curl" (#4491).

The QuickLOAD estimated MV from this rifle with that load (50.62 grains of Accurate 2495), was 1941 f/s. The observed average was 1853. (Ignoring the "first two", the average is 1825 f/s.) That's basically 100 f/s 'slower' than predicted by QL.

For the Hawk 400-grain bullet the QuickLOAD estimated MV with that load (64.1 grains of Reloder-22), was 1845 f/s. Observed (average) was 1740. Again, that's basically 100 f/s 'slow'. Hmm... There may be a "temperature issue".

QL has an ambient temperature feature. Applying that feature, I get the following estimated MVs for the same loads:
350 Speer - 1902 f/s (temp corrected to 38F) vs 1825 observed. 77 f/s slow.
400 Hawk - 1797 f/s (temp corrected to 38F) vs 1740 observed. 57 f/s slow.

The 77 f/s change in the 2495 is 77/1941, or a 3.9% change.
The 47 f/s change in the RL-22 is 47/1845, or a 2.5% change.
That suggests that Accurate 2495 is more temperature sensitive than RL-22. If "you" recall, I ran into an issue with ignition on a sub-zero day at the range using 2495 in the .50 Alaskan. Hmm...

I'll have to think about this some.

Paul

Yes sometimes you have one of those days where everything you touch breaks, falls over or bites you :undecided:

Sounds like you are working your way through some of the root causes though.

Marcus