Modern Scoped My Browning BPCR- A Sin For The Greater Good

[Shasta]

I have a lovely 1885 Browning BPCR single shot in caliber .40-65 that I occasionally enjoy using for Black Powder Cartridge Rifle silhouette shooting. It has a soule type rear vernier sight and a spirit level globe front sight. I have been fooling around with different bullets and primers for some time, but haven't had much luck finding that perfect load.
A friend with the same rifle said he was having good luck with a Lyman 410663 Snover bullet over 55 grains of FFFg Swiss powder and a Remington Large Pistol primer. He even went so far as to provide me with a can of powder, as well as primers and bullets to try it for myself (Yep, that's a good friend!). The load shot fair, but not better than others I had tried, but I did really like that bullet's rather streamlined shape. I shot up all the bullets he gave me, then borrowed the mold that he himself had also borrowed from a mutual friend. Now I could cast as many as I needed.
Part of my problem is that I no longer have the great eyesight I had 25 years ago, and I was having difficulty seeing the bulls-eye on my 8.5" x 11" paper targets through the iron sights at the 100 yard distance I was testing loads. It finally occurred to me that I had a set of modern scope mounts that came with the rifle when I bought it from the previous owner, and I had a Bushnell Banner 4-12x40 AO scope laying around. Why not put it on the rifle just long enough to reduce eyesight error in finding that perfect load?
My O my what a difference! Ordinarily I can't shoot a scoped gun very well, but given a sandbag rest I found the scope helped me a bunch to see that target! It hasn't been a fast project, and I tested a lot of loads, but this morning I shot the best target ever with this rifle. I used the Lyman 410663 bullet weighing 412 grains, sized .410 with homemade lube, one .060" vegetable fiber wad, and 60 grains Goex Cartridge grade powder ignited by a Remington Large Rifle Magnum primer to shoot an honest 3/4" five shot group at 100 yards! Can I do it again? I dunno, but I think that's good enough to at least take off that silly scope!
Too bad that Goex quit making Cartridge grade powder, but I have enough to last a while longer!






SHASTA

[guido4198]

I've done a similar thing with my Supermatch M1A for load development. When you're trying to reduce variables, and are already shooting from a good rest, mounting a scope really helps.
You didn't say too much about the particular issues you have with your vision. If it's the typical "old-eyes" syndrome, I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions.
My shooting glasses have been made by Bud Decot since 1978. They have removeable snap-in lenses. For competition, this feature allows me to change colors/shades depending upon ambient light and background conditions. When I first started noticing the onset of "aging-eyes"...and had to go to bifocals to read....I called them. They made up a strong-eye lense with less correction then I normally used. It allowed me to see the sights better. When used with my normal correction in the weak-side lense, and KEEPING BOTH EYES OPEN...that combo gave me a much improved sight picture. Your brain will figure it out. For another level of improvement, especially for match shooting, I have added a Merit Eye Disc.

Hope this helps.

[AJMD429]

I have an old 32x BSA scope with too small an objective to use in other than bright light, and the adjustments don't come back to starting point repeatably, BUT I find the scope useful whenever I want to temporarily scope a new gun I am trying to see the potential of.

I even put it on a couple 16" 357 leverguns at one point, and it helped me decide which one was worth putting the Williams FP sight on and which I may as well leave with the barrel-mounted sight. One gun shot 1.5" five shot groups off the bench and the other 3.0" - I'd have never been able to confidently tell that sort of difference with a low power scope or aperture sight and my old eyes. Probably not a huge difference therefore which gun I put the FP on, but it just seemed better to put it on the more accurate gun. With the FP I can almost always hit the 4" gong at 100 yards if using a rest, at least. Might be that the other 1.5 MOA of error with the other gun would make for more misses.

[Don McDowell]

Shasta pick up a can of the Olde Eysnford 2f, I think you might like it pretty well. I haven't shot any of it in the 40-65 yet, but it behaves so far much like Goex 3f express did, only cleaner. My wife's 40-65 really grooved on that Express and the snover or the rcbs csa 400.

Also Steve Earl, makes a base for these hiwalls, that uses the factory holes, but allows the 7.5 inch center spacing for the Malcolm type scopes.. The MVA B-5 with the Unertyl type rear mount might just be your huckleberry.

[Marc]

Nice shooting! A friend told me that Snover is the way to go for BPCR silhouette. It bucks the wind better. I ought to try it some day. I ought to do some load development period.

I tell the other shooters that can't find a good load that BPCR with open sights is an eye test. They would do better with a scope.

[Griff]

Great SHOOTIN"!

[Ben_Rumson]

Shasta...
BTDT for the same reasons Congrats on a well developed load