Post by spence on Sept 9, 2021 15:24:53 GMT -7
Well, I shot her.
I had a shooting session with the Buchele rifle this afternoon. Had to do it, and I’m glad I did. It feels like my gun, now, and I think Jack would have liked that.
I had decided I would consider hunting with it, but only if I could get it sighted in to my satisfaction without too much trouble. Strange as it may seem, that was easier than I could have imagined, and there hangs the tale. I picked up an antler measure about a week ago and had a sudden flash of memory. When Jack got the gun it came with a shot pouch, an unusual one, kind of what you would expect of Buchele. Jack wasn’t interested in the pouch, so he gave it to me. When I opened it, there were a lot of leather scraps and some thongs made of the same leather as the pouch. There was also a neat antler powder measure, so I made it part of my kit and have been using it for a lot of years. When I began to consider sighting the rifle in I planned to use 70 grains of 3F. When I picked up that measure recently it suddenly dawned on me, that powder measure was the one from Buchele’s pouch, and it holds 70 grains of 3F. That immediately raised the question...why did Buchele send that particular measure with the bag? Could it be that he had worked up a load and settled on that? Did that mean he had already sighted the rifle in? As you can imagine, I was chomping at the bit to fire that first shot and see if my detective work was on the mark. It was. The very first shot I fired today was the one in the 1” black bull from 25 yards, rest. Bill Buchele did good work.
A charge of 70 grains 3F gives a muzzle velocity of about 1950 fps. Zeroed at 25 yards it will be 0.2” low at 50, 1.5” low at 75 and 4.3” low at 100. That’s point and shoot up to 75 yards, bad medicine for any whitetail.
I loaded 70 grains 3Fg, one 1/8” felt wad, a .440” Hornady swaged ball in a .010” cotton patch lubed with my homemade beeswax and lard lube. No problems with the shooting. The gun feels heavy, but is well balanced. The length of trigger pull is too short for me at 13 1/4”, and the trigger is very heavy but manageable.
I guess I outsmarted myself. The sighting in wasn't "too much trouble", so now I guess I'll have to hunt with it. Drat.
It has been months since I did an outing, this was a good one to break the hex.
Spence
I had a shooting session with the Buchele rifle this afternoon. Had to do it, and I’m glad I did. It feels like my gun, now, and I think Jack would have liked that.
I had decided I would consider hunting with it, but only if I could get it sighted in to my satisfaction without too much trouble. Strange as it may seem, that was easier than I could have imagined, and there hangs the tale. I picked up an antler measure about a week ago and had a sudden flash of memory. When Jack got the gun it came with a shot pouch, an unusual one, kind of what you would expect of Buchele. Jack wasn’t interested in the pouch, so he gave it to me. When I opened it, there were a lot of leather scraps and some thongs made of the same leather as the pouch. There was also a neat antler powder measure, so I made it part of my kit and have been using it for a lot of years. When I began to consider sighting the rifle in I planned to use 70 grains of 3F. When I picked up that measure recently it suddenly dawned on me, that powder measure was the one from Buchele’s pouch, and it holds 70 grains of 3F. That immediately raised the question...why did Buchele send that particular measure with the bag? Could it be that he had worked up a load and settled on that? Did that mean he had already sighted the rifle in? As you can imagine, I was chomping at the bit to fire that first shot and see if my detective work was on the mark. It was. The very first shot I fired today was the one in the 1” black bull from 25 yards, rest. Bill Buchele did good work.
A charge of 70 grains 3F gives a muzzle velocity of about 1950 fps. Zeroed at 25 yards it will be 0.2” low at 50, 1.5” low at 75 and 4.3” low at 100. That’s point and shoot up to 75 yards, bad medicine for any whitetail.
I loaded 70 grains 3Fg, one 1/8” felt wad, a .440” Hornady swaged ball in a .010” cotton patch lubed with my homemade beeswax and lard lube. No problems with the shooting. The gun feels heavy, but is well balanced. The length of trigger pull is too short for me at 13 1/4”, and the trigger is very heavy but manageable.
I guess I outsmarted myself. The sighting in wasn't "too much trouble", so now I guess I'll have to hunt with it. Drat.
It has been months since I did an outing, this was a good one to break the hex.
Spence
