Post by Lee Martin on Jun 26, 2012 11:31:14 GMT -5
We've all heard about factory guns that won't shoot. No matter what the load, no matter how hard you work with it, no matter the amount of tinkering accuracy falls way short. I thought I had one of these when I purchased two Acusport Bisleys in 2003. One shot well from the start and even better once the throats were corrected. This one patterned like a shotgun out of the box.
Step one was to hone the throats to 0.4525". That helped a little but it still only held 5 - 6" off the bench @ 25 yards. Bullet weights from 250 - 360 were tried across a wide range of powders and velocities. Nothing seemed to help. Next up was a trigger job that set the pull to a crisp 2.5 lbs. A Belt Mountain pin was also installed. Marginal improvement was made but I still couldn't get groups under 4". I almost tore it down to go the 5-shot route with Pac Nor blank but tried one last thing. The forcing cone was re-cut to 11 degrees and I added some mild free-bore. I re-tested my two dozen or so load combinations and found it really liked 340 gr SSKs driven hard (20.0 of H110 is where I landed). From 2005 on that's all the gun saw, amassing nearly 6,000 rounds.
Over that time, one of two things (or maybe both) occurred: 1) I either improved as a shooter, or 2) The gun fire-lapped itself to better accuracy. By the time I hit 4,000 rounds it would place five shots in 1.5" at 25 yards and well under 3" at 50. Damn good for a factory aligned, factory barreled gun.
This past weekend I deviated a bit and tried Leadheads 335 grain LFN over 22.0 of H110. The Bisley liked this load just as much as the old SSK.
L to R - 335 grain recovered from the backdrop, empty Hornady 45 Colt case, loaded round:
5-shot group @ 25 yards:
5 shot group @ 50 yards:
So the moral of this story is don't be too quick to give up on a factory gun. Some take a lot of work, but in hindsight this one didn't. A trigger job, throats, mild free-bore, and a re-cut cone did wonders. The last step is being patient through load development. Eventually you'll find one it likes.
I hope this serves as inspiration for those of you waging similar accuracy battles.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"
Step one was to hone the throats to 0.4525". That helped a little but it still only held 5 - 6" off the bench @ 25 yards. Bullet weights from 250 - 360 were tried across a wide range of powders and velocities. Nothing seemed to help. Next up was a trigger job that set the pull to a crisp 2.5 lbs. A Belt Mountain pin was also installed. Marginal improvement was made but I still couldn't get groups under 4". I almost tore it down to go the 5-shot route with Pac Nor blank but tried one last thing. The forcing cone was re-cut to 11 degrees and I added some mild free-bore. I re-tested my two dozen or so load combinations and found it really liked 340 gr SSKs driven hard (20.0 of H110 is where I landed). From 2005 on that's all the gun saw, amassing nearly 6,000 rounds.
Over that time, one of two things (or maybe both) occurred: 1) I either improved as a shooter, or 2) The gun fire-lapped itself to better accuracy. By the time I hit 4,000 rounds it would place five shots in 1.5" at 25 yards and well under 3" at 50. Damn good for a factory aligned, factory barreled gun.
This past weekend I deviated a bit and tried Leadheads 335 grain LFN over 22.0 of H110. The Bisley liked this load just as much as the old SSK.
L to R - 335 grain recovered from the backdrop, empty Hornady 45 Colt case, loaded round:
5-shot group @ 25 yards:
5 shot group @ 50 yards:
So the moral of this story is don't be too quick to give up on a factory gun. Some take a lot of work, but in hindsight this one didn't. A trigger job, throats, mild free-bore, and a re-cut cone did wonders. The last step is being patient through load development. Eventually you'll find one it likes.
I hope this serves as inspiration for those of you waging similar accuracy battles.
-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Building carpal tunnel one round at a time"