If you remember, I bought a .50 cal Green Mountain barrel for my Thompson Renegade just before deer season opened last November. I was only able to sight it in before the deer season opened.
I took it to the range yesterday and fired about 40 balls. The barrel shoots almost the same hole at 50 yards. I can't tell you what kind of groups it is placing at a hundred yards, but towards the end, I put 10 out of 10 hits on a folgers coffee can at 100 yards with the factory iron sights. I was standing with my elbows resting on top of an ammo can on the bench.
The load was 70 grains of pyrodex a 4.90 speer round ball and .018 oxyoke patch. I ran a patch down the bore with T/C bore butter between shots. The barrel loaded easily and has a 1 in 70" twist ( I think, might be 1/66").
Those round balls sure are easier on the shoulder than the 370 grain conicals I've shot in the past and much cheaper as well. The Green mountain barrel has plenty of hunting accuracy for me, as even with my glasses, I don't see well enough to shoot any better.....
I shot my Savage 93R17 BVSS .17 hummer as well, but with +30 mile an hour winds my best group was only 7/8"........most were in the 3 inch range, 2 or three togather and a couple of flyers..... the wind was really gusting and I didn't learn a lot about the little .17 other than the wind really blows it around..........can't wait for next deer season as I now have a lot of confidence in the smoke pole, and still have 9 months to plink with it........
