Was out shooting the Optimas today

[BCall]

Had a good time, and I think I have the loads for deer season starting on Sat. I really like Blackhorn 209. It shoots great in my rifles. I've had better groups and less cleanup since I started using it. I'm hooked. First up was my .50 Optima Elite. I have been wanting to try the Hornady FPB's that I got off of clearance last year. After trying different charge weights, I settled on 95 gr volume that seemed to shoot the best. I am only able to shoot at 60 yds here at my house, hopefully tomorrow I will get to test at 100 meters at my dads place if it doesn't rain. This was one of my last groups I shot after settling on the charge. 3 shot groups, I shot 3 more groups just like this one so it was very consistent.

Then I shot my sons .45 Optima Elite. I forgot to wipe the oil out of the barrel before the first shot, so it went a little wild, then I proceded to shoot 4 groups of 3 shots just like this one in the pic. Stuck with the 80 gr charge of BH209, I don't think I can do any better. You can see the first shot high and left. I was amazed how well it shot with the 200gr Hornady SST's. I mean it shot 3 more groups identical to this one, and I never once swabbed a barrel all day!

Then I worked on my best friends Optima "Magnum" in .50. It doesn't shoot as well as the OE's, but it still did a decent job. 85 gr of BH209 gave groups like this or a little bigger. This is the best one I got from it, but still respectable I think. As good as mine did with the FPB's, but my OE will do pretty much what my sons .45 did if I feed it 200 gr SHockwaves as well. I just need to use up the FPB's first, and I wanted to try one on a deer.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get them wrung out at 100. Thanks for reading all of this! Billy

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

damn awesome shooting! Except for that group with your friends optima magnum. Looks like it still needs some tinkering 

[BCall]

Thanks bigblock! I just wanted to make a small update. A few weeks ago before deer season started I was able to work the Optima's out at 100 meters, and had decent results. Not as good as I had hoped, but maybe I was just shooting a bit worse than I had previously. I am still very satisfied though, as I was able to get all 3 to average 1-1/4" or less before I was done. Here is one of the average targets from the .50 OE shooting the Hornady FPB's and 95 gr BH209. This one measure 1.15".

The .45 really struggled. I'm not sure what I was doing differently, I tried to be as exact as I was from the first go round, but the .45 did not want to cooperate with the 80 gr charge of BH. It was vertically stringing shots up to 6" groups. When I started increasing charge weight, it decreased, and when I reached 95 gr, I was shooting less than 1-1/4" groups. Not sure what I changed, but the increased charge weights shot great, while the lower ones would not. But when everything finally settled, I tried my hand at shooting the 200 meter silhouette chicken at my dads range. I was able to hit it consistently with all 3 guns with not that much holdover. Holding on the back of a deer should make it able for me to take one out to 200 yds. I was satisfied when I finally finished.

And as a final note, I was able to take my first deer with a muzzleloader. Using the 50 OE and the Hornady FPB's, I took a button buck at 130 paces, estimated 125 yards( at 6'5" my paces are kinda long). Perfect broadside shot, clean through, split the heart in 2. Went down like a stone. Probably the first deer I have ever shot that had zero bloodshot meat except a little on the ribs which i don't keep anyway. Not a big buck, but I am happy that I was able to take one with the muzzleloader, and very happy about the performance. Hopefully I will get an opportunity at a nice buck during the actual muzzleloader season here in a couple of weeks.  Thanks, Billy