I finally got the barrel of my fifteen-year-old BF cut back from 15" to 12" to use for Hunter's Pistol competition. I mounted a Leupold 3x9 VX-II scope and loaded up a bunch of Sierra 75HPs on top of a handful of different pistol powders. The two standouts were AA-5 and AA-7, particularly the former. No chrono data yet but groups with 6.0 grains of AA-5 were 0.37" at 50 yards and 0.82" at 100. 7.0 grains of AA-7 gave groups only slightly larger.
I'll use the AA-5 because recoil was a tiny bit less but mostly because the power burned much cleaner - virtually zero residue. AA-7 had a little powder ash left in the case and bore which could fall back and gum up the tight BF action. With its outstanding trigger this is clearly a 40 target pistol - I'm just not a 40 target shooter.
