March 25th, 1860

[RanchRoper]

Nice sunny day with a 40 mph crosswind at the range, temperature at 38F. My one and only favorite old west rifle, the 1860 Henry in 45 Colt. Ammo today was my favorite, Winchester 250 gr LFN. Other ammo works fine too, Black Hills is good, never a misfeed in hundreds & hundreds of rounds, but this stuff is the most accurate. If I do my job, it will eat up targets. Meat on the table.

Factory open sights, and as always I shoot off hand standing. The wind was coming from the north today and blowing straight across the range so I started out with a warm up at 25 yds to see how much the wind factor would be. No wonder I usually have the range to myself, that wind is a real pain in the brass...

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Only took 1 box of 50 rounds with me, so 26 rounds (2 mag tubes) on the 25 yd board and the rest at 50 yds. 25 yds good , 50 yds not so much as I had a few flyers trying to steady my shot in that constant wind. At least they are all touching the black 8" circle, a couple just barely. Trying to keep my rifle straight and not tilt at all while shooting, I tend to lean it a little to the right as I bring it in tight to my shoulder sometimes and it throws me off.
Sure do love that 1860 time machine of mine though. Always makes me happy to shoot it. The 100 yard target was still buried in a snow drift, or I might have put a couple of rounds on it too just for the heck of it.

Next time....

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[PT7]

I often re-use my targets after a range visit.
You don't leave much chance of that, RR!
Great shooting again.

Are there days way up north when the wind is not called Maria?!?

[RanchRoper]

Visitors sometimes ask "Does it blow like this all the time?" ....and I say "Nope, sometimes it blows harder."...

Here on the eastern slope on the Rockies, that ol' wind picks up lots of momentum.

[RetiredSeabee]

Sweet shooting, wish I was there.

[JEBar]

Sweet shooting, wish I was there.

with "a 40 mph crosswind at the range, temperature at 38F" I'm glad I wasn't .. .. coupled with "The 100 yard target was still buried in a snow drift" and reading about it plus seeing the pictures is fine with me .. ..

[BigAl52]

I think I would need to use badger for a wind break. I couldnt even hold the gun still to put one on the target let alone what you did.

[RanchRoper]

If you use Badger right now, you'd get a faceful of hair! He is shedding out his winter coat and looks like an old buffalo right now.

[North Country Gal]

I think you could keep a camp of rail road workers in meat, RR, just like Buffalo Bill did at one point in his life. Most of us would be too chicken to even shoot in that kind of wind (or maybe just too cheap for fear of wasting ammo. ).

[RanchRoper]

Thank you. It's taken a while but I think I'm starting to know what the rifle will do in the various wind directions and speeds around here. Good point on wasting ammo, I have spent lots of cartridges getting to where I'm not afraid to tackle the adverse conditions. The next challenges are 100 yds and up, I would like to be able to get on the target more often than not at longer distances. Again, today I was working on:
- rifle straight up & down, no tilt
- breathing
- tight to the shoulder and not so much against my cheek
- trust the aim, and don't overthink it