Ranger 45
Well I have a tracking number for the Ranger 45 that was assembled, test fired, chronyed, and shipped today.
28 inch barrel, standard stock and black crerakote finish, $1230 dollars including shipping.
To early to get the arrival date, it is not in the system yet.
Chrony numbers were:
Round ball. low setting 3000 PSI……1018 FPS
225………. low setting 3000 PSI……..877 FPS
405 shot 1 hi setting 4500 PSI………804 FPS
340 shot 2 hi setting 4500 PSI………843 FPS
These numbers will improve by 30 to 50 FPS as the rifle breaks in.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Springfield is known affectionatley as Springtucky due to the redneck trailer trash atmosphere of the area, opposed to the acid head stoner look of the inhabitants of neighboring Euuuugeen.
I think that about describes does it not Butcher?
Anyway, I found the Gun Works and lots of black powder rifles, even a Sharps Borschardt Miltary in pretty good shape.
So I bought a bag of 50 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets at about twice what you get them from Oregon Trail, but I did that in case they don’t shoot and I am forced to hood wink Dan and sell him bullets that fly sideways. 😆
Then I took the Mrs out to dinner and dancing.
This morning I was ready to test the 300 grainers. I started off with high and low, High gave me 850 with a 4500 fill, obviously too light a bullet for high, because 385’s give the same velocity. I tried low 3500 PSI and got 730, not interested.
So I removed both the high and low setting screw and put one in the middle postiion, filled to 4500 got valve lock at 770, the next shot was 798, then 820 then 810 then 790. Now were talking, not a bad plinking load. I kept messing with it and could get 3 shots in the 800 FPS range with a 3800 fill.
So I put them on paper and found that I get in the area of 3 inch groups for 8 shots at 50 yards with 3 fills. At the time my wind flags were standing on end with a cross wind, and honestly my Condor would shoot a 3 inch group in that wind, not the best conditions. It was really rocking those big Doug firs, but that load would kill big game at 75 yards all day long.
If I filled too high, 4500 to 4200 PSII would get shots that were high on the target, so too much pressure yields shots out of the group it seems.
Still the 385 grain HP’sat that range is a 1.5 inch gun all day long with two shot groups.
I may not like the quality of Vogels HP’s but they are still the King of accuracy and FPE so far.
But I do have that 425 grain mold coming.
Regards,
Roachcreek
You can easily tell that the toothbrush was invented in Springfield. If it were invented anywhere else, it would be called a teethbrush. The reason so many hippies move to Eugene, is that they hear there is no work there.
Nice ol’ gunshop, huh? Some classy old rifles in there.
Yea 300grains@800fps would make for a nice pleasant “plinking” load lol! Those are the LaserCast Oregon Trail stuff, right? About BHN16.
You didn’t happen to shoot any of those 260’s thru the chrony on medium did you? Those are close to pure lead……I’m really curious what affect boolit alloy hardness has on velocity in this rifle. Accuracy, too.
Dan,
You got it all wrong the people that are smarter than us and really like you to know that, live and post on the yellow forum.
I would like to start on my stock and remove about a 3rd of the wood.
I would like to make it into more of a classic stock, complete with a shadow or a bead cheekpiece, and slim down the pistol grip area.
It really reminds me of my old MIA Super Match which is not a bad thing, just too heavy.
I will order some of the 360’s pretty soon, and I hope to get my mold in soon, should be here this next week. I seems my gun realy likes the heavy bullets, which is fine by me.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Springtucky ! HA ! HA ! HA ! i go down in that area off and on to do deliveries down there , Eugene is liberal heaven , it’s where all the educated people live that are better than us and smarter than us , but yet they still can’t figure out how to balance a budget ! HA !
i talked to a math teacher he told me how bad off they have it and how these budget cuts were effecting his income , so i looked up the public records and found out this clown went from $45,000 in 2006 to around 65,000 and change in 2010 ! a around -48 percent increase in pay in 4 years ! !
No wonder our kids don’t do so well this guy can’t get his math or story straight ! WOW !
back to the gun stuff , looks like those 300 g shot pretty good , i bet these 250 g laser cast OT ones i bought , will shoot good using low-mid power out of the 36inch barrel or the 28inch that you have Charlie ,
i have been messing with the finish on my stock today , i put the first coat of west systems 205 epoxy with 207 clear hardner mixed together on it , and WOW ! did that ever bring it to life ,
i will be doing 3-4 coats on this gun , for a rock hard finish , that is also salt water proof , you have to apply it by brush sand between coats , then do a 1500 grit sand on the final coat and then polish it out , this is the best most durable finish you can put on a wood/fiberglass boat. very strong, it’s basically the resin used for clear carbin fiber applications also,
p
Well I took the wife to Springfield and we drove around looking at Springfield princesses. Gals on a crash diet and missing teeth.
Springfield is known affectionatley as Springtucky due to the redneck trailer trash atmosphere of the area, opposed to the acid head stoner look of the inhabitants of neighboring Euuuugeen.
I think that about describes does it not Butcher?
Anyway, I found the Gun Works and lots of black powder rifles, even a Sharps Borschardt Miltary in pretty good shape.
So I bought a bag of 50 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets at about twice what you get them from Oregon Trail, but I did that in case they don’t shoot and I am forced to hood wink Dan and sell him bullets that fly sideways. 😆
Then I took the Mrs out to dinner and dancing.
This morning I was ready to test the 300 grainers. I started off with high and low, High gave me 850 with a 4500 fill, obviously too light a bullet for high, because 385’s give the same velocity. I tried low 3500 PSI and got 730, not interested.
So I removed both the high and low setting screw and put one in the middle postiion, filled to 4500 got valve lock at 770, the next shot was 798, then 820 then 810 then 790. Now were talking, not a bad plinking load. I kept messing with it and could get 3 shots in the 800 FPS range with a 3800 fill.
So I put them on paper and found that I get in the area of 3 inch groups for 8 shots at 50 yards with 3 fills. At the time my wind flags were standing on end with a cross wind, and honestly my Condor would shoot a 3 inch group in that wind, not the best conditions. It was really rocking those big Doug firs, but that load would kill big game at 75 yards all day long.
If I filled too high, 4500 to 4200 PSII would get shots that were high on the target, so too much pressure yields shots out of the group it seems.
Still the 385 grain HP’sat that range is a 1.5 inch gun all day long with two shot groups.
I may not like the quality of Vogels HP’s but they are still the King of accuracy and FPE so far.
But I do have that 425 grain mold coming.
Regards,
Roachcreek
I bought some 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets this afternoon and I will try them tomorrow. I found them in bags of 50, which is just right to try and see if they shoot well. I am thinking perhaps the middle power setting.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Charlie good choice i hope , ya shoot those on mid power let’s see how they do , good idea , i hope this works good ,
DH
I bought some 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets this afternoon and I will try them tomorrow. I found them in bags of 50, which is just right to try and see if they shoot well. I am thinking perhaps the middle power setting.
Regards,
Roachcreek
From the low power chrony strings you’ve provided that equal the 4 3/4 .45Colt, the outlook for medium power looks promising, and almost predictable.
You got a pretty tight variance in those low-power strings, that was consistent, and repeatable in fps with those fills despite being 100+psi different in fill pressure. I like the idea of 260-300-or-so grainers in this rifle on medium power for a couple/few shots at around 900-950+fps for a fairly flat/precise shooter that will effectively put down just about everything that walks the lower .48
I’m hoping most of those Devastators are round .452 they have been moved around a bit over the years. I got them from BlakJackHill while the getting was good……back before they went out of business a few years ago.
They expand well in deer@around 940fps, as a friend of mine killed two does in Missouri using Devastators out of his Gargoyle. One was a (?headshot?) mercy kill (doe caught in fence) where I think the slug was not recovered, the recovered slug (I think) came from the second deer and was found just under the off side hide from a broadside shot, was fully peeled-back in symmetrical fashion, and was about a .74caliber mushroom. The ones in these pictures were shot from my Sam Yang at around 740-750fps into saturated phone books, and plastic bags full of straight water.
Yeah I know, but Marvin has a different twist, I really don’t know why these don’t shoot well Dan, the 229 shot well in my gun.
I bought some 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets this afternoon and I will try them tomorrow. I found them in bags of 50, which is just right to try and see if they shoot well. I am thinking perhaps the middle power setting.
Regards,
Roachcreek
there are quite a few big bore guys having good results with the Oregon Trail 452-200 -300 grain laser cast stuff , that gun should shoot those good at low-med power , i will have my gun shooting next weekend if all goes well , and will test the 250g rn fp , their is a guy on the NZ forum that has the ranger 36inch barrel he is getting a hole through a hole with the lighter stuff , so it does in fact work , i believe Marvin’s gun has the same type of barrel and he shoots the lighter stuff very well .
What power level were you using?
I think those slugs may be to front-heavy (same with those flat nose 200grainers). Looks like their good for chrony readings/figuring out fill pressures, and that is about it.
I wouldn’t buy a 500 box of anything (again) until I have proven the design to be accurate first. To many folks out there willing to send samples to try in your own rifle.
Butcher,
Seems they are in the “may not be” accuracy column.
I fired 7 shots, there was one off the paper to the left at 50 yards, I had taken 15 bullets but stopped shooting before I got thru them.
I went back to the house and got the last 4 of the 385 grain bullets to shoot for a comparison to make sure the scope or something had not gone astray on me. The group to the left is those four shot with two 4500 fills.
Seems it may not like light bullets or light bullets and soft alloy or maybe just that design.
Glad I have not bought a 500 ct box of 250 grainers tho.
Regards,
Roachcreeek
I started at 4000 PSi, and had valve lock on low power, I shot one a high power to hasten the decrease in air pressure and got 980 FPS.
Once I got down to 3400 PSI my three shot strings were 840-880-840 and seem to be repeatable after three such strings. The pressure left after shooting is 2800 PSI, so that is about 200 PSI per shot, which is pretty ecomonical for this rifle.
Roachcreek
Sounds promising as far as a solid three shot string with 260grainers goes. 200psi per shot with that power sounds very efficient to me. I have no idea how accurate those may/may not be at 50 yards.
I am curious about medium power also, it is easy enough to find out.
If your running too much air, Dan says you hear it in the report and you will see lower velocity readings.
Yesterday once I got the chrony set up correctly, I got into the 900 range with the 229 weight, I will try those 200 grain bullets of yours again, I think I was way too high on the pressure.
It appears from what I have seen and heard from Dan, the way to do this is to pick a bullet weight, then raise PSI until the velocity starts to drop, or at least that is how you do it on low power, I assume medium power is the same way.
When I tried to shoot 200’s at 4500 on low that is exactly what happened, I shot and did not see a hole in the target, the chrony was in the low 400’s, so I shot again, and that time I saw the bullet arc out and drop in front of the target and bounce up into it.
Typical PCP performance when PSI is too high/hammer impact too low. What I was trying to see was if I could get a long string with light bullets and indeed I did get along string, if you can live with 400 to 900 and back down. 😆
So on low power I am now at 3800 the first shot is 912 the second in the 960 range, in the weight range, I would need to keep raising velocity until the second shot is more powerful than the first, then I will have a three shot power curve.
On High power you don’t get a curve, you just increase pressure I guess until the hammer does not open the valve efficiently or you run our of balls to go higher. 😯
Butcher, I have not opened all those bullets you sent me,but did not cast yourself, do you know how many 260’s there are in there?
What I am going to do from here on out is to get the power curve, then I will test for accuracy. And right now I am going to dig into those bullets you sent and find out how many of the 260’s I have to work with and get started.
The chrony problem I had was a set back, but I did find out about accuracy, heavier so far seems to be better.
I have also learned or I should say unlearned some stuff with this rifle, we are used to shooting 5 shot groups, your wasting your time doing that with this gun, heavy bullets will only really give you two shots, lighter ones really only give you 3. I could learn to use the balistic plex and make adjustments in the field with it for drop and perhaps get one or two more shots, or I could learn to fill with my Pygmee bottle faster so I coud get faster repeat shots.
Important thing is and as Dan pointed out when we were talking yesterday about his quest for a magazine for the rilfe, you usually only get one shot in the hunting fields at game, a second one can be used if the first one has made the animal very sick, but if you miss an elk the first shot where I hunt at the ranges were talking about that are useful with this rifle, that elk is going to be gone.
So I will stick with two shot groups for the Heavies and three shot groups for the lighter bullets, I will just repeat the process to see if there is repeatability that can be depended upon after refilling each time.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Yea….a difference of 100-200fps can surely have an affect on the accuracy of some designs. I got those 200grain flat noses to sample from a cowboy action caster that had a custom mold made. Very close to the BigLube JP design with a slightly different nose. They were to small a diameter for my barrel.
I sent 50 of the 260’s, and have 150-200 or so more here. Also sent 50 of the .454 EPP?UG’s. I didn’t have a real big stash of Devastators but I sent you as many as I could let go of. It helps having at least 50 of a given design for testing optimum fill pressures, chrony strings/accuracy.
Don’t forget to lay down a folded towel, or something soft to empty the slugs from the styrofoam onto. Them pure lead bases sure do dent easy!
Btuchers 260 grain bullets, which he did not cast. 😛
I shot these at a target 20 yards out while resting against the rear corner of my Explorer. I had put them in a bag lubed with white lithium grease to lube them.
Not the best of rests, but level with the Chrony 10feet out.
I started at 4000 PSi, and had valve lock on low power, I shot one a high power to hasten the decrease in air pressure and got 980 FPS.
Once I got down to 3400 PSI my three shot strings were 840-880-840 and seem to be repeatable after three such strings. The pressure left after shooting is 2800 PSI, so that is about 200 PSI per shot, which is pretty ecomonical for this rifle.
The chronys alingment with the target had to be reset after 6 shots, at 10 feet the air hitting it moved it off center with the target, and I had the adjustments locked in pretty tight.
The group was around 1 inch for all the shots, but again this was not a benchrest postition, I will now go and test it for accuracy at 50 yards.
But for now, it appears the 22 inch barreled Ranger 45 on low power with a 3400 PSI fill is @ 4 5/8’s 45 LC levels for 3 shots.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Butcher,
I plan on trying that tomorrow, just too windy today to have fun here.
Regards,
Roachcreek