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Recently I acquired a little Outschar single shot rifle with a very nice bore. Proof marks are literally non-existent so my assumption is that it is pre-1891. Top rifle, shown with one of my drillings for perspective of how petite this little things is.
I'd tried several loads with various smokeless powders and a few different black powders along with two different bullets. One from Mike Ford being the 512 H&G bullet at about 215 grs. and one from one of my Accurate molds at 200 grs. Caliber is 9.3 and collath found a 360 X 2 7/16 that is quite close....so it may be a variation of that or a proprietary cartridge by Outschar. I truly don't know. Cases are made from shortened, trimmed 9.3 X 72R cases and work great.
The best BP load had been 61 grs. of Scheutzen Fffg with the Accurate mold bullet but it just wasn't consistent after the first two shots. Upon cleaning the bore I noticed that the last 1/4 of the barrel, toward the muzzle, had pretty hard fouling. Seemed to me the bullet was running out of lube. Next loads I dropped the powder charge to 58 grs. and used a grease cookie between two .020 card wads. Things looked up yet again. Last night I went through my old notes from my Sharps long range shooting days and saw that I always indexed the bullet to the case and the cartridge in the chamber. For my next 5 loads I did that. I also thought my lube was a bit hard so I warmed up the tin I make it in and added some more castor oil to soften it.
Here's the results. This little rifle DOES NOT like a clean bore so the 1st shot went into the 5 ring at bout 7 o'clock. Next 3 went into the 10 ring. Now my eyes are fuzzing out and the sun has moved from behind a tree and is shining on the front sight. 5th shot was called into the 7 ring at 1 o'clock. Discounting the fouling shot and with the called shot the group measures 2 3/4 with 3 inside 7/8 in. Not too shabby for a 130 yr. old rifle with BP and cast bullets....and a fat old Prussian pulling the trigger!!! Shots were fired from 50 yards, open sights, off a bench using a front rest and butt bag.
I'd tried several loads with various smokeless powders and a few different black powders along with two different bullets. One from Mike Ford being the 512 H&G bullet at about 215 grs. and one from one of my Accurate molds at 200 grs. Caliber is 9.3 and collath found a 360 X 2 7/16 that is quite close....so it may be a variation of that or a proprietary cartridge by Outschar. I truly don't know. Cases are made from shortened, trimmed 9.3 X 72R cases and work great.
The best BP load had been 61 grs. of Scheutzen Fffg with the Accurate mold bullet but it just wasn't consistent after the first two shots. Upon cleaning the bore I noticed that the last 1/4 of the barrel, toward the muzzle, had pretty hard fouling. Seemed to me the bullet was running out of lube. Next loads I dropped the powder charge to 58 grs. and used a grease cookie between two .020 card wads. Things looked up yet again. Last night I went through my old notes from my Sharps long range shooting days and saw that I always indexed the bullet to the case and the cartridge in the chamber. For my next 5 loads I did that. I also thought my lube was a bit hard so I warmed up the tin I make it in and added some more castor oil to soften it.
Here's the results. This little rifle DOES NOT like a clean bore so the 1st shot went into the 5 ring at bout 7 o'clock. Next 3 went into the 10 ring. Now my eyes are fuzzing out and the sun has moved from behind a tree and is shining on the front sight. 5th shot was called into the 7 ring at 1 o'clock. Discounting the fouling shot and with the called shot the group measures 2 3/4 with 3 inside 7/8 in. Not too shabby for a 130 yr. old rifle with BP and cast bullets....and a fat old Prussian pulling the trigger!!! Shots were fired from 50 yards, open sights, off a bench using a front rest and butt bag.
? Recoil isn't bad really, even off a rest. It roars pretty good and let's you know you let off something but it's typical black powder recoil, a push instead of a snap. Given the firing pin striking the primers at an angle they look pretty beat up...but that seems to be the norm with angled firing pins. That and this rifle has the larger black powder firing pin so there's a bit more energy from it I suppose. Pressures cannot be high. That drilling is the one that has evidently been rechambered and I use the Krag case. It isn't the 360 X 57 it's stamped.
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