The GP Flintlock Shoot (7 Target Pictures)

[Semisane]

My plan Sunday afternoon was to just have a fun shoot with the .54 Great Plains flintlock. But my anal nature took over and I ended up conducting a little velocity experiment.

The temperature here Sunday was in the mid 70s, but it was humid - I mean really humid. About five seconds after each shot the fouling in the flintlock's pan turned to wet black soup and I had to dry the pan every time just before loading the prime. Iwas working up a sweatjust walking to the 50-yard target and back. I had a towel with me and had to dry my face just before each shot or my glasses would fog up when I leaned against the stock.

I often use a wonder wad under the ballwhen shooting the GP, but I decided not to use a wad when I startedshooting. The most accurate light & heavy loads for this gun have always been65 grains and95 grains of GOEX FFFg under a .535 ball with a .016 patch. Since I was "just playing around" I loaded up with 65 grains and shot the first target. I used my standard procedure of rubbing the patch in my lube mixture of25% bees wax / 25% Crisco / 50% olive oil just before loading.

Here's the target.





That's pretty much what I've come to expect from this load at 50 yards. Then I got to wondering what kind of velocity that65 grains of powder were giving me. So I got the chronograph out and shot another target with the same load. Here it is.






This second group wasn't as nice as the first one, even though overall group size was about the same. I was a little surprised at the 1313 fps average. I expected something less than that with only 65 grains.
I was wiping the bore with both sides of one dry patch between all shots on the first two targets (and all of the other targets below). Because of the humidity the fouling in the bore was soft enough that I didn't bother with a damp patch.

Well, having started down the road to nutsville, I left the chrono in place and shot another round with ten more grains of powder. Here's the 75 grain target.





The average velocity jumped up almost exactly 100 fps with that 10 grain increase in powder. But the group was so bad it shockedme. A front was moving in and gusty winds were shaking the tops of the pine trees on both sides of the range, but the brush down on the forest floor was not moving that much. I doubt I can blame the wind. Maybe I was loosing concentration on loading technique - consistent amount of lube on the patch, loading pressure, etc. So I don't know if the 75 grain load is that bad or my shooting suddenly went to hell. I probably should have shot another 75 grain group to prove that target, but I didn't.

Next up - 85 grains of powder. Here's the target.






Another 90 fps jump in velocity with this load. OK, I'll take credit for that low shot. [:@]

Next up - 95 grains of powder. This is my standard hunting load with this gun. Ithas always been pretty accurate. Incidentally, this was the only load I had ever shot over the chronograph with the flintlockprior the this range session.

Here's the target.






Yep! I smiled at that one. I just checked my target file.I chronographed this load was backon September 28th.I was using a wonder wad under the ball at that timeandgot a five shot average of 1543 fps.


Well, I've gone this far, may as well go up two more steps. Onward to 105 grains!!! Here's the target.





That's about what I've gotten in the pastwhen I used a charge over 100 grains. This group may be a tad larger, but not much.
Velocity jumped only about 70 fps.

One last target- 115 grains of powder. Here it is.






Yep. Been there - done that. Typical "over 100 grain" group. DANG! I forgot to transfer the velocity data to the target (it's on my note pad at the camp).

Anyway, it was a fun shoot. NO DRYBALLS! However, I did think I might have dryballed once. I had a flash in the pan. Now this gun never does that - if the pan flashes the gun goes bang. So I re-primed and had another flash in the pan. Now I'm thinking "DANG YOU BRONKO - DRYBALLED"! But I put the ramrod down the bore and the witness mark told me the gun was loaded properly. So I dried the touch hole with a Q-tip and poked a wire through the hole and she went boom on the next try.

[flounder33]

It looks like you had a great day shooting. Do you always shoot 3f in that .54?
Art

[hunting junkie]

Looked like alot of fun,sorry you had to use a towel.

[cayugad]

I expected more velocity from 3f powder then what you were getting. Also it appears that 90 grains is almost your point of diminished returns. Look at the slight increase in velocity after that.

Those two loads you have are great shooters. Also a little trick I use so you don't get them two flashes and no boom... I slide a hairy pipe cleaner into the vent hole, and lower the frizzen on it. Then load it. Open the frizzen, SLOWLY draw the pipe cleaner out, and then prime and shoot. That pipe cleaner opens that vent hole, and gets everything just working smooth.

[Semisane]

Do you always shoot 3f in that .54?

I have shotFFg out of it Flounder, but not much. When I got the gun in Dec '07I had about a half pound of FFg and a half pound of FFFg on hand, and I shot both of those up pretty quick. I found accuracy about the same but the FFFg was a little cleaner shooting and seemed tome to be faster in the pan (the FFg worked fine in the pan though).I bought a case of FFFg in April '08 and have been shooting that ever since. I figured it would be more versatile and have used it in the Renegade, the Zouave, the New Englander, and both of my in-lines. I have about three and a half cansleft.

[Semisane]

That pipe cleaner trick looks like a good one Cayugad. But in all honesty, it wouldn't likely be worth the trouble for me. I have over 500 shots out of this gun, almost always in 25 to 50 shot strings. It's dead reliableso long as the flint is in decent shape and tight in the cock. That was only the second time I've had a flash in the pan. That's why I figured I had dryballed the sucker.

I have an RMC touch hole liner in the gun. It has a pretty large touch holewhich probably is responsible for the gun's reliability, but may also be the reason the velocities are lower that what you expected. Would alarger touch hole make that much difference? Has anyone ever seen a comparison of velocities with different size touch holes?

[bronko22000]

Well Semisane - that is a very interesting report. That 95 gr load looks like its close to the sweet spot. Next time out you should try 90 and 100 grjust tosee what happens. And, Besides Dave's trick with the pipe cleaner, before you start shooting, wipe the pan out with alcohol first to get any trace oil off of it. See if that helps with the black gook. That is nasty looking stuff. And a BP shooter's nightmare.
Good job.

[mountaineer magic]

That's some pretty good shooting. Sorry you worked up a sweat. I know what that's like. I was sweating today too. I worked up a sweat wading through waist high snow and trying to dig the van out of the driveway. I finally gave up and handed the shovel to the wife.

[Semisane]

I finally gave up and handed the shovel to the wife.

I would think the heat generated by that move would pretty well take care of all the snow in your driveway.

[cayugad]

It snowed here today also but nothing too bad. I have so much work to do around the house, I don't think I will be shooting too much for a while. I might have to set a day or two a week as off says just for shooting.