ORIGINAL: randyh
Just a question - saw elsewhere the advice to never go hunting with a "clean" barrel. The author was stating that best accuracy is obtained from a slightly fouled barrel, and that in his experience quite often the first shot from a cleaned, dry barrel, would result in a flier that could be off as much as 8 inches at 100yds. Anyone care to cooment on this?
I've seen that occasional comment from time to time over the years but havenever experienced it with a houseful of TC Hawkens over 15+ years...I always sight in a hunting rifle with a cold clean barrel just like it will be for hunting, butfrankly any followon shots print the same way as the first...and the good news is, if I don't take a shot while hunting that day,when I get home I simply pull the load, run a lubed patch down the still clean bore, and set the rifle back in the rack in a warm house.
After all the care and attention I give my my muzzleloaders to keep them in pristine clean and lubed condition,the LAST thing in the world I ever dois intentionally foul the bore, then carry around a fouled rifle all day.
Foranyonewho experiences that rare phenomenon you mentioned, it might be best tolook at otherpossibilitieslike type of lube, amount of lube, etc, rather than intentionally fouling the bore...I use Natural Lube 1000 heavily as bore lube and patch lube....when I go to the range on Saturday mornings, everything from the 1stshot to the 40th shot is right where it's suppposed to be...so it may simply be thathaving the bore coatedwith NL1000 is what givesconsistency...the film of bore butter may act like the filmfrom fouling.