Diehard,

You could wrap some #0000 steel wool around your cleaning jag then put some oil on it and polish the bore with that for about 100 strokes to smooth out the edges on the rifleing. Swab the oil out with denatured alcohol when your done. I do it with every barrel I have ever bought. I also clean between every shot for the first box of 100 balls just like my centerfires; I think it helps break in the new barrels.

If your patching is cutting then you need to smooth it out some by just shooting it more or doing the steel wool treatment. Use a bore button, wasps nest or you could try a buffer of cornmeal like some people do. Protect that patch; I use Crisco shortening (not oil) for my lube and it has been more accurate than anything that I have run across ( tried most of the commercial lubes and some homemade as well) in all of my ball guns. My TC PA Hunter barrels do not like lots of lube either; they shoot just as well with no lube. Idip my patches in melted Crisco and then lay them on paper towels and try to get as much of it out of the patch as I can. I use a .54 bore button in a .50 caliber rifle. I buy the unlubed ones and do the Crisco thing with them as well but I only use the bore buttons for my full power hunting loads.

I have found that the tighter the load is the better accuracy I get. I use a .018-.020 patch with a .495 Hornady ball in my rifle and it groups much better than the .490 ball with the same patch. Actually; I think a little thicker patch would work even better for my rifle. In no wind with 90-100 grains of Swiss 3f, weight sorted Hornady balls to +/- 1 grains and the bore buttons I get 2-3" groups from the bench at 100 yards.