That my Bobcat has officially replaced my Remington 870 as my favorite long gun to just go make noise with. I've been wearing this thing out in the backyardlately, especially after I fixed my nipple problem thanks to the advice of you guys. I planat the very latest by the end of next week to take it out and get the sights as close to perfect as I feel I can and see what she'll do on paper with a patched round ball.

Thanks for all the help guys. I may have found my new favorite hobby!

roundball are great deer loads without doubt. Place them in the right spot and you will be eating venison. Also I think a black powder rifle is a lot more fun to shoot then a center fire. Now don't get me wrong, I like to shoot center fire rifles as well, but the black powder is a real hoot to shoot.

I agree. Something about the cloud of smoke produced still makes me giggle and from the looks of it probably always will.

I've been shooting 70 grains of Pyrodex and I have been swabbing a wet and 2 dries every other shot because the 2nd one is a real chore to get down the barrell and I'm afraid I might not be able to get another one seated firmlyafter that. Does that sound about right? I know I've read on here of some guys going much longer between swabs but I also understand that each rifle/load/etc is different.

Which Pyrodex are you using? I use P in my Bobcats and can load PRB all day long without swabbing. With RS it seems to be dirtier. In fact I find that swabbing just seems to push fouling down into the fire channel and cause misfires. The lubed patch swabs the bore somewhat as the ball is loaded and then the shot blows most of it out. Maybe yours is different but all 3 of mine work that way. Also accuracy seems to hold up just fine, but then again I usually only shoot 20 to 25 balls per range session. Your results may vary.

It's RS, I actually don't believe I knew that there were different kinds.

How often do you put the wire brush to yours, if at all? I have yet to. Thought I might when I run out of this bottle of Pyrodex. I think I'll try to find some of that P next.

Pyrodex P is the 3f grain size while the RS is the 2f grain size. So if you get some Pyrodex P you might want to drop your load about 10 grains to see how it acts.

My deercreek when i first bought it i'd have to swab every 4 shots or else it would get tight. After all the shots ive put through it in the past couple months, the barrel has smoothed out alot and can now shoot usually 8-9 without having to swab. Look for some light weight conicals to shoot. Im sure that will help smooth it out and allow you to shoot more shots before having to swab.