Semisane

I had a nice long range session with the Great Plains flintlock on Saturday. Temperature was in the high 80's and humidity was high, but I still had fun.

I've only shot about 100 rounds through this gun, just about all of it with95 grains GOEX, so I wanted to try some other loads. I ended up firing eight 5-shot groupsand was pretty sweaty by the time I was finished (fat boys and humidity don't mix well). It was so humid that the residue in the pan after a shot turned to damp black soup by the time I finished checking the target after each shot. I had to wipe out the pan with a dry patch before loading each shot.

I started with a new Tom Fuller English Flint, and fired all 40 shots with that flint. By the time I finished it wasa little rounded and stubby looking, but still sparking fine. I did not have any flashes in the pan, but did have a few failures to spark if I forgot to wipe the bottom of the flint after every two or three shots.

Here's the first target. I decided to start with 100 grains of powder at 50 yards. The first shot was from a clean bore that had been oiled for storage, then wiped out with a dry patch (I forgot my bottle of alcohol for wiping the oiled bore). The bore was swabbed with both sides of one dry patch between the rest of theshots.




That group wasn't too bad, but not quite as tight as I was getting with 95 grains in my last range session.

Anyway, I decided to try the same 100 grain load at 75 yards. Here's that target.





An 8-inch group??? Dang, don't like that.

Maybe it's the 100 grain load? Maybe it's the sweat in my eyes?

Put another target out at 50 yards, and drop the charge to 80 grains. Here's the target.




Well, that's about the same as the 100 grain load at 50 yards. Wonder how 80 grains will do at 75 yards? Gave it a try. Here's the target.




Well, that's a little better than the 8-inch group with 100 grains. But this is sure curious.

Note the two distinct points of impact - shots 1, 3 & 5 in a one-inch group near the bull, and shots 2 & 4 touching, but over four inches lower than the others. Anyone have any idea what I'm doing to cause this?

Heck, lets go back to 50 yards with the 80 grain load and see what happens. Here's that target.




Well, at least that's consistent with the other 80 grain / 50 yard group.

On to a new experiment. I like to hunt with a load in aclean barrel, andwantto see how the gun shoots with a clean, dry,non-oiled bore.
So I stuck with80 grains and set a new target out at 50 yards, and took five shots while fully cleaning the barrel between each shot. Here's the target.




I sure am pleased with those results.

Now, I wonder what five shots would do from a dirty bore with NO swabbing at all between shots. Also, I have been using a Wonder Wad under the patched ball. I wonder how itwill shoot without the wad. Gave it a try - loading and firing as fast as I could. Here's the target.




Man, that barrel was HOT after those five shots. Those old boys in Civil War battles must have been burning their fingers trying to load their muskets halfway through a battle.

Well, time for one last round. May as well try 75 yards with the 80 grain load. Here's the target.




DANG!! Group is about the same and the 100 grain / 75 yard group. Maybe I just can't shoot at 75 yards?

Long day shooting. Had enough. Time for a beer.

HuntAway

On to a new experiment. I like to hunt with a load in aclean barrel, andwantto see how the gun shoots with a clean, dry,non-oiled bore.
So I stuck with80 grains and set a new target out at 50 yards, and took five shots while fully cleaning the barrel between each shot. Here's the target.





Well this seems to be the ticket.

If you ever figure out those wild ass groups let me know??? I'm going to try those wads over the powder.

A question for anyone; Is 70-80 gr 3f Goex sufficient for deer using a .490-.495 ball?

wabi

I think I'd try the clean/dry barrel some more & experiment with changing the charge weight.

nchawkeye

70-80 grs of Goex FFF is plenty for deer...I used to use 75 in my .45 and use 80 in my .54...At one time I was using 120, then 100grs in my .54...I soon found out that patch burnout was a problem and I went through the stage of using wads, hornets nest, etc between the powder and ball...After killing a few deer with 80grs, I found out that's all I needed...My gun also preforms best with a clean barrel...You might also try experimenting with different lubes and if it is hard to load the 2nd shot with ..018 patching, try the 2nd with a dirty barrel and a .015 patch, the powder residue in the barrel helps to act as a buffer between the patch and powder...

Your 80gr loading is just fine for deer, you might drop down to 75gr and see if the group tightens up a bit...

Semisane

I agree wabi. I also want to get some thicker patch material and give that a try.

Gonna` do that nchawkeye. I've been using my home made lube (25% bees wax, 25% Crisco, 50% olive oil) which always seems to work pretty well. But I've also got some Eastern Main Shooters Supply "Premium Lube" which, though expensive, seems to work well and gave me good groups with the 95 grain loads in some earlier shooting. I'll do a side-by-side experiment with those two lubes, plus pure Crisco and pure olive oil. It's not hard to load a 2nd shot on a dirty bore. In fact, inthe "5 shot / dirty bore" experiment (target #26 in my post) even shot #5 wasn't difficult to load.

Hey HuntAway, I keep having the same thoughts - "is 70 - 80 grains enough for deer". I've never shot a deer with a patched ball. Always used Great Plains conicals in my sidelock guns for hunting (over 80 grains Pyrodex) and always had good results. There's just something in my mind thatkeeps telling me I should be driving those patched balls faster (sabot syndrome??). But, those with experience assure me that 70 grains and a ball will do a deer in with no problem. So, I've decided to find my most accurate load and use that. Hopefully, I'll find out for myself how well it works on deer next fall. I'll be limiting my shots to 75 yards, though.

cayugad

Do not forget to take into consideration the temperature changes and the humidity. But I believe you are on to something with all that kind of testing. Soon you will find the right load and characteristics. Besides it is fun to shoot..

HuntAway

Sometimes I'm not all that bright. I've been shooting 100 gr with the assumption that I'll need approx 500 ft lbs energy at 100 yd for a clean kill with a round ball. Now I got to thinking, there isn't anyplace where I hunt that you would see a deer at 100yds. All of the deer that I have shot with centre fires, the longest was at 35 yds and 50 yds would be a maximum range for me to shoot in any of those area's.

After going through this table http://members.aol.com/illinewek/faqs/tc50bal.htm I can easily achieve this with 70 gr of what I presume is 2f powder.

Man I need to start listening to my elders.

nchawkeye

Hunt...With a round ball, forget the energy levels that modern gun writers talk about...A round ball kills by punching a half inch diameter hole (or so) through both lungs...If the ball expands, that's fine, but it doesn't have to in able to kill effectively, in fact, too much expansion leads to less penetration, so with a pure lead ball you can have too much velocity....

When I bought my first flintlock in the mid 70s, I didn't know anyone else that shot the dang things...It was a .45...I found that 75grs of powder would penetrate through a 2x4 at 75 yards, I figured that was good enough for deer...
For squirrels, I dropped down to 45 grains and turkeys 50 grains...The first deer I shot with that gun, the ball broke both shoulders, went through the spine and was under the hide on the off side...

I killed about 25 deer with the .45 and only went to a .54 when I had an encounter with a bear on one of our farms...Even with the .54. I use 80grs of FFF, it's plenty for deer out to 125 yards, which is as far as a man needs to shoot with open sights anyway...