Round ball day
 

I got her out to 100 yards today with 80gr 3f American Pioneer, .018" patches and .490" homemade round balls. First shot was awesome " right under the bulls eye" but that funky APP always does that on a clean bore. Next 2 shots were AMAZING accuracy wise but low on a dirty bore. Those 2 shots were just slightly under 1" apart.


The other night i ran 110 passes with jb bore paste and today i had zero issues with my patches tearing. I think the barrel just hasn't been shot that much and had sharp rifling that was slicing my patches in half.

Nope! Thats not good enough! Just send the gun to me I will take it off your hands! Beautiful rifle and good shootin'

What did the patches look like after they were shot???

A way to check on the cutting is to start a ball and either pull it with your ball puller or if you cut a the muzzle pull it back out with the strip if ticking...

Not bad. I mention about using some roundballs in my hawkens and people give me this dumb wtf look and ask why.

Been shooting shockwaves with great success out of my hawkens. Want to just be simple.

It would be interesting to see if you cleaned the rifle and then repeated the same shooting, if it would do the same thing again. If the rifle continues to set one under the bull, and then the next two were several inches low, I would shoot the rifle on a fouled bore.

recovered patches looked brand spankin new. Not a tear or burn mark on them.

May pick up some RS later today.

While it could always be the brand of powder or the amount of the powder charge, there's also air voids within the balls to consider.
Do you weigh or measure the cast balls?
And air voids may not all be identical in size or location.
Factory swagged balls will usually be a little more perfect and uniform compared to cast.

i have weighed the balls before but they were within 3 grains of each other and so i said screw that, just load up and shoot.

Thats pretty normal though with American Pioneer powder. It does the same thing with conicals on a clean bore. APP suggests a fouled bore.

If that's the case then the rifling isn't cutting them in half......

NC the patches were being cut prior to the JB polishing. But appears to be OK now. MD, Once you get it shooting right, I'll take it back....Just kidding. I wish I wouldn't have sold it to Chet. It is really pretty.

Goodness! Pyrodex RS cost me $25 at the store. But it will tell me if she likes it and the accuracy stays ok. If it does, we're in business!

You should try Pyro P. I have better luck with it.

Feed that APP to the garden.

oh i am 100% out of APP.

I did see Pyro P but decided that when i switch to conicals, the RS usually does the best. We'll see though.

Old man white used pyrodex P exclusively in his rifles.

Okay heres that 100 yard target i took forever getting on here. But anyway this was 100 yards, 80gr Pyrodex RS, .490" round ball, .018" ticking with my conical lube which turned out to be extremely messy in the bore. Ive switched to hoppes black powder patch lube now to try out. My other stuff was just to waxy and gunked up the bore badly.

I did check the target after each shot and saw my first 2 shots as they show up in the target. I honestly don't think shot #3 is in the group. I'll just say that #3 went off to the left.



Patches looked brand new. Black areas on a few of the patches is unburnt Pyrodex. That lube while great for conicals, just was not good for my patches.

Never seen shot patches look like that.

yeah they were filled up with thick lube and stiff like a board LOL. They came out looking great but thats the only plus.

Use olive oil on those patches and spare yourself the mess.

yeah thats my next lube on the list. I'll try the hoppes BP Cleaner & patch lube first and see how that goes. Kinda nice using a lube that actually cleans as you shoot LOL. BUT the big question is how will it slide down on a dirty bore without the slickness. Time will tell.

Getting some 250gr REAL loads ready for it tomorrow. Just 50 yard shooting to make see how it will group.

Do yourself a favor.

Glad I am not the only one.

I put my patches in a ziplock with some olive oil and let them sit. Will take them out and press with paper towels to absorb excess oil. Worked great for my sons cva and my hawkens.

Best patch lube you can buy, or make.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/catego...rtNum=MINK-OIL

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Dutch's method, but he also wants you to swab every shot.

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