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-   -   fouling shot????? (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/385456-fouling-shot.html)

sabotloader 09-29-2013 12:03 PM


Originally Posted by txhunter58 (Post 4084703)
I pass a couple of clean patches through, then fire a cap or two to clean out any cleaning/oil residue. After that I pour about 10-15 gr of powder down the barrel and keep the barrel pointed straight up. Then fire a cap pointing at the sky (no sablot or bullet, just the small load of powder).

Then I swab with a patch and load for the hunt. I have yet to have a gun that will shoot the same fouled or clean (own five) so I just do what the gun tells me she likes

Yep! ask any paper/gong/long distant/target shooter and they will tell you the same thing...

cayugad 09-29-2013 12:23 PM

It depends on the rifle whether I foul the bore or not. My advantage is, my shots are always (99%) of the time very close, and so whether clean or fouled, its a dead deer. But if I am going out to a field to hunt the day, I foul the rifle at my house then load it and go. I am going to shoot it off at the end of the day and clean it anyway.

Muley Hunter 09-29-2013 12:25 PM


Originally Posted by cayugad (Post 4084724)
It depends on the rifle whether I foul the bore or not. My advantage is, my shots are always (99%) of the time very close, and so whether clean or fouled, its a dead deer. But if I am going out to a field to hunt the day, I foul the rifle at my house then load it and go. I am going to shoot it off at the end of the day and clean it anyway.

You don't have any guns that are accurate on a clean barrel?

cayugad 09-29-2013 01:27 PM


Originally Posted by Muley Hunter (Post 4084726)
You don't have any guns that are accurate on a clean barrel?

I suspect that almost any rifle shot on a clean barrel will have a different POI then the same rifle shot on a fouled barrel. The question lies in "How Much Difference Is There?" Were one to lock a rifle in a vice, and test it, clean VS fouled at a great distance, one might see a true difference. But then you have to ask.. was the difference caused by clean VS foul, or did you load it the second time, just a little different.

Yes I have rifles that are so very close, clean or fouled that it makes little if any difference. Then I have a Knight LK II that is almost two inches between the two variants.

But I find at the ranges I encounter, being very close, the closer the shot the less of a variance in two POI. But for instance, I know that my Black Diamond XR is a long range rifle. And if I want to be more assured of shot to shot accuracy for instance when I hunt a hay field, where the shot might be 100 yards or more.. why take a chance of clean VS fouled. It easier for me to foul the rifle, hunt with it all day, and at the end of the day, like I do with all my rifle.. fire it off, take it home and clean it.

sabotloader 09-29-2013 01:48 PM


Originally Posted by Muley Hunter (Post 4084726)
You don't have any guns that are accurate on a clean barrel?

Certainly they are accurate! They are all accurate... But they are much more consistent shot after shot with barrel that has been shot.

If you were asking me.....

Muley Hunter 09-29-2013 02:56 PM

Not what I asked. I'm not comparing clean to fouled. I'm asking about comparing clean to clean. As in taking a shot on a clean barrel, and clean the barrel, and take another shot. Complete cleaning between every shot.

They're are some guns that will be accurate doing that. Those guns don't need to be hunted on a fouled barrel if you sight them in for the clean barrel.

Now, if you try that test, and your groups are all over the place. Then that gun should be sighted in with a fouled barrel, and hunted that way.

flounder33 09-29-2013 03:09 PM

When I do my practice shooting I first clean my barrel with 91 percent alchohol to get the oil out of it. (I think sometimes peoples first shot is different due to oil in the barrel but I am not sure of that). Then, between shots, I swab with an alchohol dampened patch, first one side of it then the other. Then a dry patch. I do not notice much if any difference between my first shot and my other shots. I also use conicals that are fairly tight in the bore. I suspect some of the people that have quite a bit of difference after their barrel is fouled are using a projectile that is a little bit loose in a clean barrel. Again, I am not sure of this because I am not around other shooters much at all, I just know what works for me.

wabi 09-30-2013 02:29 AM


Originally Posted by flounder33 (Post 4084790)
When I do my practice shooting I first clean my barrel with 91 percent alchohol to get the oil out of it. (I think sometimes peoples first shot is different due to oil in the barrel but I am not sure of that). Then, between shots, I swab with an alchohol dampened patch, first one side of it then the other. Then a dry patch. I do not notice much if any difference between my first shot and my other shots. I also use conicals that are fairly tight in the bore. I suspect some of the people that have quite a bit of difference after their barrel is fouled are using a projectile that is a little bit loose in a clean barrel. Again, I am not sure of this because I am not around other shooters much at all, I just know what works for me.

Tried a clean barrel group and this gun likes fouled better.
Best group is with a swabbing between shots.

moridgerunner 09-30-2013 04:05 AM

Try making the second shot hit where the first shot did. How many patches will it take to make the barrel shoot like it is put away clean?

ronlaughlin 09-30-2013 05:07 AM

There could come a time when the second shot will need to be taken kinda quickly. One wouldn't wish to clean, clean, and re-clean the barrel, before reloading.

Myself, for years i hunted with a clean clean barrel, and found the second shot usually was real real close to the first shot. However, in some rifles, the first shot is all by it's lonesome. Lately, i have taken to popping 3 primer before i load my hunting rifle the first time. The primer residue is non-corrosive. This seems to bring the first, second, third, fourth.........................shots to about the same spot.


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