Testing out Bridgers Best patches
 

WAUGH! I pulled a Jeremiah Johnson scene today. On my last shot, BOOM! A huge clump of snow falls from the top of a tree I was shooting under and splatters me right on top of my cap, shoulders and arms. Drenched the rifle as well :no: Nothing like the feel of sloppy slush snow falling on top of you while you are shooting LOL.

But other than that, it was a great evening shoot. Nice and warm but still could use my capote and badger cap. Looks really odd without my beard as I shaved it yesterday to get it cleaned up and looking better. I feel naked as the day I was born to say the least.



Top 4 shots in the bulls eye were from 50 yards and the lower 3 are from 75 yards. I think I pulled that last shot to the left a bit, otherwise they may have been touching. You never know, I was pretty wet by that shot as the snow fell on top of me as I was getting ready to take it :lol!:


SUPER pleased with the Bridgers Best patches. I lubed them up lightly with my anti-rust lube and stowed them in the patch box until this evening. ZERO wind, nice and warm at 40* with the evening sun going down behind the mountain.

With fresh snow on the ground I was able to recover all patches. The first patch fired on a clean barrel ( No swabbing was done, all shots were easy to reload ) came out perfect,no holes or any kind of flaws, Along with 5 more patches.

I had ONE patch, that was blown in half. Why? No freakin clue, Maybe I loaded it a little off center, no clue, just a nice clean patch cut right in half.

I shot 80gr 2fg Olde Eynsford 2fg and .490" round ball, so that's a pretty hot load for a 1:48 twist. Equal to around 90-92 grains 2fg Goex. Accuracy was nice and tight, especially at 50 yards where my eye could see better with the rear sight. Recoil was pretty stiff, it really surprised me on the first shot, just a good straight back shove. I use this load in my St.Louis Hawken and for some reason, it does not seem as severe.

I still have a lot of testing to do before I make up my mind. I have a ton of bulk patch material from Eastern Maine shooting supplies which does good, but load quite a bit tighter, even in pre-cut form. The real test will be at 100-125 yards, but that will have to wait till better weather or when the mud dries out after this snow melts. Nothing worse than range shooting in hog slop!

Dude
We would rather see the Bridgers Best patches, rather than your mug. Can you show us a pic of one patch (at least)... all lathered-up with your homemade lube? Are you putting the lube on thick or thin? The lube must be uniform in lather, to shoot that consistent.

Nice shooting BTW. Those paper holes are really nice.... actually too nice. The groups are so good, that they look phony.

Look how perfectly straight the three hole group is. Then look at the four shot caterpillar-shaped group?

If those really occurred at 50 yards using an open sighted sidelock and roundballs, that's really freaky-good.

In ending, I suppose you are telling the truth. So congrats on shooting roundballs noticeably better than mine ...... which are always off-handed / free-style. I could never do close-to-what you've shown here.

Mine is also a Traditions and a pure roundball shooter (1:66 with 32" barrel). I use 80 grains of Goex FFF and oiled patch. What the oil is? - I haven't a clue. I buy them from TOTW prelubed and they ain't sayin' what the oil really is.

When I'm done with this 100-pk, I'm going back to my wonderlubed pillow-tickers. I can't stand companies with trade secrets. I just dealt with another company and trade secrets yesterday. I asked Valvoline what percentage of synthetic was in their synthetic blend oil and they tell me it's a trade secret.

I'm switching to Pennzoil next. :busted:

LOL, I know it, but i've had better at 75 yards to be honest. I think the charge was a little to hot personally. Next time I will try 70gr and see how she goes.

I apply my patch lube thin, almost where it looks like its been sprayed with an oil rather than dipped into hot lube. When I use the lube on my barrel I apply it super thin and its on until I hit it with something like gun scrubber which takes it off in a hurry.



There's certainly a huge difference in buying pre lubed VS lubing your own.

I don't quite agree with that GB, and have no reason to question the target. That appears to be a 3" bull. So the four-shot 50 yard group was about 1.25" and the three-shot 75 yard group about 1.5". That's very good for sure, but not what I would call "freaky good". A good round ball barrel with a proven powder/ball/patch combination should be able to do that on a fairly regular basis from a bench. Now offhand - it's a whole different game. :D

You're back to looking like a nerd.

Might as well wear the camo again.

It's those sunglasses Muley. They just don't go with the outfit.

Devil, you need to carve some traditional eye protectors for snow and glare.

hey those are new $18 browning sunglasses thank you very much! You all complained about me not wearing eye protection, so now you can deal with it! :D :D

BTW, I got that hog skull all fleshed and clean! Got to run it over to my brother in laws so he can do the borax and peroxide treatment.

Got news for you Devil. That hog is dead. You ain't gonna run it anywhere. You're going to have to carry it.

will be testing them again later today but this time with my new 50cal st louis hawken. The sights are much much clearer to see on this one.