Two steps foreward, three steps back. Good thing easy isnt as much fun as a challenge

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Originally Posted by Don McDowell

When you were wiping between shots, are you sure the bore was dry with no "puddles" somewhere? That will give you fits. Also did you thoroughly scrub the bore and especially the throat , to make sure any leading left over from grease groove shooting was removed? A bit of leading in the bore will absolutely wreck a paper patch load.

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I had leading from my previous experiment with a .438" bullet patched to .450. I got out the chore boy and the bore light and my bore was spotless. I doubt there were any wet spots, my wet patches are more like damp and I was pushing one wet one through and getting out a ton of black fouling, scrubbing the chamber and first couple inches of rifling with the second moist patch then pushing it through, then spinning a dry one through the chamber and pushing it down the bore. This is with a brass jag on a flexible carbon or fiberglass cleaning rod. I was hoping to get the chamber really clean and get the bore decent. The bullets wouldn't chamber if the leade and first inch of rifling were fouled. It would still take four or more additional wet patches pushed through to get to brown smudges instead of black smears but the heavy fouling was all pushed out.

My first shot was a nice round hole in the target then it got much worse. I don't imagine the competitive shooters are wiping and scrubbing for five minutes or longer between each shot? Maybe the Goex needs a lot more compression before it gets less fouling?

I am also concerned that I only found patch bases again- cut neatly around the 90° angle at the bullet base. I don't know if the sides went into the berm or what? I can pull the bullets out of the cases without damage easily by hand- they are not crimped in hard.

A lot of us that shoot patched in a match use a nylon brush on the end of the rod, and push a 2-2-1/2 in round patch thru on the tip of the brush. If the ambient temp goes up and the humidity goes down it can take 3-4 damp patches before they come clean enough to push the dry thru.
I would add more powder and get a bit more compression, regular Goex shoots pretty dirty without a bunch of compression and even then it's not the cleanest powder.
I would also suggest a thicker and or stiffer wad,.060 minimum, you could be getting a lot of blow by and gas cutting.

Ask someone to stand behind you, off to the leeward side a foot or two, to try to see your patches (or a cloud of confetti) fall from the bullet.
It should flutter long enough to be seen by someone whose sole job is to watch for it.

Howdy all!

I spent the spring and summer working 80 hours a week expanding my business and opening a second shop. I finally got my head out of my behind and the cool shooting weather is coming back right on time. I am currently getting ready for hunting season and shooting pistols here and there but I haven't given up on the bore diameter paper patched black powder cartridge dream for my pedersoli 1874 sharps.

I was using this thread as a public load journal of sorts to get suggestions from you all here. I am getting some beefier wad packages in the works- I think the flame cutting theory is a good one concerning my terrible keyholed 50 yard groups.

Anyway, I'm not giving up!

Radar

Adding a little more powder and compression may help in another way as the added omph may help to expand the bullet patch combo to dia quicker and a little tighter Helping it to grip the rifling and not slip in the bore