Wild Thing!

[joeb33050]

I went to the Miami range yesterday and shot with the BP club guys. .50 Renegade, GM barrel, cast balls, pillow ticking, moose milk, cut patches, 70 gr. Pyrodex RS. This gun loads pretty easy, and I didn't clean it all day, maybe 35 shots.
After the first the rest shoot pretty well, ~3"-4" at 50 yards.
Then, after ~30 shots, it turns into a wild thing, one 8" low, next 12" high, etc.
All I can think to do is to wipe between shots, it must be getting dirty-although the balls seat with a nice even pressure on the rod.
The gun likes Goex 3f, but I can't find any down here.
It doesn't seem to like Triple 7 at all.
I'd like to work on accuracy after the wildness is taken out of the equation.
And, it is just as hot and wet as blazes down here, everybody has sweated through his shirt and is wiping the sweat off his head with a dedicated hand towel.
We must be nuts.
joe brennan

[44man]

The question I have is why would any sane person want to live in FL and even think about going outside? I think the balls were melting on you!
I was down there once in my life and would never go back unless I could gig 1000 frogs and come right back home. I hate heat and humidity with a passion.
I can tell you how to make it shoot 1/2" groups at 50 and maintain that accuracy all day without ever cleaning it, to at least 200 shots. But I get jumped on too much by everyone that doesn't agree.

[Rattus58]

There are a lot of things that could have happened. Heat was a factor probably for you too. If the gun got too hot, its sitting in the channel different too... that is why I bed my GM barrels full length since they didn't fit my stocks well at all.

Aloha... :cool::drinks:

[hivoltfl]

44man we dont call it humidity down here, we call it HUMILLITY, hehehe
dont ever come to Florida in the summer, mid October to mid April for North Florida, I cant and wont recommend a time to go south of Gainsville.

Rick

[joeb33050]

Yesterday was the Sept. meeting of the Miami M/l'ers. TC Renegade, GM barrel, .490 RB, cut-at-the-muzzle .017"? pillow ticking patch, Murphy's Oil Soap/Neatsfoot oil half and half on the patch, 70 gr. Triple 7, micrometer adjustable tube sight.
This gun and load will load all day without cleaning, the patched ball goes in easy without the short starter; I put the ball and patch on the muzzle, whack with a rubber mallet, cut, push down with the rod.
I borrowed and tried a .495" RB, it loaded the same, easy. I may try a .500" RB next time.
Still goes nuts after ~20 shots. Took a lot of advice yesterday, accepted the clean-every-five advice and I think the wildness went away.
My last 5 shots went into 2 1/4" at 50 yards.
William Brown was there shooting a real old target rifle with false muzzle and starter-the whole thing. He seems able to keep RBs in ~3" at 100 yards. What a nice rifle.
It's a lot more fun when I can shoot smaller groups.
joe brennan

[Trapshooter]

Good Morning Joe,

I don't know if you are familiar with it, but there is a fellow in St. Louis named Dutch Schoultz. He was a pretty hot shot BP target shooter who developed a system for black powder accuracy. His approach to shooting and loading reminds me of yours. Trust nothing, Test everything, Believe little. He publishes a pamphlet describing his system for developing an accurate, repeatable load for BP Muzzle loaders. His web site is

http://www.blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com/

I have no financial interest, I am a satisfied user.

Trapshooter

[44man]

Try a .495 ball, .020" patch, better lube and 90 gr's of Pyrocrap RS. Go to Dutch's site.

[Trapshooter]

44Man,

Good catch on the .495 ball. I have a Green Mountain barrel on my flint rifle, and it does ok with a .490, but makes me look like I know what I am doing with the larger .495 ball.

Trapshooter

[Lloyd Smale]

personaly ive never had real good luck with any of the black powder substitutes in a side hammer gun. Real black has allways done best in them for me. Especially living up here where it gets cold. Substitutes just dont light off good enough.

[44man]

Lloyd, very true and is why I call it Pyrocrap. :-D It has worked well for me only in a few Hawkin rifles. I much prefer Swiss powders.
You have to use a good amount and compress Pyrocrap evenly. I won a lot of long range shoots with the stuff and killed a pile of deer with it though, even in some bitter cold Ohio winters.
With Young Country lube I have fired 200 shots at matches without wiping the bore. I hear Young Country is out of business now. I would sure like to know how to make it. I wish I knew someone that could analyze it.
Anytime the barrel showed fouling signs I would just add more to the next patch and it was good to go for a lot more shots. That never changed the point of impact.
Every other lube needs the bore wiped one stroke between shots with a DAMP patch, not wet.
The old timers at the shoots that slobbered thier bores and had to dry them never won a thing. They would have 1000 patches around the bench.
The funny ones were those that used a hammer to start balls. Bang, bang, bang, all they did was ruin the ball and cut the patches. I also loved the guys that whanged a heavy rod off the seated ball a bunch of times. They flinched so bad, they never knew the difference anyway. :mrgreen:

[RBak]

personaly ive never had real good luck with any of the black powder substitutes in a side hammer gun. Real black has allways done best in them for me. Especially living up here where it gets cold. Substitutes just dont light off good enough.

Same what he said!
However, I can certainly appreciate your quandry of being in a place where you can't get real black.

The situation is so bad here in the Pacific Northwest, that the folks who shoot a lot of black are ordering it by the case lots and dividing it up between two or three people.......short of that, when we do find it, it's going to cost from $20 to $25 bux per pound, and not a lot of us can afford that.

As far as getting that thing to shoot with faux black, it's going to be something that will have to work out through trial & error as that stuff just doesn't behave like the real thing.:-?

Russ...

[joeb33050]

I had very good luck with the triple 7. This week, i put the little bit of 777 left in the bottle into the new bottle of 777. I didn't know that they came in different f's!! Why didn't somebody tell me?
Now I have a bottle of 777, about 2 3/16 f. If it shoots, I'll try to write down the recipe.
How else can I screw up?
joe brennan