8 minnie balls in one hole OR I missed the whole thing??????

[oldracer]

Went to the range yesterday with "Big Ollie", the 50 caliber 1 in 48 Douglas XX barreled chunk gun I completed a few months ago. I tried some T/C Minnie Balls with 90 grains of FFG and here is the results at 100 YDS. Shot #1 was about 4 inches left and 4 inches low. Wiped with one wet, one dry and next shot was right at the bottom of the bulls eye. Wiped as before and shot 7 more shots, same load (I use a preset measure), same wipe, ETC and I was watching through 7x50 binoculars and saw one large hole. After a cease fire went to get the target and there was one large hole??!! Soooooo I thought this gun sure shot great or I missed the whole thing? Checked scope (Unertl) mounts, all okay, the guide on top was okay, no looseness in the adjusters, so I am puzzled and will have to go next week to see if the whole thing repeats. Anyone have any ideas?

[GhostHawk]

Pictures or it did not happen.

:)

Fire a single ball through a target, compare that to "Large hole" Look carefully at edges for scallops. This can give you a clue as to one or many balls through same hole.

[mooman76]

Should have patched the hole and shot a few more or hung a new target. Now you will be wondering til next time.

[oldracer]

Well the hole was larger than a single mini and was really scalloped for sure. I plan to go with the gun on Monday if possible and this time I'll aim for several areas on my home made shoot-n-see.

[Good Cheer]

Sounds nice!
How long is the barrel, old racer?

[OverMax]

I seen some strange things happen in the shooting sports over my life. It wouldn't surprise me your Big Ollie did what you thought it did. Douglas or a Sharon. Without doubt its very possible to see such targeting success. Congratulations Oldracer. Now that's what I call some good shoot'in sir.

[bedbugbilly]

Moral of the story . . . . #1 . . take a fouling shot . . . and #2 . . . . I believe you just won "bragging rights"! :-) LOL

Strange things do happen . . . and with a good barrel and a steady eye, I have no doubts that you could have and did put them all through one hole. Now, the next time you take "Big Ollie" out for a stroll . . . it will be fun to see if you can get a repeat performance. If you can, then good for you and "Big Ollie". If not, don't get discouraged. Sometimes the "shooting Gods" just shine down on a person. I'd be tickled pink if I were you! Congrats!

[oldracer]

I'll probably go this Tuesday and plan to have several X's on my home made shoot-n-see to see how the rifle responds. I had some issues with rust like spots after I put the gun together so I called Douglas about the barrel and the old fellow I talked to on the phone said they don't make too many 50 caliber 1 in 48 stainless muzzle loader barrels and when I told him where it came from he said he knew the deceased shooter and the barrel had been made just for him. I have the names written somewhere but can't find them?

[glockky]

What lube were you using? Were you using a over powder wad?

[oldracer]

I did not use an over powder wad and the original minie balls were those sold by Thompson Center and they were lubed with Bore Butter so with the ones I cast I used the same lube. Kind of messy but it makes the skin of my hands feel nice!!!

[Omnivore]

I'm going to say that at 100 yards, there's "no way" you'd put eight rounds in one hole without being able to see for sure that there are several hits there. Even the best, world record-breaking groups are clearly showing multiple hits. A "one hole" group is what we call a "cloverleaf" in that you can clearly see each hit as a separate "hole" that happens to overlap the other holes, leaving a shape reminiscent of a cloverleaf. Careful examination of any such group will clearly show the multiple hits.

Get a larger target backing and re-shoot.

The only truly perfect one-holers I know of are the ones where only one shot was fired. What you're talking about is not technically impossible, just so astronomically improbable as to be practically impossible for mortal Man-- Any slight variation in velocity, bullet weight, air movements, your aim, your let-off, your hold on the rifle, bore condition, cap energy, powder charge variations, seating compression, and several other variables, will put each bullet slightly off from the last, even under perfect conditions with a perfect shooter behind the gun. For two shots at 100 yards, I might be convinced that it has happened one or twice over the centuries that the two bullets hit in exactly the same hold such that no discernable distortion of the first hole occurred, but not eight shots.

[oldracer]

I cover the backer with a plain white sheet of paper since they all have lots of holes already. The trigger, once set has a 2 OZ pull with no creep and the lock is super fast. They were both made by a fellow (now dead) in Denver and are the best ones I have except for ones made by Doug Knoell. The rifle weighs just a tad over 19 LBS and I have a 6X Unertl scope on it and there is no recoil or jump when the load is fired off. One thing I was checking was the guide on top of the scope body hopping back and getting stuck under the height adjuster which happened once before but I tightened up the spring pressure some and none since. As I said I plan on using a target with several small bulls next time to see where the hits are depending on where I aim. Thanks everyone.

[oldracer]

Well it appears I missed the whole thing and I found out why finally. I had done a cerosafe mold of the bore and the size was 0.500 at the muzzle with 0.002 deep lands. I tested the same bullets today and had a spotter watch where they hit as the target and backer was clean and he said one was way over the top and to the right a foot, the next was over a foot below the backer and so on. So I broke out the mic and these were 0.498 so that is why they went down so easy. The others I molded were the same so I compared them to some new T/C and they measured 0.501 which is why they need some help going down the bore! Time to break out the big old bastard file and knurl the ones that have shrunk since they were 0.500 when cast.

[DIRT Farmer]

You can try a card wad under the bullet, should work like your long range rifle