1851 is getting ugly

[M. De Land]

I very rarely shoot from a rest....feels awkward to me with a pistol. I usually do just as good or better doing 2 hand standing shooting. I shot off of the padded V piece of wood I use for the Hawken sighting in.. My barrel is now squeaky clean and I did do a polishing on the muzzle so maybe that will make a difference. FYI I'm using 22 grains of FFFg, a 1/8" durofelt wad soaked in 50/50 beeswax/olive oil and Hornaday .454 RB.

I think I just discovered your trouble. Hand guns or rifles don't usually like to be rested against anything solid like a wood trough of V. Pad it with a heavy rag or better yet a sand bag and try it again.

 

[Ed C.]

I think I just discovered your trouble. Hand guns or rifles don't usually like to be rested against anything solid like a wood trough of V. Pad it with a heavy rag or better yet a sand bag and try it again.

It is padded with heavy carpet and it works fine with my rifles. I use it with my muskets and am able to hit a 3" bullseye with my unmentionable Sharps at 200 yards about 40% of the time using it. I'll get back out in a week or so. Another day to start fresh and see what happens.

 

[Relic shooter]

Revolvers with poor quality nipples typically have variable sized base holes that produce variable pressures & poor grouping.
During my past 60 years of shooting I've found that Treso nipples were the best in quality & base hole uniformity & the special alloy lasts through many years of shooting.

 

[Cvkotvkse]

Before I started messing with the gun I’d check how I was shooting with another “known” pistol. It might be you…

I was wondering the same thing, because the sudden shift looks like what you get when a left-handed, left-eye-dominant shooter suddenly (for any of several reasons) starts having a shift in eye-dominance. It's a mirror-image of what hapens when I, as a right-handed, right-eyed shooter, suddenly get a shift due to some intermittent astigmatism issues in my right eye. My whole group, be it of bullets or arrows, jumps left and down.

 

[nick_1]

i also have that problem. at 25yrds my shot can go a foot left if i don't focus my eyes correctly.

 

[Ed C.]

Have you looked at the position of the cylinder compared to the forcing cone maybe enough lead is being scraped off the ball to keep it from properly contacting the rifling in the barrel.

Yes, as best I can tell just trying to get some light down the barrel for a visual check that seems ok. It has been shooting good for over a year and the lock up is still nice and tight. I am beginning to feel (hope) that I am the problem. I'll bring that gun and my trusty 1858 to the range in a few days and try to do some serious controlled shooting.

 

[Ed C.]

I was wondering the same thing, because the sudden shift looks like what you get when a left-handed, left-eye-dominant shooter suddenly (for any of several reasons) starts having a shift in eye-dominance. It's a mirror-image of what hapens when I, as a right-handed, right-eyed shooter, suddenly get a shift due to some intermittent astigmatism issues in my right eye. My whole group, be it of bullets or arrows, jumps left and down.

I am right handed but shoot lefty because I am very left eye dominant. So much so that I have no problem keeping both eyes open when I shoot so unless I close my left eye I don't get things shifting around. It's hard for me to imagine what aiming would be like with eyes of equal vision.

 

[Ed C.]

Good news! Took the 1851 Navy out today and it shot a 2 1/4" group at 25 yards off of a piece of tightly rolled carpet. Even with a rest I can't see to aim any better than that. So what changed? I did a barrel scrub with Hoppe's # 9 solvent and copper mesh. I polished the muzzle opening. I went from 22 grains to 25 grains and I think, very important, I used the carpet roll as the rest rather than the wooden V block as per @M. De Land. I also learned that after shooting 2 cylinders the barrel needs a cleaning to maintain a high degree of accuracy.

 

[nick_1]

I suspect its 99% the roll of carpet

 

[NeilMacleod]

I had a problem like that with a modern gun, I learned it was the last bucket of lead projectiles that was the problem.

 

[M. De Land]

Good news! Took the 1851 Navy out today and it shot a 2 1/4" group at 25 yards off of a piece of tightly rolled carpet. Even with a rest I can't see to aim any better than that. So what changed? I did a barrel scrub with Hoppe's # 9 solvent and copper mesh. I polished the muzzle opening. I went from 22 grains to 25 grains and I think, very important, I used the carpet roll as the rest rather than the wooden V block as per @M. De Land. I also learned that after shooting 2 cylinders the barrel needs a cleaning to maintain a high degree of accuracy.

Well good on you, nothing bugs me more than when the gun stops shooting out of the blue and leaves you high and dry as to cause.
I can adjust for my shooting errors in a match with little loss of confidence but when the equipment fails you your just screwed until you can work it out and usually by then your so far behind there is no catching up !