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What can I do to keep accuracy good after 4 shots??

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Hello All,
What can I do to keep accuracy good after 4 shots?? When I see the first flyer I wet then dry swab barrel, even clean out nipple pocket carbon with a dry ear swab. Yet the accuracy of the first 4 shots is never achieved again. I don't mind being wrong, I just want to know what to do to fix this. Thanks
 
Hello All,
What can I do to keep accuracy good after 4 shots?? When I see the first flyer I wet then dry swab barrel, even clean out nipple pocket carbon with a dry ear swab. Yet the accuracy of the first 4 shots is never achieved again. I don't mind being wrong, I just want to know what to do to fix this. Thanks
1st replace nipple / most nipples (shot out) after 30-50 shots depending on ball/caliber , mine shooting 45/50 cal - 500+ gr conicals with heavy charges show it till I bought BACO arms ($60+ dollars) nipple .
I t is expensive but lined and lasts for thousands of shots in competition says Dave Gallo (OWNER) and holder of many many world wide 1st place wins . Load powder then over powder wad /then ball/conical . While pushing this down on powder have your jag wearing a patch lubed with your favorite lube , this gives you a consistent bore condition (EVERY SHOT) hence accuracy every time you do your part/works every time/Ed
 
I was amazed at my improved accuracy when I went to a thicker patch with my .54...from .015 to .020 , improved even more going from store bought .530 to my own cast. I was also very surprised it apparently improved my burn and cut down on fouling build up. Play with your load.
 
Consider wiping the bore with a spit patch on a jag after each shot. This keeps fouling to a minimum and promotes a consistent bore condition. Push it down and pull it out, don't scrub it. Spit is all you'll need.
Ditto on that. If not swabbed between each shot you are, essentially, using a different barrel every time. I always use a spit dampened baby blanket flannel patch. Key is dampen only, too wet and you will create a new set of problems.
 
Ditto on that. If not swabbed between each shot you are, essentially, using a different barrel every time. I always use a spit dampened baby blanket flannel patch. Key is dampen only, too wet and you will create a new set of problems.
I always wipe my barrel out and use nothing but a dry patch. The only thing I have to remember to do is push the patch down about 10 inches and pull it back an inch or two as I go down. If I don't it will get stuck and hard to remove. I think most problems are human error not the condition of the weapon?
 
Swab between shots.

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With the right thickness patch and lube the barrel gets swabbed when ball is rammed plus no debris gets in flash channel.
I shoot 3 rounds with a .010 patch then move up to a .012 or ,015. Lube is 75% wax and 25% veggie oil congealed together. The wax helps. The fouling is softer than just powder fouling.
 
I tend to shoot reasonably heavy loads in my 54's. I like to seat a 12 gage greased felt wad over the powder. Since the wad is significantly over bore size, it scrubs the bore after every shot.
I use a leather over powder wad for the same reason.plus when shooting heavily lubed mini's they prevent the lube from "wetting "the powder when loaded for a period of time while hunting.
 
Our deceased friend, Dutch Schultz, listed these reasons in his publication:

The usual reason for random accuracy is;
1. Too thin a patch allowing the power of the powder to be a bit irregular in bypassing the
patched ball.
2. Too slick a patch lube that has the ball halfway downrange before the powder has finished
what it wants to do.
3. A varying effective size of the bore caused by differing amounts of hard crud to adhere to
the bore causing each shot to come, essentially, from a different sized barrel.
4. Off balance balls. Balls that contain an air bubble or a lighter weight inclusion that causes
them to spin off course, acting like a car wheel with a missing wheel weight.
5. Any inconsistency in the loading practice from shot to shot. Everything you do in loading
affects the flight of the ball. If each time you load there is a change, however slight, the ball
will go to a different place.
6. If you don’t wipe between shots, crud will build up till you have reduced the effective size
of your bore and can’t load without extra effort.
7. If your powder charge varies. This is the least likely as it is the first thing people are careful
about.
If you have not figured out how to get your rifle to give satisfactory groups while shooting
bench rest , your groups will only be worse when shooting offhand.
All of this may seem complicated but as you learn to conquer each variable you should notice
an improvement.
For instance, if you are shooting shiny, expensive swaged balls you can expect one flyer for
every five shots. If you weigh out these same balls and eliminate all those lighter than the
heaviest by one grains, you will have NO flyers. Self cast balls will run about five light weight
out of a hundred where swaged balls run about 20 to 22 balls light out of a hundred.
 
I don't shoot conicals just prb. But using a heavy patch well lubed does keep the fouling consistent. Since I also don't swab while shooting this keeps the accuracy the same from shot one to shot 30+. The loads are fairly tight/very snug and velocity does increase a bit over thinner patching. An example is the .45. I shoot .440" and .445" ball with a canvas patch (.024") well lubed with Hoppes. I don't use as much TOW mink oil as I did in my hunting days.
 
Hello All,
What can I do to keep accuracy good after 4 shots?? When I see the first flyer I wet then dry swab barrel, even clean out nipple pocket carbon with a dry ear swab. Yet the accuracy of the first 4 shots is never achieved again. I don't mind being wrong, I just want to know what to do to fix this. Thanks
How are you loading and with what?
In order for us to help we need answers to the questions that Phil asks.

So, we need the information on the rifle, the load (PRB or conical bullet), the lubricant used in the patch, ball diameter or conical bullet diameter, powder being used and granulation, what is being used to wet the patch being used to swab the bore, off a rest or offhand shooting.

Without that information, we can at best speculate on what is needed and offer suggestions that may or may not help.
 
Hello All,
What can I do to keep accuracy good after 4 shots?? When I see the first flyer I wet then dry swab barrel, even clean out nipple pocket carbon with a dry ear swab. Yet the accuracy of the first 4 shots is never achieved again. I don't mind being wrong, I just want to know what to do to fix this. Thanks

Use a smaller ball and thicker patch.
Thicker patch holds more lube.
Will load easier, too.

Lapping the bore might be a good idea also.
 

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