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Caplock hangfires vs accuracy?

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N.Y. Yankee

32 Cal.
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
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I'm wondering, if a hangfire occurs but the shooters gun is steadily rested and all else is the same as last shot, provided he didn't flinch, is the accuracy going to be harmed by much simply due to the hangfire?
 
No, in fact, in theory, a long delay or hang-fire could be more accurate. ?? Or not. Just a thought. Firing old surplus hang-firing ammo in my old SMLE rifles does not open up the group for me.
 
Hangfires in a percussion rifle are the most annoying thing ever.

I'm on the sandbags with my $1500 Volunteer rifle and I get a "pop......BANG" which means I need to address an issue or my flash channel is gunky.
 
In theory, no, accuracy isn't going to be affected. In the real world, even on a rest, yes. The shooter is going to look up and move the gun a bit while moving to see what happened and why it didn't go boom.
 
Without a doubt it can and does impact accuracy. Try shooting different caps from a rest and see what it does.

Fleener
 
With proper follow through I'd say it wouldn't affect accuracy. With that being said, I always find that the shot is out of the group when I have a slight hangfire, I just seem to react a bit to the cap going off. I don't find that it prints way outside of the group, but enough that its not a target I'm going to take a picture of to show off to my friends lol.
 
Indeed, a hangfire is probably the best measure of one's follow-through skills.
 
Rat has a point, I was once shooting next to a shooter with a 'Long Lee' a cut down Boer War relic. He had some' CP' rounds that where prone to click bang , he wasn't happy (It isn't normal for such technology). So I took it and fired 5 rounds all under the palm of my hand despite the irregular delays . But I habitually shot flintlocks mostly so had no problem . Well getting the flintlock to do that was more of a problem at 100 yards being the minimum range of most UK ranges . Rudyard
 
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