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You and me both old man!!!!
Now I shoot more for fun, a little for hunting, and do a lot of remembering good days gone by...
Now when hunting, I always shoot from a supported position. Have not had a miss in decades. I owe a clean quick kill to the deer.

BUT - still enjoying every minute of it.
I haven't had a Miss in a long time either.
Them gals run to fast for me to catch 'em. I tried jumping for Joy the other day. As usual, she was too fast and got away. :(
 
An interesting chat... I seldom shoot from the bench. Most of my target shooting these days is prone with a sling for support. Muzzle loading military rifle (Enfield) at 100 to 600 yards, and muzzle loading target rifle at 100 to 1200 yards (plus similar with black powder cartridge rifle). When I work on load development I shoot from the same prone position, including sling, but add a wrist rest for some additional support/stability. The sling ensures I have consistent shoulder contact shot for shot.

My goal is to shoot from the same position that I will be in when competing, so I have the same head position, eye relief, hand position on stock and trigger, and that the rifle will be recoiling in the same way, or at least closely similar manner. That’s my way of trying to eliminate variables and develop consistency shot for shot.

David
 
As above^^. My flintlocks either have iron sights filed to a 85 yard zero (rifle) or a blade I don't much use when sighting game (smoothbore) so most of my shooting is standing; or with available rests with the rifle. But for sure I had a solid rest when filing the rifle sights into place.
 
Read the Ned Roberts - Muzzle Loading Cap Lock, book if you want some real confusion! Even back then, patch lubes, patch material, pure lead VS lead with some tin to add hardness, was common arguments that we still have to this day. I was ready to go to bed, then I started to read about cleaning your muzzleloader in this book and kept going. Now Im wide eyed, put all my gear together for tomorrow, loaded the gun and am ready to go.

All it boils down to is... What works for you, may not work for others. Always find some help to get to a starting point. After that, venture out and experiment and find what works best for you.
 
A lot of But but but, here. There is shooter accuracy and rifle accuracy and too many have no clue what the difference is. Folks who have no clue what their rifle is capable of bragging about that's not what Daniel or Davey did. Well, both Daniel and Davey probably did and further they both relied on someone smarter than them to design and build their guns. Some of us prefer paper accuracy and shooting to "paper plate" accuracy in the deer woods. Many here, shoot muzzle loaders to hunt. Some of us shoot muzzle loaders for the sheer joy of X's. And it seems at times there is a wide chasm between the two. "My Thompson Center Hawken was a tack driver right out of the box" Is most likely an unintentional lie. A factory TC barrel was never a great round ball barrel. Most factory sites are imprecise at best. The ability to actually drive a roofing nail at 100 yards is about like winning the lottery. Can it hold a 4 inch group at 100 yds. Likely. And such "good enough" for the deer woods in some minds renders it a tack driver. When somebody says, well I did this to my barrel and it didn't affect accuracy at all. Did they really fire 50 shots before from a bench and then 50 bench shots after ward to actually know whether there was an affect? Did the group open up by a few centimeters, or even millimeters and would the person have even noticed. For target shooters, such a change would be quite huge. Matches are often won or lost by millimeters. Deer not so much.
 
Dutch, I have always enjoyed your writings and learnt a lot from them. So thankyou and Merry Christmas from across and south aways the other pond New Zealand.
Cheers Euan.
EUAN.
SPEAK TO ME.
MY ONLY KIWI KONTACT IS DUNCAN MACREADY WHO NOW LIVES ON SOUTH ISLAND
MANY YEARS AGO SOMEONE HALF WAY UP THE NORTH ISLAND BOUGHT MY EFFORT AND SAID IT SEEMED REMARKABLY FAMILIAR. HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE NZ RIFLE TEAM AND LEARNED THAT THEIR CURRENT LEADER WAS BASING HIS INSTRUCTIONS ON MY DISCOVERIES.
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE MY eBOOK.
SEND ME AN EMAIL AT
[email protected] and I will correct that deficiency.
If you collected all my Forum posts you would have much of my book except the very most important part.
I am most proud of my very distant subscribers. Tasmania was the second most distant after NZ.
I am truly delighted to hear from you. Is there more to your name than Quan which I am not sure I know how to pronounce?
Dutch
 
Read the Ned Roberts - Muzzle Loading Cap Lock, book if you want some real confusion! Even back then, patch lubes, patch material, pure lead VS lead with some tin to add hardness, was common arguments that we still have to this day. I was ready to go to bed, then I started to read about cleaning your muzzleloader in this book and kept going. Now Im wide eyed, put all my gear together for tomorrow, loaded the gun and am ready to go.

All it boils down to is... What works for you, may not work for others. Always find some help to get to a starting point. After that, venture out and experiment and find what works best for you.

I read Ned Roberts" book eagerly. It was interesting but told this wayfaring stranger little or nothing about how to get any real accuracy.
You are correct in saying what works for you may not work for others.I try to help people who have tried everything including prayer with little success by showing them the path I had followed with some noteworthy success.
It's all fun.

Dutch
 
I hunt where there are a lot of trees and they tend to be more sturdy than walking sticks. Provide some cover as well.

I've never met anyone who didn't spend range time sighting a rifle. But I have met a LOT of hunters who don't spend near enough time standing up like a man to shoot in practice but then try it in a hunting situation. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
When I was able to spend a lot of time at the range, The Fall season was, to put it simply, Scarey.People would bring their high powered rifles to Zero in and would fire a bunch of shots until, as a pure fluke would get one in the center of the target at which point they felt they had "Zeroed IN"
These are the people who go out and wound deer bu don't kill them.They'll die days later from the infection.
The worst story I heard was a sensible gentleman offered to take a man into hunting country who had no transportation. On the way into the county the man getting the free ride went onabot what great shot he was and then proved it by leaning out and shooting a cow dead. The ride giver realizing what he was transporting suddenly affected a severe imaginary illness that caused him to return into he cit a let the but case find another means of getting into the woods.
Dutch
 
At one time in my life I was a very good shot. Old age and some infirmities have set in and now I'm only a decent shot. Don't do much paper shooting any longer. Now I like things that move when you hit them. Nowadays my favorite targets are used up coleman gas cans. We set them out from point blank to about a hundred yards. Usually 7 or 8 cans at various distances. If you can hit one of those cans at any of those distances you can kill a deer. It is challenging and that's what I like about shooting at the cans.
 
At one time in my life I was a very good shot. Old age and some infirmities have set in and now I'm only a decent shot. Don't do much paper shooting any longer. Now I like things that move when you hit them. Nowadays my favorite targets are used up coleman gas cans. We set them out from point blank to about a hundred yards. Usually 7 or 8 cans at various distances. If you can hit one of those cans at any of those distances you can kill a deer. It is challenging and that's what I like about shooting at the cans.

WHAT ARE COLEMAN CANS? OR TO REPHRASE, WHAT SIZE ARE THEY. I NJOYED EMPTY BEER CANS. WITHOUT THE INSET I WOULD CENTER THEM IN MY FRONT GLOBE SIGHT AND BANG THE HECK OUT OF THEM, BUT NOT AT THE DISTNCES YOU REFER TO.
FOR A BIT OD EXCITEMENT A FULLY FILLED PLASTICBOTTLE WITH A TIGHTCAP CAN GIVE SOME DRAMATICS WHEN HIT. SIDE EFFECT IS THAT YOU FIND YOURSELF WTH A PILE OF USELESS JUNK.
I NEVER HAVE FELT MUCH JOY IN THESTEEL SILHOUETTE TARGETS AFTER SEEING THAT VIDEO of the man successfully hitting one and then the shot ricocheting back to hit him rather hard..
There's a solution to that problem by tilting them back toward the shooter so he ricocheted go more toward the earth than yourself.
Dutch
 
A coleman can is a metal 1 gallon container that liquid camp fuel for lanterns and stoves come in. Basically it is filtered unleaded gasoline.
fb0844c1-7ff7-4aa2-bc0a-356b0fafef0b_1.2e4762e5d296e151347179a7cbd42b13.jpeg
 
I NEVER HAVE FELT MUCH JOY IN THESTEEL SILHOUETTE TARGETS AFTER SEEING THAT VIDEO of the man successfully hitting one and then the shot ricocheting back to hit him rather hard..
There's a solution to that problem by tilting them back toward the shooter so he ricocheted go more toward the earth than yourself.
Dutch
If you buy commercial steel targets they all come with instructions to hang them (so they have some give) with 5-10 degrees forward tilt. He was also shooting FMJ - another no-no with steel targets. The guy that got hit set himself up for that by rigidly mounting the target and not tilting it properly. That was lesson he learned the hard way.
 
A coleman can is a metal 1 gallon container that liquid camp fuel for lanterns and stoves come in.
View attachment 21009

Is the Coleman can metal?
I have been looking for one for an experiment.
A high school classmate who joined the army with me was stationed in Pusan on the southern tip of Korea. His job was as a train guard running running up the peninsula to get supplies from the Ascom City area where most supplies were off loaded from ships.
Japan shields Korea from the Japan current so they don't get its benefits and enjysbHA HA the unreal Siberian winter of Russia.
He told me that his only source of warmth on those train rides was a can like the Coleman can with its top removed. Turned upside down over a lit candle. There air holes on the side . I don't remember where or the candle will go out. That of the candle allegedly gathers in the top and he and his parka would huddle over that in the incredible cold.
Dutch
 
Is the Coleman can metal?
I have been looking for one for an experiment.
A high school classmate who joined the army with me was stationed in Pusan on the southern tip of Korea. His job was as a train guard running running up the peninsula to get supplies from the Ascom City area where most supplies were off loaded from ships.
Japan shields Korea from the Japan current so they don't get its benefits and enjysbHA HA the unreal Siberian winter of Russia.
He told me that his only source of warmth on those train rides was a can like the Coleman can with its top removed. Turned upside down over a lit candle. There air holes on the side . I don't remember where or the candle will go out. That of the candle allegedly gathers in the top and he and his parka would huddle over that in the incredible cold.
Dutch


Looks just like the cans that mineral spirits and lacquer thinner come in. Lowes, Home Depot & hardware stores have them.
 
Looks just like the cans that mineral spirits and lacquer thinner come in. Lowes, Home Depot & hardware stores have them.
Living on the thin edge of a better form of poverty I cannot buy a gallon of trumps so I can get the container. Knowing they exist is enough for now. I;ll start waddling after painters.
Dutch - always experimenting
 
The coleman cans I shoot at are one pound of propane cans that are expended. They are dark green, about six or seven inches tall and about three or four inches across. Not the big one gallon coleman cans with liquid fuel for stoves. My cans are used on my camp stove then discarded. I guess I should have been more descriptive in the original post.
 
The coleman cans I shoot at are one pound of propane cans that are expended. They are dark green, about six or seven inches tall and about three or four inches across. Not the big one gallon coleman cans with liquid fuel for stoves. My cans are used on my camp stove then discarded. I guess I should have been more descriptive in the original post.

THEY SOUND LIKE AUSTRALIAN BEE CANS BUT DARKER IN COLOR AND HARDER TO SEE.IT IS NOT GOOD TO SHOOT THESE AUSSIE CANS BECAUSE THERE IS FEQENTLY AN AUSTRALIAN ATTACHED. . I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAME.STRONGER THAM AMERICAN DOMESTIC BREWS. AMERICAN BEERS ARE CONSIDERE WATERY OVER THERE.
DUTCH
 
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