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Brown Bess Progress Report

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shaman

40 Cal
Joined
Jan 13, 2022
Messages
165
Reaction score
314
Location
Browningsville, KY
With my 3 lbs of 3F, recently acquired at Friendship, I resolved to get the Brown Bess down to the farm and get some shots off. This was my first time out with 'Bess since early April and the first time at the bench since Chemo. I got tired far too quickly, but I did manage to find out:

1) My .715 balls did about as good as the .69 balls on a deer-sized target at 40 yards. I was not able to get to the .735 balls, but I'm not too worried.
2) I tried the Skychief method with round ball ( olive oil soaked wad) and that seemed to do as good as anything.
3) I also tried the Skychief load with 1 oz of #6 shot. At 25 yards it plastered a cardboard target. No squirrel would have survived.

It will take further shooting to determine the most accurate method, but so far I can say that either .69 ball in a paper cartridge or .715 ball held in a Skychief-like arrangement would take a deer at close range. My first guess is that I will go with the former for the upcoming KY Muzzleloader Season in mid-October. It's got a 300-year track record.

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Okay, so here's a question:

It seems rather daft to be making up cartridges just to test a load. I mean, pouring in powder just to dump it back down the barrel, and all that tying of string and what-not. Is there a simple alternative? Exactly how true to form does it half to be? Will wadding a ball up in paper suffice? Have any of y'all worked through this?
 
Okay, so here's a question:

It seems rather daft to be making up cartridges just to test a load. I mean, pouring in powder just to dump it back down the barrel, and all that tying of string and what-not. Is there a simple alternative? Exactly how true to form does it half to be? Will wadding a ball up in paper suffice? Have any of y'all worked through this?
Hi Shaman,

I competed with my Brown Bess Carbine at local matches in Indiana and at the Primitive Range at Friendship in the mid through late 1970's. I never won anything at Friendship in the Northwest Trade Gun matches, but that was my fault as the shooter, as I had a great round ball load. When I did my part, I could easily cut a ball in two on the axe head at 20 yards offhand, same thing with vertical strings at 25 yards. My load would allow me to hit a 1 gallon milk jug at 100 yards Offhand all day long, as long as I didn't mess up the shot, which I did often enough that I would only hit 8 or 9 times out of 10.

My Pedersoli Bess ran .754" at the muzzle. It shot best with a .735" ball wrapped in a greased pillow ticking patch, but I HAD to use a short starter with it. The powder charge it liked best for accuracy was 70 grains FFg Dupont Powder (now known as GOEX).

The main thing I've learned over the years when developing loads is that something rather minor can make differences to large differences in accuracy. So if you are settled on using paper cartridges, then my suggestion is to make them up with the ball tied at one end and not load it ahead of time with powder. You can do that at your test bench. However, a different manner of wrapping paper around the ball rather than the way you are going to do it, probably will not give you the same results when testing.

Gus
 
I have a Pedersoli Bess and I have noticed no practical difference in accuracy between a .715" prb and a .690" ball in a paper cartridge. With 120 grns of 2f, I get 4" groups at 50 yds. Since the paper cartridges are much easier to use, that is my go-to.
 
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