Beginner Questions - Follow-up

[Brad S.]

Welp, I made it out to the range with my Bess and had a great time. Thanks for everyone's advice in my last post. A few questions:

1. How clean is clean enough?

So to clean her, I scraped the barrel with a cleaning jag until I couldn't get a significant amount of fouling out. Then I ran about 20 patches through it with the track of the wolf bore solvent until the patches come out a light grey. It seems using patches, the very bottom of the barrel remains dirty unless you wrap the patch accross the top of the jag and scrub the bottom of the breech that way. I then used patches with solvent over all the exposed portions of the ramrod, barrel and lock sections to get any powder residue off and then oiled the same. Good enough or should I do more?

2. I used one of those spring loaded brass priming flasks, which worked great until it started to get gummed up with powder and clogged. Is there a way to prevent this or should I use a priming horn instead?

3. I shot a .715 ball using "bore butter" lubricant, and 90 grains of swiss 2F, offhand/standing. Nothing else. At 25 yards I shot a pattern a about the size of a large dinner plate. Is that reasonable?

 

[Sidney Smith]

If you shine a light down the bore after you run some lube down, and the bore is shiny. That's plenty clean.

I started using the "plug the flash hole with a toothpick, then pour water down the barrel method". Shake the barrel up and down while holding a rag over the muzzle. Gets most if the crud out, and is quick. Still have to run some patches through to get the rest, but it's much easier than using the tube that clamps to the barrel then leaks everywhere.

I've always used CLP type products as the protective lube after cleaning. Don't believe that horseshit that you can't use oil based products to lube your guns. Total BS. Just make sure to wipe it all out before you shoot the gun next.

Sometimes granules of powder will clog the little plunger on the primer. Unscrew the plunger, hold it open with your finger, then run your flash hole pick through the opening at the bottom. That usually does it for me.

I never sight in offhand, but if you're holding a group that big with a smoothie offhand, I don't see why that can't take game. However, try some shots from a rest and see how you do. A lot of guys will tell you that you should always shoot offhand to get proficient at shooting game. Again, I say don't go for that horseshit. I never shoot at game without having some sort of steady rest, be it a tree, my knees, or whatever. Others can do what they want but that's not how I hunt.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

You need to work on your hold. Dinnerplate at 25 isn't going to cut it. Keep in mind, very few people can shoot a brown bess accurately, takes a lot of practice and load development.