Got in some shooting this Sunday. Been playing around with different patch lubes and trying to get a 3f load to shoot well. My normal 2f load has been 75 grains with a .015" patch (compressed), with a damp Hoppes BP lube for target shooting or muzzleloader shoots and a store bought wonderlube patch for hunting. Both yield decent groups, with the darn store bought wonderlube patches being the best.
Since 75 grains of 2f worked pretty well, I figured I'd start with 60 grains of 3f and thought I'd see similar accuracy from it. Tried Hoppes, store bought wonderlube patches, olive oil, mink oil, and 5:1 Castor oil / Denatured alcohol "dry" patches. At 50 yards the best groups were CO/DA patches and olive oil, about 3" to 4" groups from sandbags. I've tried 65, 70, 75 grains of 3f with the above lubes. At 75 grains all groups started showing a slight improvement. Sunday I brought my normal .015" patches as well as some new .018" patches to try. Lubed both types with mink oil and made up some 6:1 CO/DA lube to try. A couple of years ago I tried some 8:1 and they burnt up and were really tough to load, thus the reason I started at 5:1 and figured I'd work from there. I've been looking forward to trying 6:1 from Dutch's findings that less slick is better. I also thought I'd try the .015 mink patches with my normal load of 75 grains 2f just to see what they'd do and if it was more of a 3f issue I was fighting. Mink oil is applied by rubbing one side of the patch around the tin and then rubbed in with thumbs...perhaps too much though. My results have me wanting to try applying less the next time to see what happens. All were shot swabbing between shots. I've become addicted to trying to find a combo that will shoot tiny groups and have postponed trying to find a no-swabbing lube until this "finding tiny groups" addiction has ran its course.
First target is the 2f mink.
Next is an .018" mink patch with 62 grains of 3f. All shots felt good, so not sure if the one out of the group was me or a flyer...but I'm thinking a flyer as it is what I've been seeing since starting 3f development.
This next one is the target I actually shot first. I had decided to try 80 grains of 3f since 75 grains previously had shown an improvement. It is shot with an .018" patch with 6:1 CO/DA. Not too bad, and have to wonder if my elevation POA changed slightly between shots to give the two separate groups. I try to be careful, but a .029" size front sight looks pretty large at 50 yards. I did not count the foul shot in the group.
And the last one. This is 80 grains of 3f with a .015" patch with 6:1 CO/DA. I ran out of time and it is only 3 shots, but it looked pretty darn good to me. The above 62 grain mink target would look the same though without the fourth shot out of the main group. I did tweak the rear sight to try to correct windage before shooting this one and I went too far.
It seems strange to me that I had to go clear up to 80 grains of 3f to start seeing better groups since it does pretty good at 75 grains of 2f. Honestly though, when I started into shooting muzzleloaders I used 70 grains of 2f since that's what a friend was using in his .54 and recommended. I didn't get very good groups with that and finally tried 75 grains, and the groups tightened up so much that I just simply stopped there. Now I want to try going up with the 2f loads to see if I stopped too soon. I've read that most guns have a light plinking load and then a heavier "hunting" load, so perhaps I should also try some 50 grain or so charges to see what I get.
Next time to the range I'll try the 6:1 patches again along with some 7:1, and perhaps some olive oil patches again with the hotter 3f load.
Geez it is fun playing around with different combos on these things.
Since 75 grains of 2f worked pretty well, I figured I'd start with 60 grains of 3f and thought I'd see similar accuracy from it. Tried Hoppes, store bought wonderlube patches, olive oil, mink oil, and 5:1 Castor oil / Denatured alcohol "dry" patches. At 50 yards the best groups were CO/DA patches and olive oil, about 3" to 4" groups from sandbags. I've tried 65, 70, 75 grains of 3f with the above lubes. At 75 grains all groups started showing a slight improvement. Sunday I brought my normal .015" patches as well as some new .018" patches to try. Lubed both types with mink oil and made up some 6:1 CO/DA lube to try. A couple of years ago I tried some 8:1 and they burnt up and were really tough to load, thus the reason I started at 5:1 and figured I'd work from there. I've been looking forward to trying 6:1 from Dutch's findings that less slick is better. I also thought I'd try the .015 mink patches with my normal load of 75 grains 2f just to see what they'd do and if it was more of a 3f issue I was fighting. Mink oil is applied by rubbing one side of the patch around the tin and then rubbed in with thumbs...perhaps too much though. My results have me wanting to try applying less the next time to see what happens. All were shot swabbing between shots. I've become addicted to trying to find a combo that will shoot tiny groups and have postponed trying to find a no-swabbing lube until this "finding tiny groups" addiction has ran its course.
First target is the 2f mink.
Next is an .018" mink patch with 62 grains of 3f. All shots felt good, so not sure if the one out of the group was me or a flyer...but I'm thinking a flyer as it is what I've been seeing since starting 3f development.
This next one is the target I actually shot first. I had decided to try 80 grains of 3f since 75 grains previously had shown an improvement. It is shot with an .018" patch with 6:1 CO/DA. Not too bad, and have to wonder if my elevation POA changed slightly between shots to give the two separate groups. I try to be careful, but a .029" size front sight looks pretty large at 50 yards. I did not count the foul shot in the group.
And the last one. This is 80 grains of 3f with a .015" patch with 6:1 CO/DA. I ran out of time and it is only 3 shots, but it looked pretty darn good to me. The above 62 grain mink target would look the same though without the fourth shot out of the main group. I did tweak the rear sight to try to correct windage before shooting this one and I went too far.
It seems strange to me that I had to go clear up to 80 grains of 3f to start seeing better groups since it does pretty good at 75 grains of 2f. Honestly though, when I started into shooting muzzleloaders I used 70 grains of 2f since that's what a friend was using in his .54 and recommended. I didn't get very good groups with that and finally tried 75 grains, and the groups tightened up so much that I just simply stopped there. Now I want to try going up with the 2f loads to see if I stopped too soon. I've read that most guns have a light plinking load and then a heavier "hunting" load, so perhaps I should also try some 50 grain or so charges to see what I get.
Next time to the range I'll try the 6:1 patches again along with some 7:1, and perhaps some olive oil patches again with the hotter 3f load.
Geez it is fun playing around with different combos on these things.
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