I posted back in the spring about a loading problem I was having with a new Lyman GPH and got some good advice from folks here, which was much appreciated. However after months of working with this gun, I'm still having problems. I'm hoping to get some more advice. Here's my saga.
To deal with the tight loading problem and speed up the barrel "seasoning" process, I fire lapped the gun with a kit from Beartooth Bullets this summer. This made loading and cleaning easier and tightened my groups. However, I was still not getting the accuracy I was looking for, so I kept trying different bullets (REALs, Maxiballs, Hornady Great Plains, Buffalo Bullets, etc), and both 2F and 3F. I also dropped in a Deerslayer trigger. To back up for a minute I should note that I've been using the Lyman Receiver sight, and when I installed it back in the spring the rear screw wallowed out the wood, so I drilled out the hole and glued a dowel in and re-drilled it. This seemed to work at the time.
As I kept shooting and trying different loads I began to notice that the gun would sometimes group very nicely (several inches at 100 yards), then start throwing bullets. In a recent conversation with Jonathan Kozoil I mentioned my problem and he asked if my tang screws were tight. I checked and found that all 3 were slightly loose. I tightened them, but then found that with shooting they loosened up slightly after only a shot or two. Jonathan told me he had seen the same thing on some of his guns and that glass bedding the tang and main screw usually took care of the problem. I've been trying to get this gun ready for elk this fall and was running out of time, so I took it to a gunsmith and paid extra for a fast bedding job. When I got the gun back I noticed that there was a gap (about a mm or two) between the back of the barrel and the tang. That concerned me but the smith said the barrel and tang were butted together on the bottom. Two shots later the gap was pretty much closed, and after that the gun got much more consistent. I thought I was home free after a couple shooting sessions, but after bumping up to 100 grns of 2F I started seeing some consistency problems again, i.e. several shots grouping nicely and then flyers. Tightening the screws usually helped for a shot or two, but now my back screw on the receiver sight has wallowed out again.
I should note that the gunsmith said they glassed in a post or nut down in the stock which the main tang screw goes into. The main tang screw does seem to tighten nicely, but it loosens slightly with shooting. Here are a couple of other clues, my flyers are now all vertically aligned, i.e windage never seems to be the problem. And my barrel has always had to be squeezed down onto the stock to get the pins to go in, and the pins have to be tapped in, you can't get them in with finger pressure. Could this mean that the hook was never properly fitted to the tang, or the tang is tilted?
I'm thinking a couple things may be in order, such as: 1) glass in all 3 tang screws, 2) have an experienced muzzleloader builder check the fit of my hook to tang, and 3) consider fusing the barrel to the tang. I read somewhere that this latter idea can help a lot. Someone on this forum mentioned using solid core plumbers solder.
Thanks for any and all help guys. Fortunately I have a flintlock so I'll still be out there this week after elk, but I had really hoped to give the GPH caplock a try this year.
John
To deal with the tight loading problem and speed up the barrel "seasoning" process, I fire lapped the gun with a kit from Beartooth Bullets this summer. This made loading and cleaning easier and tightened my groups. However, I was still not getting the accuracy I was looking for, so I kept trying different bullets (REALs, Maxiballs, Hornady Great Plains, Buffalo Bullets, etc), and both 2F and 3F. I also dropped in a Deerslayer trigger. To back up for a minute I should note that I've been using the Lyman Receiver sight, and when I installed it back in the spring the rear screw wallowed out the wood, so I drilled out the hole and glued a dowel in and re-drilled it. This seemed to work at the time.
As I kept shooting and trying different loads I began to notice that the gun would sometimes group very nicely (several inches at 100 yards), then start throwing bullets. In a recent conversation with Jonathan Kozoil I mentioned my problem and he asked if my tang screws were tight. I checked and found that all 3 were slightly loose. I tightened them, but then found that with shooting they loosened up slightly after only a shot or two. Jonathan told me he had seen the same thing on some of his guns and that glass bedding the tang and main screw usually took care of the problem. I've been trying to get this gun ready for elk this fall and was running out of time, so I took it to a gunsmith and paid extra for a fast bedding job. When I got the gun back I noticed that there was a gap (about a mm or two) between the back of the barrel and the tang. That concerned me but the smith said the barrel and tang were butted together on the bottom. Two shots later the gap was pretty much closed, and after that the gun got much more consistent. I thought I was home free after a couple shooting sessions, but after bumping up to 100 grns of 2F I started seeing some consistency problems again, i.e. several shots grouping nicely and then flyers. Tightening the screws usually helped for a shot or two, but now my back screw on the receiver sight has wallowed out again.
I should note that the gunsmith said they glassed in a post or nut down in the stock which the main tang screw goes into. The main tang screw does seem to tighten nicely, but it loosens slightly with shooting. Here are a couple of other clues, my flyers are now all vertically aligned, i.e windage never seems to be the problem. And my barrel has always had to be squeezed down onto the stock to get the pins to go in, and the pins have to be tapped in, you can't get them in with finger pressure. Could this mean that the hook was never properly fitted to the tang, or the tang is tilted?
I'm thinking a couple things may be in order, such as: 1) glass in all 3 tang screws, 2) have an experienced muzzleloader builder check the fit of my hook to tang, and 3) consider fusing the barrel to the tang. I read somewhere that this latter idea can help a lot. Someone on this forum mentioned using solid core plumbers solder.
Thanks for any and all help guys. Fortunately I have a flintlock so I'll still be out there this week after elk, but I had really hoped to give the GPH caplock a try this year.
John