Rain and humidity

[leadhoarder]

I have been shooting BP muzzleloaders for less than a year so I do not have a lot of hands on experience with them. I went shooting today for the first time on a warm very humid rainy day. I put about 25-30 rounds through my renegade. I did not wipe the bore the whole time. I used prelubed patches that have wonder lube on them. I am still shooting up my stock of these patches. Once these are gone I will use traditional patch lubes.

What I noticed today is I did not have to wipe the bore as loading never got difficult. On a colder drier day I usually wipe about every 5-7 shots to keep things loading easy. Also my first 5-10 shots were right on target in a nice group. After that they were all over the place.

I am thinking that the weather kept the fouling softer but because I did not swab the bore my accuracy suffered. Is this reasonable thinking?

 

[mooman76]

Yes it is. On my 32 accuracy goes south after 3 shots if I don't swab when using wonderlube/bore butter.

 

[dave951]

Stick with this and you'll find different guns react differently and yes, humidity and temp do play a part. For a completely different experience, try minies.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The humidity kept the fouling soft and thus the reloading was easy. Your prelubricated patch was not thick enough to remove the fouling deep in the grooves. As @leadhoarder continued to reload, the fouling continued to build up in the grooves ultimate effecting accuracy.

What is common among shooters who "shoot without wiping" is the use of a wet and thick patch that in effect does the wiping between shots function. If anyone wants to do the shooting without wiping, the patch should be thick enough to compress into the grooves and wet enough to remove the fouling in the grooves. You should also be firing often enough that the wetness of the patch doesn't spoil the powder charge.

 

[leadhoarder]

I was using a .010 patch. Not very thick.