Griz44Mag
70 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 4,326
- Reaction score
- 4,385
- Location
- Republic of Texas, District of Krum
So - in my dislike of Minnie bullets, and an unsuccessful many round attempt to get it to shoot good enough to hunt with and the mess that comes with them, I decided that I would do the whole workup routine using round balls.
What I took to the range for this:
.570 balls
.575 balls
.010 minked patches
.015 minked patches
.018 minked patches
OE 2F powder
OE 3F powder
MAP and Windex (for cleaning and wiping.
As a prelude to this and knowing the sights were shooting 20-24" high and 8" to the right at 50 yards, I glued a base and sight to the barrel directly behind the front sight that was taller and has a drift adjustable dovetail.
The first 4 shots were used to get the rear sight elevation and front sight drift set to land near the center of the targets I use (printed on 8.5 x 11" paper. These targets are my go to. If I can't hit this then I need a different gun or I need to get closer. This is also my hunting criteria target as the outer ring is 6" in diameter. My final was setting the rear sight slide adjuster to the 200 yard marker and sighting at a 6 o'clock just above the 3/16" white bead. This made sighting much more comfortable for me as the stock has a very shallow drop and was not conducive to my body configuration.
I went through the paces and sent a lot of balls down range.
It was a very pleasant day, warm but not hot, light breeze - the perfect day to spend making smoke...and I made a lot of smoke doing a wipe between shots and a clean between groups.
When the smoke cleared, there was a winner.
A .570 round ball, .010 minked patch and 75gr of 2F very consistently produced <1" groups and a bughole. That's about the best I can do with my eyesight being what it is. This round loads easily, snug but easy to slide down the bore.
I did workups from 60gr all the way to 80gr. That's plenty of ooompff to take down anything I am going to shoot at. I took a magnetospeed reading on a final shot - 1685 fps.
One observation: This gun uses musket caps. I like them as they are easy to handle. It would be nice to use #11 caps though as that is what I have strippers and massive stock on. I may try changing the nipple to a #11 to see if it maintains it's functionality.
Next trip with this gun will be to see what it (and me) can do at 100 yards using this load combo.
What I took to the range for this:
.570 balls
.575 balls
.010 minked patches
.015 minked patches
.018 minked patches
OE 2F powder
OE 3F powder
MAP and Windex (for cleaning and wiping.
As a prelude to this and knowing the sights were shooting 20-24" high and 8" to the right at 50 yards, I glued a base and sight to the barrel directly behind the front sight that was taller and has a drift adjustable dovetail.
The first 4 shots were used to get the rear sight elevation and front sight drift set to land near the center of the targets I use (printed on 8.5 x 11" paper. These targets are my go to. If I can't hit this then I need a different gun or I need to get closer. This is also my hunting criteria target as the outer ring is 6" in diameter. My final was setting the rear sight slide adjuster to the 200 yard marker and sighting at a 6 o'clock just above the 3/16" white bead. This made sighting much more comfortable for me as the stock has a very shallow drop and was not conducive to my body configuration.
I went through the paces and sent a lot of balls down range.
It was a very pleasant day, warm but not hot, light breeze - the perfect day to spend making smoke...and I made a lot of smoke doing a wipe between shots and a clean between groups.
When the smoke cleared, there was a winner.
A .570 round ball, .010 minked patch and 75gr of 2F very consistently produced <1" groups and a bughole. That's about the best I can do with my eyesight being what it is. This round loads easily, snug but easy to slide down the bore.
I did workups from 60gr all the way to 80gr. That's plenty of ooompff to take down anything I am going to shoot at. I took a magnetospeed reading on a final shot - 1685 fps.
One observation: This gun uses musket caps. I like them as they are easy to handle. It would be nice to use #11 caps though as that is what I have strippers and massive stock on. I may try changing the nipple to a #11 to see if it maintains it's functionality.
Next trip with this gun will be to see what it (and me) can do at 100 yards using this load combo.
Last edited:
