Every ten years or so I get a wild hare ....
So I picked up a 42" Short Land (Pedersoli) Brown Bess from Cabela's on Tuesday, along with some trial 0.715 and 7.35" balls, a 75cal jag & scraper, a dozen Tom Fuller flints and a Creedmore steel cleaning rod (that has a fixed handle to allow twisting the scraper) from TOTW.
YESTERDAY Long story short: Ran 2Fg trials of 65, 85, and 97grains using both the 715 and 735 balls. No cleaning between rounds. All at 25 yards, all with 6'oclock hold on a standard 25-yd pistol center.
ASIDE-1: Replaced the pedersoli flint with Tom Fuller's about 5 shots in. (I don't know how newbies ever survive first exposure to flinters unless they do this right off the bat.) Out of 30 ensuing rounds, no misfires, and only one FITP.
ASIDE-2: That Bess lock is massive compared to my other flinters. I could have time to make a ham & cheese sandwich while that hammer/cock is falling. And while many might use the main charge 2Fg powder to prime, 6gr of 4Fg made ignition times considerably faster
First trials used double-wrap cartridges made from computer paper, with both ball and paper going down the tube after the powder. Too much windage play when all the dust settled. Maybe good for Go2War, but 8" "groups/fliers at that range weren't too impressive. Absolutely lousy combustion/filthy fouling
Then went with the 0.018-0.020" Ticking/Spit-patched/cut at muzzle. The 80gr charges under the .715 ball could be easily thumbed into the muzzle, and no problem seating regardless of fouling -- but not impressive -- and still filthy.
Went to both bigger ball & charge -- 100gr & 0.735" ball/spit-patched. Took a whack to seat into the muzzle, but went down smoothly after that even with fouling. (Spit's always been the miracle lube don'cha know.)
Bam -- everything fell into place.
I'll run it out to 50yds and up the charge to 105 this weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
TODAY was shotgun trial day (after all, this smoothbore is my newest skeet gun).
1⅓ oz of 7½ shot, 81gr 2Fg. (About a 3+Dram Eq)
Charge column was:
- Powder
- Card disk
- Ox-Yoke 12ga lubed cushion wad
- Shot
- Card disk
Two shots at 25 yards again at a 2x5 "dove"-sized target made by folding a 25yd pistol center. Six O'clock bayonet hold again.
Good solid pattern; good coverage (~3' circle); no holes; clean burn,... and dead dove.
Now I gotta work on that (ugh) trigger.....
So I picked up a 42" Short Land (Pedersoli) Brown Bess from Cabela's on Tuesday, along with some trial 0.715 and 7.35" balls, a 75cal jag & scraper, a dozen Tom Fuller flints and a Creedmore steel cleaning rod (that has a fixed handle to allow twisting the scraper) from TOTW.
YESTERDAY Long story short: Ran 2Fg trials of 65, 85, and 97grains using both the 715 and 735 balls. No cleaning between rounds. All at 25 yards, all with 6'oclock hold on a standard 25-yd pistol center.
ASIDE-1: Replaced the pedersoli flint with Tom Fuller's about 5 shots in. (I don't know how newbies ever survive first exposure to flinters unless they do this right off the bat.) Out of 30 ensuing rounds, no misfires, and only one FITP.
ASIDE-2: That Bess lock is massive compared to my other flinters. I could have time to make a ham & cheese sandwich while that hammer/cock is falling. And while many might use the main charge 2Fg powder to prime, 6gr of 4Fg made ignition times considerably faster
First trials used double-wrap cartridges made from computer paper, with both ball and paper going down the tube after the powder. Too much windage play when all the dust settled. Maybe good for Go2War, but 8" "groups/fliers at that range weren't too impressive. Absolutely lousy combustion/filthy fouling
Then went with the 0.018-0.020" Ticking/Spit-patched/cut at muzzle. The 80gr charges under the .715 ball could be easily thumbed into the muzzle, and no problem seating regardless of fouling -- but not impressive -- and still filthy.
Went to both bigger ball & charge -- 100gr & 0.735" ball/spit-patched. Took a whack to seat into the muzzle, but went down smoothly after that even with fouling. (Spit's always been the miracle lube don'cha know.)
Bam -- everything fell into place.
I'll run it out to 50yds and up the charge to 105 this weekend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
TODAY was shotgun trial day (after all, this smoothbore is my newest skeet gun).
1⅓ oz of 7½ shot, 81gr 2Fg. (About a 3+Dram Eq)
Charge column was:
- Powder
- Card disk
- Ox-Yoke 12ga lubed cushion wad
- Shot
- Card disk
Two shots at 25 yards again at a 2x5 "dove"-sized target made by folding a 25yd pistol center. Six O'clock bayonet hold again.
Good solid pattern; good coverage (~3' circle); no holes; clean burn,... and dead dove.
Now I gotta work on that (ugh) trigger.....
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