wiping between shots ?

R

rebs

New member
I purchased the Dutch Schoultz muzzle loader accuracy system from his web site. Has anyone read it and use his system ?
How many of you guys wipe or do not wipe between shots ?
 
Back when I show BP inlines, I ALWAYS felt the need to swab between shots when at the range. My reasoning is that a shot on a deer in the field was always going to be on a clean barrel. Since the POI can change based on clean vs dirty barrel, I wanted to know exactly where that first shot was going to hit.
 
I don't. My Hawken shoots better fouled. I fire a blank charge before I go hunting and then load it. If it gets too hard to load when just out shooting I'll wipe it but not until then.
 
Hawg, that sounds like a reasonable idea. However, it means that you have to clean your barrel every time you hunt. With my bad luck at actually seeing deer, that would mean dozens of cleanings for every deer I shot.

However, all that is moot now for me because with Mississippi's current "primitive weapons" rules my ML barrel sits unused in the safe and the .35 Whelen barrel gets the love.
 
I wipe between shots.

I haven't done enough load work ups to know if it helps in accuracy, but I never have to pound the balls down. Each one goes down nice and snug, but not too tight every time. Also makes cleanup at the end of the day faster and easier.
 
My brother and i got Dutch's info many years ago and gave it a try. We used a water soluble oil that we got from NAPA. I don't necessarily agree with everything that he preaches but it did work well for us out of both smoothbore and rifle - and tightened up the groups. We would cut our patching into strips - soak them nd then run them through our fingers and let the excess solution drip back in to a pan - lay the strips out to dry and then roll.

As far as wiping between shots - I found that I got better results with the patching if I did. At the time, I was shooting a .62 smoothbore (still have it) and a .36 cal Virginia style flintlock that I built - a GM 42 inch barrel. The .36 worked best if I "spit patched" the bore between shots and I always fired a "fouling shot" (powder only) for the fist shot before either hunting or shooting matches.

In fact, I finally ran out of patch strips that I had made up a long time ago. The NAPA brand of water soluble oil isn't made anymore - someone suggested using Ballistol but I haven't tried it yet.

I've been shooting BP for 55 years and have tried many patch lubes - I've always gone back to my normal lube - a 1# can of crisco mixed with one real beeswax toilet ring and I have always gotten good results with that lube for all my shooting - rifled musket (lubing minie ball bases), C & B revolver, rifle and smoothbore.

Is one better than the other? All depends on your gun. I like the patch strips treated like Duch suggests as they are easy to tie on my pouch and they aren't greasy/messy. Even with my usually crisco/beeswax lube I spit patch between shots as it seems to give better accuracy for me. If I were hunting and took a shot, I'd probably skip the spit patch and reload - then spit patch after several shots. Again, depends on how much fouling is built up in the bore. I'lll add that all I've ever used is BP - DuPont/Goex.

You'll just have to experiment and see what works best for you. Everybody's mileage will vary. Good luck and you'll find what works best for you and your particular gun.
 
I have used Dutch's program, it did work for me. I wipe between every shot. I also found that smaller calibers seemed more affected by fouling and wiping between shots made a difference. My .2 cents.
 
Hawg, that sounds like a reasonable idea. However, it means that you have to clean your barrel every time you hunt.

However, all that is moot now for me because with Mississippi's current "primitive weapons" rules my ML barrel sits unused in the safe and the .35 Whelen barrel gets the love.
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Why would I have to do that? When I was working I'd clean it after the second day but if I could still hunt I wouldn't have to clean it for at least a week. Everybody else went to .35 Whelen or 45-70 for primitive weapons and I stayed with my trusty old Hawken.
 
I dry swab after each shot from either Browning Mountain (.50) or Penn flintlock (.45) -- just a bench shooter. I get a bunch of crud out each time. The rifles go bang each time with nice accuracy. Works -- seems like an ok habit.

.02. David. :)
 
I fire a blank charge before I go hunting and then load it.
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When I was working I'd clean it after the second day but if I could still hunt I wouldn't have to clean it for at least a week.
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No corrosion problems from leaving the cap & powder fouling in the bore for that long?
 
No corrosion problems from leaving the cap & powder fouling in the bore for that long?
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Nope, none. Not even with Pyrodex. I have let a revolver go for nine days after shooting Pyrodex with no rust or corrosion. Cap fouling isn't corrosive.
 
I think his system is valid. The key is consistency to everything you do.

But I'm the range slob who is there for fun. I was tickled pink to knock down the redcoat target at Friendship (uphill shot at about 75 yards?).
 
Its not that it isn't made any more, its that they changed the formula to include polymers according to Dutch.
 
I shoot regular monthly matches as well as hunt with my ml's. Years ago I started using the old Murphys oil soap and windex mix and have stuck with it. I can shoot a complete match without swabbing a barrel, as I just use a little wetter patch and it picks up fouling and shoves it back down as I seat the bullet. I have found a small spray bottle of the mix works great for me, and I seldom come home from a club match without a ribbon or two.
In my hunting rifles, I use patches soaked in bore butter and put a paper wad on top of the powder to keep anything from soaking into it.
Works for me..
 
I imagine everyone uses something different for the Murphy's mix, but I take a 32 oz. bottle of Windex and mix it with a cup of Murphy's. It works well through a spray bottle ( I use old bottles left over from the wife's stuff). I use the same mix to clean my guns after shooting and have had good luck with that over the years as well as using it as patch lube.
 
The thinking is that with each shot fired, the net bore diameter decreases a hair due to more fouling accumulating along the walls of the bore.

A wipe with patch prevents this from happening between shots, hence a CONSISTENT AND REPEATABLE AND RELIABLY SAME bore's diameter.
 
The thinking is that with each shot fired, the net bore diameter decreases a hair due to more fouling accumulating along the walls of the bore.

A wipe with patch prevents this from happening between shots, hence a CONSISTENT AND REPEATABLE AND RELIABLY SAME bore's diameter.
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Repeated firing with a fouled bore doesn't bear that out. Not with my rifle anyway.
 
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