Vicarious joy is what your picture is for me.

by Bob Hatfield , Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 04:08 (2539 days ago) @ Hobie
edited by Bob Hatfield, Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 04:12

I've settled on 100 grains of 2f. The patching I use is the thinner brown or red striped .015 ticking from Wal-Mart. For some reason it seems to do better in this gun than the thicker blue striped.018 size, but I wouldn't swear to it. The wall mart ticking hasn't done well for me in my rifles but it is holding up good in this smoothbore.I've been lubing the patch with Track of the Wolf Mink Oil.

I also load the ball between two lubed fiber wads that I believe is just as accurate. This is the most accurate smoothbore I've owned. It will shoot grapefruit sized groups at 50 yards to the point of aim if I hold correctly.

I use a Lyman .715 ball. 7/8ths black English flint. I put a non removable touch hole liner in and right now it has a 5/64ths hole but I might open it up a smidgen. I didn't like the hole they had as it had a long fuse effect. The liner put the main charge much closer to the pan. Usually people just open up the touch hole on these Bess guns. My goal is to make this a 75 yard gun with more load testing and practice. Probably just more shooting practice with cheek weld consistency. I'll use it this next year at N.M.L.R.A smoothbore competition at the Territorial matches.

Bob