Well fellas, I finally got out and did some testing with Mr. Crockett today. I had several things I wanted to test. However, I spent 2 hours first cutting shooting patches and lubing them. After the fog burned off and it warmed up, I got after it.
First on the list being the POI. I was not doing great after I installed the front bead on it. It was tough getting out there and shooting. Thought I had it but today proved otherwise. Not knowing this, I began my testing with 15 grains of Swiss and some .311 balls I cast yesterday.
Almost forgot, actually the first thing was trying a 6 O-clock hold. Not for me.
Next on the list was, I have established that the sprues on those small .311 balls are a royal pain to deal with. I loaded them in my loading block at a table and it was still difficult to deal with. Things became worse while starting them in the bore. After pushing them through the block and initially into the bore, I noticed a few sprues had turned. I fought this for a couple hours during testing until I gave up on them. Those .311 balls are just too small to have to deal with sprues.
Switching back to swaged balls, it didn’t take me long before I established that the POI was not correct. So I upped the charge to 20 grains of Swiss. I wiped after every shot. Upping the charge was an improvement. It was hitting a little low and I did not want to lower the peep unless I had to. 20 grains brought the groups back up where they needed to be.
Next test was with my hold of the rifle. I’ve also established that a different position of the butt stock was needed. Due to the sun moving, I had to keep moving my makeshift table. The ground out back is not level so that made things more interesting after each time I had to move the table. It wound up being 27yards from the target.
Finally knocked the front sight over to where it needs to be. I waited until I was sure before doing this. The last few rounds went right where I was aiming.
Then I tried .018 patches. Overall, I determined that there was no appreciable change in accuracy over a .015 patch.
So, it wound up being 20 grains of Swiss, .015 ticking lubed with TOTW mink oil and back to the .310 swaged balls. Also, the new front sight.
I loaded in my house, walked out the back door, shot, walked to the target, back in the house, wiped the bore with one patch with Windex on it followed up by a few dry patches until they came out clean, reloaded, then back outside. I did this for 4 hours without taking a break.
So far, my leg isn’t too mad at me and I’m feeling confident.
Next on the list is practicing shooting offhand. This might take some time and I may not improve, but I’m going to give er heck trying. Probably start off about 3 feet away. That should help my confidence for a few minutes.
Waiting for spring season. Oh how I love squirrel hunting with my Pee Wee muzzleloader.
