I've been learning to shoot black powder while sighting in a GPR I built as a kit which I changed out the factory sights with ones from TOW. Most of what I have learned was from reading these pages and experimenting to see what works for me, I know no one else that shoots BP to learn from. sighting in the rifle was further exasperated by a corroded muzzle which I posted about earlier, and which I've decided has had little affect on accuracy at least as far as my shooting needs. Yesterday I was getting 3 inch groups at 50 yds using 75 grns. 75 grns seems to give me the tightest group. I'm using .18 patches with a.490 ball, I wanted to try .20 patches but the ones I ordered from TOW mic'd to .175 while the .18's miced to .18. So I went about trying different lubes on hand, hoppes, some stuff from TOW, spit, mink oil, and some lip balm my wife made containing olive oil,coconut oil, and plantain. with the liquid lubes I preferred the spit by far( which I had been using originally anyhow), but they all seemed to shoot the same. I was also shooting out to 100 yds and it was at this distance the lubes really seemed to differentiate from each other, with my wifes lip balm outperforming the rest. I cleaned the rifle between each group of three. With the grease lubes by the third shot I had significant trouble getting the ball to seat, to where I had about an extra inch of rod sticking out for the load. When cleaning there didn't seem like a lot of crud at the breech. Also the ball was harder to push down the first third of the barrel than in the center. So my questions are; How far can the ball be seated from the powder and still be safe to shoot? Is it possible to shoot grease lubes without wiping between shots? Others issues where that to cap the rifle I have to have the hammer in full cock, I can't squeeze in a cap at half cock, Is this normal or should I file back the lip around the hammer so I can cap at Half cock? It just doesn't seem very safe to me to cap at full cock. My last question is to get the gun to fire 1/2" low at fifty yards I had to file the front sight down 3/32nds from the top of the notch of the rear sight, what could be the problem that is causing the gun to shoot this low? Before the muzzle became corroded it shot low as well, but I was breaking in the barrel and hadn't really started to sight it in, most of the shooting was off hand and I didn't take good notes but from what notes I did take it looks like it was shooting sightly higher, but I would think a bad muzzle would cause inconsistency instead of a change in POI. Thanks for any advise, Eric.
A few questions after yesterdays trip to the range
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The ball should always be seated firmly against the powder charge..
Try swabbing between shots to control the fouling or use a different lube.
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I don't own a GPR so I cant say if this is indicative of that rifle, but DO NOT file the hammer...The gun may simply have the wrong nipple or this may be normal...posting a picture might be helpful.
Most of my guns I do not have enough room on half cock to place a cap on the nipple. I just wait until I get ready to fire, then place the cap.
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True..... many of mine are the same....The shorter the distance the less chance of going off half cocked.
Without a picture it is hard to get a clear idea of exactly whether or not the OP has a problem.
Without a picture it is hard to get a clear idea of exactly whether or not the OP has a problem.
If you don't seat the ball on the powder you can bulge the barrel. I echo what others say...do not file the hammer! My GPR won't accept a cap at half-cock, but my Pedersoli Blue Ridge will. One rifle I have doesn't have a half-cock on it. I guess it's a target rifle.
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Even on the guns that will take a cap from half-cock, I still cock the gun to give me more room and prevent dropping the cap.
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Works for me.
I don't believe there's anything wrong with the hammer gap, I was just wondering if it was normal to cap at full cock. It doesn't really bother me except for when I might want to relax the hammer back to half cock, such as while hunting, the GPR's trigger's somewhat tricky to lower the hammer slowly, would be nice to load caps at half cock and not fiddle with trying to lower the hammer.
Filing down the front sight raises you point of impact. Not sure what you are asking. :hmm:
And, for most purposes, having a POI a little high at 50 yards is most useful.
Archer 756
40 Cal.
:surrender: why not get the right nipple for GPR 
Rifleman1776 said:
I wasn't sure on this one either. This is normal though to have to file the sights. Everyone shoots different and sets up the loads for how they want to shoot. They make the sights high on purpose because it's easier to file some sight off than to add some.
As far as grease lubes, I don't think there is any out there you don't have to swab at least occasionally between shots. You could try another lube like moose milk or something that requires less swabbing.
I'm trying to get a POI a couple inches high, as it is I've had to file off half my front sight just to get it 1/2 inch low. It was shooting around 4 low at 25 yds to begin with when I had the sight height set to what one of the sight height calculators said was the right height.
I'm a newbie at this too. I bought a GPR last summer and I believe the instructions said to cap the rifle at full cock. Have fun!
You don't have to use the triggers in "set mode", leave the rear trigger alone and just use the front trigger. It's designed that way, double throw, use the front alone or set the rear first then the front.Eric D. said:
Yes, it's normal for the GPR.Eric D. said:
It is also normal for the Thompson Center Hawken.
With both guns, the hammer comes to rest very close to the nipple when the lock is placed at half cock. So close it is just about impossible to cap the nipple.
The reason for this is unknown. It may be as colorado clyde suggests as an attempt to make the gun less likely to go off from half cock.
It may also be an attempt to cover the cap with the nose of the hammer to protect it from being hit by something while the gun is being carried.
In any case, it does make it necessary to bring the lock to a full cock to cap the nipple easily.
Returning the hammer to the half cock position after capping it does have its problems too.
Because the lock has a "fly" in it to prevent the nose of the sear from entering the half cock notch as the hammer is falling, the hammer must first be lowered down to a position where it almost touches the cap.
Only then can it be brought safely back up to the half cock position.
I've seen people slowly lower their guns hammer from full cock, directly to half cock. This is OK for locks that don't have a fly.
If the lock does have a fly in its tumbler (almost all double set trigger locks have a fly), this can be very dangerous.
Because the fly blocks off the sears entry into the half cock notch, it must be large enough to bump the sear upward as the hammer falls.
If the hammer is lowered very slowly, this "bump up" can cause the hammer to come to a stop as the sear reaches the fly. The shooter thinks the gun is now at half cock but it's not.
In this condition, the smallest bump on the gunstock can cause the sear to jump over the fly and the hammer will fall directly onto the percussion cap.
To avoid this, just remember, the hammer must fall below the half cock position so it can push the fly out of the way as it is being raised to the real half cock position.
Col. Batguano
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You should shoot a lot of rounds through the rifle before you settle on fine tuning the sights for 1/2" increments. Barrels are generally still "settling in" for the first 200-300 rounds. Best accuracy often doesn't come until you have 400-500 rounds through it. Most ML'ers (meaning the nut behind the butt included) are really not capable of 50 yard groups much tighter than 1 1/2" anyway due to very slight variances in ignition speed, patch seating, lube amounts, seating pressure, fouling, open iron sight differentials in sight picture, and a host of other variables. What you really need to do, is "call" your shots and then see where the shot hit relative to where you called it to land. That will give you a better feel for your true group size and location. ANd a MINIMUM group should be shot with at LEAST 5 shots. None of this 3 -shot malarkey that the gun writers and magazines like to use.
I kind of thought maybe it was so close at half cock so the cap wouldn't fall off when half cocked and you have the cap ready to go.
I think 3 shot groups are fine for adjustable sights that you can adjust back if you go to far. That's the way I was taught(for center fire) and it makes it quicker to get zeroed in but it's not the best group and you don't want to go filing away making something permanent until you have a for certain good grouping. You need 5 or more shots for that.
I think 3 shot groups are fine for adjustable sights that you can adjust back if you go to far. That's the way I was taught(for center fire) and it makes it quicker to get zeroed in but it's not the best group and you don't want to go filing away making something permanent until you have a for certain good grouping. You need 5 or more shots for that.
There's a lot of good advice here. I'm a greenhorn myself and listen with great care. With regards to the half cock I have had no problems pulling the hammer back slightly from half cock and using a straight capper. I then gently lower the hammer back to half cock. I don't like to go to full cock to cap the nipple.
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