Accuracy Woes

[chix2111]

I built a .54 Hawken 25 years ago it was a 1,000/100 project (dollars/hours). Shot fairly well after I finished but it was tearing up patches. I got a bunch of fiber over powder wads which helped but still not to my satisfaction. I did a lot of reading and finally decided I just needed to shoot the hell out of it as advised by some old timers.
They were right.....today it shoots. It just got better and better. Right now it shoots so good that if I told of it on this forum, people would no doubt call bs, so I'll just say to you "shoot the hell out of it".

 

[Carbon 6]

I built a .54 Hawken 25 years ago it was a 1,000/100 project (dollars/hours). Shot fairly well after I finished but it was tearing up patches. I got a bunch of fiber over powder wads which helped but still not to my satisfaction. I did a lot of reading and finally decided I just needed to shoot the hell out of it as advised by some old timers.
They were right.....today it shoots. It just got better and better. Right now it shoots so good that if I told of it on this forum, people would no doubt call bs, so I'll just say to you "shoot the hell out of it".

Shooting "the hell out of it" improves two things,
A rough bore and a rough shooter.

 

[Rodd Boyer]

...however, I still wonder if any of you have used that light of charge for deer...and can offer your thoughts on if it is sufficient. Thanks again.
[/QUOTE]
This year I ran 50gr of Swiss in my .45 flintlock with a .440 ball and .017 blue stripe pillow ticking for deer. Shot was 80-90 yards and the ball performed excellent!

Good luck, shoot straight and God bless,
Rodd

 

[Siringo]

Here is a snapshot from bore scope. You can make out the tooling marks on side of lands. What yall think?

That’s awful. I have a 50-95 barrel by Uberti that looks like that. It would not shoot. No amount of polishing worked.

Since you have a Hawken style, is the barrel loose? From the fit of the barrel hook to the wedge pins. I made up a fast twist bullet gun from a Pedersoli Missouri River with rear tang sight for long range. It shot all over the place. So I glass bedded the barrel and that fixed the problem.

 

[Carbon 6]

That’s awful. I have a 50-95 barrel by Uberti that looks like that. It would not shoot. No amount of polishing worked.

Yep, it's often a tossup between investing the time and effort, and just replacing or re-boring straight out of the gate. The latter of the two usually having guaranteed results. The former is a gamble.

 

[Siringo]

Thanks for the help men. The bore mics at .516 in the grooves, .506 across lands.
I have tried both wiping between shots and not wiping. All shots are from bench.
I have tried patching material from cotton, pillow ticking, blue jean denim.
I am unsure how many shots were put through it before I got barrel from ebay, however it was used. I ran a bore scope down it, it does not have what I considder pits...but maybe rough spots from tool chatter in lands.
I am about to head outside to try .495 ball, .20 thick patch combined with 100gr FFG...my reasoning...it shows more promising groups with 90gr FFFg...so maybee it will like a little heftier charge with FFg. Ill let you know how it goes.

I wonder who made that barrel. Is it Italian? I have a 50-95 barrel from Uberti that has the same measurements except for twist. It’s a piece of garbage. I came to the conclusion they used a muzzleloader barrel because it had a 1/48 twist

 

[TomV]

For targets for this work i use paper plates and 2 inch orange stickers on a roll o got off Amazon. Cheap and versatile. As to the bullseye at 100 and closer it is visible and old eyes see it fine. Lyman globe front site barely covers it at 100 yards.

 

[Thunder14]

Cant seem to figure it out some of these guys pick up the gun take two or three shots then say the gun sucks,do they understand it takes time with the gun to figure out what it likes and what changes are needed to have it perform in a relatively consistent manor.I’ve been shooting some of my guns for 20 years and depending on the weather and temperature they will need modification,so maybe BP isn’t for everyon.

 

[Tizzy]

Everyone, I just want to say thank you for the advice. I gave the barrel the scotchbrite treatment, followed by crown polishing with thumb and sandpaper. The rifle loads much smoother now. The attached pic is from three consecutive shots following the first fouling shot. Not too bad.

 

[Britsmoothy]

That's more like it

 

[SDSmlf]

Appears you are headed in the right direction, good job. Curious, can you see the improvement/difference of the bore with your borescope? Your early photograph showed a pretty rough state of affairs.

 

[Robby]

All this talk about shooting the hell out of it, I going to go and shoot the hell out of mine!!! Glad you got it Tizzy!!!!
Robby

 

[Robby]

About fifty years ago a farmer the next town over was getting the kitchen remodeled in the family farm house, during the tear down they found a civil war rifle, all the accoutrements and uniform hanging neatly between the framing posts. I don't remember all the specific details other than everything was well used and in excellent condition.
Robby

 

[TFoley]

About fifty years ago a farmer the next town over was getting the kitchen remodeled in the family farm house, during the tear down they found a civil war rifle, all the accoutrements and uniform hanging neatly between the framing posts. I don't remember all the specific details other than everything was well used and in excellent condition. Robby

Just a'waiting the next call to duty.