By Golly it works

[Many Klatch]

I took my Officer's fusil to the range today. I bought it back in February and still haven't made friends with it yet. I fired about 10 shots and was barely able to keep it in a pie plate sized group at 25 yards, not really acceptable. My load is 60 grains of 3F pushing a .60 ball with .010 patching.

I took along my .60 shotgun wads to try since many of the people here have said how well that works. Well, by golly that did tighten up the groups quite a bit. After I put two shots in the same hole, I started getting cold, it was 35 degrees at the range.

I decided to see how the Fusil would work at the long distance gongs before I went home. First I loaded with two thin overshot wads and then put the patch and ball down on the wads. Ding I hit the 50 yard gong. Then I loaded with a thin cork cushion wad and patch and ball; Ding at 75 yards. Finally I tried a cardboard overpowder wad and patch at 100 yards. First shot was a miss and the second was a hit.

From the few shots that I did with wads over the powder, it looks like any kind of wad will help accuracy if that is what the gun likes.

Now I can start trying to figure out if any one type of wad works better than the others.

Many Klatch

 

[rabjr]

Nice, yep a lubed fiber wad over the powder helped get my Smoothie on target consistently. :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Who's the barrel maker?

 

[No Deer]

"Well, by golly that did tighten up the groups quite a bit. After I put two shots in the same hole, I started getting cold, it was 35 degrees at the range."

Amazing how much it warmed up when you started hitting and having fun eh? :rotf:

 

[Many Klatch]

Mike, I wish I knew. I bought the gun off of a blanket. It hadn't been shot much. The gun is signed B. Turner on top.

I had to adjust the barrel between two trees to get it to shoot close to the point of aim.

Many Klatch

 

[mazo kid]

Andy, how many times did it take before the barrel was tweaked enough? Wish I could get out to shoot, it's cold here and the snow makes getting around difficult. Guess I could just shoot off the deck....Emery

 

[FPDoc]

That's what I'm doing, load in the kitchen, run out the back door, take a whack at one of the gongs and back in where it's warm and not blowin-snow. Ain't a bad way to spend an afternoon.. :grin:

 

[Many Klatch]

Em, It took three or four gentle tweaks before the barrel started shooting where I wanted it to.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

Many Klatch, Ain't tree breaking them barrels a gang of fun!
Grizz

 

[Many Klatch]

Grizz, yeah, the barrel on this gun looks like a swaybacked horse. At least with this much sway in it I probably won't have to worry about mirage's when shooting 20 or 30 shots.

Many Klatch

 

[mazo kid]

I've got a Trade Gun (one of Curley's kits) that needs the barrel "adjusted". Maybe I should bring it up to Shinin' Times Valley next time and you could walk me thru it. I know what to do, just hesitant to try it. Emery

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

When I started going to Friendship over 30 years ago my new north west gun shot a foot low and 8 inches to the right. Well Lizard said he would adjust the barrel for me. Right behind the cabin we took the trade gun apart on one of the shooting tables and several of the larger Rangers
gathered around me. I will confess that I did not know HOW Lizard was going to adjust my barrel. When Lizard put my barrel into the fork of that big tree and started to rare back with a firm grip on my barrel, I dove for him! The other guys
knew this was coming and Preacher, Sam Clevenger and some little fellow who broke horses for a living, tackled me and held me down until the adjustment was done. I was mad...untill I shot it!
I made plunder with that Northwest gun for many years!

 

Kinda like pullin' a tooth for the first time, eh? :rotf:

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

I am used to tree breaking barrels, I never got use to having teeth pulled!!! :thumbsup:

 

[AJFedak]

I found my trade gun shooting about 10" low so I used a laser bore sight, my bench rest and some clamps to tweak the barrel.

 

[Sherlock]

Good for you. Do you have any advice for others to go along with the pictures? Have you shot it yet to comfirm? Please advise. Thanks, Wonky

 

[Spot1540553049]

You have a good thing going with the lazer. Now my idea is how to get one of those things that will go in the front thimble to sight the gun with on the range! This isn't exactly 18th century where they did it by trial and error (Lizard can be a trial)but this method would do away with the guesswork. Nice photo essay.
as usual,
Spot

 

[Stumpkiller]

Did you get it to shoot to point-of-aim after replacing it in the stock is the question.

It's gotta be there without the clamp and with enough extra to pull the wood along in the barrel channel or it will spring back, no?

 

[AJFedak]

The thing that I noticed is that it doesn't take much change (bend) to have a large change at the target. First off with the clamps, you still have to go past the yeild point of the barrel or it will spring back. It took a little experimenting at first to find the yeild point.
As can be seen with my first 4 shots. Then shots 5-7 made me very happy. Could it be better, sure always can be better. But now I want to wait to see if it returns to its old position. Target was at 50 yards for testing.

I did not have any problems when I re-installed the barrel. The pins went in without torquing the barrel or stock. I mainly shoot shot out of this gun but wanted to check it out with round ball. This looks like it will be a keeper.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

That was an eye opener! Thanks for the pictures and post.