First Muzzleloader
You just bought it. Didn't seem right at first. There was no way to insert a cartridge but then the guys at the range had told you about all the rigamarole that these old style rifles required about putting in powder and then wrapping the lead ball with a pice of cloth. ramming it down the barrel with that stick you found under the barrel then putting the cap On the nipple thing aiming at the target aning.
Hit the paper about 6 inches away from sea center at 7 o'clock. Must have named carefully enough.
Loaded again. aimed and fired again. Damn! The hit was closer to the center about 4 inches from center but at 2 o'clock.
This darn thing is simply inaccurate. Five years ago when I came out to the ange with my .22 riffle it gave me goops that were rather tight and all I had to do was adjust the sights so the hits were in the target area. This Muzzleloader
is just an inaccurYou watch him and see he was doing the same thing you had done but was getting goodrevults. It was obvious that your new muzzleloading was another sad experience in buying a piece junk.
You go over to the muzzleloading rifleman and tell him you sad story expecting sympathy but he laughs and said he had the same disappointment his first day day but was told you had to learn how to load the rifle to get good results. What kind and how much of a powder charge; how thick the patching cloth was. How little or much lubrication to apply.
He took your rifle figured out an approximate powder charge for the caliber, used some of his own patching material and let you fire at your own target. Nearer the center about 3 inches at 4 o'clock which still wasn't any better than your earlier shots. The rifleman agreed but suggested you fire a few more shots using the powder charge he had used as well as his patching material.
Bang! Bang! Bang! three shots fired and they all landed within an inch or two of that 4 o'clock hit.
Thee result was an amazing improvement.
Aha! you now looked at your smoke producing new rifle with new eyes.
He suggested that I now had a clue as to how to experiment to further improve the groups with my suddenly miraculous new rifle.
A year later you are consistently getting tight bench rest groups and are now working on your shooting stance to improve your offhand shooting with a rifle you are confidently shooting secure in the knowledge that the rifle will hit where it's aimed when the tigger is squeezed.
The beginning of this story is the usual story of what happens with new muzzleloaders, But there is no friendly nearby rifleman toto explain the small secrets of the muzzleloading rifle. So the disappointed takes his piece of junk home and stores it in the garage of barn where I t rusts away. Another potential member of the muzzleloading fraternity lost forever.
If you see an obvious newbie at the range having bad results with a new to him rifle see if you can take the part of the friendly and widely experience rifleman.
Dutch
You just bought it. Didn't seem right at first. There was no way to insert a cartridge but then the guys at the range had told you about all the rigamarole that these old style rifles required about putting in powder and then wrapping the lead ball with a pice of cloth. ramming it down the barrel with that stick you found under the barrel then putting the cap On the nipple thing aiming at the target aning.
Hit the paper about 6 inches away from sea center at 7 o'clock. Must have named carefully enough.
Loaded again. aimed and fired again. Damn! The hit was closer to the center about 4 inches from center but at 2 o'clock.
This darn thing is simply inaccurate. Five years ago when I came out to the ange with my .22 riffle it gave me goops that were rather tight and all I had to do was adjust the sights so the hits were in the target area. This Muzzleloader
is just an inaccurYou watch him and see he was doing the same thing you had done but was getting goodrevults. It was obvious that your new muzzleloading was another sad experience in buying a piece junk.
You go over to the muzzleloading rifleman and tell him you sad story expecting sympathy but he laughs and said he had the same disappointment his first day day but was told you had to learn how to load the rifle to get good results. What kind and how much of a powder charge; how thick the patching cloth was. How little or much lubrication to apply.
He took your rifle figured out an approximate powder charge for the caliber, used some of his own patching material and let you fire at your own target. Nearer the center about 3 inches at 4 o'clock which still wasn't any better than your earlier shots. The rifleman agreed but suggested you fire a few more shots using the powder charge he had used as well as his patching material.
Bang! Bang! Bang! three shots fired and they all landed within an inch or two of that 4 o'clock hit.
Thee result was an amazing improvement.
Aha! you now looked at your smoke producing new rifle with new eyes.
He suggested that I now had a clue as to how to experiment to further improve the groups with my suddenly miraculous new rifle.
A year later you are consistently getting tight bench rest groups and are now working on your shooting stance to improve your offhand shooting with a rifle you are confidently shooting secure in the knowledge that the rifle will hit where it's aimed when the tigger is squeezed.
The beginning of this story is the usual story of what happens with new muzzleloaders, But there is no friendly nearby rifleman toto explain the small secrets of the muzzleloading rifle. So the disappointed takes his piece of junk home and stores it in the garage of barn where I t rusts away. Another potential member of the muzzleloading fraternity lost forever.
If you see an obvious newbie at the range having bad results with a new to him rifle see if you can take the part of the friendly and widely experience rifleman.
Dutch
