"Oh Mama" is all I can say...debuted the new .62cal Virginia smoothbore today and it's fantastic.
Fit perfectly, Chambers deluxe siler was flawless, Davis double triggers were flawless, and the Caywood 'Full' Jug Choke in the Rice barrel proved to be excellent. Took forever, but I finally got the sights filed down to center the shot load at 30 yards.
Good groups for small Turkey head shots came with a couple of 1/8" Oxyoke wads instead of the 1/2" Circle Fly cushion wad. But for a more open general purpose pattern, turns out a 1/2" Circle Fly cushion wad opens up the pattern like a modified choke but without creating a doughnut hole which is great news.
And as with my previous Jug Choked GM barrel, Goex 3F gave the best patterns compared to 2F.
NOTE:
Just before stopping the pattern testing with different variations of wads, OS cards, powder, etc, I had a wild thought and tried something way out of the ordinary...and only tried one shot as I was about burned out...but I seated a large .60"-.70" x .018" pillow ticking patch down on the powder, then one Oxyoke wad, then one OS card, then the shot charge, then the top OS card.
Incredibly dense pattern...will dedicate the next range trip to better understanding that.
May turn out to have been a fluke...or might be something to do with the interaction of the large patch when it hits the expansion chamber of the Jug Choke, dunno...and one shot of course means nothing...but whatever happened it's worth testing further to see if its repeatable.
PRBs out of Caywood’s Jug Choke
It was 99 degrees with 90% humidity so I was ready to cave after 3 hours, exhausted in spite of having poured down two liters of water...but wanted to at least run a few PRBs through the Caywood Jug Choke just to see if it was even going to be usable.
Since the muzzle mic'ed .615" I tried .018" pillow ticking / .600" cast balls with 100grns Goex 2F. Sitting down in a chair, 3" aim point sticker at 50 yards, the first two holes cut each other at 11 o'clock on the edge of the sticker, with the 3rd hole about an inch over at 1 o'clock on the top edge of the sticker, so I quit and headed home to get out of the heat.
There’ll be more range trips but it's clear this Early Virginia is going to be outstanding, and would be my choice for the "if I could only have one Flintlock what would it be" question.
Fit perfectly, Chambers deluxe siler was flawless, Davis double triggers were flawless, and the Caywood 'Full' Jug Choke in the Rice barrel proved to be excellent. Took forever, but I finally got the sights filed down to center the shot load at 30 yards.
Good groups for small Turkey head shots came with a couple of 1/8" Oxyoke wads instead of the 1/2" Circle Fly cushion wad. But for a more open general purpose pattern, turns out a 1/2" Circle Fly cushion wad opens up the pattern like a modified choke but without creating a doughnut hole which is great news.
And as with my previous Jug Choked GM barrel, Goex 3F gave the best patterns compared to 2F.
NOTE:
Just before stopping the pattern testing with different variations of wads, OS cards, powder, etc, I had a wild thought and tried something way out of the ordinary...and only tried one shot as I was about burned out...but I seated a large .60"-.70" x .018" pillow ticking patch down on the powder, then one Oxyoke wad, then one OS card, then the shot charge, then the top OS card.
Incredibly dense pattern...will dedicate the next range trip to better understanding that.
May turn out to have been a fluke...or might be something to do with the interaction of the large patch when it hits the expansion chamber of the Jug Choke, dunno...and one shot of course means nothing...but whatever happened it's worth testing further to see if its repeatable.
PRBs out of Caywood’s Jug Choke
It was 99 degrees with 90% humidity so I was ready to cave after 3 hours, exhausted in spite of having poured down two liters of water...but wanted to at least run a few PRBs through the Caywood Jug Choke just to see if it was even going to be usable.
Since the muzzle mic'ed .615" I tried .018" pillow ticking / .600" cast balls with 100grns Goex 2F. Sitting down in a chair, 3" aim point sticker at 50 yards, the first two holes cut each other at 11 o'clock on the edge of the sticker, with the 3rd hole about an inch over at 1 o'clock on the top edge of the sticker, so I quit and headed home to get out of the heat.
There’ll be more range trips but it's clear this Early Virginia is going to be outstanding, and would be my choice for the "if I could only have one Flintlock what would it be" question.
