Finally got a little caught up and went to an informal muzzle loader shoot Sunday afternoon at the club. I decided to take my new Kibler Colonial .58 smoothbore for the outing. Did not shoot it a lot but enough to tell it is a fine shooter*. I had on hand .562 balls cast in a Lee mold, prelubed/pre-cut .015 patch’s and two sizes of home-made prelubed pillow tick patching. The pillow tick was blue, .020 (by as accurate as my micrometer technique can measure) and red, .0133 thickness soaked in 1 to 5 Ballistol/water. Patches pulled through fingers and hung on a plastic hanger to dry in the utility room. Load was 80 grains of Swiss 2f and all types of patches shot well although the Blue .020 was too tough to load. I am well pleased that the Red, .0133 patches did as well as the “store-bought” .015 patches. Next up I will try my home made patches in my .62 smoothbore.
*At 25 yards off-hand I actually had three shots (out of ten) in “one hole” a little low and right. You could tell it was three shots due to a slight “clover leaf” type pattern, but it was still mostly one hole. Very impressive accuracy from a smoothbore (or anything shot by me). Aiming was six o’clock, or as I prefer to call it, “pumpkin on a post”. Further, and farther testing it certainly called for. Oh, and cleaning a smoothbore, while not really enjoyable, is certainly easier than in rifling.
*At 25 yards off-hand I actually had three shots (out of ten) in “one hole” a little low and right. You could tell it was three shots due to a slight “clover leaf” type pattern, but it was still mostly one hole. Very impressive accuracy from a smoothbore (or anything shot by me). Aiming was six o’clock, or as I prefer to call it, “pumpkin on a post”. Further, and farther testing it certainly called for. Oh, and cleaning a smoothbore, while not really enjoyable, is certainly easier than in rifling.
