How NOT to fix a gun...

[nuttbush]

omgb,
940 grains of 4f. I wouldn't want to be around when you set that one off. You probably hit someone in China. Wah !!!

 

[Lonegun1894]

The wheelweights balls are actually more accurate than swaged in this rifle, couldnt explain why, but they are for some reason. So i have stuck with them. I am using pillowticking for patches, and if it the combination was any tighter, i probably wouldnt be able to get it down the barrel. The patches arent getting cut anymore, the ones from yesterday looked good enough to reuse--and i was tempted. Patch wise, i finally have it right. Ball wise, i'll stick to wheel weights in this gun cause it's never performed better with anything else than it does with them. I have been thinking about baking them fr a hour or so to soften them up just a bit and see if that helps/hurts anything. Figure if nothing else, at least i'll know to either keep doing it, or not do it again.

 

[Brokenlaig]

I'll hop in here-
Firstly, I'm pretty sure your rear sight was moving around enough, even before it fell off, to throw your impact point all over the county. Secondly, the lands on your barrel were obviously too sharp, which combined with the extra hard balls, contributed to patch cutting, gas blow-by and further degraded your accuracy.
Sounds like you are getting somewhere now though. Try altering your powder charge up or down, and maybe try a different patch material thickness as well. I'd really try some swaged balls again now the sharpness is off the lands-you might be surprised.
I'm fairly sure that advice to turn your gun into a wall hanger, door stop, or tomato stake isn't what you were looking for. Hope this helps.

 

[strosper]

Something to check is how the barrel is held in the stock. I could not get my Lyman GPR to hold consistent groups (albeit better than you describe), but what I found was that there was some tension in the barrel when it was held into the stock. The way the rear of the barrel was bedded, I was sort of bending it slightly when I put the barrel wedges in. I cleaned up the bedding and this helped improve my groups quite a bit.

 

[RedFeather]

I have been thinking about baking them for a hour or so to soften them up just a bit and see if that helps/hurts anything.

I don't think it will soften them. Unless you dropped them hot from the mould into water to quench harden them, they should be as annealed as they will get.

RedFeather

 

[Lonegun1894]

dropping them into water straight from the mold was exactly what i did at the time. That was why i was thinking i might need to soften them a bit now that i'm finally getting some results with this rifle. So far, the progress has been encouraging. I am finally getting good patches after firing, and the groups are tightening up into something better than i get with birdshot out of a derringer. The recommendation about trying swaged balls again is something i didnt think of, thought softening the ones i have would work, but then again, it cant hurt, and might help a lot. It was mentioned above that this rifle might need to be shot more as someone said theirs smoothed up after about 50 balls. Mine has somewhere between 400-500 through it and is finally starting to improve some. Hopefully it will just keep getting better as time goes on like many of you have said in various posts. Thank you all for all the help. God knows i need all the good advice i can get with this rifle. Does anyome else have anu ideas on what else i should do different? So far, 70g fff gives the best groups, with that cast wheelweight ball and pillowticking. Think i'll stick with the pillowticking, and since it has almost no signs of being even fired, i shouldnt need a fiberwad or cornmeal filler to protect it, should I?
Paul