To make this short, i am about out of l.v.l, and tried something new today. Mixed balistol/water 6-1 ratio,and soaked joanne fabric pocket drill patching in it. Next morning,it was dry to the touch and went shooting with my .32 cherokee.My standard 24 gr schuetzen fff load was used,with lee .311 ball. @50 yards i shot a 6 shot group about .750 inch,with 4 shots making a single hole.These 4 balls grouped right close to .250 inch!! I thought i was shooting my 6ppc bench gun!!! Ive read about this balistol/water thing for a long while,but never tried it.Im definately a beleaver!!! Ball seated pretty hard with this dry patch,but i guess i dont care :grin:
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I think my hunt for lehigh lube is over!!
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longcruise
70 Cal.
That's one downside to the "dry lube" system. One year I used it for my hunting load and reloaded after hitting an elk. Elk ran out of sight. Reloaded immediately and in my excitement forgot to wipe before loading. I was a battle to get the ball down and had to push the ramrod up against a tree trunk to get it down the last six inches. :redface:
I always had good accuracy with the dry lube system. I used the NAPA water soluble grinding oil and still have some left. Now I hear that the formula is changed and that the new way of doing things is with Ballistol and water.
Glad you had good luck with it. Your group would thrill me any day 0f the week!
This little gun shoots so well,that id like to somehow put a scope on it,just to see how good it really shoots! With its 24 inch barrel,there is only about 15-16 inches between the sights,,,lots of room for aiming era being this short.I dry patched between each shot,and it never seemed to get tighter from the first shot to the last,(12 shots).
longcruise
70 Cal.
I think what you were doing is a pretty good formula for consistent accuracy! Let me know when you plan to shoot a match and where so's I don't show up and get all embaraassed :redface:
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as regards scoping a ML... while i personally think this borders on sacrelige, you have every right to do it if you want, and i'd defend your right to put glass on anything, even if it's not something i'd do myself...
there was an article a while ago in MuzzleBlasts, and i can't remember the upshot, but i always wondered if putting a scope on the barrel would change the mass and tinker with the harmonics, thus effecting (either for good or ill) the inheirant accuracy of the barrel.
i suppose that if you intended to leave the scope on the gun, the change wouldn't matter, but the Bevel Brothers were looking to take it back off and use the iron sights once the test was done. if on the other hand, you want to leave the scope on there, the change would be the change, and there you go.
considering that your groups beat up my groups and take their lunch money and send them running home to mama, i guess it's not really my business to tell you to scope or not to scope, but i suspect that your groups won't gain much by the addition of glass.
if you do scope, let us know how it turns out
make good (scope or unscoped) smoke!
there was an article a while ago in MuzzleBlasts, and i can't remember the upshot, but i always wondered if putting a scope on the barrel would change the mass and tinker with the harmonics, thus effecting (either for good or ill) the inheirant accuracy of the barrel.
i suppose that if you intended to leave the scope on the gun, the change wouldn't matter, but the Bevel Brothers were looking to take it back off and use the iron sights once the test was done. if on the other hand, you want to leave the scope on there, the change would be the change, and there you go.
considering that your groups beat up my groups and take their lunch money and send them running home to mama, i guess it's not really my business to tell you to scope or not to scope, but i suspect that your groups won't gain much by the addition of glass.
if you do scope, let us know how it turns out
make good (scope or unscoped) smoke!
Oh, dont get me wrong,I think scopes are totally wrong on a traditional cap gun.I just thik it would be neat to build a base like a clamp,and put a 36x scope on my smoke guns, just to see what they are capable of.I have a investarms .50 that shoots as good as this .32,maybe better,but i have trouble holding it real fine,and as a result get some fliers.
paulvallandigham
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At 100 yds, which is still a long distance to be expecting much even from a .32 conical, I don't think you will need a 36X scope. A 3-9 power Variable will give you more than enough magnification to reduce or eliminate human errors so that you can maximize the group size reduction. Use what you have, of course.
I know several shooters who put scopes on MLers, and Lever action rifles to work up loads, before removing the scopes to use only the Iron sights that come with the gun for hunting, and general shooting. Like you, they want to have an idea how accurate a given barrel is with a chosen powder/bullet combination. There is Nothing Wrong with finding out.
To answer your question, I am sure that on some guns, a scope and mount will affect the harmonics some, but I doubt the effect will make an accurate barrel shoot poorly, or an inaccurate barrel shoot well. Most MLing barrels are Octagon( I don't include those unmentionable things that some people call a MLER), and an Octagon is much stiffer than any round barrel, until you get at least 2 calibers wider in diameter on both sides of the bore.
You surely have noticed that some of the best modern ROUND barrels have flutes cut into them to help Stabilize them. The barrels are wide for the small caliber rounds they shoot, and the flutes do to the round barrel what an Octagon barrel already does. The shooters talk about " dissipating heat" better with a fluted barrel and other " benefits", but the true benefit is that it stabilizes the barrel for those high velocity bullets that are forced through the barrel.
An Octagon barrel is a series of triangles, over lapped, to stabilize the barrel and allow fore- stocks to be hanged from the barrels without adversely affecting harmonics or accuracy. The larger Octagon barrel( per caliber) also dissipates heat quite well.
Please post your results when you have fired those groups using the scope. I am sure all the members will be interested in what you find out. :thumbsup:
I know several shooters who put scopes on MLers, and Lever action rifles to work up loads, before removing the scopes to use only the Iron sights that come with the gun for hunting, and general shooting. Like you, they want to have an idea how accurate a given barrel is with a chosen powder/bullet combination. There is Nothing Wrong with finding out.
To answer your question, I am sure that on some guns, a scope and mount will affect the harmonics some, but I doubt the effect will make an accurate barrel shoot poorly, or an inaccurate barrel shoot well. Most MLing barrels are Octagon( I don't include those unmentionable things that some people call a MLER), and an Octagon is much stiffer than any round barrel, until you get at least 2 calibers wider in diameter on both sides of the bore.
You surely have noticed that some of the best modern ROUND barrels have flutes cut into them to help Stabilize them. The barrels are wide for the small caliber rounds they shoot, and the flutes do to the round barrel what an Octagon barrel already does. The shooters talk about " dissipating heat" better with a fluted barrel and other " benefits", but the true benefit is that it stabilizes the barrel for those high velocity bullets that are forced through the barrel.
An Octagon barrel is a series of triangles, over lapped, to stabilize the barrel and allow fore- stocks to be hanged from the barrels without adversely affecting harmonics or accuracy. The larger Octagon barrel( per caliber) also dissipates heat quite well.
Please post your results when you have fired those groups using the scope. I am sure all the members will be interested in what you find out. :thumbsup:
Ill probally never bother to scope any of my smokers, it just that i have shot centerfire benchrest for years,and have looked threw 36x scopes for thousands of shots. When i see a gun start shooting multiple shots in the same slot in the paper,i get VERY intrested! :grin:
paulvallandigham
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If you go to the bigger Shoots, you will find the SLUG gun shooters in attendance. They shoot HUGE underhammer bench Guns in open class, using lead conicals, and SCOPE SIGHTS. For the long distance shooting, they use scopes as large as 36X and some are larger. A scope sight is Not an abortion on such MLing Guns. They are on the typical hunting gun, since they simply were not used. Tube sights, and low power or NO power Scopes came on the scene Just before the Civil War for bullet rifles, using traditional Side action Percussion locks, but then also Mule Ear, and then Underhammer actions. I am not familiar with any original Flintlocks that had original scopes mounted as sighting devices, altho its been done since with replica arms and scopes.
I don't blame you for being interested when you see that kind of accuracy. Anyone would want to know just how accurate a gun can be, given better sighting equipment.
Give the scope a try on the gun- it only involves deciding how you are going to hold the mounts on the barrel. Gasket Clamps have been used, but make sure you pad the stock well before screwing the clamps down tightly. otherwise, you will mar the finish and probably gouge the stock. The recoil should not be excessive even with a .32 shooting conicals.
There are, BTW, several .32 caliber cast bullets available that can be sized down to fit your bore. The Rate of Twist will determine how Long a bullet your gun will stabilize and at what velocity, but don't overlook bullets made for any of the .30-32 caliber cartridges.
I had a friend who began using a 130 grain spitzer shaped bullet in his .30-20 pistol to shoot Pistol Silhouette. It had enough power to knock over rams at 200 meters.
I don't blame you for being interested when you see that kind of accuracy. Anyone would want to know just how accurate a gun can be, given better sighting equipment.
Give the scope a try on the gun- it only involves deciding how you are going to hold the mounts on the barrel. Gasket Clamps have been used, but make sure you pad the stock well before screwing the clamps down tightly. otherwise, you will mar the finish and probably gouge the stock. The recoil should not be excessive even with a .32 shooting conicals.
There are, BTW, several .32 caliber cast bullets available that can be sized down to fit your bore. The Rate of Twist will determine how Long a bullet your gun will stabilize and at what velocity, but don't overlook bullets made for any of the .30-32 caliber cartridges.
I had a friend who began using a 130 grain spitzer shaped bullet in his .30-20 pistol to shoot Pistol Silhouette. It had enough power to knock over rams at 200 meters.
