Navy 12 SxS shooting left of center

[BrownBear]

Is the stock encouraging your eye to stay to the left?
Your eye, the rear sight, can it be moved right by a little reworking the stock comb?

As both barrels shoot left, it sounds like a stock/fit issue, maybe!

Sure sounds right to me. I have what sounds like the same shotgun (excellent BTW), and it's right on the money for this left hander. My right hand buddy is shooting left every time he patterns it. Ain't gonna touch my stock, but when he finds one of his own he plans to do a little stock work.

 

[ZUG]

Before you start to do anything that may make permanent damage to that shotgun try this. If the gun had a butt plate make a wedge the shape of the butt plate that has a taper from left side to right side of the stock (your neck to your shoulder) and tape it to the butt. This will "kick out" the muzzle to the right of the now point of aim. SHOOT the shot gun and see where the center of the pattern is :hmm: . If the pattern moves to where you want it then attach the wedge to the butt stock and use the gun - this way you don't "muck-up" a nice shotgun :v .

 

[Lorne Johnson]

Both barrels! What's going on is that your face is not quite far enough to the the right, or to put it another way, not dead behind the front bead. Right hand shooters benefit from a stock that is cast off (bent slightly out) virtually all the time. You can bend in some cast, or you can sand down the left side of the comb until you are hitting on target. (Either of these fixes will help even more if you ever start wingshooting with the gun.)

(Pretty much a longer explanation of Britsmoothie's very good suggestion of "reworking the comb".)

You can also practice pushing your cheek against the comb harder, which should be possible for Turkey shooting (much harder for wingshooting).

 

[Golfswithwolves]

Take a step to the right.

Sorry??

You mean this won't work?

 

[RunningBear]

This might seem dumb but did you try shooting on the opposite side and get the same results?Just curious.

 

[matt denison]

Britsmoothy is correct. You need cast-OFF so as to move your eye further to the right.

I lowered and thinned the comb of a double that I have so as to make it shoot POA at 25 yards with a roundball load. I really didn't want to add (rifle) sights in that I wanted to be able to shoot it instinctively rather than searching for sight picture.

I also found that as I increased velocity with my roundball load, POI moved up and right. That much velocity increase may or may not blow holes in your patterns.

Have you checked for penetration of your 80gr ffg 1-3/8oz load? Your powder charge seems light for that shot charge.

I was concerned about penetration of it also. Yesterday I shot a metal tuna can at 30 yards. It was hit by 8 pellets. 7 penetrated, 1 did not. It appears that it's going to be ok.

As I am new to BP shotguns, would you think that my elementary penetration test would be sufficient? Seems like I read about using a tuna can or some other metal can as the test for penetration.

Sorry to be so short and to the point but for your sake and others reading this you need to remember that you are shooting a black powder double and not a remington 870.
A few inches off center (@ 30 yards !) is not such a bad thing and penetration will never equal a modern centerfire weapon. Take what you've got and make the best of it.

Want more penetration? Use bigger shot and more powder but then you need to accept wider patterns. No free lunch. Take what you got and use it your advantage.

 

[Trapperscott]

Britsmoothy is correct. You need cast-OFF so as to move your eye further to the right.

I lowered and thinned the comb of a double that I have so as to make it shoot POA at 25 yards with a roundball load. I really didn't want to add (rifle) sights in that I wanted to be able to shoot it instinctively rather than searching for sight picture.

I also found that as I increased velocity with my roundball load, POI moved up and right. That much velocity increase may or may not blow holes in your patterns.

Have you checked for penetration of your 80gr ffg 1-3/8oz load? Your powder charge seems light for that shot charge.

I was concerned about penetration of it also. Yesterday I shot a metal tuna can at 30 yards. It was hit by 8 pellets. 7 penetrated, 1 did not. It appears that it's going to be ok.

As I am new to BP shotguns, would you think that my elementary penetration test would be sufficient? Seems like I read about using a tuna can or some other metal can as the test for penetration.

Sorry to be so short and to the point but for your sake and others reading this you need to remember that you are shooting a black powder double and not a remington 870.
A few inches off center (@ 30 yards !) is not such a bad thing and penetration will never equal a modern centerfire weapon. Take what you've got and make the best of it.

Want more penetration? Use bigger shot and more powder but then you need to accept wider patterns. No free lunch. Take what you got and use it your advantage.

I get it that this is a big step back from modern shotguns. I understand that it isn't going to do what my modern shotguns do with the loads I make for them. I am not concerned with the penetration I am getting as I believe it is sufficient.

I took Larry WV's advise about filing the bead down. It was the easiest attempt at correcting the POI. It worked. I kept taking a little off of the side of it, and it moved a little at a time but it is now shooting to the POI at 30 yards. I did NOT do anything to the muzzle as it makes sense that the muzzle's have been filed to regulate them to the same POI. Just so everyone knows, it is shorter on the left side of both barrels by 3 degrees using a Starrett Angle gauge.

I appreciate everyone's help today. This has been fun.

Come on April 6th.

 

[azmntman]

Both barrels! What's going on is that your face is not quite far enough to the the right, or to put it another way, not dead behind the front bead. Right hand shooters benefit from a stock that is cast off (bent slightly out) virtually all the time. You can bend in some cast, or you can sand down the left side of the comb until you are hitting on target. (Either of these fixes will help even more if you ever start wingshooting with the gun.)

(Pretty much a longer explanation of Britsmoothie's very good suggestion of "reworking the comb".)

You can also practice pushing your cheek against the comb harder, which should be possible for Turkey shooting (much harder for wingshooting).

:shocked2: OUCH! I try that with my cheek slapping 20 and I be at the ER PDQ :haha:

 

[Wes/Tex]

I'm glad you found a way to make it work. Most posters are rigth...the original problem can only be stock design vs. your cheek or regulated barrels. Looks like it was ole #2. Glad also yours was a simple fix. If you're worried about shot penetration, the age old test is a tin can. If the shot penetrates the bottom of a tuna or similar can, at your hunting range, it'll knock an old gobbler for six! :wink: :haha: Good luck.

Laffindog is right you know...no matter how we tinker with loads, we're just dealing with less oomph with muzzleloaders than with modern firearms. That was something we realized, accepted and worked with from the 1950's on. Little did we know the sport would get all the crazy super metal, super plastics and smokeless loads in muzzleloaders...I was there and we saw what we were doing going on for centuries...or thought we did. Never t;hoguth shortcuts would take teh challenge out of it for so many. Still, prefer to accept the limitations and feel the pride of doing a good job with 200 year old technology! Put a turkey on your tabel! :thumbsup:

 

[nhmoose]

Britsmoothy is correct. You need cast-OFF so as to move your eye further to the right.

I lowered and thinned the comb of a double that I have so as to make it shoot POA at 25 yards with a roundball load. I really didn't want to add (rifle) sights in that I wanted to be able to shoot it instinctively rather than searching for sight picture.

I also found that as I increased velocity with my roundball load, POI moved up and right. That much velocity increase may or may not blow holes in your patterns.

Have you checked for penetration of your 80gr ffg 1-3/8oz load? Your powder charge seems light for that shot charge.

I was concerned about penetration of it also. Yesterday I shot a metal tuna can at 30 yards. It was hit by 8 pellets. 7 penetrated, 1 did not. It appears that it's going to be ok.

As I am new to BP shotguns, would you think that my elementary penetration test would be sufficient? Seems like I read about using a tuna can or some other metal can as the test for penetration.

I would use bigger shot than #6's try 5's or 4's in all of my ML smoothbores I have always used 1 size bigger than I would with a modern gun.