Need advice breaking clays

[Lorne Johnson]

I'm sure that your problem is the wadding, as several folks have also said. Starr liked to use 3 to 4 .125 inch overshot cards, and no cushion wad. 3/8 cardboard or nitro wads work. Personally I find the fiber cushion wads (cut in half ) to be a waste of time, and the full cushion wads blow the pattern apart. If you fix your wads, I would expect that your recoil will increase significantly, enough to potentially produce a flinch. I've had good luck with 70 grs ffg, which I believe is very close to a "one ounce by volume"measure hence the one ounce square load (equal volume of powder and shot) coming from a single measure. 70 grs ffg has worked well for me in gauges from 19 to 10, although 4 overshot cards, as a wad, are seriously inadequate in my 10 guage. Fg powder will work just fine as will FFg and FFFg, patterns do change a bit, and fine tuning of amounts is ultimately a good idea, but they will all break clays at 0 degrees.

 

[Robby]

You are used to your 1187 and you're probably on the edge of your pattern, lead them a bit more and make sure you follow through. Many new to muzzleloaders stop their sweeping followthrough when they pull the trigger, myself included. I don't know why.
Robin

 

[Jason5881]

Thanks guys. I did buy some nitro cards, and started breaking them much better. I can feel the increase in recoil also. Ive also noticed myself stopping the swing after the trigger pull, something ive really got to work on. Thanks for all the advice!