jbwilliams3
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2006
- Messages
- 689
- Reaction score
- 159
I don’t have a TVM gun, but my experience with smooth muzzleloaders mirrors Hanshi’s. I don’t doubt that folks get good accuracy with patched balls, but I wouldn’t ignore the bare ball with a wad as an experiment. My 28 gauge trade gun shoots a very acceptable group at 50 yards offhand using nothing but a bare ball and usually leaves as a wad. I have found little difference in patching versus not patching ball in smoothies. Others’ mileage will vary, without a doubt. My experiments with my trade gun were based on how I thought an individual in the 18th century would load ”“ basically throw in a wasps nest and ball and a green leaf, etc. and ram the whole thing home in one effort ”“ that’s counter to most advice as most say you need to ram each element individually and it’s got to be super tight ”“ but it’s fast and very reasonably accurate which is what I believe they were intended to be.
I’m not advocating for accepting less than optimal performance, particularly for the sake of any creature that might be hunted with these guns. However, I find it extremely fun to load and shoot how they were shot originally and I just so happen to get the same or similar accuracy as I do using a patched round ball. Have fun experimenting!
I’m not advocating for accepting less than optimal performance, particularly for the sake of any creature that might be hunted with these guns. However, I find it extremely fun to load and shoot how they were shot originally and I just so happen to get the same or similar accuracy as I do using a patched round ball. Have fun experimenting!