Patching / loading technique

[jbwilliams3]

You're seeing the pure target shooting routine vice the trail walk or hunting or recreational shooting routine.

The guys at my monthly bullseye shoots load as you describe but with Teflon for lube. Lots of wiping, cutting and hammering going on. They're serious paper punchers and some travel quite a bit to shoot at major matches.

I still beat them often enough (with my flintlock) to keep things interesting.

I'm sure their benched groups are smaller than mine, but shooting well offhand is a lot more than just group size.

I'm also usually sitting by the woodstove smoking my pipe for the last 20 minutes of a relay while they're still freezing their butts off on the line.

I feel much like you do. I have no problem with folks who want absolute best bench accuracy. I just feel personally that I’d rather shoot traditional guns traditionally which means using loads and methods that mirror what the gun would have used in its day. Otherwise, I’d be exclusively shooting centerfire bolt actions.

More than once, I have shot offhand with folks who found it hard to believe I wasn’t short-starting or using super tight loads. I’ve always thought that if I can shoot pretty dang well off hand with easy-loading combos (and kill things deader than dead), it doesn’t make much sense to go as tight as absolute possible.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I've often wondered if the rifling type made a difference. It seems that square grooves have a better opportunity to "grab" the patch with a looser fit than round bottom does.