Range report - effects of cold & humid on accuracy

[roundball]

One more week until my hunting season starts, so I decided to run another 50 balls through the new .54cal Flint smoothbore this morning, and am very glad that I did.

Two weeks ago I gave that barrel it's debut and it put balls inside a 3" aim point sticker at 50yds...temp was in the 50's with very high humidity, the kind that turns the pan to soup immediately, and lubes are soft and slippery...using a thin .010" prelubed patch with .530's, was pleased with the results, never thought anymore about it.

This morning at first light, there was white frost with temps at freezing and very low, dry humidity...balls were flying all over the place...struggled to keep them on the paper plate at 50yds!

I finally wondered if the thin patches weren't carrying enough lube for the dry conditions...tried some .015" which were prelubed with NL1000 and also had some Hoppes No9 BP PLUS lube I'd squirted on them a few weeks ago.

To my surprise the .015" patches started as easy as the .010", the extra lube let the balls seat down easier & smoother...and the groups tighted back up.

Unfortunately the POI also changed with the thicker patches and more lube, so I have to go back in the morning to rezero it with this lubed patch configuration...if it'll stay as consistent as it seemed to be when I left today, I'll try it deer hunting some this year.

Just about every time I think I've got everything figured out, I stumble and learn something new...I've shot so many range sessions in past years without wiping between shots using NL1000, I assumed that was the all purpose answer for lube...but now since I shooting year round including cold / dry conditions, I find it's a different ball game...have to use more lube than what normally comes in the prelubed patches...

 

[Stumpkiller]

No doubt about it. Flintlocks [mis]behave like livin critters at times.

Up here we have hot, humid and muggy summers and then cold, dry winters. I prefer shooting in the latter for the lack of mosquitoes and ease of loading, but the summer I get much more pan fouling, though the fouling there and in the bore stays softer and is easy to remove.

Now you see why I never took a shine to pre-lubed patches. I do most of my m/l shooting at temperatures between 20 and 40 degrees. When I use the home-made dry patching in loading blocks I add a couple drops of moose milk before loading to counter the lower humidity.

 

[ffffg]

if your lube is freezing , ive found that it can cause problems for me.. i use neatsfoot oil in summer , tc lube in fall and winter.. bear oil when i can get it is the best.. in the fall im just interested in the first two shots.. what i strive to do is to find two rounds that stick together during hunting conditions/temperatures.. its a pretty big job on some guns.. i always seem to have a pretty tough time with this. but powder amount, powder type, lube, patch thicknsess and anything else thrown in you can find or learn to get them together.. sometimes its the simplest thing that makes it all come together.. but time and lots of shooting will ultimatley do the job.. put your present lube in the freezer and see if it freezes up, if it does it may be the problem...dave