As many of you know, I have stacks of old MuzzleBlast magazines which I read during my morning Constitutional.
This morning, I was reading the Bevel Up/Bevel Down Brothers article in the July 2000 edition. The subject was Round vs Square patches, Does it Effect Accuracy?
The brothers used one of their .45 caliber, 1 1/8 octagon X 46 inch barreled Chunk guns mounted with a telescopic sight (to remove the sighting errors of iron sights), shot off of a bench using double sandbags.
They weighed all powder charges (90 grains of Goex FFg) on an electronic scale, all balls were cast at the same time from the same material and wieghed to assure uniformity. The barrel was wiped and dried after each shot and all shooting was done at 63 yards on one windless day.
5 shot groups were made with a 6th shot added to see what the effects of locating the patch 1/8 inch off center would do.
Although the original question was "Round vs Square", they added another type of patching that being, the one cut at the muzzle after starting the ball.
The results?
Shots made with the Round patch measured .655 center to center of the widest shots.
Shots made with the Square patch measured .788 center to center of the widest shots.
Shots made by cutting the patch at the muzzle measured .515 center to center of the widest shots. (remember, this is at 63 yards!)
The precut patches which were offset at the muzzle 1/8 inch?
This seemed to have no effect on the round patched shot which went into the same group as the centered patch. The square patch loaded offset created a "flyer" that went 1 inch away from the group.
What do I get from all of this?
For those who are just doing some target practice, hunting, plinking etc either of the patches will work just fine.
For those in serious competition in a target shooting competition cut the patch at the muzzle. You can't do any better than that.
Zonie
This morning, I was reading the Bevel Up/Bevel Down Brothers article in the July 2000 edition. The subject was Round vs Square patches, Does it Effect Accuracy?
The brothers used one of their .45 caliber, 1 1/8 octagon X 46 inch barreled Chunk guns mounted with a telescopic sight (to remove the sighting errors of iron sights), shot off of a bench using double sandbags.
They weighed all powder charges (90 grains of Goex FFg) on an electronic scale, all balls were cast at the same time from the same material and wieghed to assure uniformity. The barrel was wiped and dried after each shot and all shooting was done at 63 yards on one windless day.
5 shot groups were made with a 6th shot added to see what the effects of locating the patch 1/8 inch off center would do.
Although the original question was "Round vs Square", they added another type of patching that being, the one cut at the muzzle after starting the ball.
The results?
Shots made with the Round patch measured .655 center to center of the widest shots.
Shots made with the Square patch measured .788 center to center of the widest shots.
Shots made by cutting the patch at the muzzle measured .515 center to center of the widest shots. (remember, this is at 63 yards!)
The precut patches which were offset at the muzzle 1/8 inch?
This seemed to have no effect on the round patched shot which went into the same group as the centered patch. The square patch loaded offset created a "flyer" that went 1 inch away from the group.
What do I get from all of this?
For those who are just doing some target practice, hunting, plinking etc either of the patches will work just fine.
For those in serious competition in a target shooting competition cut the patch at the muzzle. You can't do any better than that.
Zonie
