I’m pretty new here but have been working with two different kit guns for a while now. A Crocket 32 was the first gun I built. I then built a GPR in 54. Both are percussion rifles. I have been working with the Crockett for months trying to squeeze out all the accuracy I can get for squirrel hunting. I typically hunt with a high end .22 and a high end scope, so I was hoping for really stellar accuracy out to 30-35 yards with the Crockett. Until recently I couldn’t get what I wanted.
I’ve put approximately 200 balls down range, both .310 and .315. I was pretty settled on .315 ball, .018 pillow ticking, and 15 grains of 3f Swiss. This combo outperformed all others, but I still got 1-2 fliers in 5 shots. Not bad, but an inch or two high. Enough to cleanly miss a squirrel for sure.
last week I purchased Dutch Schoultz’s book online. Received a call from Dutch’s daughter the following day that they were having trouble emailing it to me. After giving her a new email address I received it within minutes. Was very impressed with the level of service and the call. I read the whole book in one day.
While a lot of the book covered things I already knew or things I was already doing, the book caused me to think in a new way and introduced a few new issues. I realized that my lube method wasn’t very precise. I was using track’s mink oil but there was no way to keep the lube exactly the same from patch to patch (cutting at the muzzle). I decided to try his dry patch method after reviewing his sample targets and his analysis. I felt that this was pointing toward either the inconsistent lube or perhaps not enough powder.
I soaked a strip in 7/1 water to ballistol and dried according to Dutch’s instructions. The next day I shot a group of 4 using the same powder load. Comparing my target to those in Dutch’s book I saw improvement with shot placement (smaller vertical stringing) but still wasn’t totally happy. I then tried a bit more powder (20 grains) based on his recommendation. BINGO! Best group so far. At 25 grains things opened back up again so I shot another group of 4 with 20 grains. Again BINGO! All shots wishing squirrel head size target at 25 yards. Here’s the first group with this combo.
I’ve put approximately 200 balls down range, both .310 and .315. I was pretty settled on .315 ball, .018 pillow ticking, and 15 grains of 3f Swiss. This combo outperformed all others, but I still got 1-2 fliers in 5 shots. Not bad, but an inch or two high. Enough to cleanly miss a squirrel for sure.
last week I purchased Dutch Schoultz’s book online. Received a call from Dutch’s daughter the following day that they were having trouble emailing it to me. After giving her a new email address I received it within minutes. Was very impressed with the level of service and the call. I read the whole book in one day.
While a lot of the book covered things I already knew or things I was already doing, the book caused me to think in a new way and introduced a few new issues. I realized that my lube method wasn’t very precise. I was using track’s mink oil but there was no way to keep the lube exactly the same from patch to patch (cutting at the muzzle). I decided to try his dry patch method after reviewing his sample targets and his analysis. I felt that this was pointing toward either the inconsistent lube or perhaps not enough powder.
I soaked a strip in 7/1 water to ballistol and dried according to Dutch’s instructions. The next day I shot a group of 4 using the same powder load. Comparing my target to those in Dutch’s book I saw improvement with shot placement (smaller vertical stringing) but still wasn’t totally happy. I then tried a bit more powder (20 grains) based on his recommendation. BINGO! Best group so far. At 25 grains things opened back up again so I shot another group of 4 with 20 grains. Again BINGO! All shots wishing squirrel head size target at 25 yards. Here’s the first group with this combo.
