To John L. Hinnant

[OTHERN]

I have been reading your various posts with great interest and have learned a lot. Thanks! I have a couple of questions for you regarding teflon patching and traditional rifle target accuracy. Using my traditional flinter(s) off the bench with open Iron sights I get 2" 5 shot groups. This is as good as I can do. Per your standards and the folks you shoot with what do you expect from a traditional rifle? and do you have any feel for the average improvement that one would look for using teflon patching?

Thanks
Othern

 

:v Try a bit tighter patching, or vary your charge but not both at once , do it in five shot increments. Put the fore arm of your piece on the sand bag in the same place you put your hand, sit up .do not lay on the bench , cheek it like you do standing ,make the sand bag tall.and say yes father.

 

[MikeChapin]

What range is that Othern? For 100 yards that's not bad. Even using a small spot you are going to have that much variation in how you see the target from shot to shot with open sights.

If it's at 50 yards then it's not so good. All of my rifles, flint or percussion, will shoot one ragged hole at 50 yards off the bench using a small spot for the target. Try positioning like LonesomeBob said. It might help.

If you are getting those kind of groups at 50 yards, howcum you shoot so well offhand?

 

[OTHERN]

My mistake. Left out the 100yd part. At 50 yds they are purty much one hole as long as I do my part. To add to the post, I'm happy with the 2" at 100 yds, but would like to know what the better(best) shooters consider as good for a traditional rifle. I have also tried the teflon ticking in my 45 with a bunch of ball sizes and powder combos and could not do any better than I do with my regular load. However I may have had too high of expectations and or may not have given it a fair test. John is quite knowledgable about these items so am waiting for him to weigh in.

Othern

 

[paulvallandigham]

Even using a scope sight and a rest, a two inch groups using a round ball in any caliber is pretty good shooting. If you are getting that kind of group shooting off-hand, and using iron sights, contact some of the manufacturers that field teams at Friendship to compete against each other in the team matches. They will sign you up!

 

[OTHERN]

The groups are off a good bench. Not interested in the manuf match at Friendship as it is shot with inlines and scopes(Probably not good enough either).

Othern

 

[rabbit03]

If we are all shooting off hand then in my humble opinion then we are all equal! I have a standing offer here locally to outshoot me and my .45 off hand at 50yds. There is a steak dinner to anyone that can. Most have tried with their modern rifles and can't manage to outshoot me. There is no trick really just good ol fashioned shooting. So if the matches were all offhand then I wouldn't care if they used a scope!

As for Teflon patching I think it is more of a fact that it is alot less messy during the shoot that has alot of us shooting it versus the other lubes out there (Hog lard included), LOL private joke to a few on here. There is no magic in the Teflon which makes it any more accurate it is (for me) the less messier than other lubes. And yes I admit to using windex between the shots along with certain other fellow shooters. So there the cat is out of the bag now. :redface:

rabbit03