Shooting patched round balls

Despite this fact, fast twist barrels will shoot round balls accurately. Testing patched round balls and minie bullets in johnny rebs blue stain remover, a. Using this method, i have shot my flintlock 100s of times without a full cleaning. I turned 67 years old last month, so to go out and shoot one of the best opensighted 100yard patched round ball groups i have ever shot more than assured me that the. Never messed with em before, so i consulted the traditions hawken manual, that suggests a. Does most people shoot round ball in thompson center hawkens. I recently post a question about the accuracy of my armi sport 1853 with round balls. This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the deer. You may also have to play with the ball diameter and patch thickness combo. I love shooting the guns that grandpa used and therefor i use much the same guns he did including black powder and patched round balls. Considering our collection includes a cva that boasts more rust than barrel, thats saying a lot. Pyrodex powder, i forget what i bought last time but it. Aug 04, 2014 a new short video is posted about living history wekends, trapper shooting by the capandball guys. These are hollowbased prelubricated bullets that weigh more than round balls, have slightly better penetration, are faster to load and are a little less messy to handle.

Completely uniform in size, weight, and roundness, hornady round balls deliver consistent and accurate performance. Recoil is the kinetic energy the gun hits the shooter with. I was told the gun is ic and the barrels are stamped 18. I have used a patched round ball since the mid 70s, when i started shooting black powder, and it took a while, but have landed upon a formula for excellent accuracy, out of any of my muzzle loaders it is very old fashion but believe me it works fantastic. My problem was being able to seat the patchball combo down the barrel. So after a couple of boxes of those small ball thick patch combinations, give the larger sized ball and thinner patch another try.

Shooting patched round balls from a modern 20 ga shotgun. Patched round balls punched 2inch groups at 75 yards with 70 grains of goex ffg blackpowder and goex ffffg primer. Constant thickness, weave, diameter, weight and thread count help eliminate these variables from your shooting. Hornady swaged black powder rifle round balls per 100. The 1in66 or 1in60 rateoftwist rifles are best suited for shooting patched round balls up to. Round balls in fast twist rifles most fast twist shallow groove barrels are made for shooting long cylindroconoidal bullets.

Look for your answers in our forum and in our bimonthly publication the fouling shot. Ever since i started hunting with a muzzleloader about 15 years ago, ive been using patched round balls. Round balls in fast twist rifles white muzzle loading. For me, round ball loads tend to shoot higher than point of aim in a revolver and lower than point of aim from a rifle. In addition, youll find no mouldparting lines, air pocket voids or sprue marks that could impede accuracy. Out of a quality bore, a properly loaded patched round ball can prove deadly accurate at the ranges it was truly intended for and that is 25 to 50 yards. Patched ball barrels wear out faster than naked lead barrles. Here is a table of some common deer hunting choices. Way more information than you ever wanted on how to fell a tree.

Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and. Use a tight patch, however, as you dont want the recoil of the first shot to move the ball off the powder for the second one. Have a hawken style rifle that i want to use a patched round ball in. As our shooting background includes benchrest and extensive varmint hunting, absolute accuracy has always been at the top of our priority list. This habit has been cause for derision from some of my hunting companions, who believe that round balls are marginal andor obsolete, and that i must therefore be daft to use them. I have shot a few skeet with it but have not patteren it yet. Precision made from special tightly woven cotton, to insure uniformity. I am gonna dip my foot into the ocean of shooting patched round balls in my hawken. I have read many postings on various sites, in addition to your own, regarding the outstanding accuracy that shooters are getting from your bullets in their muzzzleloaders. Good day have a custom flintlock longrifle in flint. Easy way to load round balls for a 20 gauge duration. What distance do you sight in and what grouping do you get with your chosen load. I shoot mainly patched round balls for deer, but for bear i like the added energy of the maxi ball.

The cba is a international organization of shooters who enjoy casting and shooting lead alloy bullets for competition, hunting, experimenting, and casual shooting. If shooting patched round balls is considered too much trouble, buffalo bullets ballets, are available in both. I found this relatively easy to do when using a rest. Last two weeks after initial clean bore shots, was shooting one ragged hole groups if i did my part on the bench good bench discipline. If the originals shot patched round balls or minie balls, the replicas function best with the same rounds. For fun i took a telescopoing hole gauge to the last 34 in. Precision shooting patches for round ball precision shooting patches. Mar 17, 2015 i recently post a question about the accuracy of my armi sport 1853 with round balls. If thats the twist you have your only real options are to shoot patched round balls, get a new barrel, or get a new gun. These were the first muzzleloading gun designs to develop in the 1960s and 70s and the first wave of new age muzzleloading hunters tended to be history buffs. For the hunter who buys his bullets, round balls are far more cost effective than conicals. I generally save the patched balls for new shooters not hunting loads. Sep 09, 2017 if i have been shooting sabots with pistol bullets as i did last weekend, i will always fire a couple shots with patched round balls lubed with bore butter before i finish my range session. And the smoother, rounder surface assures better rotation and consistency.

Patched round balls are best bet for hawken or any flintcap lock rifles. Apr 30, 2008 how to load a round ball into a muzzleloader. Pour the measured powder charge down the barrel and load a patched round ball directly on top of the powder charge omitting all the cards and wads. Learn from cba members that have been casting their entire life. The lubed patch should be thick enough to hold the ball snugly on top of the powder charge and keep it centered in the bore. Also, traditional muzzleloader only shooting orgnizations generally require the use of patched round ball only during official muzzleloading target competition. Patched ball has a lapping effect, and as you shoot the sharp edges will wear with time. I tried the maxi hunters and they fit the barrel as good as the lee real bullets.

I even tried backing my powder down to 50 grains with the same results. Bumping a round ball to the proper diameter is the only way to get any accuracy from them. Remove the ramrod, flip the patch over and run the other side of the patch to the bottom of the barrel. How in the world did some of our countrys patriots, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, make reliable head and chest shots on british officers at 200 to 300 yards using patched ball rifles, thus, cutting the snakes head off, as it were. I bet that you can find a load with a light powder charge that may give you acceptable accuracy for range use and plinking. For revisiting the loading and shooting of two patched round balls, i decided to drop the charge of goex ffg to 100grains. Find the load your gun likes and have a ball pun intended shooting. Using readly available patches and balls the only combo that would work was. Aug 03, 2010 patched round balls are best bet for hawken or any flintcap lock rifles. It was by far the most accurate load in that gun, and while labeled light by a lot of guys, it killed with alacrity. Using your ramrod with a cleaning jag attached, work the patch in everlengthening strokes to the bottom of the barrel. How to shoot them by paul vallandigham sadly, there is such a lack of information about how to shoot traditional muzzleloading guns, both flintlocks and percussion guns, that the consumer is left with whatever is the newest fad, and whatever the clerk at.

Shooters spend a great deal of time studying the downrange energy of the bullet but seldom give any thought to the energy the gun applies to the shooter. Before i knew much about muzzleloading i bought a hawken a 1. Minimum deerkilling muzzleloading loads for young and small. So i have a used pedersoli muzzle loading 12ga sxs. Offered as dry, oiled, wonderlubed, or premium lubed on select sizes. I would cast my own round balls of pure lead in a single cavity mould. Question for round ball shooters gunboards dot com. Granulated black powder, pyrodex, 777, or any other bp sub. That ball isnt made for big game all the typical brain washed fubar where some think you need plastic, ss, scoped and high priced pretty shaped bullets in. Id use about 3 drams of ffg and seat the patched roun ball on the powder. Use this simple five step sequence every time you shoot and groups will shrink and velocities will stay constant, shot after shot. Patched round balls punched 2inch groups at 75 yards with 70 grains of goex ffg blackpowder and goex.

Muzzle loaders shooting roundballs are fun and cheap to shoot. Dec 25, 2010 if shooting patched round balls is considered too much trouble, buffalo bullets ballets, are available in both. Mar 19, 2020 i am gonna dip my foot into the ocean of shooting patched round balls in my hawken. With 6070 grains of powder it took an evilly tight patch and ball combo that was heck to load to get reasonable accuracy. If i have been shooting sabots with pistol bullets as i did last weekend, i will always fire a couple shots with patched round balls lubed with bore butter before i finish my range session. How to shoot them by paul vallandigham sadly, there is such a lack of information about how to shoot traditional muzzleloading guns, both flintlocks and percussion guns, that the consumer is left with whatever is the newest fad, and whatever the clerk at the local walmart doesnt know about guns. This evening i skinned and quartered the carcass of the. As a jumping off point, i ordered a couple hundred hornady balls and some prelubed. A new short video is posted about living history wekends, trapper shooting by the capandball guys. The gun is beautiful and hunting using only patched balls fits my traditional mindset perfectly. Shooting muzzleloading rifles to various distances from 40150 meters offhand, without modern shooting gear is a great challenge. Patched round ball gun and game the friendliest gun.

The cutting of the sprue left a small teat on the ball, and i would try very hard to line this small projection up perfectly either facing up or. The shooter balazs chose one of our pedersoli jager flintlock rifles for these events and for hunting as well. If its not a twist issue, and especially if the gun is relatively new, the barrel likely needs to be lapped. Jun 12, 2016 testing patched round balls and minie bullets in johnny rebs blue stain remover, a. Now, for some reason, is throwing fliers really bad, but only occasionally. Theyre cold swaged from pure lead which eliminates air pockets and voids common to cast balls. Round balls and fast twist dont go together, but do some experimenting. We do not have a single muzzleloader that will not shoot 3 shot groups at 100 yards of 1. This is a simple practice to help keep your muzzleloader clean and maintained.