first trial .45

[frenchman]

well finally nice enough to go out , first  trial for my .45 . Started with only 45 gr of fff to adjust the sights at 25 yards .440 R bullet .018 pillow ticking, this Rice barrel is shooting tight clusters and cutting the center line of my target yahoo at least my sights are place on straight. For now just using water for the patches and works great never cleaned the barrel betwen shots i could even use the old patches again. Tomorrow will be pushing it to 70 and finalising the sights  Then some experimenting for a hunting load and mink oil for the patches . I find the firing a bit slow but will work on that a bit later maybe some action work like polishing the interior of the action a bit more . The touch hole was drill with no 50 bit. This is sooo fun .Still lots of work, maybe work is not the right word.Without going into detail this the best medicine.

[ottawa]

uhoh youve go the bug baaaad welcome to the bug cub.

[frenchman]

yea! had to go back today, could not concentrate on spring work. So i went shooting and did some test . Did some test for hunting loads and i am very very please. I had a mould that gave me .437 ball instead of .440 works perfectly shoots at the right spot and easy to load so these will be my hunting balls. I am looking at 70 gr of FFF just need to work on the flints to get more sparks. New flints are on there way . More test to come summer promises to be very interesting. For now using water has lubricant for the patches my friend is hook on it he did it is way for a while than tried the water an other happy shooter. Thanks guy's

[Daryl]

Pleae use an animal oil for hunting, or perhaps Neetsfoot oil, as water will rot a ring in your barrel if it sits in there with a ball for extended periods of time.

[northmn]

Pleae use an animal oil for hunting, or perhaps Neetsfoot oil, as water will rot a ring in your barrel if it sits in there with a ball for extended periods of time.

Also any of the liquid lubes will dry out and not work as well.  I have used Crisco as a hunting lube with good success, but it works because one does not shoot that much in the field.  It is also inexpensive.  For bench works where one shoots a lot liquid works Ok but I would check a grease/wax lube against them for impact.

DP

[frenchman]

yes Daryl water is strictly for bench work , load and shoot . I presume this is okay
I will be doing more test with mink oil, easy access , i oil my shooting bags with it.
I have all kinds of market products that i used in the past but they would leave the gun very dirty and need to clean even brush every few shots .The best has been Lehigh Valley lubricant . But to slick more powder for the same pressure . So i use it for oiling the gun
Thank

[Daryl]

Good luck - you're on the right track - for sure.

 For me, when switching to oil or grease over a water based lube, I usually have to increase the load some - 5 to 15gr. to achieve the same accuracy.  I also found the really slippery lubes, like LHV and Hoppe's #9 Plus demanded more powder.

The smaller bore sizes seemed less effected, load and sighting, by switching lubes, than-do the larger bores.