Got to shoot today again....2f...#4 shot...#6s. #6s with 4st on top....Wads, etc etc.
For a while I was about ready to take the barrel off the stock and Chuck it in the pond.
I was nearly completely out of ideas and decided to load with a nitro card...I also skipped the buffer on that load. Don't know why. I've never fired shot that wasn't buffered with commercial shotshell buffer. I just assumed it worked because...Well...It's supposed to.
The results....
![](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fe210%2Fmauser06%2FIMG_20170403_175654233_zpssezft1cy.jpg&hash=39b6832802f522db67426b2da4a9835818ec9477)
That's a 20yd target with somewhere around 110-115 hits in a circle somewhere around 10". I forget the exact diameter of the plate but I know it's close to 10" lol.
While not stellar...And I'm still not satisfied...I can atleast kill a turkey with that. And it repeated over and over. I tried a few changes but it didn't change the #s...
Started to rain heavy so I packed it up.
Now I have to revisit a few others and see if my buffer wasn't messing everything up...Or if the nitro card made the difference.
I didn't like nitro cards. Thick heavy solid material. I thought they'd surely blow patterns and when I tried them, they never did well till today's experiment.... Interesting enough...I can't recover a nitro was. I wonder if they don't disintegrate?
That's the best patterns I've thrown this far...I'd love to see that at 30+ yards...But that will get me a 25yd turkey...Maybe 30.
I still think I can improve on that....
I was smiling ear to ear shooting roundballs though....I tried a patched .600 ball... Patching is a tight weave bit thin cotton...015" I'd guess..I need to mic it. It loaded...But hit the bottom of the jug and it wasn't going any farther. So I yanked it and shot bare ball.
Rifle range is closed so I had to use the pistol range...Shooting standing with the gun on bags I nailed a 6" steel every shot at 40yds. That's with a rifle and load that I haven't shot on paper yet....So, that's pretty cool...I would say I can certainly deer hunt with it...
Never would I have thought that the buffer was ruining the patterns......
So, I'm now a lot happier. As it stands I lost some pattern from where I was before...I was shooting 130s in the same circle at 30yds as a taper...One load was did 190..Wish I'd tried it without buffer! Lol.
So as it stands, I lost some pattern but gained roundballs. And I still think I can improve the pattern a bit.
It's crazy what seems like a minor change can do for a pattern.
Another perk....I got some trigger time. I should be shooting pretty well come May....Flintlocks are almost like a bow for me...If I don't shoot regularly I can still shoot OK..But when I'm shooting regularly I can surprise myself.