Flintlock and patched roundball performance

[EdP]

New flintlocks from custom builders usually shoot low so that you can file down the front sight to bring it up to shoot where you want. You may need to file down the rear sight a bit if you can but try it without shooting bags first.

 

[HighUintas]

That's impressive. I will have to record my eye next time I go shoot mine. I am 100% certain I will be disappointed

As a helpful tool for curing that issue, from someone who told me, competes, and instructs flintlock shooting, you can work up stepwise dry firing until the blink and flinch is gone. Start with a wooden flint and dry fire every day until there is no blink and no movement. Then use a flint. Same thing. No cheating and moving on until there's no blink or flinch whatsoever, anytime you do it. Then prime the pan and do the same thing. Then shoot light loads and do the same thing.

I haven't stuck with it but did make improvements when I was doing it. I was mostly through the wooden flint not blinking, but couldn't do it 100% of the time every time I picked it up. Don't know why, but it's not the case with a suppressed center-fire. I think for me it's mostly the lock sound and flash.

 

[EdP]

I shot 5 wood flint dry fire shots every morning for two decades and it helped my shooting more than live fire shooting did.

 

[Formidilosus]

A few of the patches from today. .490” ball, .020” ticking, spit lubed.




Swabbed after shooting. Top left to right, top then bottom.




The wings on the rear sight have to go. Tries to lay you open any time you get near it.

 

[ShootOkHuntWorse]

Have you found IdahoLewis on here and YouTube? He’s just north of Unknown and has a ton of long range shooting with BP.

 

[HighUintas]

A few of the patches from today. .490” ball, .020” ticking, spit lubed.
View attachment 1018700



Swabbed after shooting. Top left to right, top then bottom.
View attachment 1018699



The wings on the rear sight have to go. Tries to lay you open any time you get near it.
View attachment 1018708

Patches look mostly ok but one looks blown and some show some fraying/stress where the lands would be I think. The blown patch certainly will not help accuracy but I'm not sure how much the stress marks matter. Supposedly, they should look completely free of fraying/stress.

It could be sharp edges/burrs on the corners of the new barrel's lands (typical with green mountain) or could be the sharp edges of the crown on the new barrel if your patch/ball combo is tight.

There's two ways to fix the first problem. Shoot a few hundred shots. Supposedly that works. Or use 0000 steel wool wrapped on a jag, oiled, so tight you may have to beat in it into the bore, then go up and down the bore until it loosens up and repeat for a hundred strokes or so. I believe that originated with Lee Shaver. I've done it and it works. I've also used Marron 3m pads then steel wool. It works faster. I had a barrel that did this, verified the land edges being sharp with burrs, and the patches looked perfect after smoothing the land edges.

For the crown, this likely only applies if your load is tight and hard to start. Use some emery paper or 300ish grit wet/dry paper, wrapped around the tip of your thumb to make a cone, then work the crown rotating the barrel 90 degrees often to help make the smoothing even. Repeat until it looks real smooth and doesn't tear patches on loading. This also works.

 

[RockAndSage]

Patches look mostly ok but one looks blown and some show some fraying/stress where the lands would be I think. The blown patch certainly will not help accuracy but I'm not sure how much the stress marks matter. Supposedly, they should look completely free of fraying/stress.

It could be sharp edges/burrs on the corners of the new barrel's lands (typical with green mountain) or could be the sharp edges of the crown on the new barrel if your patch/ball combo is tight.

There's two ways to fix the first problem. Shoot a few hundred shots. Supposedly that works. Or use 0000 steel wool wrapped on a jag, oiled, so tight you may have to beat in it into the bore, then go up and down the bore until it loosens up and repeat for a hundred strokes or so. I believe that originated with Lee Shaver. I've done it and it works. I've also used Marron 3m pads then steel wool. It works faster. I had a barrel that did this, verified the land edges being sharp with burrs, and the patches looked perfect after smoothing the land edges.

For the crown, this likely only applies if your load is tight and hard to start. Use some emery paper or 300ish grit wet/dry paper, wrapped around the tip of your thumb to make a cone, then work the crown rotating the barrel 90 degrees often to help make the smoothing even. Repeat until it looks real smooth and doesn't tear patches on loading. This also works.

^^^ This is good stuff.

 

[Formidilosus]

Patches look mostly ok but one looks blown and some show some fraying/stress where the lands would be I think. The blown patch certainly will not help accuracy but I'm not sure how much the stress marks matter. Supposedly, they should look completely free of fraying/stress.

It could be sharp edges/burrs on the corners of the new barrel's lands (typical with green mountain) or could be the sharp edges of the crown on the new barrel if your patch/ball combo is tight.

There's two ways to fix the first problem. Shoot a few hundred shots. Supposedly that works. Or use 0000 steel wool wrapped on a jag, oiled, so tight you may have to beat in it into the bore, then go up and down the bore until it loosens up and repeat for a hundred strokes or so. I believe that originated with Lee Shaver. I've done it and it works. I've also used Marron 3m pads then steel wool. It works faster. I had a barrel that did this, verified the land edges being sharp with burrs, and the patches looked perfect after smoothing the land edges.

For the crown, this likely only applies if your load is tight and hard to start. Use some emery paper or 300ish grit wet/dry paper, wrapped around the tip of your thumb to make a cone, then work the crown rotating the barrel 90 degrees often to help make the smoothing even. Repeat until it looks real smooth and doesn't tear patches on loading. This also works.

Oh I’m just going to shoot it for a while. I will cone the muzzle to remove the need for a short starter though.

 

[Formidilosus]

It’s an interesting thing- there’s a whole bunch of “you need to do this”, “this is what ____ should look like to shoot well”, etc, etc. Yet, demonstrable results of relevant shot group sizes showing differences functionally don’t exist.
Some matches will show 5 shot groups, but the first 5 shots of most of my groups with the last two rifles have been 2’ish inches at 100 yards. I’ve shot several that haven’t been shown and when aiming center with sub par sights, 3.5-4.5 inch 10 shots groups at 100y is the norm.
So I’m +/- 4 inches for 10 shots At 100 yards with PRB’s- and haven’t seen any results better than that anywhere. Idaho Lewis shoots some bad arse stuff, but his PRB shooting is at something like 60 yards and 3-5 shots IIRC. So still not able to see what should be expected on demand.


The whole thing really seems to be another case of people picking the best they’ve ever done, and then reading tea leaves off of it, and claiming that one result is to be expected all the time.

 

[ElDiablito]

The whole thing really seems to be another case of people picking the best they’ve ever done, and then reading tea leaves off of it, and claiming that one result is to be expected all the time.

Yep

 

[HighUintas]

It’s an interesting thing- there’s a whole bunch of “you need to do this”, “this is what ____ should look like to shoot well”, etc, etc. Yet, demonstrable results of relevant shot group sizes showing differences functionally don’t exist.
Some matches will show 5 shot groups, but the first 5 shots of most of my groups with the last two rifles have been 2’ish inches at 100 yards. I’ve shot several that haven’t been shown and when aiming center with sub par sights, 3.5-4.5 inch 10 shots groups at 100y is the norm.
So I’m +/- 4 inches for 10 shots At 100 yards with PRB’s- and haven’t seen any results better than that anywhere. Idaho Lewis shoots some bad arse stuff, but his PRB shooting is at something like 60 yards and 3-5 shots IIRC. So still not able to see what should be expected on demand.


The whole thing really seems to be another case of people picking the best they’ve ever done, and then reading tea leaves off of it, and claiming that one result is to be expected all the time.

I 100% agree. The information I share comes from guys who I've seen many of their targets in monthly matches, generally 5 shots, and they can shoot. They also seem to be more knowledgeable on the fact that 3 shot groups don't really tell the truth. Many of them say go shoot 10 shots! So I do tend to trust what some of them tell me. But, it's almost never at 100 yards. I try to share it with the caveats of "supposedly" and "should" because I don't know the truth.

Unfortunately, I can't shoot well enough to be able to root out these truths. So I'm hoping you can. I need to start saying.... This is what I'm told can you test it