Tried numerous patch/ball combo's and powder charges but can't group better than 12" at 100 yards. also has a tight spot about 8" down after first shot and loading becomes very difficult at this point. Any suggestions?

Tried numerous patch/ball combo's and powder charges but can't group better than 12" at 100 yards. also has a tight spot about 8" down after first shot and loading becomes very difficult at this point. Any suggestions?

For the tight spot and the rest of the bbl, just wrap a strip of a scotch brite pad about 3/8 to 1/2 around a .30 cal bore brush and stroke the bore a few hundred times working your way up with an overlap, and a special extra few strokes in the tight spot. This smoothes the bore and reduces the sharp corners on the rifling, and that helps keep your patches togather when firing higher charges. After that I would personally load a real tight combo. .495 and .020 patch with moose milk for lube, that is water souluable oil mixed 20-1 water and oil. This is commonly called cutting oil and is milky white when mixed (hence MOOSEMILK) Most industrial supplys have this. I use this in competition when shooting patched round balls. Now it you want this for deer hunting, mix 3shots of water with 1shot of the oil, saturate your cloth patch matierial, and lay it out on a piece of glass or formica. Let it dry overnight and you have a prelubed patch. Now after you get all this down, work your load with .490 and .015 patch use around 50gns of 2f, with the tight combo .495 and .020 a good first shot deer load is between 80 and 90 gns of 2f. Now if you want to go with the likes of 777 use about 40-60gns and you'll achieve close to the same results. This stuff seems to shoot much flatter than black. I tried it because of the problems with the terrorists and getting black I think will continue to get harder, a local dealer just quit stocking it after 40yrs. The above moosemilk can be had in some patch lube solvent. Just look on the back of the lable it should say something or another in an "aqueous solution". Take care and have fun. Swany

1st, Welcome to the board, Renegade - be sure to cruise past all the other forums here.

If you check the thread directly under this one, you will see Marshall's info on lapping a muzzleloader's barrel. Beartooth has lapping bullets for this purpose. You might want to contact him and see if this process interests you.