doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stupid Muzzle loading question.

I never saw any need to do anything different than equal volumes of powder and shot. If I was on the bird I killed it with that load. I favor 7 1/2s with a m/l for doves and quail. Equal volumes do not yield high velocities and the extra mass in the 7 1/2s pays off in more dead birds as opposed to cripples, in my experience.

When shooting skeet, or some other clays game, soak the fiber wads in some moose milk. It will significantly reduce the fouling build-up, between shots.

SRH

I shoot skeet and 5 Stand with BP sxs muzzleloaders. For skeet I shoot 2 shoots at each station, and can generally keep right up. I do all the set up and take down for 5 Stand, so the others understand that they have to put up with me a bit, but any one slow shooter and I am very close.

If loading brass shells a few days before using them, does oil or moose milk in the fiber wad seep through to the BP and compromise it? If so, does a grease like Crisco have the same effect?

And as to the 25-30 yard range mentioned by Lorne, were fowlers with heavier loads and tight chokes able to attain significantly longer effective ranges?

Choke and muzzleloader don't work so well.
Compressing wads past choke leads to poor gas seal.

Can you see l that little cock roach peeking out of the crevices...

I like how you reassure yourself "pitting in the chambers but still plenty of metal all around".

Do you know how stupid that sounds ?

Not nearly as stupid as yoursel - self-declared dumbass.

I had old V.M. Starr jug-choke my Dewson 10ga. "Little powder, much lead; shoots far, kills dead" seems to hold true for these old percussion guns. 4 dr Fg with 1 5/8 oz Lubaloy 4's worked great for pass shooting diving ducks. Cut the load way back for trapshooting. I used saliva on my over powder wads like V.M. recommended. Seemed to push fouling from previous shots on top of the powder column and make loading easier. To clean, pump with warm soapy water in a bucket and a rag on your bristle brush till you can draw water in and push it out of the nipples in a steady stream. Then repeat with plain hot water and dry. But those days are long gone, at least for waterfowl hunting.

If choke degrades patterns with felt wads, did tightly choked breech-loading fowlers of the later 18th century produce poor patterns? Were they used mostly at short ranges?

Well, I don't usually answer Frank but want to explain myself again. I'm a Reilly historian. This is the only Reilly I've ever seen with both High Holborn and New Oxford street addresses on the same gun - surely dating to spring 1847. Barrels have been shortened 2"; it's not in good shape, but for me it is a historic gun. I had it gone over. I have more money in it than I'll ever get out....not important. If I cannot shoot these barrels, I'll investigate sleeving them back to the original 16 bore or maybe 20 bore. I'm not interested in a wall gun. I want to be able to shoot this gun if at all possible.

You got Reilly up the dAiry'air for sure....