Olde Eynsford over the Chrono

[MountainDevil54]

Got the 58 Hawken out today on the range and testing Olde Eynsford over my new Chrony Beta Master. Love that thing already and figured out how to work the buttons!

110gr Olde Eynsford

.570" round ball

.020" patch lubed with moose milk

Each load was pressed down firmly, no swabbing between shots and not cool down.

Chrony was set up at 15 feet.

1627

1598

1569

ES- 57.59

SD- 29.00

Now The group wasn't great AT ALL. I did keep it on paper but when its 90* in the shade, its heating the barrel up extremely fast after each shot.

I decided to get 2 more loads and test them on a fouled, but cool to the touch barrel, Aprox 8 minutes in between shots.

1581

1591

The group size on these 2 shots is EASILY seen.



This evening when its cooler I am going to do  a few things, #1 clean the gun - #2 change to the factory nipple & #3 use my range rod with the charge height indicator so I can seat the ball at the same depth each time. I will also again do the 8 minutes between shots or at least until the barrel feels cool to the touch.

[kerrdog]

Those are some big holes.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who get's frustrated at the range.  I was getting so fed up with my groups I mounted a scope to see if it was me or ..... the rife, bullet, sabot, or load.......   Who knew there was so much to figure out when shooting a muzzleloader?

[MountainDevil54]

Allrighty, got back out to the range again this evening and did a velocity test, I do feel the patch lube is contaminating my powder and wetting it as you will see in the pictures. Wasn't an accuracy test but at 100 yards, my first 2 shots had me smiling from ear to ear. Extremely consistent with this powder. I wasn't holding 6 o clock on the bulls eye like i normally do so its only fair to blame the shooter for that higher shot, but check out how in line it is with the other. No error with powder, just me not aiming how I normally aim due to the chrono being in front of me.

1583
1533
1515  On this shot I was able to see the patch go way up into the air and land in the middle of my range. I picked it up and this is how I figured out that the lube most likely is the issue with my velocity being here and then way down here. I will make some olive oil - beeswax lube tonight and lube a few patches for testing tomorrow and see if that fixes it. I don't want to use wads as its just another thing to buy and then carry around with me. With the olive oil - beeswax, I have never seen that nasty thick black spot ever.



3 shots to the far left. Closest 2 were my first 2 shots. I wasnt shooting for accuracy but you know how it feels something like that happens. They were 1 1/2" apart without trying to hard with aiming.

[Song Dog]

Not sure if you mold your own round ball but you may want to weigh them to make sure there is no air pockets in the lead it can make them fly like a dove sometimes.