Windini
Spike
Had a disappointing day at the range trying out my new TC Impact .50 Cal in line ML. Maybe some of you experienced muzzle loaders can give me the benefit of your experience.
The gun itself seems great so far. 1st shot at 50 yards was 1/2" high and 2-1/2" to the right. I blame me for the drift, for no other reason that I was using the fiber optic sights and my older eyes saw a dark square blur where the target was... That was a Traditions "plinker" 240 gr lead sabot round over 85gr. Alliant Black MZ. The next shot was 2-1/2" low and 2" to the right; that one was a Traditions "smackdown" 250 gr jacketed bal. tip sabot round, same powder charge.
I moved the target out to 75 yards & tried another 240 gr lead bullet, this tiime over the recommended charge of 90grs.- same drift, 1/2" low this time. All good, pretty sure if I'd kept going out to 100 yds and compensated for the drift I'd have been very happy - Minute of Deer accuracy!
But.
In prepping the 4th shot, I ran a patch down the bore -- and there the patch and ramrod remain. Stuck solid, no amount of pulling by (apparently weenie) me could get 'er loose. So I pulled the breech plug, tried to push the patch through: nope. Inserted the bullet seater & tried to push it back: nope. I actually used the back side of a hatchet as a hammer to wallop the t-hande of the bullet seater - it moved maybe an 1/8".
I'm fairly confident I can get the ramrod out with the barrel in a (padded) vise, a wood dowel, and an actual hammer, but I'd sure like to know how to not do this again! For the record, I pulled the breech plug before starting, wiped off a gob of factory grease pushed up to the business end of the plug when it was assembled, pushed a patch through from the breech, put the plug back and then ran a bunch of patches through the bore until they came out clean. I also ran a patch down the bore after each shot.
The 3rd patch was a little difficult to pull out, but I wrote that off as a wrinkle in the patch rather than a cumulative build up of gunk. Oops.
Any tips appreciated! I think I'll be happy with the gun, just nedd to get better procedure so I can fine tune it and me for this fall.
The gun itself seems great so far. 1st shot at 50 yards was 1/2" high and 2-1/2" to the right. I blame me for the drift, for no other reason that I was using the fiber optic sights and my older eyes saw a dark square blur where the target was... That was a Traditions "plinker" 240 gr lead sabot round over 85gr. Alliant Black MZ. The next shot was 2-1/2" low and 2" to the right; that one was a Traditions "smackdown" 250 gr jacketed bal. tip sabot round, same powder charge.
I moved the target out to 75 yards & tried another 240 gr lead bullet, this tiime over the recommended charge of 90grs.- same drift, 1/2" low this time. All good, pretty sure if I'd kept going out to 100 yds and compensated for the drift I'd have been very happy - Minute of Deer accuracy!
But.
In prepping the 4th shot, I ran a patch down the bore -- and there the patch and ramrod remain. Stuck solid, no amount of pulling by (apparently weenie) me could get 'er loose. So I pulled the breech plug, tried to push the patch through: nope. Inserted the bullet seater & tried to push it back: nope. I actually used the back side of a hatchet as a hammer to wallop the t-hande of the bullet seater - it moved maybe an 1/8".
I'm fairly confident I can get the ramrod out with the barrel in a (padded) vise, a wood dowel, and an actual hammer, but I'd sure like to know how to not do this again! For the record, I pulled the breech plug before starting, wiped off a gob of factory grease pushed up to the business end of the plug when it was assembled, pushed a patch through from the breech, put the plug back and then ran a bunch of patches through the bore until they came out clean. I also ran a patch down the bore after each shot.
The 3rd patch was a little difficult to pull out, but I wrote that off as a wrinkle in the patch rather than a cumulative build up of gunk. Oops.
Any tips appreciated! I think I'll be happy with the gun, just nedd to get better procedure so I can fine tune it and me for this fall.