That First Shot

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Well.. the first shot from a clean barrel was kinda by itself. What i expected was for the first and second shots to be together, and for the following shots to be in a group of their own. Not so. The rifle was an Omega X7 with a 1X Nikon scope mounted. The load was 300g Deep Curl, 110g Blackhorn powder, crush rib sabot, Federal 215 primer.




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As i drove home i pondered what to do. Immediately vetoed was to hunt with a fouled barrel. Then i thought about popping a few primers before the rifle was loaded. Since i have taken to using rifle primers, because they are quite clean, and because they cause zero wear to the flash hole, i realized this would be kinda useless. So.. i thought well i will just install a breech plug that utilizes a shotgun primer first, and pop some shotgun primers. Then the thought struck about how shotgun primers foul the flame channel so. Then i wondered if there was an old breech plug laying around that had a vent liner installed. It seemed to me if the shotgun primers were popped in a breech plug without a vent liner in place, more fouling would reach the barrel.

After the rifle was cleaned, the vent liner was removed from an old breech plug, and the plug was installed into the rifle. A shotgun primer was popped.. holy smokes it was deafening in the garage, and there was lots of , soot, and flame that came out the barrel. Two more primers were popped, with hearing protection in place. The flash hole seems to hold back a lot of fire, and sound. The old plug was removed from the rifle, and the plug set up for rifle primers installed.

Using the same load the following target was punched.




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Every shot just got higher, and higher, but the first shot kinda wasn't so alone this time. Kinda seemed popping the shotgun primers in the breech plug without a vent liner installed worked. Well, i figured i should have waited some between shots, so i had to redo everything.. the rifle had to be cleaned, and the shotgun primers popped without a vent liner in place.

Then i tried shooting another target, however this time i waited and waited between shots. The results were pleasing to me.






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Then a move was made out to 100 yard, and 5 shots taken, and i really really wanted to turn up the power dial, but alas it wasn't there. Aiming was difficult because the cross hair of the 1X scope completely hides the red circle.





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It seems the primer fouling from a breech plug with a large large flash hole kinda replicates powder fouling, however it isn't corrosive.
 
that seemed to make a difference. It is surprising how low a primer is in a building... I found out the same way as you did.
 
Interesting.

Clearly a fouled barrel vs clean barrel has an impact. A greater impact on some rifles vs others it appears.

I would think that there would be some coating one could apply which would safely mimic the fouling and we wouldn't need to play these games.
 
Good report, I pop 3 before shooting, I also hold the rifle in a different position with each primer shot. I popped one off one time with the barrel slightly below the horizon, then looked down the barrel and only had primer fouling on half the barrel, not sure if it makes a difference but I guess cant hurt :think:

Just curious, were u making scope adjustments between groups? I noticed each group was in a different position on the target.
 
The first target was shot using a bipod. It came in some low, so the scope was adjusted up about 4 moa. The bipod was removed from the rifle, and attached to another. The second day, it was my intention to shoot the rifle using the same bipod, however, i forgot the bipod at home. Obviously, the group on the the second target was a way high. This i believe, was because, not using the bipod has the rifle shooting higher. The bipod was only used to shoot the first target; the rifle seems to shoot lower when the bipod is attached. The third target was shot after the scope was turned back down the 4 moa, plus a bit more. Then after seeing where the group was on the third target, i turned the scope down 1/2 moa, before moving out to 100 yard. Tomorrow the shooting will be done without the bipod once again. The scope will be left where it was set today, before shooting at 100 yard.
 
I usually dry fire primers holding the muzzle onto a old rag triple folded, tight against the floor.
That makes the noise level almost none.
I remove the ramrod before doing this so the barrel is sealed pretty good with the rag.
 
I shoot BH 209 and had first shot problems, I tried everything, then decided that the only time the first shot inaccuracy occurred was after I had fully cleaned AND lubed the barrel.

I don't like fouling my barrel to hunt, I want a cleaned lubed barrel, that way if I want to let my gun loaded for a few days I won't worry about rust and pitting. Or if I am hunting in the rain I don't worry.

So now when I am checking my gun for first shot accuracy on the range for hunting I clean the barrel, otherwise my gun finds its group. I use one solvent patch, both sides, then I put a dry patch down the barrel, then I put a lightly lubed patch down the barrel, then a dry patch down the barrel.

My gun will now shoot to POA, as if it were a fully cleaned barrel, the only thing I do different when I get home and clean the barrel is I use a brass brush after I put the solvent down the barrel and let it set 15 minutes.

Once I have my Scope adjusted in for the first shot for hunting, I shoot 3 more shots, the first from a cleaned barrel, the next 2 I shoot with the barrel uncleaned. That way if there is any variation of POI with shots 2 & 3 it should show up. That first shot accuracy is the one I am looking for, shots 2 & 3 gives me an Idea if I should change POA with follow up shots, if needed.

I use a slip 2000 gun lube as my lubricant, it is synthetic and will not react with real black powder or substitutes, including BH 209. It also displaces moisture, I don't know if I used regular gun oil if it would have affected my outcome.

This may or may not help you, but if you don't like hunting with a fouled barrel this is something you could try.
 
Well we went up and shot some more this morning to see about that first shot. Prior to leaving the X7 was cleaned so that it had a squeaky clean barrel. Then the pictured breech plug was installed.




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Three W209 shotgun primers were touched off, and the breech plug removed. Then the breech plug in the following photo was installed.




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Then the Omega X7 with the 1X Nikon mounted, was loaded with the same load as before; 300g Deep Curl, 110g Blackhorn, crush rib sabot, Federal 215 rifle primer. Again, whilst shooting it was very hard for me to have a consistent aim using that dang 1X scope. Plus it was breezy, the sun was shining on the scope objective.. Given more time i may be able to come up with even more excuses for the crummy group.




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Note how shot 5 moved right next to shot 1. Kinda indicates both bullets experienced the 'same' barrel, even though there was no corrosive powder fouling in the barrel, when shot 1 was taken. Cool 'eh?
 
Never used a 1X scope, and mine are always set on 9X when range shooting, I think I would have a difficult time with 1X.

"If it's in the red, it's dead!"
 
Slightly New Wrinkle

Someone mentioned something about shooting into a wad of rags to reduce the noise. Thinking about it, it seemed the rags would also kinda make more of the primer fouling stay in the barrel. Yesterday i gave it a try. Shot 5 shotgun primers into a wad of rags, using the breech plug with no flash hole, then switched breech plugs, and loaded the rifle. Load is 110g Blackhorn, 300g Deep Curl, crush rib sabot, Federal 215 primer. Range was 93 yards for the first four shots which are in the red. The 3 shots in the white were from 202 yard.





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When i came home i had a notion not to clean the rifle, and see how it would shoot at the same range from a powder fouled barrel. So this morning i once again set the target at 93 yards, and loaded the rifle with an uncleaned barrel with the same load. Shots 8, 9, 10, and 11 were made this morning at the target below, beginning from a cold barrel.




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Ive had pretty good luck popping off 3 209 primers in my Disc Extreme before loading(load is 90 gr BH209 MMP short black sabot and .451 300 grain Nosler Partition) First shot is usually off from the rest of the group,but is always less than an inch. I used to fight it,trying to figure out a system to get 1st shot to group with subsequent shots. It than dawned on me if I am getting the same results 99% of the time by simply popping 3 primers every time before first shot, I can live with an inch variation in shots 2 and 3, and up to around 5 or better before I notice a change in accuracy. All of my hunting shots are MAX 125yds,so i've just learned to deal with it as I dont figure an inch or less is gonna hamper me. For you guys that shoot the longer ranges, I could see where this could become a hair pulling problem! PS Ive had ZERO issues with corrosion/rust after firing primers then loading and leaving it loaded for up to 3 weeks. I just avoid drastic temp changes in places where I store the rifle.
 
jakesdad...Do you swab after you fire the three primers or just load the powder without swabbing?
 
halloflin-

no swabbing. pop off 3 then its load up time. I have tested first shot on a clean barrel,and accuracy is more than adequate for hunting.(like I said I dont shoot very far at all) actually my main reason to pop off some caps is to clear any oily residue that may have gotten a chance to set around the breech plug or in the barrel. I oil very lightly when I clean but thats always been a concern of mine for some reason. Since the primers are very minimally corrosive if even that,i've always felt better with a few caps touched off to "clear" the gun if you will as opposed to taking the slight chance of getting a load that might misfire. Paranoid? probably,but its just the system i've got used to doing and it seems to work.
 
I was having first shot problems like you too. Started cleaning the gun with ezoox and firing 3 primers and all bullets group in the same spot. I use blackhorn 209 and fiocchi primers in my 45s
 

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