cva buckhorn lost accuracy

[yellowlab]

cont. from another thread. My .50 cal cva buckhorn used to shoot conicals well/ok, softball groups @ 75 yds with a peep sight. Now I'm lucky to get basketball size groups at 50 yds. It has a breach plug to use <a href='/tags/11' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #11'>#11</a> caps I have never used gun primers or musket caps in it.I have shot a few sabots and powerbelts through it but it was a while back and don't remember how well they worked. "No plastic, shotgun primers,pellets, or scopes in Oregon for muzzleloader season". It used to shoot best with a 385grn maxi from a lyman mold with a 1/16 wool/felt pad. lubed with a beeswax, olive oil, lanoline mix, and 90 to 100 grns of pyrodex or goex 2f. Since it went south I have tried changing my charges,bullets,powder,etc nothing shoots very well except prb's with 40/50 grns powder and those were not great. I've cleaned it with copper brush,chroe boy,hoppes <a href='/tags/9' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #9'>#9</a>,carb cleaner,brake cleaner,and a combination of all the above.I slugged the bore today with a great planes 385" I think" conical at 50.85 and 49.95 in. for .09 thou. "if I did my math right".I also did a T/C hawken @ .010 and a traditions deer hunter @ .011 if I did the process correctly. I think I felt a rough spot at about where the bullet would sit when loaded. Tried to look with a cheep bore scope but couldn't see anything different in that area, the bore looked at least as good as any of my other guns. Not sure what to try next. maybe some sabots or power belts to see if they will shoot better. Any ideas?  Also haven't noticed any key holes in my targets. Thanks

 

[exMember]

Would  that be .4995" ? Basically, slightly under .500" bore diameter which means that barrel is still night and tight.  .5085 would be with rifling.

Its hard to know what exactly those measurements are as its not what I use.

If you've been shooting a lot of lead, Im guessing it will need one hell of a scrubbing to actually remove the lead. You'd be surprised at how many cleaners " designed " to remove copper or lead, really suck and just barely remove surface fouling.

You could try some 000 or 0000 steel wool wrapped around your cleaning jag and lightly oiled and go to town on the bore. Lead IMO is more of a pain in the butt to remove compared to copper.

 

[yellowlab]

I thought about steel wool but was not sure if that would cause damage. At this point I don't have much to lose . Ill try some tomorrow.

 

[Sparkitoff1]

Tighten the stock bolt and the trigger group screws.

 

[Okie Hog]

Couple years ago i got the bug to use conicals. The rifle shot them very well for awhile. Yep, those conicals did one thing that patched round balls could not; they badly leaded the bore of my rifle.

 

[strong eagle]

as said above, really scrub the bore, make sure all screws and bolts are tight. when all is said and done take your conical and reduce the size of it by running through a lee push through reducing die. paperpatch the bullet and use a 60 thousands wad behind the pp bullet no more problems. cant have a muzzle where the lands are taken out for easy sabot loading for this method. if interested contact me and i will tell you the size of the reduced bullet size and how to paperpatch your bullet. do it all the time to hunters who contact me by phone from my web site and articles i have wrote. its not rocket science, anybody can learn it. its up to you.

 

[yellowlab]

I scrubbed the bore with steel wool on an old brush and on a jag. Got some dark patches "black" out of it, not sure if it was from lead or the steel wool, Ill shoot it in a few days and see if it helped. I use chore boy "copper wool" on my pistol barrels when I sometimes try to push cast bullets too fast and lead them up, it cleans them up quickly and I can see the flakes of lead that come out. Have tried the same with this gun and didn't see any flakes but this is a different animal. I tried paper patching years ago but not on this gun, I don't have a sizing die for this cal. may look into that. Ever try powder coating bullets, works on cast pistol bullets, the stuff is real tough and is almost intact on recovered bullets, prevents most leading. Haven't tried it on muzzleloaders,

 

[Blacksheep]

Check your action screws first .  You didn't say whether your groups were string vertically or the group was just bad both vertically and horizontally.  I have a Rossi that I shoot conicals out of and I've also shot my fair share of fmj bullets that I've run over a file the fmj left a lot of fouling and the conicals there share of lead I use some JB bore cleaner orsome Remington 40 x to get it out.

 

[Renegadehunter]

I have very limited experience with an in-line, but I'm always amazed how much a worn out nipple will open up my groups with a sidlelock. 
I would also inspect the crown very closely to make sure it hasn't been dinged/damaged in some way.

 

[yellowlab]

Shot it today, after steel wool cleaning. It still didn't do well with conicals. I tried some sabots with 240 gr. 44mag cast bullets in them and 80 grns of black mz, they did well. Too bad I cant hunt with sabots. I think for now it will sit in the safe. Good excuse to get a new/different gun. Ill mess with it some other time. Its winter steelhead season.

 

[strong eagle]

again, go to paperpatched bullet, it will solve the problem reduce those conicals to .491 or .492 and single wrap them with 18 or 20 pound paper. what ever works. i get one hole ragged at 100 yards using this method.

 

[Idaholewis1]

When is the last time you replaced the Nipple? Sounds like a worn nipple to me, that will cause accuracy to start falling off. I swear by the Treso/Ampco Nipples with Real Blackpowder, The Flash Holes are tiny at .028 and set off Real Blackpowder IMMEDIATELY. But If you plan to shoot Substitute powders like Pyrodex the .028 Flash Hole will likely be to Small to reliably ignite it, you will need to open the Flash Hole to .032-.033, Remember there is a fine line here, I would NOT get over .034 

Also try some 1/8” Wool Felt Over Powder Wads, And go a bit oversize, In a .50 Cal i prefer to use .54 Cal 1/8” Wool Felt, Experiment with .50 and .54 Cal Wool Wads and see if you can tell a difference in accuracy between them? The Wads i get are Lubed Oxyoke brand, Unlubed is fine. The key is to protect the Bullet Base!! I have ZERO leading issues when i use 1/8” Wool Felt Wads

Here is a 3 Shot Group Target i shot not long ago with my .50 Cal Sidelock, As you can see i was using oversize 1/8” Wool Wads (.54 Cal in my .501 Bore) 

 

[yellowlab]

Next time I shoot Ill change out my nipple, It looks ok but don't remember when I changed it last. Its a night red hot and it hasn't had any ignition issues but the flash hole could be worn oversize. I think I will also go back to real bp to see if that changes anything. (usually save the real stuff for flintlocks,its harder to get and costs more)

 

[CVA Enthusiast]

I know I am late here but after the reading I agree needs a cleaning of some cleaner that will bust up the lead in the rifling and it will be fit again, I have a 209 buckhorn I use T/C cheap shot sabot hollows the plastic builds up in rifling and throws the accuracy, lead might be assisting yours?