POI first shot after sitting and dirty

[bowbender6]

I have about ten muzzleloaders (shooting BH209) and a SavPAc (that I shoot sabotless fullform) I have been trying to solve getting them to shoot to about same point of impact after siting for a day or more and dirty. These guns are shooting 1”-2” moa. The sabotless seems to do ok but the sabot guns seem more finicky. In the field I can load and swab the barrel after I reload so a dirty barrel is not as much of a problem. I have a LabRadar it seems like a dirty barrel is 25-50 fps slower. After the gun sits inside for a day or more the cleaner barrel is 25-50 fps faster. My guess is that when dirty the bore is more slippery and that is why it is slower and when cleaner, the bore has more resistance, builds more pressure and hence more fps. My goal is to try to improve the consistency over the winter. I have a range right outside my walkout basement so I can be set up and shooting in ten minutes. I can shoot and chrony one shot every other day easily and plan to do so this winter. I am interested in what the members have found that works best for them. Here is my procedure.

The gun sits in a room in the walkout basemen that about 55 degrees and I don’t bring it in cold.

Shoot gun
Dry patch
Damp patch with 50/50 Hoppes #9 and 99% alcohol
2 dry patches
Let gun sit for at least 15 minutes


I am mostly using Harvester Crush rib sabots. I can give more specifics after some testing but guns are .45 and .50. I like the .45’s better with BH209. I do have about every bullet and sabot available to try except Fury and Cutting Edge. I may get some of them to try next year.

Thanks