Squeezing the most from your sidelock

[bronko220002]

I enjoy shooting my sidelocks a lot more than my inlines. I like squeezing every ounce of accuracy out of it I can get and lately I've been getting more and more into shooting the PRB. I have slow twist rifles in .50, .54, and .58 caliber. The .58 has been getting most of my attention lately.
Knowing each rifle has its own sweet spot and finding it is part of the fun. But with the PRB there are a lot more variables. Heck even changing patch lube has an effect on accuracy. So asking you fellow ball shooters, what component do you find (or think) causes the most change in accuracy.
I think this will be a healthy discussion topic.

 

[cayuga]

powder amount, followed by lube on the patch, and then patch thickness. After that to some degree is the ball itself.

 

[bronko220002]

Well I noticed yesterday when I shot my .54 that patch lube makes a pretty big difference. I'm going to have to run some test on this in the future.
I tried the same patch material, ball and charge and the only difference was the lube (olive oil). Seating the ball required a noticeable amount of additional pressure and POI was a good 2"-3" lower at 50 yards. One shot does not prove anything but it makes me wonder. Come spring when I get back home from Florida I will run some tests.

 

[451 whitworth]

consistent seating pressure and keeping bore condition the same from shot to shot make a huge difference in velocity through the chrony and impact point on the paper

 

[bronko220002]

consistent seating pressure and keeping bore condition the same from shot to shot make a huge difference in velocity through the chrony and impact point on the paper

Yes that is true admiral. The only difference here was the patch lube. Same bullet, charge, patch. Now this patch with the other lube was harder to seat which falls back to your point. (harder to load = harder to seat/compress powder)

 

[Muley Hunter]

I never change patch lube, so that's never a variable. Powder amount and seating pressure are importent, but since I found a way to seat the ball so it's consistent. It's not a variable anymore either. So, it's all about powder amount for me. Pillow ticking is always the patch material. Either .015 or .018.

That amounts to two loads. One light one for target and on hunting load. I could just shoot the hunting load all the time and i've done that too, but if i'm shooting target competition i'll use the light load for it. It's just a hair more accurate.

 

[bronko220002]

, but since I found a way to seat the ball so it's consistent. It's not a variable anymore either.

Okay Muley, What is your method for consistent seating pressure?
The only reason I was trying a different lube was that the other worked so well with my .58. But that was before I got the Frontier Anti-rust and Patch Lube.
I will give that a try in my .58 next time. Whenever that will be.

 

[Muley Hunter]

It's a method that will get me some flak. Kind of like blowing down the barrel does.

 

[bronko220002]

LOL I think I know where you're going with this. Let me guess, you lean over the ramrod and put your weight on it????????

 

[Muley Hunter]

No, that's too dangerous. Ok, here it is and it's no secret, but quite commonly associated with noobs. It's not.

What we're after is a consistent way to compress the powder without any way to actually measure it. There are ways to measure it, but i'm talking about a way to do it with just your eyes. Yes, there's no feel involved and that's why I consider it consistent. It's simply bouncing the ramrod. First off the first few bounces aren't bounces at all, but more ramrod blows to compress the powder. Once the powder is compressed enough the ramrod starts to bounce. I watch how high it bounces to set how hard I want the powder compressed. In my case it's 2". I mark the ramrod for my bounce point.

Simple as that. It took 20 times longer to explain it than to do it.

 

[bronko220002]

Well Muley I guess if you were consistent with how far you dropped the ramrod to make it bounce off the ball the same each time you may be right.
I guess what I'm saying is once you have your powder compressed to X psi you would have to raise your ramrod the same distance each time to get the required bounce. For discussion's sake we'll say you raise it 12" off the ball and drop it. If it bounces less than your 2" requirement than you need more seating pressure. But if it bounces more than your 2" - then what? You're now over compressed. Your method must work for you because you continue to use it. But for someone new it may be a bit harder to get the consistency you achieve.
Now I like that gadget that Jon has that reads the pressure directly. Not sure what it is called nor do I think I'd ever get one.
What I normally do is once I seat the PRB on the powder I give the rod a firm push. Then two more additional taps.
The only time this routine is changed is when I'm shooting my Pedersoli Frontier Rifle with its 39" barrel. Being only 5'7" I darn near need a step ladder to load it. Lord help me if I ever get a rifle with a 42" barrel!

 

[Muley Hunter]

I don't really want to get into a discussion about this. I don't have to drop from different heights. That's silly. I can tell you my method is very repeatable and of course the target results prove that to me.

I also keep all I do PC to the fur trade era. So, no modern gadgets will be used.

 

[JStanley]

No, that's too dangerous. Ok, here it is and it's no secret, but quite commonly associated with noobs. It's not.

What we're after is a consistent way to compress the powder without any way to actually measure it. There are ways to measure it, but i'm talking about a way to do it with just your eyes. Yes, there's no feel involved and that's why I consider it consistent. It's simply bouncing the ramrod. First off the first few bounces aren't bounces at all, but more ramrod blows to compress the powder. Once the powder is compressed enough the ramrod starts to bounce. I watch how high it bounces to set how hard I want the powder compressed. In my case it's 2". I mark the ramrod for my bounce point.

Simple as that. It took 20 times longer to explain it than to do it.

I'll bet you don't just drop the ramrod but kinda "throw" it down on the load. Your calibrated hand :wink: can probably apply pretty close to the same amount of downward force - at least close enough. I've tried that technique too. Works pretty good. I had to convince myself I wasn't deforming the ball since my ramrod has a concave tip that matches the ball diameter. I don't do that with conical bullets though......

 

[Muley Hunter]

Firing the ball out the barrel probably deforms the ball the most. Look at target shooters. They hammer the balls in.

The target is enough proof for me. It seems the best groups of all the methods i've tried are by bouncing the ramrod. Kind of cool that it turned out so easy to do no matter if on the range or hunting.

Did you get the vent liner installed yet?

 

[JStanley]

Did you get the vent liner installed yet?

Planning on gettin' 'er done on Thursday. Planned result is to move a badly off-center vent liner on my Lyman GPR flinter close to dead center on the pan by installing the larger diameter Chambers White Lightning liner offset toward the muzzle by about 0.038" which should put it nearer to the center of the pan with the added plus of being a really good performing vent liner due to its design. Love that rifle!

 

[Muley Hunter]

I wish Mark had moved mine down a bit. After he installed it he said mine was a bit high. I always thought that and wish he had mentioned it before he installed it. Oh well, too late now.