frontier gander

Picked up powder and caps today so this evening i took the .45 deer creek out with 50 grains pyrodex p, .018 pillow ticking patch lubed with bore butter, hornady .440 roundball. Fired 4 shots before i checked the target, took the rifle inside and knocked the rear sight over a tiny bit, took 3 more shots and got it perfectly center. Moved out to 50 yards, 4 shots "still on the dirty bore" groups measured a little over 1", not to bad with the low light and the dirty bore.

Next i tried some ox-yoke .015 and the same ball and load, lubed with crisco, These babies on a clean barrel loaded tight and 3 shots at 50 yards measured 3"!! Patches were in great shape with a little brown mark where it seated against the ball. Had to knock the sight over a little more, the ball drifted off the the right again about 1/2" @ 50 yards. Went and got the .018 patches to make sure it wasnt a fluke, First shot, DEAD center of the bulls eye, You could barely make out any black. Next shot, click, pull hammer back again, Click. Ahhhhh damn it! Walk back to get my gerbers to pull the unfired cap off, Recapped, Pull hammer back, Click [:@][:@] Pull hammer back,cliboom! Check target, 1" above first bulls eye shot. Reload, Click.... Recap,click, Pull back hammer again, Click. Im about to really start up a cuss storm before i just take a breath and relax. pull hammer back, Kkkboom. Hangfires again! Check target, 1" below the first bulls eye and a 1/4" to the right.

Primers were brand new CCI's " non magnum"

Now im sold on the cci magnums. These regular cci's are just plain crap. Out of the 200 cci mags i bought some months ago, i had maybe 8 hangfires.

Other than the caps giving me trouble, the day was awesome and it felt great to shoot the .45 PRB again. Ah Now its time to clean it.

Why would the .015 patches load harder than the thicker patches? I really love the pillow ticking so i think i am sold big time on those for life.

Tomorrow im going for 75 yards on the new range and then possibly 100 yards. Also need to resight in with pyrodex p and the 225 grain powerbelt. Have to get ready for next years hunt. Back to the Greenhorns next year!

yeoman

Gander - I had lots of issues getting caps to pop in my old CVA. I attribute it to a weak sear spring. Once I cleaned it, things improved, but still not to expectations, regardless of the caps used. The really good thing about the problem you had today is how steady it will make your shooting form. Nothing like a dropped hammer on a dead cap to show up flinch.

Not bad for a center fire even.

cayugad

Those standard CCI caps have gave me nothing but trouble. I bought a 1000 of them by mistake, and finally have then shot off. Then I bought 2000 of the RWS and a 1000 of the CCI Magnum so I am set for a while.

It sounds like that is a real good shooter. Why one patch would load so hard compared to the other might be a matter of lube and age of the lube...

Good luck tomorrow shooting.

lemoyne

Well I dont know about any sear spring but a lot of them do better with a better hammer spring. Were I doing it I would try some 1075 RWS caps or get a musket nipple and some musket caps and then if there were any misfires a better hammer spring. Lee

frontier gander

This has my traditions lock mounted on it. Heavy duty hammer spring. The caps that wouldnt go off or would take 2 snaps, when i'd pull them they would have the pieces of paper stuck down in the nipple hole. I used some sandpaper so i could get a slightly looser fit so i'll see tomorrow.

Also used 0000 steelwool at the end of my cleaning jag and gave it about 50 strokes down that rough Douglas barrel and that actually took quite a bit of the roughness out.

Tomorrow, if it doesnt snow, i'll start out at 75 yards with 60 grains Pyro P, 018 pillow picking and see how it goes. I also want to try out some ox yoke .015 patches i lubed with olive oil and crisco.

frontier gander

For all the hangfires ive had today, My worse group was 1 1/2" @ 75 yards. My best is 1" @ 100 yards. After 10 shots im going to swab the barrel to cut down the gunk. That steelwool i used down the barrel lastnight did one hell of a job. I dont get the build up anymore and the PRB loads smoothly now. Im going to try 6 more shots and then i'll swab it out clean again and try 3 of the 225 grain powerbelts.

lemoyne

frontier gander,"This has my traditions lock mounted on it. Heavy duty hammer spring. The caps that wouldnt go off or would take 2 snaps, when i'd pull them they would have the pieces of paper stuck down in the nipple hole. I used some sandpaper so i could get a slightly looser fit so i'll see tomorrow."
This isa problem I have run into before it is an indication that your hammer may not be hitting your nipple square or that the hammer is scrapping down the side of thecap before it hits the top to set it off. Lee

frontier gander

Shes been going off perfect after i oiled the lock. It started to freeze up on me before i remembered that i didnt oil it after i had browned it the other day Shes shooting really good now.