Bigger ball or thicker patch ?

[Tim Ault]

All of that is great but the most important part is tobacco juice and "whiskey".

Hmmmmmmmm ! Southern comfort flavored  spit  patches ! I like it 
    I'll hold off on the tabacco juice though !

[beowulf]

if I`m hunting , olive oil . target shooting , spit ! no need to complicate matters ! 

[graybear]

Just to complicate things, I used to have an Ultra- Hi 45 caplock thad defied everything that was "normal" for loading. I cut the group size to less than 1/4 original by using 2f  GOEX, & an .010 patch W/a  .440 bal. This combo was so loose that I could push it down bore w/just my thumb & not closing my fist.

[beowulf]

most of mine are thumb started , quit using a ball starter when I realized they are`nt really needed , and may not be pc . those old timers had to rely on getting of a quick second shot many times just to keep their hair , doubt they loaded anywhere near as tight as we usually do today ! unless you are driving an over sized lead bullet down the barrel without a patch , cant see why it should be hard to load !

[bugflipper]

Just to complicate things, I used to have an Ultra- Hi 45 caplock thad defied everything that was "normal" for loading. I cut the group size to less than 1/4 original by using 2f  GOEX, & an .010 patch W/a  .440 bal. This combo was so loose that I could push it down bore w/just my thumb & not closing my fist.

I have a t/c cherokee 45 like that. I bought it with a known badly pitted bore because good ones are so high these days. I'd cast at a lower temp to not fill the mould out all the way. The balls came out .418 and loaded with a blue jean patch because thinner ones tore in the bore. There is a tree in the back yard with a hole dead center at 77 yards from the porch from that combo. It grouped pretty good on paper but was still objectional to load with the loose prb and the severe pitting.  I put together a barrel for it and had to melt all the balls  down and cast them to .445, couldn't hit anything with it with the loose patch and ball in a good bore.

[tatman731]

I had an old CVA Kentucky that shot really well with .440. When I went to get supplies couldnt find that size and got .445. Hated it till I shot it. It went from 2 inch groups to 1 inch groups and for some reason seemed like I had less fouling. 

[trapperxx]

I had an old CVA Kentucky that shot really well with .440. When I went to get supplies couldnt find that size and got .445. Hated it till I shot it. It went from 2 inch groups to 1 inch groups and for some reason seemed like I had less fouling. 

Maybe because you had more complete combustion with the tighter ball, less combustion gas getting by the ball in the barrel.

[sweed]

Search Dutch Schoultz Accuracy.  read,    think      shoot think      read again  think          ..and so on...... no .

sweed

[30coupe]

Search Dutch Schoultz Accuracy.  read,    think      shoot think      read again  think          ..and so on...... no .

sweed

I'll second Dutch Schoultz system. Here is the link www.blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com