efritz
08-14-2012, 02:26 PM
Continuing with the voyages of the Starship Smoothbore. Stardate 8-12-12. Mission on the planet Holmesburg Fish and Game. Inhabited by like creatures. Weapontry far more advanced than ours. Weapons that reload automatically and one even with a laser. One can only imagine the advanced technology. Inhabitants are a friendly sort. They seem to stop and ooh and aah at the sight of a smoothbore musket. I can only humph at the sight of theirs. Too many projectiles in the atmosphere at one time.
Anyhow, thanks to all who posted on the 8 pages of the smoothbore theory and especially Bob Elka and H.P. Heeding their advice, I purchased a .672 mould from Jeff Tanner. Now Jeffs' moulds are notorious for not being round and so true for this one. It runs .672 - .675. But it's all I have at the moment. Since I didn't have two wood rasps to run the ball between, the next best thing was my garage concrete floor. Roughed up the balls between the floor and a 2"x4". Did a fair job. Rolled in Alox one time. Loaded 10 rounds each in 45, 50, 55, 60 grs. 2F Swiss and 10 rounds 60 grs. dipped in my lube that I use in my musket, carbine and Ballard. Went to the planet Holmesburg and benched all. Results ----- 45 and 50 grs. produced 11"-12" groups. 55 grs. produced an 8" group and 60 grs. produced a 6" group. The 10 rounds with my lube ---- I fired 6 rounds, 5 on the paper and quit. It was a waste of time to proceed any further. It amazed me to see the dramatic difference just because of lube. From an 8" group to one where I can't hit the 100 yd. N-SSA target. Loading was easier with the small ball too. My H&P has a .687 Hoyt barrel. I was using a .678 Lyman RB. Not roughing the ball and rolled in Alox, it's very good at 25 yds but the accuracy drops out the bottom at 50 yds. and after about 6-7 shots loading became hard. I'm not satisfied with the 6" group and will continue to experiment. There's other manufacturers of powder, different grains of powder and different amounts of powder to try. But I'm headed in the right direction. Stay tuned for the voyages of the Starship Smoothbore.
Kirk out.
Anyhow, thanks to all who posted on the 8 pages of the smoothbore theory and especially Bob Elka and H.P. Heeding their advice, I purchased a .672 mould from Jeff Tanner. Now Jeffs' moulds are notorious for not being round and so true for this one. It runs .672 - .675. But it's all I have at the moment. Since I didn't have two wood rasps to run the ball between, the next best thing was my garage concrete floor. Roughed up the balls between the floor and a 2"x4". Did a fair job. Rolled in Alox one time. Loaded 10 rounds each in 45, 50, 55, 60 grs. 2F Swiss and 10 rounds 60 grs. dipped in my lube that I use in my musket, carbine and Ballard. Went to the planet Holmesburg and benched all. Results ----- 45 and 50 grs. produced 11"-12" groups. 55 grs. produced an 8" group and 60 grs. produced a 6" group. The 10 rounds with my lube ---- I fired 6 rounds, 5 on the paper and quit. It was a waste of time to proceed any further. It amazed me to see the dramatic difference just because of lube. From an 8" group to one where I can't hit the 100 yd. N-SSA target. Loading was easier with the small ball too. My H&P has a .687 Hoyt barrel. I was using a .678 Lyman RB. Not roughing the ball and rolled in Alox, it's very good at 25 yds but the accuracy drops out the bottom at 50 yds. and after about 6-7 shots loading became hard. I'm not satisfied with the 6" group and will continue to experiment. There's other manufacturers of powder, different grains of powder and different amounts of powder to try. But I'm headed in the right direction. Stay tuned for the voyages of the Starship Smoothbore.
Kirk out.