I have a different approach.
Measure the thickness of the skirt. In my experience, a thick skirt won't completely expand into the rifling in a clean barrel. In my gun, the first shot landed about a pigeon low at 50 yards. It got so predictable that I would break the second bird in the row while aiming at the first one. Once that fowling shot was done, the gun shot true.
A friend on my team suggested bouncing the ram rod hard on the ball for the first shot. It actually improved things but didn't completely solve it. BTW, this won't work for every gun. A Mississippi rammer has a flat tip. Bouncing a Springfield style rammer wouldn't work because the profile is different.
I ended up making a new base pin with a thinner skirt. Exact size escapes me, but now the first shot lands where it is pointed.
Of course, where it is pointed when the shot breaks is still all my fault.
Bob Anderson
Ordnance Sergeant
Company C, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry
Small Arms Committee
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist", 1976
Bookmarks