Barrel fouling technique?

[wankerjake]

Hey I'm posting this question for a friend. Is it true that the first shot out of a clean muzzle loader barrel is less accurate than if it has been fired once? So then is it worthwhile to fire a shot after cleaning the barrel before a hunt to improve accuracy on your first shot at an animal?

 

[junkman_01]

The first shot is not necessarily more accurate, just different. It will have less resistance to the movement of the bullet, so it will develop less pressure and therefore impact in a different spot than subsequent shots. For a hunting gun, I would concentrate on where a first bullet goes and practice with that. When I used to hunt with a .58 caliber rifle-musket, I load my first charge with 80 grains of 2F black powder, and subsequent loads were 60 grains. That way they would always shoot to the same point of impact.

 

[arcticap]

Is it true that the first shot out of a clean muzzle loader barrel is less accurate than if it has been fired once?

I don't really know because every gun is different. There are a lot of reasons why the first shot might not group the same. Maybe the first shot is the only good one, or maybe the first shot is the only bad one.

Some guns seem to shoot more accurately after they've been fouled and some guns are just the opposite.

Some barrels shoot best when they're cold and clean and some shoot better when they are hot.

It's very hard to compare a gun that shoots round balls to a gun that shoots sabots.

Determining how a gun shoots requires some testing. How it shoots with one load verses another load or projectile under different conditions.
Some folks may want to foul their barrel by only shooting off one primer in advance, while others may want to swab their barrel between each and every shot.

So then is it worthwhile to fire a shot after cleaning the barrel before a hunt to improve accuracy on your first shot at an animal?

It really matters how different the first shot is compared to the where you want the gun to be sighted in.
If it's just a few inches then so what? But if it's significant then someone needs to decide why and what they're going to do about it.
People generally like to use the same sight setting for both target shooting and for hunting.
But when doing that causes an accuracy problem with the first shot, then something needs to be changed, like the sight setting, the load and projectile, or the barrel preparation process for hunting. That may include pre-fouling the barrel and some folks do that. But the first shot from a cold barrel is the most important for hunting, and figuring out how to best shoot to point of aim can sometimes require some testing and experimentation.
If a person can't figure out how to get their gun to shoot true for the first shot, then they need to figure out what else to do. That includes so many options that it's hard to say that it's always due to a clean barrel and not anything else, like the load, projectile, sights, barrel temperature, powder, shooter error etc...

 

[mykeal]

Arcticap hit the tack.

 

[Bluehawk]

My Seneca .45 shoots it's first 3 shots somewhat loosely...after that it groups very tightly...but thats only with Maxis. With roundballs it shoots pretty much the same from the first to the last shot.

 

[alsaqr]

i do not believe in dirtying clean guns. All my blackpowder rifles are sighted to put the first round center of bull at 100 yards from a clean barrel. It is important to remove all lube from the bore before loading the first shot. This can be done by swabbing the bore with an alcohol moistened patch followed by a dry patch.

Some powders are less sensitive to bore condition. My favorite powder is Goex Pinnacle. Last week i fired 15 consecutive shots from the barrel of my .50 Encore without swabbing: Distance was 100 meters. The 15 shot group measured 2.4".