Blackpowder and all the fixin's

[finlander]

Crowning did obviously improve accuracy, I got one pretty nice 4" group wherein 4 shots were in 2" group. Load was 35gr swiss fffg, .454 ball made by Davide&Pedersoli, overpowder wad and lube (coconut butter+olive oil, lube made myself) over ball. I also tried loads with Hornady .454 ball and Haendler&Natermann .454 ball with 30gr and 35gr powder. Average groups were 4"-6" and in almost every group were one hole further off from main group.

It seems that I need way more .22lr target shooting as I'm afraid I'm flinching pretty much, shooting off-hand shots seem to creep down and left. That means I'm flinching, right?

 

[taralon]

You may have too much finger on the trigger. Obviously the muscles that work to curl the finger are on the inside of the forearm. If you've got too much finger around the tigger, are jerking at it, and/or are tensing your forearm overmuch before the shot you'll pull your shots down and to the left if you are a righthanded shooter.

You might also want to 'mark' one of your chambers somehow. When shooting always start with the first with the marked chamber. This will help to show over the course of shooting (if you take care to note where each shot is going subsequently) where each chamber is shooting. IE if chamber 2 is always shooting high and to the left, there is problably a timing/chamber-barrel alignment problem that is causing that shot to go there. A couple of badly timed chambers could make shooting small groups an exercise in frustration as you aren't ever able to nail down what 'you' are doing wrong.

 

[finlander]

When compared, how much slower velocities 5 1/2" barrel will give than 8" in Remington .44 revolver? Approximately?

 

[Manyirons]

Difference in velocity not enough to worry over, how dead ya gonna kill that paper target anyway?

 

[finlander]

 

[BP Hunter]

and to add to finlander's question: are 8" barrels more accurate than 5 1/2" barrels?

 

[Father Knows Best]

No. 8 inch barrels are not more accurate. They do give you a longer sight radius, which may help you aim them better, but the longer barrel is not inherently more accurate.

 

[BP Hunter]

well, i'm glad that the 5 1/2" barrel would shoot as accurate as the 8" barrel. i'm not a tall guy and lugging around an 8" barreled revolver in the woods would be cumbersome.

 

[gmatov]

Well, a shoulder holster, you'd never care how long it is, a belt holster, I don't think the extra 2 1/2 inches would trip you.

By the same token, Elmer Keith liked a 4 1/2 inch 44 mag, loaded hot. And the 6 and 1/2 was the standard factory model.

You won't lose very many fps per inch. It's the rifle shooters who go into the 25 fps stuff, but they want everything to go 4100 fps.

With your 5 1/2 inch barrel, your velocity will fall into the standard deviation that an 8 inch barrel shoots with BP, lower end. Now, YOUR standard deviation may be + or - 25 or 50 fps. You might shoot a hog in the head, square on, and the ball won't come out the ham, it will stop at the rearmost ribs. Ah, shoot, lead poisoning.

Guys on here are cutting 7 1/2 to 4 or so, still hitting and having fun, more work, as to cyl pin and the like, but still enjoying what they do.

Kinda like going from your Ruger 10 1/2 inch and getting a 101, or whatever their nomenclature, snubby.

You do what you want to do.

Shoot! Just have fun! There is no magic point for a barrel. 1 and a 1/2 or 2 or 18 inch Buntline , they all shoot, they're all fun, and in BP, they are MORE fun, they are a day at the range, not go shoot 3 15 or 17 round mags, 3 minutes, it's near an all day affair.

And having even BP hunting rifle shooters put down their Hawkens or whatever to come see what you are doing is even a little blast. Wow, that's neat.

Have fun, Rule Number ONE..

Be safe, all the rest of the rules.

Cheers,

George

 

[Low Key]

I have both 8in barrel and 5.5in barrel 58 Remingtons from Cabelas. The 5.5 is just as accurate as the 8in and just as much fun to shoot. The 5.5 is stock from cabelas and you don't have to go through the cutting the barrel, rammer, and re-do the sights and rammer latch. The only drawback is that the 5.5's cylinder pin is made to be non-removable, but Old Dragoon has a fix for that. He makes a jointed cylinder pin that allows you to take the gun down completely for cleaning. See this thread for more information about it.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=182475

It's an easy fix and well worth the time you'll put into it, which isn't much at all.