Dark Skies
Member
I shoot competitively over the same distance (25 yards) so I try to shoot my guns with the lowest load that'll give a straight trajectory at that distance - anything more and I'm burning more powder than I need to and making a rod for my own back in recoil that I need to control. Sometimes less is better.
As you can imagine a light load leaves an awful lot of empty space once a regular lubed wad and a ball are pressed on top. A good number at my club fill that space behind the ball with an inert powder such as semolina - so the ball is closer to the forcing cone. Then they stick grease on top! Yeah, I'm not doing that. Too fiddly and messy.
Takes too long.
So I'll be using 15 grains of black powder, a lubed and much taller (12mm) felt wad, with the ball squished on top.
No grease. If you're getting a nice lead ring shaving then that's all the firewall you need to prevent chain fires.
As you can imagine a light load leaves an awful lot of empty space once a regular lubed wad and a ball are pressed on top. A good number at my club fill that space behind the ball with an inert powder such as semolina - so the ball is closer to the forcing cone. Then they stick grease on top! Yeah, I'm not doing that. Too fiddly and messy.
Takes too long.
So I'll be using 15 grains of black powder, a lubed and much taller (12mm) felt wad, with the ball squished on top.
No grease. If you're getting a nice lead ring shaving then that's all the firewall you need to prevent chain fires.
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