Something I ran across recently that seemed a bit peculiar so I tried it and it works. Point the pistol barrel up, lower the loading lever till it stops on an empty chamber, this is your powder charge with a wad seated on top. Once the powder and wad are loaded with light compression, put a small amount of lube on top of the wad. Seat the ball slowly untill it touches the wad. The idea is consistency in the loading so each chamber is loaded the same as the other. I tried this method with a Pietta 1860 Navy that I couldn't hit the side of a truck with half the time. This loading method brought it in to minute of beer can at 20 yards. This pistol would throw a flyer high and to the left about every 2 nd shot, that stopped. Supposedly this is a loading method being used by guys who are winning matches on a regular basis.Give it a try, I'm convinced it works.