Final card of the winter season

Even though it had rained heavily and the range was very squelchy under foot, I managed to get to the Club and shoot the last comp card of the season; round 10 of the Kent Black Powder Winter League.

Round 10

 

It seems I saved the best till last. Not only was it the best card of the season, it was a personal best AND the first time I have ever shot over 90 [just!]. It also meant my running average exceeded 80 for the first time. A bonus on the day was the weather. Although overcast, the shooting glasses proved useful, and the wind helped blow the smoke off the range.

 

It also marked the end of my batch of 0.354 lead balls that I obtained from Pedersoli by way of Krank's and G.T. Shooting in Surrey.  The next time I'll be shooting 0.350 lead balls swaged by Hornady. I'll try these with my current 0.010 lubed patches, but may have to go to the 0.015 to get the accuracy back. This means I have to lube-up the 0.015 dry patches I have. Although I'm looking at mixing up a beeswax/tallow/lanolin combination, several members of the Club have recently switched from Wonderlube to a simple soap/water lube. I don't have the exact details but it appears they just use a liquid soap with a small amount of water added. The down side though seems to be that the patches have to be relubed before every shooting session as they dry out fairly quickly.

 

Current stats

 

Detail score: 90.1

Running average: 80.6

Personal best: 90.1

Barrel count: 209

Cards shot 16



Round 9

A late start to the shooting meant that after acting as duty RO for several details, I only managed to complete one detail. As it was near to midday, the sun was directly behind the target making it impossible to use my shooting glasses. This meant using bi-focals and a shooting hat, with the distance part of the lens being used, rather than the intermediate part.

Round 9 - 81 ex 100

Beside two flyers off to the far left, most of the group was slightly low and to the left. The load was changed slightly, with 10.3gns of Krank's fine, 0.354 ball and a 0.010 patch, to see if the group tightened up. No change seen so I'll revert back to 9gns for this ball/patch combination.

The score of 81 did not affect my running average. My shooting stats are as follows:

Stats

Detail scores: 81

Running average: 79.9

Cards shot: 15

Personal best: 88.1

Barrel count: 196

New load

For rounds 9 and 10, I plan to increase the powder load from 9gns of Krank's FFFg to 10gns to see if it tightens up the groups shot. I'll still be using .354 balls with a .010 lubed patch. Once the two cards are shot, I'll start looking at loads based around .350 balls.