Yet more practise with the Mortimer. Using the same setup as before:
Set-up used
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Mortimer pistol in .36
0.015 patch [from JT Tanner]
6:1 olive oil:tallow lube [homemade - recipe 14]
0.350 lead balls [from Hornady]
10 grains Swiss Number 1 [from Starley]
Number 11 percussion caps [from Remington]
The result was a reasonable group, slightly to the right, but with none in the 10-ring.
83.0 ex 100
Ran in to several problems with loading. Found that the swab between shots was not clearing the soot properly; the short starter was difficult on several reloads, also the ball was not always seating fully home every time.
I am not happy with this, so will look at practising with other lubes, probably recipe "03" the Ballistol:water 1:1 mix which I noted "seems to work well, expensive though".
Stats
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Detail score: 83.0
Running average: 80.33
Barrel count: 431
Cards: 33
The first card of the session was an 82.0 with no 'V' bulls. Using 10gns of Swiss No.1 with a .350 Hornady ball on top of a 0.015 patch lightly lubed with Olive Oil:Tallow 6:1. I threw a couple of flyers, but managed a fairly good group about 2" to the right.
 |
| 82.0 |
The patches came and dirty and the balls were easy to load. Although I had problems with this lube 'splattering' last time, I kept the tin with the unused patches from last time, and just added another 50 or so patches to soak up the excess lube. This made all the difference. DO NOT OVERLUBE YOUR PATCHES!
For the second card I swapped over to 0.012 patches lubed with Water:Aqueous Creme 4:1. The patches and ball loaded a lot easier, although the patches were for a larger calibre (.45), so the excess patch around the edges did make it harder to use the short starter (the excess had to be tucked in). The result was a 77.0
 |
| 77.0 |
The down side is that the group has opened up quite dramatically. The combination in future will be .350 ball and 0.015 patch. The only question to be decided upon is the lube to be used.
Stats
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Running average: 80.15
Barrel Count: 418
Cards: 32
83.0 ex 100
