So you are disappointed because you can't cloverleaf at 100 yards, or MOA at 100 yards.
First thing you must learn about, is *why* a projectile is accurate, inaccurate, stumbles, or just plain worthless.
They shot for years with smooth bores, yet they were accurate. Then rifling was introduced. Accuracy was greatly improved.
A smooth bore was like throwing a knuckle ball. No rotation, random movement through the air, and consistency did not exist. But for shorter yardage, it was a killer of game. It was able to accomplish what a woodsman wanted to accomplish at that era of time.
Rifling was introduced.
Rifling in muzzleloaders worked out very well, and in time, through patience of experimenting, we were able to find out that different varying of rifling twist would cause different grades of accuracy.
We found out that a conical was much more accurate out of a higher twist rifling than a (P)atched (R)ound (B)all (PRB). But, at the same time, the inventor of the Minie Ball was fighting against the PRB diehards that used very little twist in the rifling. ( We are going to skip all the history here, and keep it to why the rifling is a 1:48 twist.)
Through trial and error, we found out that the standard 1:48 twist was just fast enough to keep a conical from tumbling, yet slow enough to keep a PRB pretty much in line. The guns with a 1:48 twist is a compromise for people like you and I, who want to be able to pick and choose the projectile we stuff down that barrel.
This also creates a problem. The 1:48 twist is NOT the most accurate twist for our play toys. It is a compromise of accuracy vs ammo.
All of your good PRB will have at LEAST a 1:66 twist or slower. This slow twist is worthless with conicals. All of your good Conical guns will have a minimum of 1:28 twist or faster. This faster twist stabilizes and increases accuracy of the conicals. . .to the point of MOA when properly loaded.
So, what do you do with a 1:44 or 1:4X twist?
You LEARN to load your gun properly, coming up with the BEST load for BEST accuracy. If your projectile is a Ball, you want your projectile to leave the barrel a little slower than a Conical. This is controlled by your power measure.
I will say this in as few words as possible. No barrel is exactly alike, no barrel will shoot exactly the same. That means each gun will have to be treated as a new gun to be broken in. Lets learn how to do it.
1. You must get rid of ALL variables, and try to keep them constant.
2. In order to do so, loading and shooting the gun MUST be the same every time.
3. A perfectly clean barrel will shoot differently than a barrel that has already been shot once.
Here is a routine to follow:
1. Dirty up your barrel with a pre-charge of powder. That means fire off about 20 or 30 grains of powder without a conical.
2. Some people use spit, some use #13, some use dry patches, some use butter bore, some don't use anything, but run a patch down the barrel once or twice with the above. (It will look black, but that is OK)
3. Load up 70 grains of powder, load up your PRB or conical, and fire.
4. Go to step #2 and repeat. (Do this until you have fired 3 times.
Go to your target, mark it as 70Grn, PRB (or 250 grain conical), (or whatever you used as a projectile). Pin up another target and go back to step one and repeat with with 80 grains of powder. Repeat again with 90 grains of powder, Repeat again with 100 grains of powder.
When you are done, you will have 4 targets. . One of those targets will have the tightest group. That is your starting load. One of the other targets will have the next to the tightest group. If your tightest group is 80 grains, and your next to the tightest group is 90, then try 85 grains of powder, and see if that tightens the group even more.
When you are done, you will have a "Load" that is accurate for your rifle, as LONG as you use the same projectile. When you change projectiles, you are changing another variable. You will have to redo this entire process over again to get your best accurate load for that projectile.
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