One of the reasons why muzzleloading is so addictive is the challenge. It’s much more complicated than shooting a modern firearm. In addition to all the things that go into the skill of shooting accurately, with muzzleloading you have the patch, powder, ball, cleaning and loading, and many other things that can affect the accuracy of your shot. My tips will be touching on all of these items, but I want to start by saying that whatever you are doing, you must do it exactly the same way every time, consistently.
When you watch the best shooters in a match, you will see that they repeat the same process of cleaning and loading their guns the exact same way every time. You can compare this to many other sports. Golf for example. I hate golf, but I know that one of the keys to success is doing everything right every time. Consistency. Hold the club right. Put your feet in the right spot. Swing the club the right way. And on and on. It’s all in the details and you have to master each skill and do them all right at the same time.
With muzzleloading you have a lot of imperfect items to work with, but your goal is to make every shot just like the previous one. If you assume that you can aim perfectly, pull the trigger perfectly, and the wind, temperature and humidity are all exactly the same for every shot, then that leaves the gun, powder, patch and ball and you as other elements that can impact how consistent the ball hits the target.
Since you as the shooter have the biggest impact on how well you shoot, it’s important to learn the proper way to do each step. You are aiming the gun. You are pulling the trigger. You are loading the gun. As you improve your skills in each area, you must continue to improve your consistency overall. That means to not allow distractions to interfere with your process. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dry balled my gun, but I can tell you every time I was distracted. When I have been at the range by myself, I find that I don’t make the mistakes and overall I almost always shoot better. Learning how not to be distracted while shooting so that you can be consistent in your cleaning, loading and shooting methods is one key to being a successful accurate shooter.
