The Gemmer Club has 65+ members and was started in the 1940s. Many of the members have 30 years or more of muzzleloading experience. I still feel like a newbie, but I’ve been a member now for 5-6 years and have learned so much from the other club members. I have chatted with many people that are new to muzzleloading that do not have a club anywhere near them. So it is for these people that I am going to collect tips and tricks that I’ve learned during my muzzleloading journey. Hopefully you too will learn something new.
I’d like to start by saying that this sport is a lot like an art form. There isn’t always a right or wrong way to do things, but whatever works best for you, as long as it’s safe. People that choose this sport do so for a variety of reasons, including, longer hunting seasons, accurate target shooting, or the historical aspects of muzzleloading, including re-enactments. For me it was a little of all three, although the accurate target shooting is my primary interest.
The tips and tricks that I’ll be sharing are related to how to improve the accuracy of your shooting. All of these have been shared with me and I just want to pass them on to others that love this sport. If you search the internet you are bound to find these and many more. Over time I hope to gather as many valuable tips as I can find into one spot so that they can be shared.
Some tips may be very short and simple, with no video required to explain them. Others are more complex and I will add a short video that demonstrates the tip in addition to the written explanation. This project will take me some time to complete, and I would appreciate any positive feedback that you have to offer, especially additional tips that I haven’t covered.
Hope you enjoy these tips and tricks! If you learn something, that’s great. Also, please share what you know with others.
Here are the tips that I will be addressing in the weeks to come:
- Consistency
- Clean Barrel Between Shots, or Not
- Fowling Shot before Starting a Match
- Marking the Ram Rod
- Removing Cleaning Oil from Nipple, Drum and Barrel before Shooting
- Measuring the Powder
- Pouring the Powder down the Barrel
- Strips vs Round Pre Cut Patches
- Black Powder Sizes – 1F, 2F, 3F, 4F
- Patch Lube
- Loading the Ball and Patch Down the Barrel
- Cleaning the Breech
- Best Cleaning Solution
- Setting your Sights
- Selecting the Right Lead Balls
- Reading Your Patches
- Storing Your Muzzleloader
Much of the information that I am sharing cane from this article:
Developing an Accurate Load for a Black Powder Rifle
I highly recommend reading it from time to time. Each time I read it I find another gold nugget of information.
