Long range target shooting with the muzzle loading rifle offers the discerning rifleman opportunity to participate in a challenging and ultimately very rewarding discipline. The sport is rich in heritage and the origins of many of todays national shooting associations stem from the muzzle loading era.
The following articles credited to Bill Roberts are reprinted (with permission) from “Long Range Black Powder Shooting” – William A. Roberts, Jr. Muzzle Blasts, USA, November 1999, December 1999, January 2000.
Further reading:
Percussion caps and nipples for the long range muzzle loader. Plus, a brief note on the importance of record keeping, consistent support position and butt plate position.
First, some changes in your lead bullet casting technique may be required when casting the long, heavy .40 or .45 caliber bullets as compared to casting round balls. You may need a larger capacity lead pot, and the temperature of the lead may need to be higher. You must hold the lead dipper to the sprue plate for a longer time to assure all air is vented from the mould and the mould is filled. To obtain good castings, the mould and lead must be maintained at a uniform temperature.
The Pedersoli Gibbs long range percussion rifle is a replica of the original 1865 target rifle made by the English gunsmith, George Gibbs. His rifles competed against other custom built target rifles of the era and in the right hands it proved capable of beating the costly custom built target rifles of that time. Today, the Pedersoli Gibbs rifle has proven to be the most successful rifle of it’s type and has won most of the Gold medals in international and domestic (US) shooting matches for this type of rifle.
It is perfectly possible to clean a muzzle loading Enfield type of rifle thoroughly without ever taking the barrel out of the wood. Do this and you will always have the same point of impact with the same load.
The long range muzzle loading rifle is a specialty of its own and has components that are not found on any other type of muzzle loader. The most important of these is the breech plug.
When you first remove the barrel from the stock, what appears to be step one is to unscrew the tang/”breech plug” from the bolster. If you do that one then sees a recessed “plug” flat on two sides. We first tried to remove that with no success. I then ordered a parts diagram from Eurorarms – which showed the tang/breech plug, the bolster and the barrel. It did not show the threaded center that actually holds the bolster onto the barrel and into which the tang is screwed. This is the piece that actually has the chamber cut into it on one end and is solid on the other. We'll call it the "chamber".