She's here!

she goes bang every time!

Good to hear, that is what we want. Sucks that you have to drive so far to shoot her, but I am glad the musket works well. Glad too that you have worked out a patched ball combo, there is a method for determining a "best accuracy" load for your gun.

Knowing that you will be shooting a patched .690 ball, stick with it. All you need do now is determine what powder charge gives the best accuracy at a known distance (try 50 yards at first) and that involves shooting five shot strings from a rest beginning with a lower powder charge than you expect to end up with. What you do then is to shoot for grouping until you find the charge that gives you the smallest group at that known range. You can then move the target out further and shoot for grouping at that range once again.

• Choose a charge lower than usual, I do not know what that might be for your musket.

• Shoot five shots off a bench rest.

• Raise the charge by five grains and shoot another five shots.

• Did the group tighten, or spread more? If it is smaller then raise the charge another five grains, shoot once more to see if the resulting groups are tighter still. In this way you will discover what powder charge shoots the tightest groups with that particular patched ball combination.

This is a fun process and you gain confidence knowing at what range your musket shoots its best.

cheers