Just one man's opinion here, but I have nearly a half century of experience and more importantly I started the hobby with the intent to remove as many variables as possible leading to unreliability and inaccuracy. I experimented endlessly off the bench with every variable, using the same approaches we use to get the most of our centerfire rifles. It would take a small book to summarize my findings, but I'll share a few tips to get you headed in the general direction of hassle free success. Acquire the best rifle you can afford, of commonly found mass production rifles, always consider Pedersoli, TC, and Lyman as the best. Sure others are fine, and will do the job, but if you do lose interest they hold good resale. Next, for now, I would forget about conicals, go with patched roundball, so thusly do not buy a rifle with any twist faster than 1 in 48"...1 in 60 or 70 is best. Do not attempt to use any black powder substitute. Black...period. Patches, 100% cotton. Roundball, just go with pure lead to start. Now, this is important: the fit of the lubed (more on that) patched ball going downbore is critical, it will be the single most important factor in accuracy. The patched ball needs to fit the bore as snug as possible, without requiring undue damage to the soft lead ball in starting and seating. You will see men smacking a short starter like a karate chop, then bouncing the rod down on the ball to jam it downbore. Deforming the ball and damaging the patch. When you have balanced ball diameter with patch thickness correctly, you should be able to start the patched ball with a 'thumbstart' or at the most a gentle whack with the flat of a knife, then the rod should be able to seat the patched ball in a long smooth push roughly in the neighborhood of 15 to 30 pounds. Lube..the most contentious subject, but reality is, anything but petroleum based products will work, unsalted animal fats are the most compatible and my personal favorite. A few store bought lubes are animal or veg based, SPG and Froglube come to mind. Cleaning is contentious, but almost everything works as long as it is water based, stuff like Simple Green works ok, but so does dishwater. Preserve lightly with animal lubes, again, no petroleum ever. As you proceed feel free to pm me if needed.


Well this is a fine pickle we're in, should'a listened to Joe McCarthy and George Orwell I guess.