The Fast Second Shot (Part 2)
Obviously, second shots are occasionally a necessity. And the faster you can load, the better. Now, here are the techniques recommended for fast and sure speed-loading:
Barrel-Bullet Combination.
The surest way to quick, easy and yet accurate loading is to use the right barrel-bullet combination, like the White Muzzleloading System provides. White’s bullets, whether SuperSlug, BuckBuster or Super-Saboted PowerStar, slide down the bore with relatively little resistance, yet stay in the place over the powder without moving. The rifling is engraved into the bullet or sabot with the inertia of the shot, not when you beat it down the barrel.
Taper The Muzzle
If you prefer a round ball, use the tapered muzzle system fostered by the real hunters of yesteryear. This method tapers both the lands and the grooves at the muzzle so that the round ball and patch can be started and rammed with the ramrod alone. Avoid the use of a “slow starter”.
Speedloading Devices
Use one of the speed-loading devices that hold powder and bullet if using conicals and a pre-measured powder container and loading block if using patched ball. The White QuickCharger is the best of the former as it holds the bullet without a lid to complicate getting the bullet out. Better yet, the base of the bullet fits into the muzzle with bullet still in the plastic, and is rammed home directly out of the charger. After ramming the bullet into the muzzle, slide the ramrod up and out, flip the charger away, then finish ramming the bullet home. Once again, arrange the fit of your components so that a “slow starter” is not a necessity.
Pre-measured Powder Charges
With patched ball, use a container for pre-measured powder charges, then ram your pre-lubricated bullet and ball out of the loading black directly into the muzzle. Use a short starter only if you absolutely must. In the end, it’ll slow you down.
Three commonly available cappers. Sling one around your neck and carry another in your saddlebags just in case. Quickness of reload will make a real difference in you hunting success.
Powder Charge
Select a powder charge that will foster a quick second shot. Huge charges of Black powder and Pyrodex gum up the bore more quickly than do moderate charges. Select a powder charge that will not clog up the bore so badly that you can’t get the next bullet down the barrel. Moderate charges are usually more accurate, anyway.
Cappers & Flint-primers
If shooting a percussion rifle, sling an in-line or tear-drop capper around your neck. I like to stick the capper in the left hand packet of my shirt. Take care, though, I once lost one riding a tough western horse through heavy brush and was lucky to have another in my pac. Moral, take two
If shooting a flintlock, sling a priming horn or quick flint-primer around your neck and drop it in the same pocket. Keep your flint trimming tool and an extra flint in the same pocket, too.
Elastic shellholders made for shotshells fit muzzleloading quick-loading devices just fine. Carrying them on the buttstock is convenient, easily remembered and quick
Buttstock Loops
Granted that you are carrying Quick-Chargers or something akin to them, it’s useful and quick to carry them in an elastic 20 gauge shot-shell belt or pouch. The fastest device is one made to fit on the buttstock of the rifle, with elastic loops for 20 gauge shot-shells that fit QuickChargers. They’re awfully handy in that position. You can also carry a few more in a pocket or pouch, just to be sure. QuickChargers also fit the shot-shell loops in hunting clothes.
Ramrod management
Intelligent management of the ramrod will also save a lot of time in the reloading process. Traditionally, ramrods have been tapered, with the bigger ramming end at the muzzle when the ramrod is stored under the barrel. Naturally, you have to pull the ramrod out, reverse it to use it, then again reverse it to get it back into the thimbles under the barrel.
Stop this wasteful motion by using a non-tapered rod with the ramming end in the stock when properly stored under the barrel.
…most important, practice, practice, practice. Practice the movements that produce instinctively quick reloads until they are indeed instinctive…
White produces exactly this sort of rod, with an appropriately sized cleaning jag that doubles for a grasping knob and with bullet pulling screw underneath. Just pull it out of the thimbles, (don’t reverse it), pushthe bullet down, then put it back in place under the barrel. Never turn it around. Simple, and it saves about 5 seconds.
White designed ramrods serve three functions other than just ramming the bullet home. The jag serves as a grasping knob, it also holds patches for quick field cleaning and the screw hidden beneath the jag will pull stuck patches and bullets
Avoid cleaning between shots
Black powder is gummy stuff. It is intensely hygroscopic and sucks water like a sponge. It’s residues can also be gritty and hard, especially in dry climates like the American West. Anything you can do to reduce the interference caused by this variable grittiness will aid in getting the bullet down the barrel faster. Anything, that is, except taking the time to clean the barrel with ramrod and patch.
One of the easier ways through this dilemma is to use Pyrodex, which leaves less residue than common Black Powder. It’s still a problem, but is at least less of a problem, Even easier yet, use one of the new low residue, less-corrosive powders, (like Cleanshot or Clearshot), that should be on the shelf at your local sporting goods store soon. I’ve shot all of these and have even hunted with them. The amount of residue left in the bore is very small. The residues are sort of powdery slick and ease the bullet or sabot down the bore much more easily then with either Black powder or Pyrodex.
Practice Practice Practice
Finally, and most important,
practice, practice, practice. Locate your loading equipment in the pockets or places that you find fastest and then always keep them there. Practice the movements that produce instinctively quick reloads until they are indeed instinctive. You don’t want to have to think about where your equipment is once the pressure is on. There won’t be much time for thinking when Old Ephraim pops his teeth at you.
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Here’s a good example of why you want to be able to reload without having to even think about where your equipment is. We spotted this red bear from 800 yards just at dusk and finished the stalk almost in the dark.
There was barely enough light left for the shot, which produced a giant blast of fire and instant night blindness. Neither I nor my half-indian son-in- law Roger could see the bear, all we could hear was the animal gnashing his teeth. Roger said, “He’s mad”. Despite the dark, the fright and the night blindness, I was still able to reload the .504 M98 Elite Hunter in about 20 seconds, without spilling or dropping anything, principally because my hands and brain instinctively knew from long practice where the powder, bullets and caps were located. Once our vision was recovered, we found the bear dead behind the log he had been standing on when I shot. The photo was taken the next morning.
GOOD HUNTING
DOC