I was doing some some research on my late brother who was a Vice Admiral and who went by the same name as I, and stumbled across a lot of posts on The American Long Rifle Forum regarding my efforts. They were not uncomplimentary but a tad short sighted. They all objected that I was interested in teaching bench shooting. If that’s your interest perhaps I’m your man, but bench shooting will show you how well your rifle shoots.
When you buy a modern rifle it will shoot as well as it will ever shoot right out of the box with the ammunition you are using. Not so the muzzleloader. Out of the box or off the table, with no instructions, using a guessed at powder charge and a grabbed at piece of cotton cloth, your new to you rifle will not give you a group worth talking about. Daniel Boone and David Crocket couldn’t shoot any better than that rifle is doing out of the box. You should, and I try to help folks make the adjustments in powder, patch thickness and lubrication to bring that bench rest group a group tight enough to bring a smile to your face. That’s a number of step ones.
THEN, WHEN THE RIFLE HAS DISPLAYED GOOD BEHAVIOR, YOU BOLDLY STEP UP, PUT ASIDE YOUR BENCH REST EQUIPMENT AND STAND TO TRY YOUR LUCK OR SKILLS SHOOTING OFFHAND.
You will not shoot anywhere near as well as you did toward the end of you bench rest tuning. Why? Because you have taken a perfectly accurate rifle and added your personal weaving and possible shaking into the procedure. How embarrassing.
Now it is time to work on your stance. You are the gun emplacement and that front sight has taken on a life of its own. Whizzing from left to right and back with maybe a shift of up and down thrown in for punishment. Slowly you learn how to control some or even a lot of that and your offhand groups begin to narrow. Don’t hold too long, it will only get worse etc. In time you may begin to win prizes and become regarded as a pain in the lower lumbar areas by others at competitions.
But you will never do well with a rifle that has never been tamed to acceptable behavior shooting at the bench unaffected by an argument with your bride or the results of a hangover. If you never do well offhand you can always go back to bench. There is something rather grand about the rifleman who loads aims and fires and hits rather exactly where he aimed.