Hello all,
I've been shooting my .44 WCF 1873 Uberti rifle all summer with the same exact load: 43-210B bullet, 36gr of Swiss 2F black powder, CCI #300 primers and Starline brass. This is the load I started with, and from the beginning it had produced ~1" five-shot groups at 50 yards. For reference, I have replaced the standard buckhorn sights with a Marbles tang sight and a small bead front sight. By all standards, it's a beautiful rifle with a great shooting set up!
Anyways, with deer season starting this coming Monday in Pennsylvania, I decided to take my rifle out and make sure that she was still shooting true. Well, she certainly was not. My previous 1" groups were now 5" groups at 50 yards with the same loads I had been using from the beginning. I tried another five shots the following day, and turned up another 5" group. This is NOT acceptable for that distance, and now I am a mere two days away from the opening day of deer season! Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?
I clean my rifle very well after each shooting session, and as a result the bore has no pitting from rust. The sights are solid with no play on either of them, and the bullets are sized .001 over bore dimension. There was no wind on the day that I was shooting. After the last 5" group, I decided to buy some bore cleaning compounds to try and remove any lead that might have been in my bore. Patches come out grey (after cleaning out all BP fouling), but I haven't removed any shards of lead.
I am at a loss here and am desperate for any solutions. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this sudden, severe drop in accuracy? Thanks!