it is interesting at how a short distance you test your guns in the USA by gunwriters, in general, for accuracy.
in my opinion, shooting at 10 o 12 yards wont tell you anything serious at all about real accuracy. Shooting fast, IPSC or cowboy actio shooting, will tell you very little also, and shooting at steel plates even less.
try several guns at 25 meters, standing, of course, hand held, and you will see the big difference between guns and loads that are really accurate.
these two pictures show that 25 meters, can tell you many many things about you gun and loads...
at 10 meters, the gun was shooting practically the same with the first load, 23 grains plus filling (not a wad) and grease...and with the second, 23 grains and no filling, just ball over powder, plus grease. Exactly the same.
however, the big differences came later, when we took the gun to 25 meters, hand held of course, and these differences between both loads began to show clearly.....the one with filling was more accurate, and reduced the opening in elevation...sligthly increasing them in windage..
see below
first load......23 grains 4F (yes, 4FFF, no 3FFF) plus filling, ball, and grease at 25 meters , one hand, standing
the second load (only holes in red, other holes were shot with another revovler) showed that no filling between ball and charge increased elevation differences, but reduced sligthly windage differences.
second load....23 grains 4FFF, no filling, ball and grease at 25 meters, one hand held, standing
in short, I am fully convinced that shooting " gun writer style" , at 7/10/12 yards, and shooting at plates, wont tell you about the real accuracy potential of your loads. Shooting at 25 meters, international competition style, will help you to improve not only your loads, but your mistakes in hand held shooting, and the possible faults of you, your gun´s trigger and grip.
the gun was slighty modified...it is an UBERTI Griswold & Gunnison in 454 caliber, the trigger was modified by myself with a trigger stop, a new trigger made my hand, and I installed a taller front sight.
anyone with medium skills and some tools can fine tune any SAA. It is not high engeenering, just some good knowledge of your gun is needed..though gunsmiths, of course..will tell you something different
, and charge you hundreds of dollars for something, that with time, you can do yourself...
In my case, i didnt replace the hammer spring for a more comfortable cock, as it is a detriment to serious accuracy. It will make the hammer fall slower...good for CAS, but not good for tough accuracy matches, the ones I really enjoy.
all the best