JLouis wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2023 at 8:49pm:


There ya go John, you steered um back on topic. It won't last long though, lol 

Jeff was way off topic. 

Joe when it comes to jacketed benchrest matches I do believe that Jeff was right. 
Our Club the Modesto Rifle Club held their first ones I believe it was in 1947 or even possibly even sooner than.

In The Breech-Loading Single-Shot Rifle, Ned Roberts on pg. 330 writes "The first perfect score of 10 consecutive shots with the breech-loading rifle at 200 yards rest on the Standard American target (on which the 12 ring is but 1.41 inches in diameter) was made by H.L. Willard on the Walnut Hill range in June 1895.  He also made the second and third similar perfect scores on the same target a few weeks later.  The first woman to make a 10 shot possible on this target at 200 yards rest was Mrs. E.E. Patridge, who made this score at the Walnut Hill range on June 22, 1895.   
     I am not certain if black powder was used making these scores as Dupont No. 1 Rifle Smokeless came out in 1894.  Not sure if a du-plex load of black & smokeless was used as well.

I read a bit further on this early smokeless and Ned has this to say :   
"Extensive tests of Dupont No. 1 smokeless powder by expert rifleman proved that, even though it burned very clean,it did not give as fine acuracy in Schuetzen rifles at 200 yards rest as black powder with the bore cleaned after each shot.  However, some rifleman- no one knows who- discovered that loading about 8 grains bulk of Du Pont No. 1 Rifle smokeless powder in the bottom of the shell as a priming charge, and filling the rest of the shell with black powder with a cardboard or blotting paper wad over it, resulted in fine accuracy with a breech-seated or muzzle-loaded bullet, without wiping the bore after each shot, as was obtained with black powder and wiping the bore."

Mick,

I would do a search in the old Forrest And Stream  articles here starting on page (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) There are several articles of what your wanting to know. If you don't find it, there is a lot of good interesting reading to keep you out of the cold in the winter.
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Just do a search in the old National Archives in the Library of Congress and you might find it.

This book has a lot of good things in it. Granted the square bullseye is 36" but if you look at the groups they did some fine shooting. I don't know what the round were.

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Kurt

In regard to the OP's question, two books come to mind, both by Ned Roberts: "The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle," and "The Breech-Loading Single Shot Rifle." My copies aren't handy just now.

Whether or not the following materially contributes to this discussion; here goes:

From Gerald O. Kelver’s book, Ned Roberts and the Schuetzen Rifle (Mentone, IN: Country Print Shop, 1951); a general summary of Roberts’ findings, was that a high level of accuracy was 1.5 minutes of angle (MOA) at 100 yards and 1.75 MOA at 200 yards. This level of accuracy was obtained when fired from a bench rest or machine rest with either scope or tang peep and globe front sights. Typically his groups were 10 shots and the extreme spread of the groups were measured from the centers of the bullet holes. When a rifle would reliably shoot 10 shots into groups of 1 ½ inches at 100 yards or 3 to 3 ½ inches at 200 yards, he wrote of those results as excellent accuracy. Roberts does detail occasional accuracy of 1 inch groups at 100 yards (1 MOA) but those were exceptions, not the rule.

The above summation is from my book: The Golden Age of the American Schuetzenfest. Ned Roberts accuracy tests were done in the 1920-1940 time period, mostly with Schuetzen rifles of the 1890-1915 era and cast lead, lubricated bullets.

I think at the time Pope made those guarantees of accuracy he was testing barrels with smokeless powders, and grease groove bullets. Not the BP/paper patch the post is asking about.