How many times have you said, or heard, "the load doesn't matter, I'm only shooting offhand.

The target should show what happens with shooting offhand with a so/so load and shooting offhand with a fairly accurate load.

All shooting was done at 50 yards, off a sandbag, flintlock rifle held in the hands, no rear bag and open iron sights. the rifle was not wiped once during the shooting - which lasted all day long, These targets were shot at the end of a day of load testing, again, no bore wiping at any time. I do my loading with the rifle's 3/8" hickory rod most of the time, but will from time to time, use the longer, handled cleaning rod for loading. That saves having to remove and replace the rifle's rod.

The centre target and the top left were shot with the same load, and the top right, and bottom right were shot with the same load. There were 6 shots fired on the top left target, while all the rest have 5 only.

Note how open the poorer bench load shot, when shot standing. Error is multiplied, which is the fact most often disregarded.

This thread should be about working up an accurate load and how to go about it. Plese feel free to comment or ask questions, post targets, etc. I shoot cloth patched round balls, which is also what I hunt with, when hunting with a muzzleloader and this is what this thread is about.