Nothing tried, nothing gained.

I got out to the range today to test a few loads and see if a modification I'd made to my cheek pad would work.  My cheek pad was giving me all the same fits it gives to anyone who buys it.  The stock is tapered slightly, so recoil makes it eventually slide down (forward) on the stock.  I punched a couple of holes and laced it back against the butt of the stock.  The knotting isn't a problem as I'm using a rubber pad, but if I ever change from that it will probably be a problem.  Here's a shot with the pad removed.

It seems quite functional.  It took a while to stretch all the laces so they were nice and tight, but in 110 rounds it didn't move a bit.  Before the added lacing it would shoot free in 20 rounds or so.  The high comb does a nice job of keeping my head high and steady.  I'd have trouble claiming my groups actually got smaller as a result, it just felt more firm.

The main test was of a bit of gunsmithing.  I went and had my muzzle recrowned.  There was a noticeable amount of wear from over a century of cleaning rods and it looked like somebody had tapped it on something in the past, leaving a little dent.  The recrown just takes a light skim off the muzzle, keeps the same shape, and freshens up the interface of the crown and the exiting rifling.  It looks all shiny and new right now, but I'm sure after a few shoots and some time it will "patina in" to be unnoticeable.

Sorry about the "sniper through a bed sheet" look, but I had to use a close backdrop to trick my cheap camera into focusing on the tip.  So, how did it work?!!!  Absolutely no different than before.  Money wasted.  Nothing tried, nothing gained.
Another thing I did today was shoot a new sabot load.  I think I've finally pushed this as far as it is going to go and declare it a failure.  Wanting a bit more weight,  I replaced the .40 caliber pistol bullets with smooth sided .399 "paper patch" bullets in the same sabot, like so:

I used 55 grains of ffg black powder.  With a bit of compression this put the crimp just forward of the sabot.

Not only were the shots all over the place, the residue in the barrel included layers of plastic in odd little snakeskins.  I'm guessing that in a muzzle loader it isn't a problem because it is already seated in the grooves, while my loads have to transition at the throat and get torn into.  Anyway, nothing tried, nothing gained.

Current $ per shot :$3.91
Current percentage of cost that's shipping: 10.4%