I did my first ever PRB shooting yesterday. I believe I have some work to do.
Accuracy was good at 25 yrds ( 2" group ) but poor at 50. One thing I noticed was the patch could only be recovered in burnt pieces. Based on the owners manual, I should be able to recover the complete patch.
I had lubed the patches prior to the range trip with Hornady lube. It comes in a toothpaste type tube. I rubbed it into the patches until they were greasy to the touch. I was shooting:
The balls loaded as I had expected with considerable pressure ( hand strikes ) needed to make it past the first few inches, then a steady push on the rod to seat the bullet.
A couple things you can try. 1. Use Semisane's olive oil patch lube (straight olive oil out of the bottle), 2. try some .010" patches, 3. place a felt wad between the charge and PRB, 4. try increasing your charge to 80 gr.
I suspect your patches are burning up because you either have too little lube on them or the patch/ball combo is too tight. It is definately not because your charge is too hot.
Back in the day when PA was PRB only I used to shoot 100 gr of FFFg, .015" patch (Oxyoke prelubed patches) and .490 RB out of my T/C Hawken. And that combo shot very well for me.
When I lubed my own patches, I would melt some bore butter in a shallow tin (a snack pie tin works great) and dip my patches in it, lay them on wax paper, and when they cooled - scraped off the excess BB with a putty knife.
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What works best for me is ballistol mixed 7:1 with water. Soak the patches and then let dry completely for a few days. I use 90 gr with a .490 ball and a.015 or or a .495 ball and a .010 patch.. Bore butter is a good patch lube I just get better accuracy with the "dry" patch of ballistol. Post some target pictures and we might be able to tell from the targets what might help
What works best for me is ballistol mixed 7:1 with water. Soak the patches and then let dry completely for a few days. I use 90 gr with a .490 ball and a.015 or or a .495 ball and a .010 patch.. Bore butter is a good patch lube I just get better accuracy with the "dry" patch of ballistol. Post some target pictures and we might be able to tell from the targets what might help
Here we are at 25 & 50 with 60 grains. I thought I could tighten it up a bit with more powder.
With 70 of RS things fell apart. There could be some human error here with the open sights but I shot a pretty good group with the maxiballs.
If your patch was being destroyed after shooting, I would be concerned with the patches and the lube. Are these old patches? Were they lubed and then you lubed them again? I would try some different kind of lube.
If you have no other lube around the house, but have clean cotton patches try this... Put the patch in your mouth and get it damp with spit. Load a spit patch with the ball. Also if it starts to throw the balls like it did, try swabbing between shots with pure alcohol. Lightly apply alcohol, swab the bore and then dry patch. If you have doubts about the bore being damp, pop a cap.
Try that and see what happens. Although I have seen some rifles at 50 yard start to spray. You might also want to kick the powder charge up to 85 or 90 grains of powder.
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Try 90 GR. of RS and some CVA slick load patches or make your own with bore butter. Just get them greasy and saturated not too much though. I would start with a clean rifle and mark your range rod with a piece of tape or marking pen when seated properly. I'll bet with a dirty bore it may seem that the ball is on the powder when in fact there is a little space there. That will destroy a patch and accuracy without a doubt.
I shoot my TC's w/ a spit patch most of the time loading w/ 777; for some reason this combo yields much less fouling than borebutter lubed patche. I have had burn- thru issues using old/er patch material before.
One thing I'm curious about is your owners manual-is that available as a PDF somewhere, I'd love to read one.
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Not to "hi-jack" the thread, BUT-
I've only recently become aware that TC has been (re) sold to Remington?
It seems for me my interests are on the wane from a corporate profit perspective (older stuff); in this case I am wondering not only the future of the sidelock but the TC lifetime warranty as well...?
Help needed with the PRB in a TC Hawken 50
