Thompson Center Modern Flintlock

[Iowabucks44]

Hey everyone, my son has a friend that just bought a TC Firestorm. I myself don't know much about flintlocks in general.

As i was looking at the TC website it says the Firestorm has a 1 in 48" twist for use with roundballs and conicals. It can however use up to 150gr of Pyrodex. With this slow twist would it shoot sabots accurately, or is the 1 in 48" twist going to hamper your bullet type options? We were hoping to go with sabots, but not sure if they would work well with this twist rate.

http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/mzModernFlint.php

[cayugad]

The T/C Firestorm is a great rifle according to all the people I have talked to that own them. They can shoot pellets even, but in order to get a good fast ignition you should duplex the load with a little black powder. Personally use only loose black powder and you will be set. It will fire fast and be very consistent.

Just because the rifle has a 1-48 twist is no indication it will not shoot sabots. You would have to try them. I would suggest a .452 diameter in a 250 class. I say this because my Hawkins with the same twist will shoot the 250 grain XTP just fine with 80-90 grains of Goex 2f (its a flintlock also).

As for the 150 grain charge.. don't get real excited about that. A lot of "magnum" rifles do not shoot well with "magnum" charges. Start at about 80 grains and work up from there. Even 90 grains of powder is a good powerful load.

You will find it shoots roundball, maxi ball, and even powerbelts well. Also from what my friend tells me, with 3f in the pan it has a real fast ignition. My Hawkins with 3f or 4f also is very fast in the ignition department.

[lemoyne]

My 1 in 48 twist rifles shoot best with the shorter bullets the 200 gr and the 230 gr work reasonably well out to 100 yds I have not shot much farther with the traditionals.

[bronko22000]

I agree with both posts. The 150 gr charge is not necessary. As for shooting saboted bullets the only way to see what works in your particular ML is trial and error. I would suggest that you select one or two bullet/sabot combos (like maybe a 250 gr and a 300 gr.) and start shooting 80, 90 and 100 gr charges to see where you get the best accurracy. Then, if the 250s shoot better, try a different combo in the same weight class. Basically what you are trying to do is find the best bullet/sabot/chrarge combination for your particular muzzy. This can get to be challenging and costly if you are after the best your ML can do. But, if you're willing to say that a 6" group is OK at 50 yds that is up to you. But then you are limiting your range to that distance and not squeezing out every bit of accuracy out of your ML which is what I believe your intent of this post is.