Well I had some time today so I loaded up the old 54 Renegade and went out to the farm to pop some holes in targets.

I had to goals in mind, no actually three, it started out two.

1. I wanted to see how many loads of t7-3f I could shoot without patching.
2. I wanted to get the Renegade sighted in with the 250 grain Speer Gold Dot.

I am shooting 80 grains t7-3f with a TC mag express sabot 54/.451

Well I shot 8 rounds without patching although 6-7 & 8 were getting difficult to seat - they went down the barrel alright but I would have to give them a tap at the end to get seated. The 8 shot group was terrible though. At 50 yards, I had at least a 4" group - I was really disappointed. So I patched cleaned and dried the barrel and thought I would fire another 3 shot group, patching between shots as normal,for location... That group was terrible also. I changed sabots to some Harvester - same thing terrible.

Remember I said 3 goals - well this in when the 3rd goal came into play - this barrel was purchased off e-bay and this "well taken care of barrel" as advertised came pitted something terrible. I have cleaned it up over the last couple of years but have always been concerned about it. Well today I confirmed my suspicions - I was just going to have to get a new barrel.

But justfor the heck of it I thought I would shoot a group of 300 grain XTP's - should not have done that - I had convinced myself to buy a new barrel- I should have just stopped right there. When I checked the 3 shoot 300 grain group it was a 1.75" group - open sights and snowing. I am sure it would be better with a good barrel.

OK - conclusion - the 1/48 - 54 cal barrelwill not shoot short 250 grain bullets in sabots accurately, but will shoot the 300 grain as all of my other 1/48's do.

Options
1. Get one of those new GM 50 cal stainless barrels in a fast twist so I can shoot the 250's at deer during our deer season. I would also then cut the barrel down tothe Renegade length and recrown it. I like the shorter barrel for deer hunting (not carbine length).
2. Get a new TC Renegade barrel 54 cal 1/48 twist and quit worring about the old barrel.
3. Do nothing and shoot some of the other sidehammer guns that are sitting around here.

I have six hours to make a decision