ORIGINAL: statjunk
Could they theoretically make a muzzle loader that has a tapered chamber just beyond the primer so that you can get to pressures and velocities of centerfire cartridges? I realize the danger there, being that if you did not completely fill the chamber you'd be toast but is it possible? Is there anything out there like that already.
I'm also assuming that if they throw enough metal at the rifle that eventually it would stand up to the pressure. Is that a bad assumption?
Again just curious.
Tom
It just seem impractical to me. It takes a jacketed bullet to stand up of 2800+ fps. In highpowered rifles, the outside dimensions of bullets are of groove diameter. It would be impossible to load such a bullet from the muzzle. So to use a jacketed bullet, one will need a sabot anyway.
The guy who owns mountainmolds.com is hooked on cast bullets for high-powered rifles. Some time ago, I read some of his comments about the accuracy of his 30-06 with the cast bullets. He was "elated" with 3 1/2" groups,
with a scoped rifle. I also noticed that he loaded slower powders andachieved muzzle velocities in the 2400 fps range. This is probably the absolute limit for a cast bullet. Again the bullets are groove diameter (or they would never stabize which they don't do well anyway) and would be impossible to load from the muzzle.
What we achievealready with saboted bullets is remarkable, to say the least. Even so, I would expect that there will be improvements we have yet to see.