Howdy all,
Yep, I'm that fella that didn't take all the good advice from experienced smokepole shooters.
Finally got to the range on thursday to shoot my new Trade Rifle.
Shot some patched ball, REAL bullets and a few sabots with my own cast bullets inside (.452, 255 grain rnfp).
The patched balls were a blast to shoot, I started with 70, up to 80, then 90 gr pyrodex rs. Seemed like the 90 was the most accurate.
The black Hornady sabots I have are too tight with my homecasts, even when sized to exactly .452. I'm picking up some cheapshots and going back out next week to try those.
The REAL bullets (.320 gr)were almost impossible to force down the bore, so hard in fact (here's the part where I didn't heed advice from others) thatI was putting so much pressure on the rod that I snapped it and ended up with a real nice puncture wound in my palm.
After dousing my hand with the 50/50 solution (yep, that hurt)and spending a considerable amount of time picking wood out of my hand, I wrapped my hand in duct tape from my truck and trudged up to the range store and bought 2 of the CVA unbreakable rods. $7 each. We shot for about 2 more hours and I have to say, shooting that Trade Rifle was the most fun I've had at the range in years! I'm trying to find a way to get back there every other day or so.
I'm Hooked!