I took off work late this morining to go shoot my Lyman .54 flinter again. Even though it was extremely windy I wanted to do some more experimenting now that I had the RMC touch hole liners. I knew what the load was for this rifle from the first outing so I just set up the target(s) at 50 yds and started. All balls were patched with .018" pillow tick with bore butter lube. I still haven't gotten the #57 sight yet so I knew the POI would be low and I wasn't concerned.
The first target was using Hornady .530 RB and 100 gr of FFg which gave me a 1.64" C-C group.
Next were my own cast .530" RB and 100 gr of FFg for a 1.87: C-
C group. I was happy there was really no noticable difference between the store bought and my bullets.
The 3rd target was shot with the same load as #2 but with an over powder wad. Results were a 1.4" C-C group. Better but not by much.
The 4th target I boosted up the charge to 110 gr of FFg, using my cast ball and an over powder wad. The group seemed to open up slightly.
This rifle, even with the RMC liner, needs to have the pan pretty full for it to set off the main charge. So it is a powder pig both down the bore and in the pan.
The last target was shot from my Lyman Plains Pistol .54 caplock at 25 yds which put the 3 balls in a 1.25" group right where the top of the front sight was. The load here was 50 gr of FFg. If I get a deer within 30 yds I am going to use this pistol on it.