RyanMiller

I am considering buying an additional 54 cal 1 in 38" twist barrel for my TC Scout Carbine. I have a 50 Cal now.

Is this rate of twist better for a conical bullet or a ball? I live in Colorado and we can not hunt with sabots.

Thoughts??

cayugad

It would probably shoot both but with the roundball you could not push it too hard. I would suggest a nice maxiball with a wad under it. That twist should produce some excellent accuracy. I bought a .50 caliber CVA Stalker Carbine with a 1-32 twist and it has been a most pleasant surprise with 80 grains of Goex a wad and a maxiball. It is a real shooter. I have not seen how hard I can push them because 80 grains and a maxiball would be all that the rifle would need for me....

Hunter John

RM - I've had a TC Firehawk in 50 cal for the longest time. It also has a 1:38 twist. Similar to Cayugad's experiences with this twist, I can shoot conicals all day long with it...pushing them with either 80 or 90 grs of Pyrodex. Off sandbags or a bipod, I can put 3 maxiballs on a playing card at 50 yards using just the fiber optic sights I later added to the rifle as an update.

I've tried a PRB and saboted pistol bullets with moderate success. Yeah, I can produce a decent group with the saboted bullets, but this is where my Encore (1:28 twist) really shines. With the patched RB, I use about 75 grs of Pyrodex and can probably shoot about a 2-3 inch group. Ok for plinking, small graming, or cheap practice, but not gonna break any accuracy records with that load.

In summary, if you purchase the 54 Scout barrel with the 1:38 twist, I would be very surprised if you couldn't find a conical that shoots well out of it. My Firehawk absolutely loves the Hornady Great Plains conical too.

Also, if you do buy it, check out Gun Broker.com. There's a guy selling 54 cal maxi conicals for $38 for 200 (shipping included). Nice and soft lead. I bought the 50 cal maxis and couldn't be happier.

Hunter John

RM - I see that Midsouth Shooting Supplies is offering the 54 cal Scout Carbine for $78. Man, what a deal!! Wish I would have bought the System 1 before it was discontinued.

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.co...?sku=000316745

cayugad

looking at the picture on Auction # 48370632 I'm wondering if those are maxiball or REAL conicals. They sure look more like a REAL to me... but I could be wrong. Nope.. they are maxi hunters...

Tahquamenon

Really the 1:38 is supreme with a conical. As mentioned you can get 1:38 to shoot other projectiles well.

If with a saboted round, make sure you shoot a projectile that is shorter in length. Longer bullets will tumble and keyhole down range easier.

I'm a huge fan of the Hornady Great Plains conical. I typically get excellent accuracy and they are lethal.

I also use a wad over the powder with a conical and more often than not find better accuracy and less leading and fouling.

BTW that is an excellent price from midshouth on a 54 cal carbine scout barrel!

I just ordered one.



Tahquamenon

Hunter John

Cayugad - Yeah, I recall the guy on GunBroker only advertising the maxi hunter (or maybe it was the maxi ball), but he offered Both in Both 50 and 54 cal for the same price...$38.

I was unsure if I wanted 200 maxi hunters or maxi balls and after exchanging a few emails, the fellow was nice enough to send me a sample of 7 or 8 or each FREE OF CHARGE. Doesn't get any better than that. I think it cost the guy a couple of bucks to send them to me. Keep in mind that these are unlubed.

After heading to the range and test firing, the maxi balls proved themselves to be far more accurate out of my Firehawk.

See, a little investment in customer service and now this guy might get some extra business off this forum. Buffalo Bill Shooting Store, there's a lesson here...

RyanMiller

Midsouth Shooting Supplies has the barrel I am thinking of getting. Thanks for the comments on twist. It sounds like this would be a great barrel for conicals without a sabot.

RyanMiller

One last question...

Is it accurate to say that the faster the rate of twist the better the barrel is for conical bullets and the slower the rate the better it is for balls?


What is the cut point for switching between the two?

Hunter John

In my experience, here's what I've found. The slower twists (1:48 in a Renegade I used to own) are best for PRB. Others here claim that if you use something like 1:66 or 1:70, you can really load a stiff charge with a PRB and not risk the patch skipping the rifling...leading to poor accuracy. However, you can use a PRB in a faster twist, but you just can't load 'em that stiff. Maybe 70 or 60 grs tops.

In my 1:28 Encore, I've had a modest degree of success using conicals with a 28 ga pink claybust shotgun wad with the petals cut off. However, my 1:38 Firehawk puts the Encore completely to shame when it comes to using conicals. The reverse can be said about my Encore's ability to shoot a sabot; it's awesome.

Now don't get me wrong, some people have had terrific success in shooting conicals out of fast twist barrels. Take the White rifle that's been discussed at length here. It's a fast twist rifle and it has worked wonderfully for many folks in shooting conicals...even sabots for that matter. The White rifle, though, has a much larger diameter those most other 50 cal rifles...in fact in may have the largest diameter of any 50 cal rifle.

I suspect that the rate of twist in any ML is as important as its bore size. Since there are no firm standards in the ML industry for bore size as there are for centerfire calibers, it's almost impossible to make blanket statements about this twist being better than that twist for shooting really anything. You just have to try it and go with what works for most people, because there's nothing that works for everyone.

However, based upon my reading the forum for about the last year or so, I would say that if you know you're gonna be shooting PRBs, get a 1:48, 1:66, 1:70 or something in that range so you can push those babies.

Geez, hope I didn't confuse you ...almost confused myself

Hopefully, Cayugad, Roundball, Sabotloader, or some of the really experienced folks with gun safes full of toys will chime in here. Te