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!

What lead alloy were you using for casting those REALs? Pure lead is the ticket along with a good short starter.

OUCH!

That sounds mc-awful.

Did the ramrod stick you about 1/4 inch towards finger of dead center??? You're not the first to break a ramrod. That is why the first thing I do is get take the wood ramrods and set them off to the side for display only. I then get a Super Rod and use that in the rifle. At least I know the end will not come off and it will not break and stick me.. that really hurts. I bet dumping that 50/50 on it made you dance a little.

At least it sounds like you had a good time with the trade rifle. That's strange that the REALs are too tight. I shoot them and maxiball all the time out of mine. These rifles are a lot more accurate them most people know. Mine is a real good shooter. Did you put the buckhorn rear sight on or leave the standard sight on?

All muzzle loader bullet not shot in a sabot should be pure lead.
Shounds like you might need to try some HPH 24 or some of the chrush rib or superguilde sabots. Lee

I put on the adjustable buckhorn as soon as I got the rifle, and I like it alot. haven't tried out to 100 yds yet but at 50 the roundballs were actually grouping pretty good.

I cast my REALs out of lead ingots Imade fromscrap lead from various places. It's possible that an alloy is in there making them harder.
For my .45 rnfp bullets I add a bit of antimony and tin (from a roll of solder), but with this batch I didn't add anything. Got to find some pure lead obviously.

After reading this and others like it, I ordered an RMC Steel Ram Rod for my FlintLock, just got it Friday and I installed a seating/cleaning jag on it and put it in my FL. Stabbing you in the hand or worse yet in the leg is a really bad thing and if it happened out in the woods, it could be dangerous if you hit an artery. Thanks for posts like this to keep us all safe.
Chap Gleason VA

As much as I like Traditional, my wood ram rods stay at home. The one I broke went dead center into my palm and made a little tent-like effect on the back side of my hand, scared me more than it hurt. I never thought about it going the other way into you leg, good point.

Isn't it illegal or some sort of sin to shoot sabots out of a traditional gun...(I have one that really likes them)... Stay with the round balls, you can shoot all day and not clean the bore, they are cheap and in mine, the most accurate of anything I've tried. I did find that the Buffalo balletts shot pretty good with 90grs of BP but after 3-4 I had to clean. Pure lead and lots of grease is the only way to go as far as conicals go. Have fun..

Doug

Doug, I cast my own RBs and conicals for ML. I also cast 2 different grain bullets for my .45 colt. Figured I'd give em a try in a sabot to see how accurate I could get. You are right though, I sensed a disturbance in the Force when I was loading the sabots.
Patched rounballs are just too much fun to give up, and more accurate than I thought they would be.

mcawful,

LOL...RE: the force..

Yeah, I poo-poo'd roundballs when I first started shooting BP as being too small for deer and not all that accurate, I shot conicals mostly. It's funny but I've been shooting roundball out of Revolvers for many years but I never considered them in rifles-stuborn dutchman I guess. Then I got a flinter with a slow twist bbl and that sure changed my mind. You need to play around with charges,ball sizes and patch thickness, just like our modern friends try different sabots and bullets. I have a Deer Stalker bbl. that is similar to your 1:48 Trade Rifle, With 70grs of 3f BP, a .490 ball and TC prelubed patch my 50 yard 3 shotgroups(from a rest) are often a large hole. If I up the charge it starts to open up, If I go to .495 ball and thinner patch it really goes to heck as the patch shreads. I also have a 1:60/.54 Lyman GPR and it's just the opposite, the hotter I load it the better it is. Nice thing about both of them is that you can run 20 shots through them with no bore cleaning, no change in results, and much less recoil than conicals.

I presently shoot .50/.54/.58&.69 cal roundballs, just shot my first deer with the .58 this year and it went nowhere but straight down.

Edit: Do you shoot BP out of your Colt and what kind is it? Nothing better than stepping up to the line, next to the Glock/Sig/S&W guys, and cutting loose with 5 rounds of BP. Gets rid of the bugs and they generally move down some and that gets rid of the noise...Ha!!

Doug