HuntAway

,,,,,although I don't blame the barrel. I put mine on a Lyman Deerstalker and set up a box at 50 yds. The load is on the target without any adjustments but the grouping is something to be desired. I chalk that up to; (1). I had a poor rest and was basically hanging on to half of my shooting sticks because the snow is too deep to properly set up with them. (2). The saboted 250 gr'ers were very easy to load, even with a dirty barrel.

A few things I noticed. With 90 grs 3f Goex, the barrel shot very clean with little fouling. I also noticed quite a bit of powder stain (sprinkle??) about ten yds from the muzzle. Is this a sign of too much powder or is this burnt residue landing out there? Or maybe it was due to a loose fitting sabot?

Point of Aim is the bottom dot 95% covered with the front sight.



I look forward to getting out with my bench (6' folding table) latter on when the snow is gone. I'm confident this barrel and me for that mattercan do better. If it's anything like my Omega it will like the longer projectiles.


edit: right handed flintlock shot left handed.

cayugad

There is nothing worse then trying to shoot off a set of shooting sticks when they are not solid.. Nice shooting there... that's a dead deer in my book.

My rifle likes the 300 grain .430 Hornady XTP with a crushed rib sabot. I shoot 90 grains ofpowder as well, and noticed that there is burned powder all over the snow about seven feet in front of the barrel end. Also burned powder to the side if your shooting a flintlock..

Another good bullet with 70 grains of powder are the 375 grain Buffalo Bullet SSB.

Hang in there, this snow will melt some day...

sabotloader

cayugad

Ya right! I have been saying that for 3 weeks now... and then it snowed again Friday night - not much but it sure didn't help...

Mossie

I have an RMC flinter that I have two barrels for. They are Green Mountain .50 cal. 1:28 twist in 24" and 28" lengths. They are the same barrel that you have. With my 24" barrel the groups start to open up after 80 grains of Goex 3f. The barrel really likes the Barnes Spit-fire 245 grainers, 385 Hornady Great Plains and Hornady xtp's in both .452 300 and 250 grains. I use mmp short black sabots for the Hornadys and the supplied yellow sabot with the Barnes. The Barnes are so accurate that the bullets all touch inside a 1" square at 50 yards. It will group well with 90 grains too but the groups are larger and it's not burning it all so why use that much.

I believe the Swiss brand 3f powder will give you the most velocity and accuracy from that 21" barrel and would limit my charges to around 70 grains. Your groups will shrink a great deal if you lower that charge a little bit; it will still have plenty of power out to 100 yards.

lemoyne

Sounds like you need a tighter sabot, firet of the powder wont burn near as well with out the right amount of resistance, and as a rule of thumb they will shoot all over the place if they load to easy; be real careful of loose fitting sabots if they move off the powder they can cause big problems. Lee

HuntAway

Mossie,

I really didn't give it a fair chance today. Just too much damm snow around these parts. I do however agree that a bit less powder may be called for due to the spray on the snow out front of the muzzle. As for Swiss Powder, well it's a non-starter. You would never find it around here, hard enough to get any powder for that matter. To get Goex, T7 or Pyrodex it's a 2 hour drive each way.[:@]

I'm toying with the idea of duplexing a load with Goex / T7 maybe 20/50 or 30/50 and going with a 300 gr Nosler or 340 gr Dead Centers.

Mossie

I am the same way about range work in the winter (northwest PA). I have not shot my rifles in months and can't wait for a nice calm warm day to do some shooting. They really are very accurate barrels and once you get your componets dialed in it will be one of your favorite set-ups. I have found the .452 diameter sabots to work better in my rifles but yours may like something else. I have also found that the 300 grainers need to be pushed a bit to get the best accuracy.

I bought a box of .452 Hornady xtp'sin 250 grains and have been shooting them in my 24" barrel with 80 grains of 3f. Mine are flinters though so with a hot cap you could probably burn a bit more than I can. I guess if I used a capper I would use Triple 7 in 3f if it was accurate. These 1:28 twist barrels seem like they like long bullets with heavy charges or shorter and lighter bullets with moderate charges of 80 grains or so.

I would like to buy another barrel to put on a second TC PA Hunter stock that I havebut I can't find a drop-in barrel in 28" length for it anywhere. They just quit making the dang things and I am glad I have gotten the ones I have. I like my carbine length barrels but I really like the 28" and would really like to find one of the 32" barrel blanks that they made at one time.

The beauty of these barrels is that if your driving deer and walking alot then you can drop in the carbine length for easy carry and drop in the longer barrels for stand hunting. I NEED one of those 32" long 15/16" .50 caliber 1:28 twister barrels for that PA Hunter stock. I would turn it down to the octagon to round profile just like my 1:66 twister.

wabi

I've been using 75 gr fffg Goex in mine so far, and the results look promising. But, like you, I haven't been able to set at the bench and really give it a test yet.
I'm hoping I can find a conical it likes, and the Lee 250 gr REAL has looked good so far. But 25 yards offhand isn't really much of an indication of what it can do, so don't read that as being a suggested load!

HuntAway

That is what I experienced with my Omega. This barrel is a flinter so it rules out T7 on it's own. We'll see once the white stuff gets down to a manageable level. Then I will only have to fight the skeeters, blackflies and deerflies.[:@]

Johnmorris

Do forget the wood and deer ticks