Hey guys, remember my Disappointing Day With The Renegade? http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2736181&mpage=1&key=&#273618 1

Well, after working the pittedbore over with naval jelly and oiled steel wool, I reshot the same loads I tried in my original range session -fifty yard five shot groups with 80 grains of Pyrodex RS and six different bullets. Did I have any improvement? Not really. Here's a short description of the results.

Patched balls - Still tearing up patches with groups in excess of six inches.
410 grain Hornady GP - Group went from 3 7/8" to 3 1/2".
320 grain REAL - Group went from 4 1/2" to 4 3/8".
250 grain REAL - Group went from 4 3/4" to 9" (what the hell!)
405 grain Lee .457 cast bullet in MMP orange sabot- Group went from 4 1/2" to 5" (bullet clearly not stable - evidence of wobble on target)
250 grain Gold Dot in Harvester crush rib sabot- Group went from 2 7/8" to 1 7/8".

The only thing that looked promising was the Gold Dots in crush rib sabots. Maybe the sabots are better a dealing with the pitting near the muzzle. So I figured I ought to explore that a little bit. I shot a group with 300 grain Gold Dots in crush rib sabots, and a group with 300 grain Remington Semi-Jacketed Hollow Points in MMP orange sabots. They actually shot better than anything else (targets below). Clearly, a little load experimentation around those bullets is in order. Looks like this barrel will never be a patched ball shooter - which is what I wanted - but it may turn out to be useful with a sabotted bullet.

Semi I think you have more patience than I do...lol.

that is half the fun of these rifles...

You might have to order a .58 caliber 1-70 twist from Green Mountain and put on that stock. Then you can shoot a roundball that will stop anything you want to hunt. Although I am sure the .54 caliber from them would do fine as well..

BINGO! Exactly what I'm thinking - leaning toward the .54.

Well I hope whatever endeavor you take semi - that it works out for you. Good Luck.

I have a rusty oldrenegade barrel I am working on. My load I am having the best luck with is 80 gr of Pyrodex P and a felt wad between the powder and a 320 gr real bellet. I chronographed it at 1440. Ron

Forgot to mention, I'm still thinking about chopping five inches off the barrel to see what it does. That will get me back past the worst of the pitting.

isint naval jelly a rust converter? have you tried jb bore paste?. i would give it a try.

Yes it is. But I followed it with a long blast of carburetor cleaner, then 25 or 30 up & downs with oil saturated 0000 steel wool wrapped around a tight patch. Changed the steel wool after every five passes or so. It was pretty much down to shiny steel after that.

Hey semi- you and sabot got to get together with those guns and take em on a weekend retreat!!!!