sabotloader

Bullet Hole Bailey

I know both places - I am originally from Boise, but today, I am a short distance from Lewiston, and I go to Kennewick very often - thought may be we could meet up and do shooting together.... But you are on the other side of the US... Medford is a long way over there. I am a long way from an accomplised PRB shooter - but it would be fun to get together and punch some holes...

Horizontal Hunter

I to am shocked at the condition of those patches. I am not an expert but I have never seen a patch that bad. You didn't specify the thickness of the patch on your targets. Is the ball/patch combo a tight fit in the barrel. With those patches you won't get any reasonable accuracy. I think that I would try a felt wad, or about 10g of corn meal, between the powder and the patched ball to protect the patch from burning up.

Hang in there you will get it sorted out.

Bob

cayugad

I am wondering if you have a very ruff bore. New patch material with olive oil should not have a patch doing that. Something is shredding that patch.

nchawkeye

Couple of thoughts (ok 3)...

Agree with Cay, what does that ball and patch combo feel like when you ram it down??? It should feel smooth, not stop and go which means a rough bore and needs to be polished with JB Bore paste...

Are you sure that you aren't picking up patches that you shot a few days ago???

Now, you started with .010 patching, then tried .018 (the pillow ticking) and probable .022 (the denim)...Did you notice a difference in how hard it was to ram the ball down the barrel???

It's starting to sound like the inside of the barrel is either rough or not actually sized to a .50 caliber bore...

btw...can you see the rifling and did you buy this gun new???

Bullet Hole Bailey

Ok well then something is probably defenitely wrong with my barrel.

No I did not buy the gun new, my uncle got it and then gave it to me last year.

When I ram the load down, it does not go down very smooth at all, much more rough in some spots than others. Very much a stop and go type feel.

Yes the pillow ticking and Denim were much much harder than the store bought patches, the store bought patches I could puch inside the boar with my thumb.

Not old patches, I picked those all up and cleaned out the area from about 5-15 yards out so I could find em easy. Also, they were still smoking or possible even burning actually when I looked down range a few yards I could see them on the ground.

Yes I can see the rifling, and have put a bore brush down there a few times.

Palehorse

Those are blown patches. Time to move up in lube viscosity and amount, crisco or bore butter, maybe even a beeswax cast bullet lube. Shredding can be simply from being blown, but your loading descriptions sound like a possibly rough bore.

Put a jag on the ramrod and run a wet patch up and down the bore. Increase the thickness or number of patches in order to get more feel for rough spots or possible bulges in order to get rule out a rough or otherwise bad bore.

rafsob

I have seen patches in bad shape, but not that bad. Had a friend give me a PRB barrel for my Hawkens once. He said it shot fair, but wasn't ready for any type of competition. He said the barrel had a lot of pitting and also that it was a chrome lined barrel. Well I tried it and got torn patches, but not as bad as yours. Because he gave it to me I didn't loose anything with it. I couldn't get it to smooth out, mostly because of the chrome lining.

Did you run a bore light down the barrel. I would try the JB and some "0000" steel wool. This may help. If the barrel is pitted too badly, it is a losing proposition. One thing bad about these guns when buying one used is itis very important to inspect the bore. Usually you can tell by the outside condition and get a good idea of how it was handled, but not always. I understand you got it from a family member so there is not much tosay about that.

Don't let this situation put you off to ML sidelocks and PRBs. You may be better off looking to buy a new one or a good used one that you can give a good inspection before you buy. I picked up a new in the box InvestArms Hawkens Carbine with a PRB barrel (1 in 24" twist). It was on Gun Broker and I got it for about $189. Not bad considering that I bought one just like it from Cabalas for $399 a year earlier. They are out there, ya just got to look. Good hunting and shooting pal and don't five up.

Bullet Hole Bailey

Please excuse my ignorance but what is "JB"?

And how do I run the steel wool down there?

THanks

BHB

nchawkeye

The good news is, we now know what your problem has been...

Get some JB Bore Paste, you can Google to see what the stuff is but basically it's a lapping compound or sandpaper in a paste form...What you need to do is polish the inside of your barrel to remove the rough spots...The easiest way is to take your cleaning jag and apply some JB on a cleaning patch and give the barrel several strokes...

Everyone does this differently, so do a little research, listen to others that have done it and have at it...If I remember correctly, I usually go 100 full length strokes and replace the patch and JB every 20 strokes or so...

If you have a certian area of the bore that is still rough, you can hit that with 20-25 strokes and you won't hurt a thing...

rafsob

Try this: http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1160/Product/J-B_NON-EMBEDDING_BORE_CLEANING_COMPOUND

What I have done in the past is use an old bore brush and wrap the steel woolaround it in such a way that it will fit down the bore. Good luck.