How many of you know how to tell?
 

How many of you can tell the right combination of patch and ball before you take the gun to the range?
I am looking for the old time honored way. I am wondering how many of the new people that did not grow up with PRB really know the things we use to consider basic. Lee

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

I always went with a ball one caliber size under bore and a .015 patch to start with...I never have seen a sidelock shoot well with a .010 patch, just not thick enough...

It's also important to know how the right ball patch combo feels as you ram it down the bore...

Anyway, when I had a .45 barrel, I used .440 balls and a .015 patch...With my .40, I use a .390 home cast ball and .015 patch...Now, with my .54 I used to use a .530 ball and .015 patch but a few years back I went to bulk pillow ticking and .018 patch...Once you get the ball down the barrel with a short starter it goes down as easy as with a thinner patch...

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

1. Starting Load
A grain a powder per caliber number in hundredths of inches as a place to start. For example, 50 grains behind of 50 cal PRB.

2. Volume Equivalence
More or less is still the rule for shot; one measure of powder, same for shot.

3. Pour powder until it just covers the round ball on a surface
Widely discredited as folly, including in the current Lyman Black Powder manual.

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

As nchawkeye said, I never did find a lot of use for the ultra thin patches. I like a .015-.018 thick patch. And the ball and patch should interact with the rifling of the barrel.

Normally in a T/C,CVA,& TraditionsI find a .010 difference between the claimed caliber lets say .50 and the ball. So I use a .490. Now Lyman is more generous for the most part. I find they like a .005 difference. So in a .54 a .535 ball seems a better fit or a thicker patch.

I also like a good solid patch. This is one reason I stopped using pre lubed. I found to many of them rot in time. And when I am going to start out a new rifle, the first trip out I use 80 grains of powder no matter what caliber. I then see how the rifle shoots. Does it stack them, line them horizontal or vertical?

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

The way I was taught by my Grandfather is to load 10 gr and shoot into a big wad of cotton batting or some other soft material.
The ball should show the cross hatching of the patchmaterial plainly on the rifling and at least faintly on the groves.
As for the powder he started with half the ball weight, some movie maker came up with that one grain per caliber thing originally...at least I think that was the first time I heard of it. I started shooting muzzle loaders in 1952 but hung around with my Grandad as much as possible.
As for patching he used thin leather or pillow ticking.Lee

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

I don't and never did know squat about shooting PRBs. The first ML cheap enough for me to buy when I got tired of an inaccurate old shotgun has a 1:48" twist and nobody in my redneck town carried real ML supplies. I got ahold of some balls and tried cutting my own patches out of old shirts, shot them dry no lube. Nobody was around to tell me it was wrong. Of course accuracy was hell, so I got ahold of some Buffalo Ball-ets. Accuracy was decent but performance on game was terrible (only bullet I EVER had "pencil through") so I succumbed to sabots (.44cal Hornaday HTPs) which killed dozens of deer and the rest was history.

When I wore that gun out and went looking for a new one, I spent a long time swearing off inlines and looking for a sidelock that would do well for me. Somehow ended up with an inline and never looked back.

Perhaps some day when I have more time to shoot (ie I can play with more guns) and more wooded land to hunt and more days to hunt, I'll go back and master the PRB. I'll buy a .54, .50s are for sabots.

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

Round ball can be fun with an inline too, I have a 1-38 twist 50cal Barrel for my System One that will put PRB into a 2.5 inch group with 90 gr of P. I normally just shoot it for fun but it would take deer or bear out to 100yds if needed. Lee

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

I have been experimenting with PRB for a couple of weeks now and I am happy to see this particular post. I am using a 170gr .490 RB. I have used sabots, and verious types of other matreial including ticking. The ticking seemed to work th ebest but went down REAL hard. It would slip and catch and then slip and catch till I hit bottom, or what I thought was bottom. I mean I had to almost hang on the rod to start it and then it would slip and then stop and I would have to put that much pressure on it again & again till it was all the way down. I thought this was normal but I dont think it is cuz I broke my ram rod yeasterday loading it. What am I doing wrong? I soaked the ticking in Mooses Mike two times and let it dry. Is it not wet enough? Too thick? its .018. I cant find .015, .010 is too thin I believe. Not much resistance and no particular pattern. I am thinking I am just going to shoot sabots out of my Hawken. They dont roup all too good. 4"-5" @ 100yds. Cant do much past that. Unless of course I figure this puzzle out. Any ideas?

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

While that's not what worked best for me it should work decently a number of people use it with good results.
The slipping and catching sounds like you need to inspect your barrel rust, plastic deposit, perhaps lead if you have been shooting conicals.
A good clean well polished barrel is needed to start with for a smooth loading PRB.
Are you using a short starter? You should be, at least 4 inches long with a end shaped to fit the ball.
Scrub you barrel real good with boiling hot water the check it with a bore light and do the cotton ball test [fasten a cotton ball to your range rod I usually flatten out the cotton ball punch the stem screw of the jagthrough it then screw it on the end of the rod and stroke it up and down the length of the barrel]
If when you do this you end up with bits of cotton sticking to your barrel you have located your problem. Then you need to determine if it is rust or just a rough barrel.
If you find you have a rough barrel then on of us will need to explain the different ways of lapping to you. Lee
If you get it smoothed out and you get patches with cuts on the rifling then you have a condition known as sharp rifling if so let me know and I will explain how to fix it.

RE: How many of you know how to tell?
 

Even if there isn't anything else wrongwith your barrelthe patchesseem to be too thick if your ramrod broke.

1. Use a mallet to start and gently tap in tight loads.
2. Get a stout ramrod. I use just aboutthe thickest dowel that will fit in my bore from the hardware store that costs about $1. Then put a handle on it.
You can also use a ramrod gripper made from a hunk of rubber to grab onto long ramrods with if necessary. I've yet to break a thick hardware store dowel.
3. Find some of those .015 patches. Go to a fabric store if needed with a pair of calipers andmeasure thematerial. Make sure that it's 100% cotton. Drill cloth is one of them.
4. Maybe addinga "little"extra lube to your patches will help to swab some of thepowder residue out ofthe rifling gooves as you load.