I spent the afternoon last Saturday trying out different bullet/powder combinations with my TC Hawken. I intended on shooting a 100 yard group, but I couldn't get a 50 yard group worth anything.
One bullet that I was hoping would work out is the 350 gr cast maxi-balls that I bought from dixie gun works. Lubing them with bore butter, I couldn't get them to stay on the paper at 50 yards... the store bought 275 gr hunters I was shooting were grouping much better (still not good).
It was warm enough that the bore butter was soft and almost liquid. Could that have been my problem? Is it possible that I wasn't getting the lube uniformly enough on the bullet? I don't understand how the bore butter on the TC bullets was solid but the stuff out of the tube was nearly liquid.

Another thing people do is they put too much powder under them. Start them at 70 grains. Have you tried any wads between the powder and the maxi ball?

I was using about 90 grains. I don't understand why the maxi hunters where so much better. I know that there are shorter, but the maxi ball is still short enough that the 1-48 should stabilize it. In fact, they are what TC recommends on there site. Is the lube there to keep the gasses from going around the bullet? The only thing that I can figure is that I didn't have the lube evenly in the groove and the gases slipped past and did some weird stuff. What do you guys use to lube your bullets?

I use a felt wad and use liquid allox that dries hard and stays on the whole bullet. Lee Precision makes Liquid allox for cast bullet shooters. I use it also for that purpose.

I use the same product. Sometimes straight and sometimes cut with Lyman Super Moly.

Coat the bullets (its very thin) and let them set over night or until they are dry. Add a felt wonder wad or make your own. My favorite felt wad is a plain felt wool wad treated with a blend of Liquid Alox and Super moly. Soak the felt wads with just enough to coat them and set bullets and wads on wax paper to dry.

Sometimes i just place the bullets on the wads and put a few drops of the Liquid Alox on the bullets. It runs down the bullet onto the wad and wax paper. Allow to dry as needed. It drys into a fairly hard coating and does not melt as easy in warmer temps.

Cheap vegetable fiber wads also work just fine and are VERY cheap at $17 per 1000 at Cabelas. They create a pretty good seal and keep the powder from contacting the lube.

Ive never had great luck with Bore Butter other than keeping fouling softer. IMO its too thin and melts far too easy. I also start at 80gr of powder and work up.

This combo works great with a Maxi type conical in my LK93 54cal but it does have a much faster twist.

Scott

i would try using a wad. also you may need to do a good cleaning with hoppes to get the lead out if you havent been using a wad. i once lost accuracy out of my new englander caplock and gave it a good scrub with hoppes and the accuracy came back even better than before.

+1. Perfect advice. Tom.

josh...just josh

Do not get to hung up on the 1/48 twist rate.... I shoot 460 grain Bull Shops from my 1/48 with 90 grains T7-3f and they are almost an 1" long....

I am not familiar enough with the Maxi or Mini ball to offer to much of a comment but the other here have shared their thoughts....

This is not a great target but for me and my eyes... this is not bad with a 1/48 + experimenting



another fun thing I do is shoot clay pigeons placed at various yardages... Hitting one @ 100 is not a problem with these big Bull Shops....

All the advice given has been good. Play with the powder charges and try the felt wads. I too have found that the maxihunters were more accurate then the maxiballs. To some its vice versa. I guess it all depends on the individual rifle.

thanks for all of the info guys. I'll try some different lubes and an overpowder wad and see what that does for me