Jenks

Sam did not say what kind of load he was using except it was behind patched RB. This was a test about accuracy, supposedly. In the same book he tells about a test he ran to see how much abuse(heavy load) you could give a gun before it blew up. He ran this on three guns. One gun was a .58 cal with a one inch across the flats barrel. He started with a 600 grain Minie and 100 grains of FFFg and worked his way up to 500 grains of powder. This didn't blow, so he backed up to 400 grains of FFFg behind two 600 grain Minie's. This also didn't blow so he kept the 400 grains of powder and shot three 600 grain Minie's. Everything held together. Finally, he went back to two Minie's in front of 400 grains of powder, except he left about 14 inches between the powder and the base of the first Minie loaded. That blew it up. This barrel was on a stand and was fired by pulling a string. He tried another just like the first and could not blow it up either until powder and Minie was separated. He then did a .50 cal Morse, then sold by Navy Arms. On this one he used both patched ball and Maxi balls. At one point he had three Maxis separated from the charge of 300 grains of FFFFg pan powder, no blow up. He finally put 200 grains of Bullseye smokeless powder behind one Maxi ball and that blew it up.

And I am afraid to shoot 100 grains of Pyro RS in mine.

Breechplug

Im not afraid to shoot 150grs of Pyro, done it many times with excellant results. One day my buddys and I were talking about how much a MLer could take befor it blew. We cut a piece of plywood with a hole big enough to stick the MLer through and get a hand on the trigger and fire being protected in case something happened, we loaded a TC Black Diamond with 200grs of Pyro Pellets and a 240gr XTP, she fired and we all survived, everyone was too chicken to try 250grs..........
I bet with todays MLer's that the Manufactures have to test the MLers with at least that much powder so in case someone accidentally loads a 150gr charge on top of another 150gr charge and fires, so that it wont blow and they sue em.
If My MLer was as accurate with 150grs as it was with 110 I'd use 150, but it is'nt. It does a heck of a job with 150gr's at 100yds and less but anything further it loses accuracy.
What I will say is 150gr's at a 100yds or less does a much better job than 100gr's does, if all your shots are less than 100yds I;d use 150grs all the time, even better is 150gr's at 75 yds or less, it's like a cannon hitting the deer, they dont have a chance. But for further shots over 100yds it's too much powder to be dead on accurate. So for the best results for shots from 0-175yds 110grs of Pyro works perfect.
(BP)

Jenks

The maker of my Hawken(Investarm) says that the max load for it is 90 grains with .490 ball or 80 grains with a 370 grain conical. I have shot 80 grains behind a 240 grain conical a few times but not enough to see what load is accurate, if any. I have never shot a round ball thru it. It is a slow twist, about one in 60 or 66 as best as I can measure it, and is 15/16 inch across the flats. Seems to me that it should be able to stand more powder, TC says 110 grains max behind RB for the same barrel size. The gun is better looking then the TC Hawken, or I would trade it off.

bronko22000

BP but those heavy charges are the reason for barrel erosion. Sure as heck isn't the patch or ball or lead conical wearing them out. (Unless you use sandpaper for a patch). Very much like throat erosion in a centerfire barrel.

rafsob

I have never seen a ML barrel worn out. And I have handled many a gun that was over a hundred + years old. Now I have seen a lot of dirty, abused, and corroded barrels from lack of care. I have also seen a lot of leaded barrels that look like the have been shot out, but needed nothing more then a good lead cleaning! But I would have to agree with MD about the crown damage do to ramrods. And Bronko's idea of blast erosion, but that would entail a small area of a barrel and not the entire length.

JMHO guys.