54 Renegade Loads?
 

Having some trouble with my 1/48, 54 Rene. It has a nice clean barrel with good rifling.

I've struggled with PRB's after working though all kinds patches and lubes.

Thought I'd try some conicals. Great Plains and REAL's both fit very loose and shoot poorly.

I does like Harvester Red sabots and the big chunk of lead they have for the 54. ( can't remember exactly how heavy ).

Anyway, is mine the only one with a large barrel diameter? Those conicals shouldn't be that loose.

Any other suggestions?

When you were shooting patched roundball, what powder, charge, and patch were you shooting. Not all of the Renegades will behave and you have to experiment with them sometimes. Mine also shoots the red sabots and large chunks of lead. But 90 grains of 2f powder, and a patched roundball is normally very accurate.

I always shot the .430 gr maxi in mine with 90 gr pyrodex.

I'll see what i can come up with in a week or 2. I have a 54 renegade coming in. Will be interesting.

I have had several 54 cal 1:48 Thompson center barrels. I have never had one that would not shoot a PRB good enough to hunt with. Actually all have shot really well. All of mine have liked a .530" or .535" ball with a .015" or .020" patch with around 90-100 grains of FFG. I have never had a 1:48 T/C that would not shoot a PRB with great accuracy and I have had them all from .45 cal to .58 cal. Play around with ball diameters, patch thickness, and powder charges and you will find what you are looking for. Also with the shallow groove with the T/C barrels I have found that depending on the barrel you may have to clean after every shot to every 4-5 shots. All barrels are different.

Josmund, by any chance were you using Triple Seven? With patched balls I've always had better luck with Pyrodex RS than with T7.

With my Renegade, I am shooting 90 grains of Goex 2F Black, Ox-Yoke .015 pre-lubed patch and .530 ball, at 50 yards shots touch, and I can keep them within 2-3" at a 100 yards

Thanks guys,

Looks like the answer is to go back the drawing board with the PRB.

I have been shooting Pyro RS with PRB's and now have a a can of Swiss I to mess around with.

If anyone wants to try some 54 300 gr. REALs shoot me a PM and I'll send some your way.

I have a Traditions .54 cal. with a 24" 1 in 48 inch twist and have had problems working up a good load for round balls with it. When I was trying to find a good load for round balls I tried some sabots also. They shot extremely well. I was using the orange .45/.54 Thompson Center Mag Express .54 caliber sabot and a .45 cal. 240 grain XTP with 3f Goex. I was disappointed because I bought the rifle to shoot round balls with. My next step will be to try some old blue jean patches and see what happens. Here's 2 targets at 100 yards.
3 shot group.

2 shot group.

A .54 Renegade, my first ML, came w/ strict instructions to shoot PRB w/ 95 gr Pyrodex.
So I did. And after 10 shots or so my shoulder hurt; groups were OK but not great at 50 yds .
The day I decided to sell that rifle I took it out one last time but loaded w/ 75 gr instead. Groups tightened considerably as I recall and it was actually enjoyable to shoot.

With a PRB (.530 ball/.016-.018 patch) in the .54 Renegade I used from 60 to 90 gr ffg Goex and always had good accuracy.

BTW - 60gr ffg and head shots on squirrels is a lot of fun. :happy0157:

I haven't had a chance to get out to the range with my newly acquired .54 Renegade but plan to do so soon.
What can be expected with T7? It's all I have on-hand currently and Pyrodex is scarce in my part of the woods. I have hoped to shoot it.

mjac, I found load development more finicky with T7 because it had a tendency to blow the patch. It shot OK for me once I found the powder charge/patch/ball/lube combination the gun wanted. But not as well as either Pyrodex or GOEX, both of which were more forgiving. With T7, increasing the amount of lube over what I used for other powders seemed to help.

Semisane...I probably haven't used T7 nearly to the extent that you have, but I noticed blown patches while using it in one of my .50's that I normally don't have any trouble using GOEX FFF and a .015 patch. I thought it was because the patches I was using had been lubed and stored for some time and possibly the lube had dried out some. I rubbed more lube (I believe it was Ox-Yoke 1000 plus) onto the remaining patches and didn't observe any more blowout or "burnt through" patches. That led me to think that if I was gonna sit down for a session with T7 again, that I should lube the patches just prior to shooting or maybe try a thicker patch...BPS

T7 is all I shoot since that .54 Renegade. I've read posts here about blown patches,etc but, honestly, I have no such issues & even reuse patches successfully.

However, I rarely shoot more 75-80 grains.

I have the better part of a pound of T7 3F left and when it's gone, I probably won't buy any more of it. In my guns, I have not seen any significant advantage in using it, at least not anything that justifies it's cost. I get good results from Goex and Pyro and that's probably what I'll stay with. I also thouroughly clean my guns when I'm done shooting so any claim that T7 has about being non-corrosive is moot ...BPS

I have shot TC Hawken and Renegades since 1980 and built quite a number of Hawken rifles myself.
I set them up the old way; I load 25 grain loads and shoot them into old pillows or cotton batting, I start out with a good heavy ticking patch and when i get a ball that show the impression of the cloth strongly where the land were and weakly where the groves were I start working on the load In a 54 I start with 90 grains and work up to 120 the I go back to the best group and see if I can consistently duplicate it.
If the patch and ball combination do not fit the barrel right it will never shoot really well. After the gun is broken in I start checking the patches if I find cuts in the patches I JB it with 100 strokes.I use Goex Black or RS Pyrodex and RWS caps because this combination has worked well for me. I have never been able to get a .530 ball to shoot up to my standards all my guns but one ended up with a .535 ball the exception took a .540. It is not easy to get a 2.5 inch group with iron sights at 100 yds and I can not do it any more because my eyes are not what they used to be but I could do it until I was in my 60's, now I have to use a scope. If you ever have the opportunity watch the Hawken and Mountain man matches at Friendship IN, you will see the guys shoot groups that are only 17 inches string measure. [ That is each ball is measured from the X and the measurements are added together.