Lyman's Drop In Barrel
 

I believe I have just barely been good enough for a Lyman's Deerstalker this Xmas. I've been pushing for a Deerstalker.

I see that Lyman's sells spare barrels, and both Deerstalker and Trade Rifle barrels will work on the stock. But my idea is to have a short, light, and handy rifle as well as one with a fast twist that I can put a PC type scope on for shots across fields and whatnot in .50 cal.

I've also considered how cool it would be to get a .54 cal barrel and bore it out smooth for a shotgun to use on small game. Lyman's states their .54 cal has .558" grooves in a 15/16" barrel. Would 20 ga (.615") be pushing it?

Here's my thinking rodwha. Lyman barrels are 15/16" across the flats, which is .9375. If it's bored out to .615, the barrel walls will be .16125. That's just a tad bit thicker than the barrel wall at the muzzle of my Omega X7 (which has the QLA cut off). Given that shotgun loads achieve a much lower pressure than do ball or bullet loads I think it would probably be safe with modest loads. But I don't think I would shoot heavy charges from it, and certainly not balls.

I think your problem would be finding a smith willing to bore a 15/16 barrel out that big.

Another problem might be the breech plug. Most ML rifle barrel breech plugs are 5/8-18, which is tapped into a 37/64 hole (0.578). Boring the entire barrel through for 20 GA would remove the plug threads, so the boring would need to stop short of the threads, or a larger diameter plug would be required.

Now all of the above is my pure speculation. I recommend you seek a professional opinion from one of the barrel makers listed in the HNI Black Powder Reference Forum via a telephone call or e-mail.

"Lyman barrels are 15/16" across the flats, which is .9375. If it's bored out to .615, the barrel walls will be .16125."

I suppose I should have done the math first... It didn't sound that bad when I considered it.

Not only would it be hard to find someone willing to bore it to that, it would be hard to find someone willing to fire it with such thin walls! Since you so kindly pointed out that I could be holding on to a hand grenade I don't think I'd want to use it much!

26 ga (.564") sounds much better to me! You just never know if you may accidentally double charge your load! Yikes!

Or maybe starting with a .50 cal to bore to a 28 ga (.550") so as to be able to use (un)common 28 ga reloading materials.

I personally would just get a black powder shot gun if that is what I wanted. I have two of them and they are 12 gauge and just a lot of fun to shoot.

I know you are right...

I have 3 muzzle loading shotguns and as Cayugad told you ~ tons of fun to shoot! My go to gun is a Pedroselli side by side 10 Ga - it is light wt and really no kick at all. I have shot grouse, pheasant, quail, ducks, and geese, as the bore it is chromed for steel shot. I shot my 3rd turkey on my 40th with my Great Grand Daddies 16 ga side by side.

Recently I purchased a 12 Ga White BG Series Tominator which is a single shot inline. I have yet to develop a load for this and am working ordering some components. This gun will be used to "Smoke" some turkeys in 2013!

JW

If you want to have some fun just use a 28 gage power piston in the 54 I was suprised at how well mine shot shot.

Can you tell me more about this? I'm intriqued. What kind of range and pattern can one expect? I know not a 12 gauge with a turkey choke but can it be effective?

I googled it... Is it a wad? Forgive my ignorance, but how would that help inside of a .54 cal rifled barrel?

Well I am not really up on the science of shot guns but my friend and I got some 28 gage power pistons and loaded them in our 54 rifles and broke some trap with them my friend always carries the stuff with him we have some squirrel hunts at our rendezvous and he uses shot in his 54 so they are still edible. I wish I could give you more info but we never worried about patterns and stuff we just fill a mag power piston with seven&half shot stick a wad of toilet paper on top and push it down over 80 grains of pyrodex RS, I would guess black would do well also but it is hard to get here.