Rio Grande Range Day
 

I picked up a Ft. Worth Arms Rio Grande in a .504 a few weeks back.

It's basically a White knockoff with a few twist.



I had a question on how the bolt came apart. First, to remove it, you manually lift up the stud you can see below. I use a screwdriver, allen wrench or whatever is handy. It's a pretty slick system.

On the gun:



Out of the gun:




My first range session left much to be desired, however, I didn't have anything to load in the oversized bore. The 240 XPT's practically fell down the bore and the 300 Speer Gold Dots still fit very oose. I know I need some slip fit conicals. Any advice on the best to buy? I'd like to get a sample pack rather than buy a 50 lot that doesn't fit right.

The gun performed well and is solid. I did have a few misfires but I blame the CCI Caps. When I had a misfire the cap would be smashed and split. I'll try some Remingtons in which I have more confidence.

For sabots try a .458 bullet in the Harvester Black Crushribs made for .451 and .452 bullets. They will snug up a lot. Thats a very popular combo for oversized bores.

I bet some 460 grn ,.503 dia no excuses conicals will work. The work well in the whites rifles.Just type in no excuses bullets to get his web site.

Those are pretty good groups for loose fitting sabots. That gun is going to be a shooter.

I agree with the recommendations to try .458 bullets in Harvester sabots. I would try both crush ribs and the regular long blacks.

To all of my fellow H-Net groupies....

I'm not into in-line muzzleloaders, but I'm also not looking to pick a fight. I'm just wondering why some of these manufacturers went with odd sized bore diameters? Were they trying to find the "Holy Grail" of muzzleloading or just trying to be the new kid on the block with something different? Your answers may help in case I ever run across a "sweet deal" on something like this.

Josmund...you obviously have picked a winner this time if you can find the right combo for it.

BPS

Good question. One would think with the tooling available each manufacturer could make every barrel exactly .500. Why go to a .504?

My guess is it has something to do with slip fit Conicals and room for expansion. However, why not just make the Conicals .496 - .499

Someone here will have a good response.