Drop In Barrels
 

I was disappointed when GM dropped the drop in barrels for TC. I wanted to get a 32" .58 cal round ball barrel for the Renegade. I could then dedicate all my hunting to a PRB. The 270gr round ball should be fine for elk and bear, and of course will knock the snot out of deer.

Well, I just found this today. I haven't talked to them about a price yet, but whatever it is i'll start saving for one now, and can do this over the winter.

http://www.stonewallcreekoutfitters....ement-barrels/

Muley, please let us know what you find out, as I am also interested in a replacement barrel.

Thanks for passing that on Muley, I've got a hankerin' for a .58 flint barrel for one of my Renegades.

BPS

Will do.


...

now you have my interest... thanks Muley.

Ok, I just go off the phone with them. Very nice to talk to.

I'll talk about the good stuff first. They use Rice barrels. From all i've read they are better barrels than the GM barrel. Here's some info on the barrels.

http://www.stonewallcreekoutfitters..../rice-barrels/

The second good thing is you can send in the whole gun, and he'll fit the barrel to your stock. He has a TC Hawken and Renegade stock to fit the barrel to, but i'd prefer it was fitted to my stock. I can't believe TC made all the stocks exactly the same. However, you can just send your barrel if you'd like.

Now the not so good stuff. He uses the hardware off your old barrel. He may, or may not have a breech plug, but he'll need the rest of the hardware including sights off your old barrel. I don't plan on using the .50 anymore, so in my case it doesn't matter. I'd actually prefer to have my own sights installed.
The second negative is the barrel comes in the white. He doesn't do bluing, but i'm trying to talk him into browning mine. I wanted to brown the hardware anyway, so the barrel would have been the hard part. I can do the rest myself.
The last negative is the price. It's $400 for parts and labor. I kind of figured it would be around that when I heard he uses Rice barrels. More expensive than the old GM drop in barrel, but a better barrel. Turn around is about a month.

That's about it. I'm pretty sure i'm going to have it done. I like the idea of just one gun/load for everything. All game, plus BP shoots with .58 PRB.


btw They told me GM stopped making the drop in barrels, because TC stopped making the breech plugs. That's what GM was using. TC has really left the sidelock shooters out in the cold.

Too expensive?

Yep I tried them when they first listed that, too expensive. $400 and you provide the parts, don't think so. May as well say $500 for a barrel. Talk to Ed Cain at Cain's Outdoors. I think he charges $100 labor plus parts. With him supplying every part and not needing the gun to fit, it was $300 with a ramrod and all, ready to shoot. Dropped in fine. Also not knocking Rice barrels as they are good. GM, heck if they haven't quit making the blanks, are better out of the box with their laser engraved rifling imho. Rice takes a while for the rifling to get lapped by the patches. After that either are fine barrels. Just my 2 cents on it.

Of course you also know you can get a 50 or 54 in bad shape for cheap and send it off to Ed Rayle or Bobby Hoyt to be rebored and rifled to 58 for $100, right?

I thought of that, but then I have a 26" barrel. I need a longer barrel to help me see the front sight.

It's only $100? Do they have a web site?

check your PM

No sir have to call or write a letter. http://www.therifleshoppe.com/contact.htm

For Ed Cain who assembles barrel blanks you can email him. Would just have to ask him what all blanks he deals with. http://www.cainsoutdoor.com/

It's not so much the front sight with me nowadays, but I'd like to have the rear sight slid forward more because it's kinda fuzzy to me anymore on most of my rifles. I read somewhere that there were original longrifles built back in the day that later owners discovered had actually had the rear sight moved forward as the original owner's eyesight must have changed over the years.

BPS

I just deal with a fuzzy rear sight. My front sight is fuzzy too, so even if I moved the rear sight to the front of the barrel it would still be fuzzy.

Even the target is fuzzy. I really have learned to shoot with everything fuzzy. I can even win BP shoots.

With that said, I realized a longer barrel wouldn't help that much. Last night I found a box of 460gr NoExcuses bullets that I had forgot I had. I had just shot a couple of them to feel the recoil when I first got the Renegade. I never tried them on a target to see how accurate they were.

I wanted to try them, because I haven't been happy with any conical i've tried so far. They all either loaded too hard, too easy, or weren't accurate. So, these NoExcuses were my last try with lead conicals.

The 1st thing I liked was the way they loaded. I could start them with thumb pressure. Good, I don't need a ball starter. I hate carrying one when hunting.

The 2nd plus was they had a nice even pressure all the way down, and would stay on the powder while moving around hunting.

The 3rd plus is they turned out to be very accurate. My max range is 75 yds with open sights. They were holding a nice consistent group shooting from a knee. My favorite hunting field position.

The 4th plus was I could load 4 in a row with no swabbing. Perfect for hunting.

The 5th plus, and this one is extremely important. I have complete faith in their terminal performance at my range and powder load.

My powder of choice is Olde Enysford. A strong black powder equal to Swiss in power, but $10 less a lb. I settled on 80gr for my yardage. Recoil is a non issue, and it shoots flat out to my yardage. I'm sure what the BC is on the bullet, but it's fairly long at 460gr, so it's probably not too bad. A nice wide meplat that should hit hard.

The last 6th plus is the price. $25 for a box of 50 prelubed. Hard to beat.

I like them so much that i've forgotten about changing the barrel. I've got my load, and i'll just stay with it now.

If this will work for anyone else I know not. I use reading glasses that let me see the sights clear I find I can hit a target that is fuzzy but if I do not get the sights line up because they are too fuzzy I will miss a lot.

It took me awhile to find the combination that works for me. Here's a picture of my rear sight. A wide v sight. I use a TC fiber optic front sight. It's the smallest FO sight i've ever seen. Much smaller than the stock front sight.

I find it easy to drop that front FO sight into the middle of that rear sight pictured. Even when it's not in focus. The dark rear sight, and that glowing little front sight is easy to line up. Then it's just a matter of setting the front glowing front sight right under the target for a 6 o'clock hold. I'm amazed at how fast I can get it on the target, and be accurate with it. Even when nothing is in focus.

Pete

Have you ever tried a rear tang - Peep Sight?

My eyes are not good either but with the peep it really doesn't matter because all you doing is looking through a whole at the front sight.





Beginning the installation of a TC Tang Sight



Have no idea if this would help you or not...

mike

I have tried it. Not on the Renegade, but other guns. I actually do better with my present setup.

I understand how a peep works, but I have a theory why it doesn't work well for me. Your brain will automatically center the aperture without any input from me. However, to do that the eye still needs to see it. Even if i'm no conscientiously looking at it. Anything that close to my eye is extremely blurry. I'm thinking my brain is having a hard time centering the aperture when it can't see it clearly.

I could be completely wrong on this, but I seem to be more accurate with my present setup. I will admit that a peep does clear up the target, and front sight some, but I still have to look through the aperture which puts a haze on everything even if the detail is sharper. If that makes any sense to you.

The PRB thing is eating away at me. As good as the NoExcuses work, I still want to shoot more traditional.

I got ahold of Bobby Hoyt's phone#, and left a message. Right after hunting season is over i'll send him my barrel to be bored out to .58 with a slow twist.

I read on another forum that someone sent him a Renegade .50 barrel, and had Bobby make it a .58 with a 1-90 twist, .007 rifling depth, and narrow lands with wide grooves. He said it shoots cloverleafs. I'll ask Bobby if he still recommends that combo. It's a pretty slow twist for a 26" barrel, but it seems to work. The guy was using a .575 ball, pillow ticking patch, and 120gr of 2f Goex. Stout load, but will seem easy after these 460gr NoExcuses. :happy0157:

He does fine work that's for sure and the price is right. Has been 50 to rebore and 50 to put in rifling for years. Can't say on the twist. I just shoot 60 gr in the couple he did in 58. Sorry don't know the twist, just told him RB .575 and .010 patch. I've heard folks say he will cut however many grooves you want and so on. I just let him do what he does. He knows more about it than I do. The ones I have from him and Rayle both do very well.

The biggest problem is getting him to answer the phone.

He's usually 3-4 months backed up anyway, may as well take his time getting back to you. :)