What would you put down a .50cal 1:24 twist barrel?

P

Pond James Pond

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Thinking purely in terms of conicals/minies/maxiballs/REALs/roundballs etc (no sabots), what would you put down the muzzle of a 1:24 twist, 28" .50 percussion gun?

Purpose?
Misc. Let's say plinking/hunting etc, the usual general purpose type load.

I mean weights or styles that might match that faster twist.

Thx
 
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There's a fellow who hunts elk with a Lee .500 440 grn pistol bullet that he paper patches through his Lyman Great Plains Hunter with a 1:32" twist. He is very good with his load shooting several hundred yards.
 
Should have specificied: no sabots nor powerbelts.

As yet I have found noone who sells those around here, but roundball are plenty and so are basic full-bore conicals such as those I listed in the OP
 
I'm hesitant to use any undersized conicals in my rifle as they can easily move off of the charge and create problems. I knew the Lee REAL was oversized and bought a handful to try out and found my 1:48" twist Lyman did exceptionally well with them so I bought a mold.

Were you not considering it as a hunting projectile the undersized conicals wouldn't be such a big deal.

If you are seriously considering a certain rifle I'd then look to see if you could purchase various projectiles to test out.

I like casting as I'm not at anyone's mercy. And 20-something projectiles for $1 is pretty nice too! Of course I spent $100+ to be able to do it, but in the long run it doesn't take long at all to come out ahead.

I'm guessing you'd need your projectiles shipped, which would be costly. I'd certainly look into casting.
 
Even if I can't find a place to shoot a BP gun, I wouldn't want to buy a gun that realistically I couldn't find viable projectiles for: you never know. The law might change, loosening the restrictions on BP so I'd like to at least know that I can get some viable projectiles from the local market.

If nothing else, this all helps me learn more about the whole BP realm...

I am thinking of casting anyway: it would be nice to finally see what a 240gr SWC can do in a .44Mag.
 
That is a bullet twist, a heavy bullet twist.
It might work with a light load and patched ball, but I would not bet on it.
Are you looking at the Pedersoli .50 Hawken? They show the recommended bullet and it looks like something out of a .50-90 breechloader.

Look at the .45 Hawken with 47 twist compromise barrel, ok with ball or moderate bullets.

I think the Mortimer Target would suit, .54 ball, but it only comes in flint.
 
If you cast you'd always have viable bullets...

You could try Hornady Great Plains bullets. Most of the muzzleloader conicals are cast only unless you included the various newer types.
 
Here is the Pedersoli Hawken line.
http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/tipologia-prodotti.asp/l_en/idt_34/rifles-hawken.html

I just noticed the Rocky Mountain model is a .54 with 65 twist, a good round ball gun.

The .45 x 47 is a compromise ball/bullet gun
The .50 x 24 is a bullet gun
The .54 x 65 is a round ball gun (same barrel as the Mortimer Target.)

A .54 is a nominal half ounce ball gun, 218 grains, 14 grams.
That is a pretty big ball, considered adequate for big game and military use in the mid 19th century, but it does not use up the lead as fast as that .50.
 
I don't know where you got this from, though:

They show the recommended bullet and it looks like something out of a .50-90 breechloader.
Click to expand...

I've seen the linked page and when I click on the link to the recommended bullet, I just get a .490 roundball!

So if I got a nice 370gr Maxiball conical, is that the sort of long bullet you'd have in mind?
 
It shows me this picture and table with the .50 bullet at 450 grains.
http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/sch...et-set-50-long-bullets-for-muzzleloading.html

I am sure it is a potent hunting bullet but it is NOT authentic to the period of the rifle.

I am not an active muzzleloader and I can't be SURE that a round ball would not shoot well out of that rifle, but it would be a nonstandard combination.
Maybe somebody here has tried it.
There was the gunzine writer who tried and tried to get a Whitworth repro to shoot round balls (.451 cal 21 twist) but I don't think it ever equaled the bullet.
 
There are some stocked, yes.

My only concern now is that perhaps 1:24 is too serious a twist rate. Too restrictive.

In a sense it is a bit academic if I never get to shoot the rifle, but as I said earlier: things may change and it is nice to keep options open.

Perhaps 1:48 is a better choice.
 
Thanks for the links. Those things are monsters!
How far do you usually have to walk before you find your shoulder after finding one of those?

All this serious bullet business does tell me that perhaps 1:24 is a bit too single-minded. As I said earlier, I think 1:48 would afford me some flexibility.

Ironic that I should be so concerned considering it'll probably be a wall-hanger!! Still, I've never bought on looks alone: for me usability has to be in the mix no matter how academic!
 
How far do you usually have to walk before you find your shoulder after finding one of those?
Click to expand...

I don't. I shoot patched ball most of the time. When I first got into B/P rifles. I bought my rifles from Fox Ridge Outfitters long before their closing. Who also sold t/c drop-in-barrels as a store accessory item. So my rifles came to me factory stock with 1-48s twists. I simply changed my barrels out with 1-66 t/c factory Rd/ball only barrels. Quite accurate the t/c ball barrels turned out to be.

The 1-48 barrels I changed out (45-54 Hawken models) sit upright in a closet with plugged nipple snail's and (wine bottle) corked at their muzzle's. (Their bores were filled with straight 5-w motor oil.)
Not to brag but when someone like me with old frosted over eyes can shoot t/c open barrels sites and group my p/ball into 2-2-1/2" at a 100 yards all day long from both rifles. (I) see no reason to mess around in my wanting to shoot conical or sabot something heavier. BTW: Both rifles are fueled with homemade black or (Gorex 2-FFg when in a dire pinch.)

As commented earlier. 1-48 will shoot anything (other than a musket hollow base conical) reasonably accurate. Just don't expect to see >exceptional accurate is all I'm saying.
 
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