whitemtncruiser
Member
Hi,
I am an experienced shooter just getting into shooting muzzleloaders more frequently. I have a .50 and .54 caliber T/C inlines. Both guns are a number of years old but barely used and are like-new. I recently purchased a box of T/C .50 caliber 320 grain MaxiBalls. The packaging states that they are lubed and ready to fire as they come from the box.
I have fired a variety of saboted rounds out of the .50 in the past and patched round balls out of the .54, and I am confident I have the loading/firing portion well understood. I clean the rifles per the owners manuals every time I use them.
When I tried to load the Maxi-Balls in the .50 this past weekend, I could not get them to load. I couldn't even get them completely into the rifling. I have had some tight fighting sabots in the past so I have experienced some hard to load projectiles. And I have a sturdy range rod to make loading easier. But these things were impossible. I was deforming the top of the Maxi-Ball noticeably while trying to get it down the barrel, and I was only using pressure - not striking it with the ramrod or anything. The barrel was not fouled.
I shooting partner brought a brand new LHR Redemption .50 cal. The gun had been cleaned and prepped properly. We had the same problem - we could barely get the Maxi-Balls to start into the barrel.
I had to remove the breach plug from both rifles and tap out the partially inserted maxi-ball because it just would not go down any farther.
Has anyone else had this type of difficulty loading the Maxi-Balls? I'm not quite sure what my problem is as they claim to be easy to load in the field. I haven't had a chance to get out my calipers yet. Could they possibly be oversized? The packaging is new and the lube was fresh so I'd say these were recent production.
Thanks for the help.
I am an experienced shooter just getting into shooting muzzleloaders more frequently. I have a .50 and .54 caliber T/C inlines. Both guns are a number of years old but barely used and are like-new. I recently purchased a box of T/C .50 caliber 320 grain MaxiBalls. The packaging states that they are lubed and ready to fire as they come from the box.
I have fired a variety of saboted rounds out of the .50 in the past and patched round balls out of the .54, and I am confident I have the loading/firing portion well understood. I clean the rifles per the owners manuals every time I use them.
When I tried to load the Maxi-Balls in the .50 this past weekend, I could not get them to load. I couldn't even get them completely into the rifling. I have had some tight fighting sabots in the past so I have experienced some hard to load projectiles. And I have a sturdy range rod to make loading easier. But these things were impossible. I was deforming the top of the Maxi-Ball noticeably while trying to get it down the barrel, and I was only using pressure - not striking it with the ramrod or anything. The barrel was not fouled.
I shooting partner brought a brand new LHR Redemption .50 cal. The gun had been cleaned and prepped properly. We had the same problem - we could barely get the Maxi-Balls to start into the barrel.
I had to remove the breach plug from both rifles and tap out the partially inserted maxi-ball because it just would not go down any farther.
Has anyone else had this type of difficulty loading the Maxi-Balls? I'm not quite sure what my problem is as they claim to be easy to load in the field. I haven't had a chance to get out my calipers yet. Could they possibly be oversized? The packaging is new and the lube was fresh so I'd say these were recent production.
Thanks for the help.