freefalling roundball? .490 or .495

[admiral]

shouldn't the lands of my new (50 cal) T/C Hawken bbl offer enough resistance to keep an unpatched (.490) roundball from falling to the bottom when dropped into it? Should i go to a .495 round ball? Seems to me that there should be a tiny bit of resistance. I'm assuming that the groove diameter is .50, so if a .490 is falling into it... the rifling is less than .005 deep? Is this sound logic?

I guess my question is:
do i want a little resistance when unpatched or no?

i know that the bulk (or maybe all) of the tension is the job of the patch but it seems like a tighter ball fit would increase accuracy.

barrel is 32" t/c 1-66 twist. I'm sure it will be a tack driver when i get it sorted out. only had one opportunity to shoot it so far and the best i could get at 75 yards was 5" 5-shot group (not great), but i only had .010 patches (too thin i think) and 490 rb. I'm gonna try .015 & .020 patches and hope it tightens up.

Any thoughts are appreciated

 

[Stickjockey]

Either .490 or .495, if patched, should have enough resistance to keep them from just falling to the breech end of the barrel. Sure you don't have a .54?

 

[BigG]

do i want a little resistance when unpatched or no?

NO.

The ball should not touch the rifling. That's what the patch is for. You will find that by varying your powder charge about five grains at a time you will find a load that will bring the accuracy into sharp focus. That is where you want to be with a muzzle loading rifle. Mine is about 75 - 80 grains of BP with a .490 RB. Try around that amount. HTH

 

[RON in PA]

You need to spend some time at the bench-rest testing powder charge, patch thickness and ball dia.. TC has a pretty comprehensive instruction manual with recommendations for all of the above. Patching is very important and should be at least .015-.017 and show no cuts when retreaved downrange.

 

[smokemaker]

The ball should fall down bore without dragging the rifling. The tighter, harder to ram home ball and patch combo does not automatically mean better accuracy, by the way. Play with things to see what works. Some guns like a tight fit, and some like a looser fit. My GPR likes a loose fit, but my father's (the rifles were purchased as a matched pair) likes a tighter fit. Every rifle is individual, and finding the right combo means shooting it... maybe alot. (personally I like that part of it.)

 

[admiral]

thanks for all the info... i will be shooting it this weekend with 3 different patch thicknesses and 2 ball diameters to see which it likes best. gotta go pick up a fresh can of pyrodex rs tonight. will try charges in 70, 80 and 90 grns.

hopin for accuracy (deer size groups) at 100 yards. I think i'll get that.

will post results

 

[zahc]

I use 490; it rolls right out. I use wonderlubed patches (.010 I think) and a lot of Bore butter, with good ole goex. Couldn't be happier.

 

[admiral]

tried .015 (remington pre-cut) patches over the weekend. the accuracy at 50 yards did improve but still not great. 3.5" 5-shot groups were average. got home and put one of the patches in the micrometer and it came out only .012 (no wonder they were on clearance).

took mic to walmart and found some cotton pillow ticking that mic-ed at .020 and .019 after washing. back to the bench this coming weekend. cut an oversized strip and lubed it, started a ball down the barrel about an inch and it was much tighter, pulled it out and had cloth imprint in the ball just as the T/C book described.

gonna be chewing one ragged hole at 50 yards saturday... i can feel it!

and then the next week is deer season! Woo-hooooo!

is 1" @ 50 yards too much to ask of a round ball? what is your experience?

 

[RCL]

One inch @ 50 yards certainly is possible with the right load, even with an un-scoped gun. I used to be able to do it with my T/C Pennsylvania Hunter (when my eyes were younger ), putting three balls together almost touching, like a clover leaf. The load was a Buffalo Bullet Co. .490 ball and T/C .015 pillow ticking patch over 90 grains of 3F Goex.
Fine tune your load until you find the guns sweet spot.