load velocity

[dr1445]

new here, so hello all. i have worked up a 50 cal rifle load using, lee mold, cast .451" round balls for my revolver, in harvester 45/50 sabots. to date it looks like 85 or 90 grains pyrodex rs with a small rifle primer on a #11 nipple will get me a 3/4" group at 50 yds. i have no clue on the load velocity, anyone care to take an educated guess?

 

[desidog]

Welcome to THR.

Round ball in a sabot? I bet your velocities are all over the place.

Most rifles are either designed for shooting sabots or shooting patched round ball. Not many do both well...and certainly not at the same time! Find out the twist rate of the rifling in your barrel, and proceed from there. Slower twists are better for round ball.

Once you've figured out the twist rate; if it's slow like 1:60, get a proper .490 ball and some .10 patches... you'll have much better results. If it's a fast twist rate, get some proper bullets for those sabots.

 

[dr1445]

desidog, thanks for the welcome. i have1;28 and 1;32 twist rifles the 1;32 shoots marginally better, neither is said to be good for patched round balls. 3/4" groups do not indicate wild velocity fluctuations but i have no way to measure speed. the load is easy to load and low cost to shoot at the range.

 

[J-Bar]

The old timers would listen for the supersonic "snap" when the projectile exceeded 1100 fps as an indication they were getting close to the right powder charge. Others would spread a sheet in front of the muzzle and increase the powder charge until they found unburned grains of powder on the ground, indicating they had exceeded a maximally efficient load.

Frankly, if your groups are that good, I would not be concerned with velocity. But a SWAG would be about 1300 fps.

Go shoot a deer and don't worry about it.