Looking for help on CVA Sharpshooter

[alemonkey]

I have an old CVA Sharpshooter .50 that I picked up several years ago. It's a pseudo-traditional sidelock with a pistol grip stock. I've never shot it much until recently when I pulled it out and started fooling around with it. I've been trying .490 round balls with .15 patches. I'm having some accuracy problems, so I'm thinking the twist isn't appropriate for that projectile. At 25 yards it shoots cloverleafs, but at 50 it's all over the place.

I've been sticking with the same bullets and patches, but I've tried a couple different lubes, along with various loads of Pyrodex and Swiss. Pyrodex seems to shoot better with T/C bore butter lubed patches, but the Swiss is better with spit lubed patches.

I've had better luck with Swiss, but since I have to order it I'd like to save it for my 45-70. It's not that much better than Pyrodex in this gun to be worth it.

Anyone have any suggestions for bullets that might work well? I'm not a big fan of sabots. The thought of plastic gunking up my barrel just creeps me out Also, if anyone knows anything about this gun I'd appreciate hearing about it. I've never seen much on the internet about it.

 

[arcticap]

I found this picture of a CVA Sharp Shooter. Is it the same as yours? It looks exactly like the discontinued Traditions Pioneer rifle that has a 1 in 48 inch twist. But it's possible that the CVA model has a different twist rate. See the linked thread for a method to check the twist rate and how to work up an accurate load.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=5022417&postcount=11

I don't know how much powder that you're loading or how bad the groups are at 50 yards. Not every gun has the potential to shoot one hole groups, at least not without some special effort like cleaning between shots and using consistent loading practices. Tell us about your loads. Sometimes they can be tweeked by using a slightly larger ball, a thicker patch or a different powder granulation.
And sometimes target loads require lower velocity.
Without actually knowing your twist rate, it's hard to recommend anything.
But there have been good accuracy reports about the Hornady FTB bullet when fired from a wide variety of guns with medium and fast twists.
There are links to info. about the FTB in the thread below:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=433421&highlight=hornady+ftb

BTW, modern sabots don't always gunk up the barrel with plastic fouling. Although shooting them does require swabbing between shots, they're capable of very consistent first shot accruacy from a cold, clean, medium twist barrel using hunting loads. Sabots with 240-250 grain bullets and 80 - 100 grains of powder just might be an option to consider trying out for long range shooting at 70 to 100 yards.
And there are .50 caliber sabots that will shoot .40/10mm bullets too in addition to all of the other sizes of sabot/bullets.
Check out the next link to see the different sabots that are available in bulk that allow the option of trying out a large variety of conventional bullets. Just swab with 90% alcohol, BP solvent or your favorite cleaner between loadings.
You might want try the same swabbing regimen between shots to obtain more accuracy when shooting PRB's or lead conicals anyway.

http://www.mmpsabots.com/

 

[alemonkey]

That looks a lot like mine, except mine has a more conventional trigger guard.

As far as loads, I've been using the patched balls mentioned in my first post, with anywhere between 60-100 grains of either Pyrodex or Swiss 1.5. It seems to shoot a lot better with lighter powder loads, but even so we're talking maybe 6-8" at best at 50 yards. Usually it's a lot worse, to the point where I have a hard time keeping it on the paper. I'm definitely not expecting stellar accuracy out of this thing, but it would be nice to squeeze a little more out of it.

If it does have a 1 in 48 twist, I'm wondering if that's too fast for balls. I've thought about checking the twist rate with the cleaning rod method, but I've been laid up with a back injury and feeling lazy so I figured I'd throw the question out on the forum I think I'll look into the FTB, I've seen those for sale at the local store. I might try a few other conical type bullets, too. Thanks for the reply!

 

[arcticap]

They say to only change one thing at a time when trying to work up a load. But when things go wrong then maybe changing more than one thing won't hurt very much either.
Things to try include:

1. swabbing in between shots or after a certain number of shots.

2. a thicker patch like .018 pillow ticking (tap tight loads in with a wood or plastic hammer if necessary).

3. cutting down some more on the powder to 40 - 45 grains, and then increasing it in 5 grain increments as you try out different items.

4. loading with Pyrodex P instead of RS, or another powder altogether.

5. compacting the powder consistently. Some folks like to use a lot of pressure to compact it when seating the ball, while others use less pressure.

6. a .495 ball with the thinner and thicker patch.

7. using a wool wad under the patched ball.

8. a different patch lube like Hoppe's #9 Plus Black Powder Solvent and Patch Lubricant.

9. clean and scrub the bore thoroughly to get it bright and shiny, use a bore brush if necessary.

10. saturating the patches with either more or less Bore Butter.

11. pace yourself when loading so that the barrel isn't still hot when you take the next shot.

I have one .45 rifle that prefers about 37 grains of Pyrodex P out to 50 yards. And using less powder creates less powder residue in the barrel so the barrel stays cleaner for more shots.

Let us know if anything changes or how things progress.

 

[alemonkey]

Sounds good, I just need to get out and experiment some more.

 

[frontiergander]

get a package of 295gr powerbelts. start out at 70gr pyrodex 2F and work your way up until accuracy falls off. 100gr i believe is the max on that rifle.

I could have sworn that these had a fast twist barrel.