Thompson Renegade

[MissouriCrowinMass]

A friend gave me a nice .50 Thompson Renegade. My only black powder experience previously is with a modern centerline breech plugger with 209 Primers & Sabots that I hunt with. My club runs a great Black Powder Safety Course - took it a few years back. But I'm still pretty green with BP.

Today, I shot six .490 lead balls with patches under 90 grains of 2fg. THe first shot was DEAD center at 50 yards. I was pretty happy. I was cleaning the bore between shots with damp patches of Windex. And drying with a dry patch before loading my powder.

I shot two 370 gr Maxi-Balls....no patch. They were 2-3" off Bullseye as were most of the other balls. They really KICK. Using 90 grs for them, too.

Two of the balls were WAY off the Bullseye. Like 8-10". No idea why?

Lot's of fun & smoke. I shoot a lot of Milsurp but I can see why you guys like the BP. I'm the type that enjoys cleaning firearms so giving my barrel a soap & water bath wasn't bad.

 

[SHIPCHIEF]

My brother uses 120 gr ffg Goex under maxi-balls in his 54 Renegade. He has a tang ladder type peep sight, and shoots a pie plate size group @ 200 yards.
I was trying 50 gr ffg under 54 cal maxi-ball in my New Englander today, and shot over 12" group at 50 yards! Bullet holes were ragged too, like maybe the bullets were tumbling?
I don't think you or I were using a big enough charge to stabilize the bullet?

 

[BHP FAN]

Round balls shoot better in most modern side lock replicas.My magic load is 60 gr. 2f Goex under a .490 round ball.If you like slugs or sabots,the inline is your game...of course there's nothing saying you can't have both!

 

[MissouriCrowinMass]

Here's the Renegade and the target. Other than the two ball flyers.....I can't shoot much better! I was very impressed with the rifle's ability. I never knew that replica's with round balls were so good?

 

[Bowhuntn]

you need to work up your load. I have a renegade(single trigger.. not a dbl set). I started out shooting patched round balls(using FFF powder). I started @ 60 gr.. shot a group of 3. swabed the bore. I'd go up 5 gr on the powder for the next group of 3 shots until I got my best grouping which for me was @75 grains. once I got past 75 gr my grouping got wider.
I did the same for the Hornady Great Plains bullets. My best grouping was @ 85gr and they out shot the round ball @ 100 yards.
I've shot maxi ball, maxi hunter and buffalo bullet but I never got the accuracy I wanted for hunting.
You should be able to try different grains of powder and find the best that works for you with the bullet or round ball you shoot