Renegade Round Ball question.

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1861 Springfield

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To keep this topic on track id ask that you keep the conversation to the rifle and caliber im seeking advice and experience on . Ok i have a renegade flintlock in 54 and it refuses to shoot less than 6 inches at 50 yards benched. Nothing is wrong with me, the gun or my bench set up. My question for those who have real life experience with a 54 renegade using RBs In your personal experience have you had great success shooting RBs out of this gun and if so can you share your "consistant ,repeatable" results. I realize these are 1:48 twist and is suppose to be a happy medium twist rate but Im not seeing it.......thanks
 
How much powder and what kind? My .54 Renegade likes 70 grs of 2F with a .530 ball and a .018 cotton patch with mink oil lube. Most of my fast twist shoot round ball with lighter loads.
 
Des52 said:
How much powder and what kind? My .54 Renegade likes 70 grs of 2F with a .530 ball and a .018 cotton patch with mink oil lube. Most of my fast twist shoot round ball with lighter loads.
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I’m going with this. My dad when he was alive, tried round balls in his .54 Renegade. I still have it. I have no use for it as I’m a flinter guy. He eventually went with T/C maxi-balls. They kick like a mule.
Lower powder charges. The twist is too fast for heavy loads. You don’t need heavy loads. Heavy loads have diminishing returns. You can kill anything that walks with lower charges. Plus it’s more fun to shoot.

I don’t really have a use for this one. I prefer long rifles.
 

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I get 2" using a benched rifle rest with .530 balls, .015 patches prelubed with wonderlube usinf 70gr GOEX 3F. Mine is a .54 percussion.

I can only do 4" or so freehand.
 
Likely little help for the OP, but more TCs than I can remember in 54 caliber, percussion and flint, would shoot a tight fitting .530” patched roundball into little more than a ragged hole at 50 yards with an 80 to 90 grain load of black powder.
1861 Springfield said:
I realize these are 1:48 twist and is suppose to be a happy medium twist rate but Im not seeing it
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You have to wonder why most of the Hawken brothers guns back in the day had that ‘happy medium twist rate’ of 1-48? Maybe they didn’t know any better or possibly were ahead of their time? Though most likely that’s what their equipment produced, but apparently it worked. Next up will be depth of rifling.
 
I have 3 .54s but they have round ball twist barrels, they all like 80-85 gr of 2F and a .530 ball in a pocket drill patch. Not the same barrel as you have but it might be a starting point to try. I thought the Green Mountain drop in barrel on my TC was a 1 in 48 barrel but I checked and found it is 1 in 70.

What load are you shooting, powder, ball size, patching and lube?

Idaho Louis is the GURU on TC accuracy to an unbelievable level.

Here is his round ball TC 1 in 48 .54 accuracy test;

 
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flconch53 said:
I have a 54 renegade caplock. With60 grs 3f .530 ball and.015 ticking off a rest 5 holes touch at 50 yds. Right now it is the most accurate traditional rifle I have
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I have a .54 that has a 1in66 twist it love 80 grains of powder under a .530 ball! It is accurate as well. I can lower the charge and it still is accurate just drops down accordingly on the other hand if I start to raise the charge accuracy starts to deteriorate Not bad till I pass 95 grains but 80 grains is the tack driving ticket!
 
My Renegade .54 is a caplock but it shoots RB's great. I shoot 105gr. of Swiss 2F with an EMSS pillow ticking patch and a .532" round ball. I think that T/C's shoot best with tight combinations.
 
pchwcf50110 said:
My Renegade .54 is a caplock but it shoots RB's great. I shoot 105gr. of Swiss 2F with an EMSS pillow ticking patch and a .532" round ball. I think that T/C's shoot best with tight combinations.
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You need it tight if you are shooting big powder charges. It helps to stay engaged in the relatively shallow rifling
 
I find that my cap lock .54 Renegade likes a pretty tight patch/ball combo and very light lube on the patch.
Mine also absolutely likes to be swabbed between shots. I do one damp patch pass and then one dry patch pass between shots. I can get away with swabbing every other shot before groups open up, but I swab between every shot just for ease of loading.
Don’t forget to pop a cap after swabbing to prevent a fail to fire from fouling pushed into the patent breech.
80 grains of 3f, Schuetzen or Goex. .018” pillow ticking patch lightly lubed with Track of the Wolf mink oil. Lightly lubed meaning hand lubed just enough to coat the patch all the way out to the edges. .530 RB.

Last group I shot with the above at 50 yards off bags. 4 shots. Shot 3 left of the others was my fault.
 

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