.520's in a .54cal Smoothbore?

[roundball]

Recap:
I have a great .54cal GM Flint smoothbore barrel that is surprisingly accurate with 70grns Goex 3F, Oxyoke wonderwad, .015" cotton patch, and a Hornady .530...shoots like a rifle to the 50yds I've tested it.

I mentioned before however, that I get unexplained flyers if I go above 70grns 3F...have experimented with different powder charges, both 3F and 2F, one, two, and three wads, different thickness patches, etc...no help...can almost count on getting one flyer a few inchesw off to the side of the 5 shot group if I exceed 70grns3F (or 80grns 2F).

Thought I'd try some Hornady .520s with different patches to see if it might eliminate the flyers.....wondered if anybody had any first hand experience going to a smaller ball in a smoothbore under these circumstances?

 

[Slowpoke]

Is that combo you're using hard to load??? You're get great result out of it, the only reason I would change anything is if you want it easier to load. I would suspect that your group will open up with that .520 ball, but you'll have to try it out for sure.
I can't shoot anything over 70g of 2f in my 54 smoothbore either.... starts opening up on me.

 

[roundball]

Is that combo you're using hard to load??? You're get great result out of it, the only reason I would change anything is if you want it easier to load.

It's pretty tight and requires a short starter but I use a short starter on everything so that's not a problem...and to be honest, at the typical 25-50yd distances I shoot deer I probably don't need any more punch...had simply set out to duplicate my rifle loads when I detected this 'flyer' situation and had to hold it at 70grns 3F as hunting season was starting and I had no time to experiment...now it's become a challenge to figure out why it's doing it.

I would suspect that your group will open up with that .520 ball, but you'll have to try it out for sure. I can't shoot anything over 70g of 2f in my 54 smoothbore either.... starts opening up on me.

Well, that's good to hear in that it probably isn't something unique to my particular barrel...I stumbled across 5 boxes of Hornady .520s delivered for $5/box...figured I'd give them a try...worse case I can use them up shooting steel targets

 

[tg]

I have shot .530 balls in a .58 smoothie with a thick patch and it grouped as well as the .562 balls with a thinner patch, your range work will tell the story on your gun.

 

[roundball]

I have shot .530 balls in a .58 smoothie with a thick patch and it grouped as well as the .562 balls with a thinner patch, your range work will tell the story on your gun.

Planning to test it this coming Saturday...I'll keep the powder charge & wad the same, just substitute the smaller ball and thicker .018" pillow ticking to see if there's any change...then start playing with powder charges in either case...(whether it prints as good as the .530 & .015" or not)

 

How'd it go? A friend has had good luck with undersized balls in his smoothbore, although his is a .50 smoothie and he is using .457 balls...it shoots like a rifle at 50 yds.

 

[roundball]

It'll be this coming Saturday before I can test them...

 

[peashooterJoe]

Roundball, how did the rifle shoot with the .520 ball?

 

[roundball]

Roundball, how did the rifle shoot with the .520 ball?

(I'll know in the morning)

 

[roundball]

Recap:
I have a great .54cal GM Flint smoothbore barrel that is surprisingly accurate with 70grns Goex 3F, Oxyoke wonderwad, .015" cotton patch, and a Hornady .530...shoots like a rifle to the 50yds I've tested it.

I mentioned before however, that I get unexplained flyers if I go above 70grns 3F...have experimented with different powder charges, both 3F and 2F, one, two, and three wads, different thickness patches, etc...no help...can almost count on getting one flyer a few inchesw off to the side of the 5 shot group if I exceed 70grns3F (or 80grns 2F).

Thought I'd try some Hornady .520s with different patches to see if it might eliminate the flyers.....wondered if anybody had any first hand experience going to a smaller ball in a smoothbore under these circumstances?

The wad was causing the flyers.

I used the Hornady .520s this morning without changing anything else...(70grns Goex 3F, Oxyoke wad, .015” prelubed Oxyoke cotton patch)...and the POI changed with the smaller ball but it still grouped very well.

As soon as I began bumping up the powder charge I started getting flyers again but even worse with the .520s. Tried .018 pillow ticking, no help...tried different powder charges, 3F & 2F, still got flyers.

I sat down and racked my brain for anything I hadn't experimented with yet...thought about the wad...decided to shoot some groups without it, and immediately started getting holes cutting each other and no more flyers.

In 15+ years of using Oxyoke wads in my rifles I never experienced anything but tighter groups if used wads with high power hunting loads so I just never considered it...using one in this smoothbore was just automatic.

Once I discovered the flyers disappeared I looked at my Ziploc bag full of a couple hundred wads laying on the bench in the sunlight and I noticed something different in the color.

Upon close inspection, there were two different types of wads mixed together (from previous separate purchases) and It appears some previous bag(s) of .54cal wads I bought and dumped in with others already in the bag are different...about half of them are normal Oxyoke fairly firm wooly type wads, orange colored from the Natural Lube 1000, etc.

And about half of them are a lighter blonde color that are very, very soft, spongy, flimsy...not much 'body' at all, and they appear to be lubed with a thinner oil type lube...those were under the Remington label.

It may be that whenever I used one of those flimsy wads with high power charges, I was getting blowout on an edge...although in previous range sessions I tried to take that in consideration by using 2 then 3 wads with no help.

So I’m not sure why the wads were the culprit, but without them, 90grns Goex 2F, .015" Oxyoke plain cotton patch, and Hornady .520s just shoot beautifully, shoots like a rifle.

Went back to the .530s without a wad and they were not quite as good as the .520s in terms of group size...although this was at the end of the range session and I'd run through about 60 of the 90grn loads by then...probably need to try a .520 vs. .530 comparison another time when I'm fresh, but for sure the .520s without a wad worked beautifully today in this GM .54cal Flint smoothbore.