.54 loads?

[bob1961]

hi guys, long time no be hear sorry....I have picked up finishing my early Lancaster and looking for starting loads to try for my 42' barrel....right now I have .535 RB with pillow ticking from .012 to .018 thickness and stumpy's products I made using goex 3F powder in my .54 rice barrel....

going to try to contact rice to see what info he might have kept with the barrel spec's from when he made it for me with groove depth and such....where should I start working up loads from, thx :bow: ....

 

[Zonie]

Well, it has been a long time! Glad to see you made it back.

It sounds like you have all the fixin's to start finding out where your Lancaster is hitting and how small of a group it will shoot.

Where normally we suggest starting with a powder load that matches the caliber like, "54 caliber? Start with 54 grains of powder", I'll mention that most of the .54's I've shot like powder loads in the 75-85 grain range so you might want to start there.

Let us know how it shoots.


(I'll try not to delete your topic this time. :rotf: )

 

[bob1961]

hey thx zonie, yeah things got interesting after my surgery 9 years ago....put the rifle build on hold and now time to finish her....what deleted post ???....

 

[Zonie]

Well, you went to a lot of work to post about your TC Hawken with the super fancy wood from Pecatonica River Longrifles.
A lot of people responded to it and then someone (I don't remember who) made an inappropriate response to someone else's comment.

I decided to delete the comment but I hit the wrong button and ended up accidentally deleting the entire topic.

You were pretty PO'ed about it all at the time.

Anyway, getting back to your rice barrel's likes and dislikes, if it has the square cut rifling grooves the .015 thick patches might work fine.

If it has the round bottom grooves, it will probably like the thicker .018 patches better.

It's not so much that it needs a really tight fit patch/ball fit (like the shallow groove TC's like).
It is because the round bottom grooves are usually a little deeper so they need more patch thickness to seal them.

During your absence, some of our members have found that using a fiber or felt wad between the powder and the patched ball improves many muzzleloading rifles accuracy.

If you have any 28 guage wads laying around, you might want to try using them as an overpowder wad.

 

[Rifleman1776]

The 'best' load for your rifle depends on various factors, plus your personal preferences. Rifling twist is a big factor, use (target only or hunting) and what gives best accuracy. The standard advice is to start with bore size (e.g. 54 gr. real black powder) and shoot at 50 yards from a bench rest. Keep notes and adjust in five grain increments until your best group is achieved. Then, and only then begin fussing with sights, patch material/ lube, how you hold yer mouth, etc. :wink: Good luck.

 

[Spikebuck]

I've had a few .54's and all except one really like 90 gr's of 2F...so that would drop down into Zonie's recommended range with 3F (maybe.) I do have one .54 with a 44" barrel and 1-72 twist that wasn't happy until I hit 105 gr of 2F. I am using a .530 ball and .015 to .018 patch material. All guns sported square grooves, not the deep round-bottomed ones.

Good luck and welcome back.

 

[bob1961]

oh ok I remember now zonie, thx....things have been stressful as of the last few years, lol....just got off the phone with rice and he gave me all the info on my barrel, 7 round bottom grooves .015 deep with 7 lands with a .540 bore with a suggestion of .530 RB and .018 to start with....only RB I have now are .535 he said those look to be good with .012 patch thickness, thx once again and hope to have pictures of my finished rifle by years end :v ....

 

[bob1961]

yeah I have thought bout the wad way to help things out, standard 1/66 twist is what the barrel has....I had a load of 85gr in mind from years past to be a good starting point....I always have used GOEX 3F even for my pan....

 

[bob1961]

.28 gauge wads in what thickness .125 = 1/8" ??....

 

[Loyalist Dave]

In mine, since the legal minimum black powder load in a long gun in my state for deer is 60 grains... I began with 60. Then went to 70, and stopped as I had great accuracy with moderate recoil. I've downed lots of deer with that load out to 110 yards, so no worries.

LD

 

[Rifleman1776]

yeah I have thought bout the wad way to help things out, standard 1/66 twist is what the barrel has....I had a load of 85gr in mind from years past to be a good starting point....I always have used GOEX 3F even for my pan....

From experience, I am guesstimating that is about where you will end up for your sweet spot load.
BTW, I wouldn't call 1/66" twist "standard". That is a whole new cussing and spitting debate issue. :wink:

 

[bob1961]

just meant standard for .54 cal :v ....

 

[GANGGREEN]

My main deer rifle has Rice round bottom rifling in .54 caliber. If I'm not mistaken, I've been using the .535 balls and still use an .018 patch in front of 85 grains of FFFg. I tried FFg too, just to see if one was inherently more accurate in my rifle and didn't notice much difference, both were accurate loads with plenty for PA deer.

 

[bob1961]

thx all fer the replies :bow: :v ....

 

[mooman76]

I'd still start around 55 grains. Half the fun of a new rifle is working up the new loads to see what it will do. Enjoy!

 

[Rifleman1776]

just meant standard for .54 cal :v ....

Annnnnddd.....they are off...... :dead:

 

[bob1961]

just meant standard for .54 cal :v ....

Annnnnddd.....they are off...... :dead:

annnnddd why would they be off ?? :hmm: ....

 

[Zonie]

They might not be right now. It's summertime.

During the winter when half of our members have Cabin Fever, saying any caliber has a "standard twist rate" usually gets a bunch of peoples shorts in a knot and we hear arguments for or against the whole idea.

It's a winter time activity kind of thing.

Even the barrel makers can't decide on a fixed "standard" rate of twist.

For instance, speaking of a .54 caliber, Colerain shows a 1:56 in their "Golden Age 42" barrel and a 1:66" for their swamped 31" Jaeger. Green Mountain shows a rate of 1:70 for their straight barrel and Rice seems to like a 1:66.

When all is said and done, it really doesn't make a damn bit of difference.
They all shoot patched round-balls more accurately than the shooter can hold after the best powder/ball/patch/lube load is figured out.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Not exactly why you need wads fo any rifle caliber...kind of a waste of time for our crowd. If you intend to stoke up a load, toss another patch in before the patched ball...wil hold down the material burning of the patch around the ball till it's gone from the muzzle. If you don't do lots of shooting, go greased chamois patching. Compress better than cloth, don't smolder on ground adn can usually be reused...fun to but a bit of work.

Rifling twist is one of those things everybody has a n opinion on. Truthfully...don't know there is such a thing as standard or ideal in any caliber. Thruth is that rifling type is much more important to accuracy than twist rate. Quicky rule of thumb is the slower the rate the more powder needed to reach a certain velocity but the higher velocities are only obtainable, with accuracy, with the slower tsist rates. Folks shoot rifles with twist rates from 1-28" to 1-110"...maybe more and with a bit of work, they will all shoot. Way more flexibility in this sport than many imagine. :wink:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Not exactly why you need wads fo any rifle caliber...kind of a waste of time for our crowd. If you intend to stoke up a load, toss another patch in before the patched ball...wil hold down the material burning of the patch around the ball till it's gone from the muzzle. If you don't do lots of shooting, go greased chamois patching. Compress better than cloth, don't smolder on ground adn can usually be reused...fun to but a bit of work.

Rifling twist is one of those things everybody has a n opinion on. Truthfully...don't know there is such a thing as standard or ideal in any caliber. Thruth is that rifling type is much more important to accuracy than twist rate. Quicky rule of thumb is the slower the rate the more powder needed to reach a certain velocity but the higher velocities are only obtainable, with accuracy, with the slower tsist rates. Folks shoot rifles with twist rates from 1-28" to 1-110"...maybe more and with a bit of work, they will all shoot. Way more flexibility in this sport than many imagine. :wink:

I just hate it :cursing: when folks like you take all the fun out of a discussion with common sense and logic. Sheeesh...... :wink: :v