.56 Caliber TC Smooth Rifle ??

[shortstart]

Pennsylvania Hunter was an entirely different animal.

The T/C Pa. Hunter had a special 1in 48 twist for shooting maxi Balls

 

[bubba.50]

The Pennsylvania Hunter had 32in barrels with a 1 in 60 or 66 twist to shoot roundballs.

Later on when they were discontinued and TC was usin’ up what stocks they had left they used the same 28in barrels as the Hawken except with Penn Hunter markin’s and those did have the TC standard 1 in 48 twist to shoot maxi’s or roundballs.

 

[tenngun]

My Thompson Center owners manual, ©1992, says the .56 caliber Renegade smooth bore should be loaded with a .550 diameter roundball patched with a .015 thick lubricated patch. It shows 3 powder loads for this ball/patch combination. A 80 grain 2Fg powder load which it says it the "Optimum Accuracy & Performance" load, @ 1195 fps, a 90 grain 2Fg powder load @ 1285 fps and a red ink 100 grain 2Fg powder load @ 1300 fps. (TC's velocity listings are always very optimistic compared with the real world actual velocities.)

I thought those velocities a might slow. My Lyman black powder ballistics doesn’t have renagade velocities. It has .54 in 28” barrel an 80 grain charge of 3F shows a velocity of 1453. Then same load of C&H at 1319.
C&H isn’t as hot as GO, but it is 3F.
In.58 80 of 2F shows 1039 and 100 at 1201.
If manufacturers say use x powder (2F in this case) and you use 3F and the gun fails in some way it’s your fault.
Howsomever I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot 3F in a well maintained TC, and wouldn’t shoot a poorly maintained gun with any load.
But, I find lower charges work better in my smoothies, I shoot 70 in my .54 smoothie and my .62s with good results. That should be around 1600 FPS in .54 and 1300 in my .62s