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.62 barrel twist rate ?

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wbyman

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I would like opinions on the best twist rate for a .62 caliber rifled barrel to shoot 700 and 900 grain conicals behind 200 grains of black. I thought 1 twist in 48". Also could a guy shoot round balls in that barrel with say 50-70 grains of powder ? It will be 32" long. Thanks
 
I watched a friend fire a .62 cal jeager off hand, loaded with 125 gr FFG and a patched ball. Rick is a fair sized boy, and the recoil set him back a coupla steps.

I wouldn't want to fire a RB, much less a conical with a 200 gr charge.

The owner of the jeager had taken several categories of LARGE African game with that rifle, shooting 250 gr FFG and a RB, a month prior to the "demonstration".

I certainly would not want to shoot that load. At my age, it takes too long to heal.

J.D.
 
I used to have a .62 rifle. I shot it over 75 grains of 3F. On a few memorable occasions I double charged it to 150 grains for one stupid reason or another. That bad boy really rocked me back. I figure that if I had used 200 grains, I would have spun around and drilled myself partway into the ground.

A load like you are talking about would kill at both ends. If the gun doesn't weigh 25 or 30 pounds the recoil will be impressive.

Many Klatch
 
Not to discourage you from getting what you want...if you want a slug shooting 62, then get one. That being said:
I had a long talk some time ago with Blue Grouse of[url] Underhammers.com[/url] regarding this very issue. First of all, he said that there is NOTHING that walks, short of maybe really large African game, that can take a .62 roundball in the vitals and keep walking. Then we got to talking about twist rate. I cited the 62 Zephyr as having a 1 in 104 twist that is supposed to be great for stabilizing roundballs. He said that it does, provided that you use upwards of 175 grains of poweder to get it going. Seems that stabilization is more a function of RPM of the bullet than pure twist rate. He recommended a 1 in 48 with the 62 :hmm: for general North American big game hunting, up to and including elk. That is with about 90 grains of powder. He said if you go 1-66 or 1-72, the slower twist rate would require more velocity to generate the necessary RPM, hence more powder, hence more recoil. He mentioned that the original, European made Jaegers were rifled with what we would consider a fast twist, but they shot at short ranges with light powder charges, letting the weight of the ball do the work. The light charges required the fast twist to stablize the ball at the velocities generated.
 
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I am putting together a rifle for a possible cull elephant hunt[ which I can't yet afford, might never be able to]. So I want something for the 200 gr. charges and the big conicals. Also something I could use for deer with lighter charges.
 
Then I suggest that you contact Blue Grouse. He is a great guy and will talk to you, coach you along, and he has a great variety of slugs for you to try on for size. I refer you to this from his alternate web site, it may be of use to you: you first have to log in as a guest and then scroll down to ".62 load data"
[url] http://bluegrouseblackpowder.webexone.com/default.asp?link[/url]=
 
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i have a chambers .62 round ball rifle, and it finnaly quit cutting patches and shoots well with 100 grains 2fg in summer with 1/66 twist ..(115 gr in winter) im told by ed rayel that under that twist will be trouble. that being verified by a guy on mlml with a 1/56 or there abouts haveing accuracy problems.. the trouble with that is accuracy problems are just that, until you solve them you really dont know what the problem is..... ed rayel said 1 /72 would be better twist for a .62 rifle.. it is correct when the poster said velocity is the key to getting twist rate to come correctly into play.. another thing, if your accuracy is good at 50 yards but not at 100 yards your not spining fast enough, as your velocity drops to aproximatly half with a round ball at 100 yards.. this being said, the best load at 50 may not be the best load at 100 yards,.. the thing i cant figure out is why do they put deep rifling on a .62? the ogive is longer on the bigger balls and more lead is impacting the rifling.. you just dontneed over .012 on a .62 cal roundball gun.. i have a bout .012 - .013 or there abouts and have to hammer a .610 ball in to get max accuracy.. but that could be becouse i use heavy patches to stop cutting.. the .600 ball jsut isnt big enough to seal.is easy to load and shoot fair to poor... its pretty complicated to figure out what is really going on alright with these rarely made rifles.. .. another point: more recoil impedes accuracy in a slow burning powder gun with long barrel time.. minor hold variations throws the barrel into different possitions upon the exit of the projectile.. a tight hold or medium hold will give different elevations on the target as the recoil is overpowering the weight of the gun and shooters strenth.. it is important to increase loads in the winter becouse not only does the ball shoot lower becouse of velocity, but recoil is less, and this doubles the difference.. so temperature also is a bigger accuracy problem with heavy loads.... dave
 
First, I would recommend you try using .600 round balls in your rifle. That way you can use those thick patches, but still be able to run them down the barrel without using a mallet. If you insist on using the .610, use a thinner patch, but use an overpowder wad to protect the patch from burning, and to seal the gases behind the ball. That will also give you better velocity with less powder, so you can reduce the load, and reduce the amount of recoil you have to deal with shooting the gun at a match.

As to winter shooting, I have not found the need to add more than about 5 grains of powder to my " summer" load to get similar velocities in most guns. The concern about velocities dropping off in cold temperatures is valid, in target shooting, but it has little effect in the hunting fields. You are shooting a short range firearm, off the shoulder, with open sights, that you just cannot hold as closely to an aiming point as you could a receiver sight, or scope sight.
 
I've seen long barreled (48") .62 rifles shoot exceptionally weel with a 1 in 48 twist. You just can't pour alot of powder down them.
Most original large bored jeagers (.54 to .69)had 1 turn in the length of the barrel that I've examined. These had a tight patch/ball combo and didn't shoot alot of powder.
 
Mike Brooks,

What is your opinion on the 1 in 48" twist with the 700 and 900 gr. conicals and 200 gr. of FFG ?
 
My opinion? You'l burn out your vent liner inside of 6 shots and accuracy will go to hell in a hand basket. You'll have to have a platinum liner if you're planing on shooting humongus conicals.
What in Illinois are you planning to kill with a beast like that?
A patched round ball with 90 to 100 grains BP will kill anything on the north american continent.
 
Hi Mike,

Go up 5 or 6 post and it describes what my gun may be used for. It is for an underhammer.
 
For what it's worth, I bought a new GM 1" x 33" Flint .62cal (.610) smoothbore drop in barrel for a TC Hawken stock, and Ed Rayl is cutting rifled grooves into it this week.

In planning for it I told Ed I'd be using it for eastern whitetails at typical .30-30 woods distances with a .600/325grn ball & around 90-100grns Goex...without hesitation he recommended 1:72" with .012" square bottom grooves...said that's the groove configuration he recommends for .62cal rifled barrels he makes.

Hope to be range testing it in a couple of weeks.
 
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