I have a Cabela's 54 cal.rifle ,28 inch barrel. I shoot a 527 ball with walmart pillow ticking. blue and white. Its about 22 thousands thick. I load 60grs of Goex 3F. Now this is my hunting load and I limit my shots to 50yds. Its a very accurate load. I hunt Minnesota in in late Nov. and early Dec. so I have been using olive oil for patch lube. I have been out shooting off and on this summer and fall. I always collect the patches if I can to see what they look like. I notice that about 1 out of 4 or 5 will be blowin out about half cicle. Could this be caused by seating the ball right at the end of the barrel where it narrows? 60 grs would bring it up past that point I would think.The rest of them look good and could be used again. Your thoughts on this please and thanks.
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Blowin patches
- Thread starter Keppy
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One simple quick way to begin "problem determination" on this problem, is to either use an Oxyoke prelubed wonderwad over the powder as a firewall...or even just seat a spare lubed patch down on the powder first as a firewall.Hacksaw said:
Then seat the patched ball and shoot a few groups...if you're still finding blown patches you'll know it's not being caused by the fire.
Russianblood
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You may also want to switch patching material. I switched to Cotton Drill cloth and I've not had a blown patch since.
Big Hammer
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It is not widely known, but patches have a shelf life, especially if they are pre lubed with an animal or vegetable fat based lube. Being natural and organic, the lube starts to deterioriate--rot, if you will--and the cloth patch loses its strength right along with the lube breaking down. I pre lubed some pillow ticking with bear oil one time, and a buddy and I were shooting some patches that were about 4 months old. All of a sudden we both had smoking patches. We finally caught one just as it hit the ground, and noticed that the patch was actually splitting and the edges of the tear were catching on fire and burning a round hole in the patch. We changed to some fresh ticking and lubed as we went and the problem instantly disappeared. The Big Hammer
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I haven't done the math on your ball/patch combo, but that ball is pretty "skinny" compared to what I use in my 54's. I use a .530 /w .018 patch in one and .535 /w .015 in the other. whether or not the extra .004 in your patch thickness is enough to compensate for that .527 ball is a question I would try to solve if I was using it in my own. An easy way to check would be to pick up one of those 25-packs of Hornady .530 balls and try them with some other patches, too.
As others have indicated, I'd also experiment with your lube. I haven't run across olive oil being used by itself as lube, though I have heard it as an ingredient with other components. My experience cooking with olive oil tells me it's pretty sensitive to heat, so that makes me suspicious. Sure would smell good though!
As others have indicated, I'd also experiment with your lube. I haven't run across olive oil being used by itself as lube, though I have heard it as an ingredient with other components. My experience cooking with olive oil tells me it's pretty sensitive to heat, so that makes me suspicious. Sure would smell good though!
Thanks to all of you. I will try the extra patch on the powder charge. And as for the olive oil as lube I find that some of the other lubes freeze.I have a Bee's wax, olive oil, crisco and murphy's combo that works well in the summer. Its a late hunt here in Minnesota and cold. As for the patch material it is about a year old, but I don't lube it until the day I shoot. I don't want to change the ball size. I feel don't fix it, if it ain't broke. I have 3 inch group at 50yds. Thanks
You may find you get a BETTER group at 50 yds with a bigger ball. 3" is not that good a group at 50 yds., no offence meant. But you should be able to get groups half that size with the right combo.
Yea, this gettin' old ain't all it was cracked up to be, is it? :grin: The GOLDEN YEARS seem to be more lead than golden. :grin:
I simply center a spare patch over the muzzle then using something small like a screwdrive tip I push it in the middle of the patch to start it down the bore...the excess material will pucker up all around the walls of the bore, which is exactly where you want the excess to be...seat it down by itself with the ramrod...then seat the patched ball.Hacksaw said:
Roundballroundball said:
I was shooting this afternoon and all went well. The extra patch did the trick.I do shoot a smaller ball in the my 54 cal. most of you. But it loads easy and I feel it shoots very well for deer.
I feel that it may not fit as tight and that is what causes the blownin patches.I tried some denin jean material today. It loaded hard and there were not one blowin patch. I know I could have used those patches over. So thanks again.
NoJacketRequired
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Just as an additional bit of info, I recently tried the Traditions brand of wonderwads under my PRB. I had been noticing my patches were starting to tear around where they would engage the rifling as I worked my loads up from 70grFFg Triple Seven to 90 grains in my .50 cal Traditions Hawken. Accuracy at 90 grains was no screamin heck (about 5"), given this rifle will put three balls in one hole at 50 yards using a 70 grain load.
As an experiment I loaded up some 90-grain loads with the Traditions wonderwads under them and was able to produce groups in the 1.5" centre-to-centre range, certainly adequate for deer hunting. So, use of the over-powder wad made quite a difference for me, both in improving accuracy and improving my ability to re-use patches! LoL (heck, I've even been able to find some of the wads and re-use them, which is a good thing given their price!)
As an experiment I loaded up some 90-grain loads with the Traditions wonderwads under them and was able to produce groups in the 1.5" centre-to-centre range, certainly adequate for deer hunting. So, use of the over-powder wad made quite a difference for me, both in improving accuracy and improving my ability to re-use patches! LoL (heck, I've even been able to find some of the wads and re-use them, which is a good thing given their price!)
