bore is extremeley tight.

[alaskasmoker]

Having a hard time loading my T/C Big bore.

SO far I have used the .570 round ball, with a .010 patch, and hornady great plains conicals.

Both projectiles are a real bear to get in.

Im swabbing between shots, everything is lubed up.

I get pretty good accuracy with the round ball. The conical has some real bad verical stringing at 50 yards.

I sure am deforming up everything smashing it in the bore. The conical especially get either a big ring around the front or the tip smashed badly or pushed to the side, depending on wich jag Im using.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You have to measure the bore, and the balls you use. Sounds like your gun would use the .562" diameter lead balls, rather than the larger .570". But always use a caliper to measure the bore of any MLer you acquire before buying balls.

If the rifle barrel is clean, and you think the company has sent you a lemon, call them and return it to them to make it right. There is a lifetime warranty on T/C guns, and the company will do the right thing.

 

[Swampman]

For me, a smaller round ball and thicker patch always shoots better.

 

[sundog]

I'll go along with Paul on the .562. One of my .58s loves .562s. That rifle is a bear to load with a .570 and next to impossible with a .575.
With .562 balls I can use pillow ticking patches and get good accuracy.

 

[410-er]

I have the TC Big Boar and use .020 pillow and a .570 RB.Tight till it starts but slides down smooth.Might try giving her a scrub with 0000 steel wool with oil to polish up that bore.It won't hurt.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Having a hard time loading my T/C Big bore.

SO far I have used the .570 round ball, with a .010 patch, and hornady great plains conicals.

Both projectiles are a real bear to get in.

Im swabbing between shots, everything is lubed up.

I get pretty good accuracy with the round ball. The conical has some real bad verical stringing at 50 yards.

I sure am deforming up everything smashing it in the bore. The conical especially get either a big ring around the front or the tip smashed badly or pushed to the side, depending on wich jag Im using.

You PROBLEM is..Thats a .54 Cal NOT a .58!!!

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :surrender:

Sorry.......

 

[alaskasmoker]

Well I just measured the bore, patches and the conicals.

The conicals are .587 and the patches are .015.

The bore seems to be right on at .580

Ill just have to find some right size patches. And maybe some better lube for the conicals.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Unless you made a typo, what you are telling us is that the conicals you are using are .007" OVERSIZED for that bore. Yeah, that would be " tight"!!! :shocked2: :cursing:

Your choice is to use a minie ball( Hollow based) in .577 diameter( a Lyman mold is available) or one of the flat based .58 caliber conicals( Hornady, Lyman). Neither would be used with a patch, however. You can get better performance from both using a thick, hard, OP Wad under them, to protect both the base of the bullets from gas blow-by, and melting of the bases, and seal the gases behind the wad.

If you are going to use bare lead conicals, you might want to use a section of barrel( cut off when the gun is made) to engrave the rifling on the conicals before they are loaded in your barrel, particularly if you are going to insist on continuing to use .587" diameter conicals. Running such an oversized bullet through such a swaging die, made from a discarded section of barrel, base first, will shape the bullet to your barrel, and cut the grooves in the bullet so they easily line up with the grooves in your muzzle as you load the bullet in the barrel.

You can buy ROUND BALLs in .562", .570", and .575" diameters to use with a lubed patch. The .570" should work with that .015" patch and lube, in your rifle. The .575" ball will be a very tight fit, but its the kind of ball target shooters like to use for best accuracy. They don't mind the hard, and slower loading involved.

Another consideration is that the crown on the muzzle may be inadequate, as many people report having lots of problems starting these large caliber balls, but once into the barrel they go down fairly easily. That is an indicator that the crown needs to be polished, to remove the short abrupt shoulder that you see in the muzzle as you look at the lands. Use emery cloth, and a round handle to polish and taper the crown into the barrel so that the ball or bullet is not having to overcome both the lands, and the patch thickness all at once when you start the ball into the barrel.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Well I just measured the bore, patches and the conicals.

The conicals are .587 and the patches are .015.

The bore seems to be right on at .580

Ill just have to find some right size patches. And maybe some better lube for the conicals.

MOST comercial Conicals are designed to load and shoot as is NO patches needed / required. You might try just loading some and shootin-em naked. :wink:
I shoot a hornady GP and its beveled from .501 to .507 I believe (for a .50cal) shoots great!

 

[alaskasmoker]

Ill polish that crown. Cause once everything is started they go right down that barrel with no fuss. Especially the Ball.

I measured that conical again. .587 at the top, on the bottom its .577 Im using Hornady Great Plains.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Okay, that bullet, as already indicated above, is stepped, to help both center the bullet in the barrel, and to engrave the rifling on the lands to " lock it" to the lands and grooves during firing. Remember, the larger the bore diameter you use, the more area you have to resist loading a tight ball or bullet at the muzzle. You can deform a soft bullet or ball in a smaller caliber barrel just as easily as you are finding with this .58 caliber rifle. A smaller caliber( .36, .40, .45) just won't require so much of a " whack " on the short starter to get it going past the muzzle.

Square edges on lands at the muzzle gouge out chunks of lead from the edges of your bullet, rather than pushing the lead forward, to the ogive of the bullet. That adversely affects accuracy, because the bullet flying down range may weigh differently from the one before and after, based on how much lead is removed. Polishing that crown and tapering the front edge of the lands allows the lands to be engraved on the bullet, push some of the lead forward, and leave most of the lead attached to the bullet.

If you ever get a chance to look at a Browning Mountain rifle, those guns had the best rounded crowns for loading balls and bullets of any I have seen from a commercial maker. I bought 3 of them in the going out of business sales, all in .54, and sold them to club members. Everyone of the new owners bragged to me about how easy it was to load PRB down those barrels, compared to other guns they owned. One let me load his gun just so I could feel how easy it was. It Was far easier to load that .54 PRB than it was for me to load my .45 Cal. PRBs. in my rifle. In fact, I went home, and polished my crown some more. It made a difference.

Oh, to avoid deforming the nose of the bullet, you will have to turn a loading/cleaning jag down with a lathe, so that the nose of the jag matches the shape of the nose of the bullet. That also helps, BTW, in centering the bullet in the bore. I know a many who even turns the jag on the end of his short starter to aid in centering conicals right from the beginning of pushing it down the barrel. He gets very good accuracy, and I can't remember a flyer he didn't call.