Bullet suggestion

[izee2]

I just picked up a nice 38 caliber 1850's era target rifle. It looks to be 1-44 twist, 5 lands and grooves, 29" barrel. I plan on shooting it at 100yds and need some advice. Instead of a round ball I would like to try to shoot some type of Bullet out of it. I do not know what type of bullet to try or even if there is such a bullet for this rifle. Any Ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[jmckenney]

Any markings to indicate the maker? That would be the first thing that might point you in the right direction for an appropriate bullet design. Are there any pin holes bored in the face of the muzzle, this would indicate that it was intended to use a paper patched cylindrical bullet and a false muzzle. I'd suggest you pick up a copy of Ned Roberts book "Shooting the Caplock Muzzle loading Rifle" for some indication of what designs were used with the different rifling types.

 

[izee2]

Sorry to say but there are no marks on this rifle. Lock face and barrel (even on the underside)are free of any markings. I am happy to say that the gun was made to use a false muzzle and I do have the original 4 pin false muzzle. I will try to get the book. Thanks.

 

[cliff mccann]

Try hard to find that book!I bought mine 25 years ago for 5 bucks,but it might go for $50-$100 now.It has lots of info on that type of rifle with lots of photos and is worth reading over and over!My favorite book after the Bible! Very possibly you'll find that rifle used a patched picket or sugar loaf bullet.Surely someone could make a mold for those simple style bullets.They should be pretty accurate too.

 

[fho]

izee2:
You can use the Green Hill formula to find the bullet length. The formula is (bore dia.x bore dia. x 130 divided by the twist). This should give you the length of the bullet. 130 seems to work better on muzzle loaders than 150.
Olie :m2c:

 

[fho]

Izee2:
I did some figuring and got a bullet langth of .420 with the green hill formula. This is just a rough estamate as I don't know the bore dimeter. I think that this rifle is a round ball gun as the difference is only .040 between the bore and the bullet length.
I have a friend that shoots a 25 caliber round ball gun 100 yards. It shoots very good.
Olie :m2c:

 

[gmww]

You might want to go to Mountain Molds site. He has a build your own bullet program which will also give you the correct length bullet for twist in your rifle. From what I figured your max bullet length for a 1:48" twist is .48. He did not have a 1:44" twist.

Mountain molds

Also, I'm experimenting with turning round balls into Ballets for my rifle. You might be able to do the same by obtaining a Lee bullet sizer in your caliber. Go to

Better mouse trap experiment

to see what I'm trying. Good luck.

 

[merdean]

Did you ever try your "BALLETS"? How did they work? :huh:

 

[izee2]

Thanks for all of the info. We thought that it might be a RB gun but the rifling seemed to shallow. RB's I have and I did have someone give me a couple of different bullets to try. So I'll be off to the range this weekend.
Thanks Again for all the input.

 

[gmww]

Not yet, I just came up with the idea on how t make them a day or two ago. I'm going to try and get to the range soon though. I believe that it will require some lube or even a wad (over the powder) to protect the sides. I don't see why it shouldn't be much different than the "Ballets" that CVA makes.

 

[shunka]

If you are interested in experimenting, you can start with over-sized lead bullets (such as lead .40 or .44 cal pistol bullets) and squeeze them to the desired size by rolling them firmly betwixt two steel plates. If one wished to get really accurate, one can make "stop blocks" of the appropriate thickness (ie: .390 , .395, etc) to place on either side of the bottom plate.

best
shunka