Caliber help

[Aaron todd]

I just got a 36. Cal rifle built by Henry leman I think, and it's my first muzzleloader. I got .350 roundballs and .15 patches, the .350 balls are way to tight so I got .340 balls and those are too tight as well. I can get them down the barrel but I have to use a hammer should I go down to .323 balls any help would be appreciated thankyou.

 

[brewer12345]

Have you measured your bore? Pin gauges would help a lot.

Rather than go that far down in ball size, I would try a thinner patch.

 

[Grenadier1758]

It is very important to be able to measure the land to land diameter of barrel in order to select a starting diameter of ball size. @Aaron todd, you can use the shank of your fractional drill bits to get a notion of approximate land to land bore diameter. A 23/64 bit is 0.3594" , the 11/32 bit is 0.3438", the 22/64 bit is 0.3281. The fractional bits are a little coarse for best measurements, but most of us have the fractional drills and you will be able to determine if the rifle is a 36 or a 32. If you have a digital vernier caliper and an even number of lands in the barrel, you will get a reasonable measurement of the bore diameter. Patch thickness of 0.010" might be a test step with the 0.340" ball.