Conical bullets best suited for Thompson Center shallow grooves 1/48" barrels.

[bennypapas]

I've always shot patch and ball out of my TC renegade with a shallow groove 1 and 48 barrel with decent results. But that was target shooting.

I'm interested in hunting this year's muzzleloader season and I'm wondering what conical bullets are best suited in that gun or in shallow groove barrels in general.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The T/C Maxi-Ball or the Lee REAL.

 

[LeonardC]

I cast and shoot the T/C Maxi-Ball (.54) in my Renegade as my hunting load when I dream of hunting big animals. I'm playing with patch and ball to reduce cost (lead and powder) for shooting paper.

I have the T/C Maxi-Hunter mold but have not used it. The Hunter should work fine for deer if you can find one.

Edit: Pirate's Son is doing a test of sorts on some new Lee molds. The thread is "Is Change a Good Thing?" in Shooting Accessories

 

[Timber Wolf]

I have tried the R.E.A.L. Bullets in a .54 Renegade and a .50 Hawken and was suitably impressed with them. Bullets were naked (unlubed) over homemade Durafelt lubed (Bees Wax/Crisco) wads. Just range use so far, but I don’t know why they would not do the deed on an animal.

 

[hanshi]

Shallow rifling, say under .006", is made for conical bullets. But the 1-48" shallow groove barrel typically welcomes prb but requires maybe a little more work to find that perfect load. Deeper grooves .006" and up, are better for prb but sometimes do well with conicals. Many shooters are afraid of 1-48" twists. But it's the groove depth that will tell you what it likely will prefer.

 

[RIDE-RED350R]

TC Hawken sending 320gr TC Maxi-Ball at 50yds. 1st shot low and right, adjusted sights and second shot went high left. Readjusted sights and shots 3,4,5, and 6 were on the money. I'd say the 1:48 shallow groove shoots conicals just fine.

 

[COTNTOP]

I shoot PA Conical in my TC Hawken 1-48 twist and PA Hunter 1-66 twist with no problems.

 

[bang]

With proper load build it will shoot PRB, maxi or mini just fine.

 

[user 48679]

When T/C MaxiBalls were pencilling through deer, making for a PITA tracking, I switched to T/C MaxiHunters, which usually made deer DRT (if I did my part OK) - IIRC, they were also a little heavier than the MaxiBalls

 

[renegadehunter]

Most that shoot a lot of conicals say that the 1:48 shallow groove TC's prefer one that is fairly short in length, no more than 1" or so.
You don't say what caliber you have but if it's a .50, Hornady Great Plains Bullets generally shoot really well in a T.C. Hornady stopped making them in all other calibers, .50 is the only one they still make.
I have shot a deer with one from my .54. The shot was 55 yards with a 100 grain charge of 2f, hit a rib on entry and exit hole was about twice the size of the entry. They are a hollow base designed to flare out and seal the bore, so I shot them without a wad. They did lead the barrel fairly quickly, but I got great accuracy with them.

 

[bennypapas]

Most that shoot a lot of conicals say that the 1:48 shallow groove TC's prefer one that is fairly short in length, no more than 1" or so.
You don't say what caliber you have but if it's a .50, Hornady Great Plains Bullets generally shoot really well in a T.C. Hornady stopped making them in all other calibers, .50 is the only one they still make.
I have shot a deer with one from my .54. The shot was 55 yards with a 100 grain charge of 2f, hit a rib on entry and exit hole was about twice the size of the entry. They are a hollow base designed to flare out and seal the bore, so I shot them without a wad. They did lead the barrel fairly quickly, but I got great accuracy with them.

It's a .50.

Did you ever have any trouble with them not staying put on top of the powder charge after loading?

I ruined a barrel once with a ball that wasn't properly seated so I'm terrified of the idea of a chronicle that doesn't have a nice tight patch fit to the barrel creeping forward between loading and taking a shot. Sometimes there are hours and hours between loading and seeing a deer.

 

[brownac1983]

Mine shoots the LEE R.E.A.L 320gr slugs lubed with Alox over 75-85 grains of FFFg very well. I can load up to about 95 grains before accuracy starts to tail off, but I've made through-and-through shots on bucks with 75 grains.

 

[LeonardC]

When T/C MaxiBalls were pencilling through deer, making for a PITA tracking, I switched to T/C MaxiHunters, which usually made deer DRT (if I did my part OK) - IIRC, they were also a little heavier than the MaxiBalls

It seems to me my T/C molds had the Maxi-Balls heavier than the Maxi-Hunters. I dug out the (unopened) factory package for the .54 Maxi-Hunter mold and there are only 2 spaces listed for the Maxi-Hunters; one for .54 (#7376) and one for .50 (#7375). It does not say how heavy the bullet is.

My T/C manual lists Maxi-Balls for the .50 as 320, 370 and 460; for the .54 as 365, 430, and 530 grains. (My mold is .54 and 430 grains.)

The manual lists Maxi-Hunters for the .50 as 275, 350, and 470; for the .54 as 360, 435, and 540 grains.

 

[kelljp]

I've been trying different ones and the lubed TC Maxi-Ball seems to give me the tightest groups. L used a felt was between the bullet and powder, this resulted in the group moving 4-5 inches higher at 50 yards. I also bought some TOW maxi-balls and the diameter is too close to load. I've ordered the HornadyPA conical to try. We'll see.

 

[renegadehunter]

It's a .50.

Did you ever have any trouble with them not staying put on top of the powder charge after loading?

I ruined a barrel once with a ball that wasn't properly seated so I'm terrified of the idea of a chronicle that doesn't have a nice tight patch fit to the barrel creeping forward between loading and taking a shot. Sometimes there are hours and hours between loading and seeing a deer.

Yes sir, I did see that with them.
They start hard, but then once the rifling engages them, they get pretty easy to push down by the time you seat them on the powder. I leave my rifle loaded during hunting season and always checked them at the beginning of a hunt and at the end. I only caught one off the powder one time. The one time I caught it I was elk hunting. I had rode into the area on an atv and found a spot I wanted to stillhunt. I checked if the bullet was still seated before capping the rifle and starting to hunt, and found it to be an 1" or so off the powder. The bumpy/vibrating atv ride had caused it to move off the powder.
After that I started putting a coating of olive oil / bees wax, mixed 50-50, into the bore after stripping the rust preventative, but before loading, so the bore was a bit sticky. Before that I was just loading up the rifle on a clean bore after having stripped the rust preventative out of it.
I didn't ever catch one off the powder again, I think coating the bore helped quite a bit. But definitely something to be mindful of with a conical. It is one of the reasons I just use PRB for everything these days.

 

[bennypapas]

Yes sir, I did see that with them.
They start hard, but then once the rifling engages them, they get pretty easy to push down by the time you seat them on the powder. I leave my rifle loaded during hunting season and always checked them at the beginning of a hunt and at the end. I only caught one off the powder one time. The one time I caught it I was elk hunting. I had rode into the area on an atv and found a spot I wanted to stillhunt. I checked if the bullet was still seated before capping the rifle and starting to hunt, and found it to be an 1" or so off the powder. The bumpy/vibrating atv ride had caused it to move off the powder..

I found a box of pre-lubed 320gr maxi-balls locally so I'm going to try those.

I almost exclusively still hunt from a stand and I walk in. I can check that the projectile is properly seated when I get in the stand so I think I'll be ok.

Probably won't be a bad idea to tip the muzzle down first, then check the load. Will give me a good idea if the slug is loose fitting.

 

[nkbj]

General comment about 48" twist...
It's quite a bit faster in .54 than in .50.

 

[OldSmoky1967]

TC Hawken sending 320gr TC Maxi-Ball at 50yds. 1st shot low and right, adjusted sights and second shot went high left. Readjusted sights and shots 3,4,5, and 6 were on the money. I'd say the 1:48 shallow groove shoots conicals just fine.
View attachment 171263

It is hard to argue with those results!

 

[RIDE-RED350R]

General comment about 48" twist...
It's quite a bit faster in .54 than in .50.

Can you elaborate on this?

Edit: nevermind, I read you

 

[Pukatea Bay Boy]

TC Hawken sending 320gr TC Maxi-Ball at 50yds. 1st shot low and right, adjusted sights and second shot went high left. Readjusted sights and shots 3,4,5, and 6 were on the money. I'd say the 1:48 shallow groove shoots conicals just fine.
View attachment 171263

That's some fancy shootin.
Very impressive.