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

[Idaho Ron]

They shoot fine in my Green Mountain .54 Match barrel. 70 grains 2F 1 ragged hole at 100 yards. I size them to .539 they slide right down with a touch on the ramrod.

It's funny that you say that. I have seen a pile of bullets that are slip fit shoot very well.

 

[Bad Karma]

It's funny that you say that. I have seen a pile of bullets that are slip fit shoot very well.

For whatever reason I always felt that a bullet sized a few thousandths over would have the best potential for accuracy. Then I came across writing by Roberts which indicated otherwise. The long range target shooters confirm this And the instructions for the Gibbs rifles from Pedersoli are to size a bullet so the weight of the ramrod seats it. Clean bore. I usually size hunting bullets to require a bit of a firm hand to seat and they don’t come off the charge.

Also, Lee Shaver cautions that the cartridge should be a close fit so the bullet is well centered in the bore upon ignition. Muzzleloaders have an advantage here if our bullets are closely fit.

 

[Africa58double]

My 1:48 Pedersoli Double .58 shoots Either a Patched round ball or…. a Lee REAL Bullet equivalent in accuracy. Both very accurate.
Both are 8 Bhn

 

[Christophero]

I just posted this for a fellow asking about the right conical bullet for elk. It fits in this thread as well:

T/C 370 grain Maxiballs and 355 grain Maxihunters shot fantastic in my T/C 1" in 48" twist T/C barrels. I cast the Maxihunters out of pure. I did find out in testing that 75 grains of fffg is where accuracy fell off. The report was akin to a center fire rifle blast instead of the normal ka-boom. I surmised that the poor grouping was the result of the pure lead stripping out of the shallow rifling.
The pure lead loads wonderfully and holds tight to the powder. The one time I used soft plumbing lead with some tin loading was horrendous, needing to carefully tap the bullet down the bore to seat and fire. I stayed with pure lead and approximately 1,200 fps (65 grains fffg). The 355 grain Maxihunter is perfect for deer, the same as two round balls hitting one behind the other in weight and design. That fine mold was lost in a move, unfortunately. I've since graduated to PRB for deer, though.

If I were to hunt elk with the 50 caliber the T/C 370 Maxiball would be my choice. Better punch through that thick hide and body. I've shot them with Nosler Partitions many years ago and respect the difference an elk is compared to deer.

Hope you get your rifle lined out soon.

 

[OldSmoky1967]

It's funny that you say that. I have seen a pile of bullets that are slip fit shoot very well.

I think it is this barrel. Also this particular bullet has b=very shallow grease grooves. For me the minies need to be around .001 smaller than the bore to work well.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The Minie' bullets should be 0.001" smaller in diameter than the land to land bore diameter.

 

[dcrummett]

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.

Hornady Great Plains bullet always shot very well for me with a .54 in 1:48. Now shooting .533 Lee mold Minnie with good result over a felt patch and "paper patched" with coffee filter material.

 

[Bad Karma]

The Minie' bullets should be 0.001" smaller in diameter than the land to land bore diameter.

Seems like that formula works well for grease grooved flat based bullets as well.

 

[muzzleloadingat18]

Nice. I'm looking forwards to trying the fifty in my scary black rifle, a tradition Deerhunter with a scout scope set up.

Hey man. How did that traditions deer hunter smoothie work. Was thinking of geting one drilled out as big as it will go. Any good?