FF or FFF in .54 Caliber?

[vietnam71]

My .54 GPR likes 80 to 90gr of either FF or FFF powder. Using a .535RB, ticking I cut myself with Ballistol or Mink Oil as a lube.

I also use a wool wad which has been coated with a little Ballistol over the powder..

 

[azmntman]

FF or FFF in .54 Caliber?

YES

shoot em test em and then see what shoots best? Yers and mine may be same gun same maker and made same day and prefer one over the other. Had two invest arms 54 hawkins I bought for me and the ol man and they both had different tastes, ordered same day from same vendor so they likely were made withing day or so of each other...not consecutive serial numbers but very very close.

 

[Billnpatti]

Muzzleloading rifles are like children, each one is different. We had two kids, one loved carrots and the other gagged on them. Go figure. Anyway, just like feeding kids, you have to figure what your particular rifle likes and then feed it that. 2f or 3f? Just give it whichever one it shoots most accurately.

 

[Wes/Tex]

What Bill said! :wink: Just start with a ball about .010" smaller than bore size and a lubed patch in the .015"-.017" thick range. It's a start. Start about 50-55 grains of both granulations and work up slowly...you will probably top out about 75 grains of FFFg and around 90 of FFg. These are only rough approximations. The gun will tell you when it's happy...then you can fine tune ball size or patch thickness to see if that makes any difference. Just think of it as a good excuse to go shooting.."Sorry dear, not finished fine tuning the new rifle's loads!" Oh, good luck getting away with that last one! :rotf:

 

[TMan51]

Start about 50-55 grains of both granulations and work up slowly...you will probably top out about 75 grains of FFFg and around 90 of FFg.

New to the forum, I read through this thread a couple times, reflecting on my use of 2F/3F since the late 70's.

When my Lyman BP Handbook came home, I read through the patched ball data with much interest, and the tech descriptions on how the data was developed. Lyman stated that up to .54cal, there were few advantages to 2F, and based on the economy and burning properties, they did all of their work on .36cal-.54cal on 3F. I haven't purchased a lb of 2F since 1980.

My question is, what is the pressure limit for a BP rifle, of modern steel, in good condition. ??? Lyman ran several evaluations to 14K CUP. About the level of a moderate .38 Special load.

I've encountered a few statements that a BP barrel in good condition couldn't be damaged with a patched ball, as the patch would, in effect, act as a safety valve. ???

My T/C rifle, loses accuracy FAST above 80gr, (volume/85gr wt), a .490 patched ball with a greased 0.018 patch. My .53 Cal Track of the Wolf Hawken can easily consume 110gr/wt, with no loss of accuracy, .520 ball/0.018 patch. Any more and the patches look pretty poor. Velocity is close to 1800fps. Lyman runs the study out to 160gr.

The recipes have not needed a change since I worked them up. But they seem well over the level of recommendations in the thread.

 

[rr11]

I use fffg in my .54s, in my experiments my velocity appears faster with it as apposed to ffg. Nothing set in stone just how it shoots, my point of impact is one inch higher at 75 yards.

 

[nhmoose]

3f is becoming my standard powder. No matter bore size or for the prime. Targets show the difference and for most shooting 3f is great.

Line shooting where fractions count needs total development of the load anyway.

 

[Zonie]

About the only big bore guns that really seem to like 2Fg powder are the smoothbores.

I guess it's the heavy weight of the shot or balls that make the gentle acceleration of the slower burning powder work better.

That assumes you can call accelerating from stationary to 1100 fps in 28 inches distance and thousandths of a second gentle. :rotf: