How tough would a 495 ball be to load in my 50cal T/C Hawken

[Robby]

I use .023 pillow ticking for both .490 and .495. The latter takes a little harder bop on the short starter but once in, they go down pretty much the same.
Robby

 

[flntlokr]

Just curious I was given a box of 495 balls wondering how tough they would be to load instead of 490”s
Just don’t want to start it down the barrel then find out it wont go and have to pull it I know how much fun that can be if its really in there. I figure i would try with my thinnest Cotten patch and work my patch thick up a little at a time till I find its happy zone.

I more or less used them interchangeably. The fat ones are a bit tougher to load at first. Try a thinner patch if that bothers you.

 

[Ben Meyer]

I recently switched from .490 to .495 balls. I changed to a thinner drylubed cotton patch, and it's no harder to load than the .490s with a thicker patch.

I had to play around with the patching, trying different materials, thicknesses and lubes, but my groups are better now(1.73" 5 shot group at 50yds from a bench). Its not as easy as "just switching." Will take some shooting and experimenting to re dial it in.

 

[Oldbear63]

I have been using .495 with a thin .005 patch and it has worked fine, but I ordered some .490s and I will try to schedule a trip to the range to punch a few holes to see which is better.

 

[jimairwin]

I have been using .495 with a thin .005 patch and it has worked fine, but I ordered some .490s and I will try to schedule a trip to the range to punch a few holes to see which is better.

Tighter is usually better. I loaded some 54 cal balls into a 50 cal and that worked well, too!
Use a thicker patch. .005 is way thinner than "normal" (.015 to .020)

 

[Crow-Feather]

Just curious I was given a box of 495 balls wondering how tough they would be to load instead of 490”s
Just don’t want to start it down the barrel then find out it wont go and have to pull it I know how much fun that can be if its really in there. I figure i would try with my thinnest Cotten patch and work my patch thick up a little at a time till I find its happy zone.

sounds like the way to go.

 

[JohnnieT]

I have three .50’s. All will shoot .490 or .495 as long as I pay attention to patch size. One is an Investarm rifle, one is a Traditions rifle, and one is a Traditions pistol. I haven’t noticed a terribly significant difference in loading as long as the correct patch thickness is used. I prefer .490’s, but if .495 is what you have it’s not a bad way to go.

 

[user 36911]

If you haven't tried it yet. Use plenty of patch lube and a patch at least .005 thinner than you used for the .490 ball.

Make sure all fouling is cleaned from the bore.

 

[user 49399]

I have an older Thompson Center Hawken .50 caliber and it is very difficult to load a .495 ball unless I use a very thin patch, a generous amount of lube and a short starter. I do not like this loading method. That’s why I started using the same loading method in my rifles that I use in my smooth bores.

Check out my thread ”Wacky Shooting “ in the percussion rifle section if you want to see how I do this. It’s quick and easy but maybe not for everyone. It’s just something different I do. In the pictures I used a Traditions but I do the same with my Thompson Center.

 

[TexiKan]

When I first got into the hobby in the 1970's, tight loads were encouraged along with .495 as opposed to .490. So I used .495's and like others, found the tight combination to be a bit more of a challenge and frustration to load. I decided to switch to .490's and a thicker patch and I eventually found a snug yet smoother loading option which remains as it seems to be more consistent for that process.

 

[Hatman/2nd line]

Try loading without a patch, you'll find that out to 50 yd.'s your accuracy won't be that bad!

 

[jimairwin]

I use .023 pillow ticking for both .490 and .495. The latter takes a little harder bop on the short starter but once in, they go down pretty much the same.
Robby

Yep...And the bigger the round ball the more it becomes a sort of double ended bullet upon starting. I think I'll push different size patched balls thru a short section of various caliber barrels to see what comes out. Might be a cool exercize! I suspect this has been done before. Anyone know of such and have a link to results?

 

[Rifleman1776]

TC barrels often vary in actual bore and depth of rifling. Over the years TC sourced barrels from different makers, they made their own, etc. And as boring tools, rifling buttons were used they wore down. This made almost all TC ml rifles individual critters and that is much the way the oldies were and the way many of us like it. Using soft lead rb, vary your patch size and lube and try it. You may end up using a .490" in the field and a .495" at the range. Go for it.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Hmmmm.... With the right patch it's not an issue.
In my TC 50 cal though the rifling was a bit deeper so I needed a thicker patch to seal it up. That meant using a .490 and a .015 or .018 patch to get the best accuracy from it.

 

[ord sgt]

From the T/C manual....

if I recall correctly,T/C patches were 0.015-0.018 in thickness.

 

[Oldbear63]

I just went to the range and tried different patches and both .490 and .495 in my 50 cal. I had adequate accuracy with a .490 and a .010 patch that was easy to load, so I will likely stick with that. I don't like pounding a tight ball down the barrel myself.

 

[Griz44Mag]

I just went to the range and tried different patches and both .490 and .495 in my 50 cal. I had adequate accuracy with a .490 and a .010 patch that was easy to load, so I will likely stick with that. I don't like pounding a tight ball down the barrel myself.

Just a thought - your gun may be a bit different.
My TC 50 cal has deeper grooves than any of my Pedersoli guns have.
In order to keep the velocity up and stop bore pressure loss I need to use a smaller ball (.490) with a thicker patch (.018)
Can you measure your rifling depth? I'm just curious.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Another thought; I have had to unbreech some of my other guns to get stuff out of the barrel I couldn't retrieve it by any other means. I am cautious about ramming a too tight ball down the barrel of my older TC, I know I could probably pull it or shoot it out but unbreeching if it came to that would be just about impossible on a TC, I don't have the special plug wrench.

 

[Oldbear63]

How do I do this? Slug the barrel?