I've had a .54 Cabelas/Investarms "Hunter Hawken" sitting around for a couple of decades collecting dust. Chromed barrel with a 1 in 48" twist. Since my eyesight has deteriorated due to age, I find it difficult to shoot decent groups with any of my rifles nowadays. Still "Minute of Deer", but the days of shots touching, except by random chance, have been gone for a while. This is where the old dust collector becomes relevant. Since I never used it anyways, I decided to mount a Lyman 57 peep sight on it, and see if that helped my shooting any.
Using .530 round balls, 60 grains Pyro P and. 020 linen patches, I placed 3 shots touching at 50 yards. Pretty stoked about that accuracy, but velocity was relatively low at 1400fps. So I upped the charge to 70 grains, using the same components, and put three balls thru the same hole at 50 yards. Really excited about that! However, the velocity was still lower than I would like, about 1500fps or so. The next logical step was to use 80 grains, which I proceeded to do. My group turned into a 15" pattern, thought something had come loose, so checked everything and found it all ok. Fired another 3 shots, dropping back to 70 grains, all holes touching.
I tried many more shots using other powders and varying patch thicknesses, and also employed a felt wad on top of the powder. Anytime the velocity exceeded 1500 fps, the "group" exploded in size. Dropping down underneath that threshold, the shots were stacking one on top of another. I guess my max load will be whatever powder charge gives me 1500 fps, and no more. Oddly enough, Hodgdon 3f 777 was slower that 3f Swiss and Pyro P, it is usually significantly hotter, and it was a brand new can. Tried several shots with the 320 grain Lee REAL, was not even on paper, so gave that up quickly. The conclusion is you had better develop a load and test it in your rifle before assuming your gun will hit where you aim it. I am content to have tack driving accuracy, and even at 1500 fps, that .530 ball will get any buck that I'll ever have the chance to take.
Using .530 round balls, 60 grains Pyro P and. 020 linen patches, I placed 3 shots touching at 50 yards. Pretty stoked about that accuracy, but velocity was relatively low at 1400fps. So I upped the charge to 70 grains, using the same components, and put three balls thru the same hole at 50 yards. Really excited about that! However, the velocity was still lower than I would like, about 1500fps or so. The next logical step was to use 80 grains, which I proceeded to do. My group turned into a 15" pattern, thought something had come loose, so checked everything and found it all ok. Fired another 3 shots, dropping back to 70 grains, all holes touching.
I tried many more shots using other powders and varying patch thicknesses, and also employed a felt wad on top of the powder. Anytime the velocity exceeded 1500 fps, the "group" exploded in size. Dropping down underneath that threshold, the shots were stacking one on top of another. I guess my max load will be whatever powder charge gives me 1500 fps, and no more. Oddly enough, Hodgdon 3f 777 was slower that 3f Swiss and Pyro P, it is usually significantly hotter, and it was a brand new can. Tried several shots with the 320 grain Lee REAL, was not even on paper, so gave that up quickly. The conclusion is you had better develop a load and test it in your rifle before assuming your gun will hit where you aim it. I am content to have tack driving accuracy, and even at 1500 fps, that .530 ball will get any buck that I'll ever have the chance to take.