Lands to deep?

[zimmerstutzen]

Heavy flannel has a nap that bunches up and helps seal the grooves with out needing to swage the patch and ball into the rifling with a mallet. Until my house fire, I have a 54 cal barrel of unknown make that had rifling approximately .028 inches deep. (Not just at the muzzle) I never found any combination that would shoot right, short of using a mallet to mash an overly tight combination into the rifling. The balls were shaped like blunt stars when they came out and at a certain velocity made a pronounced "hissing" noise on the trip down range.

 

[Spikebuck]

After reading all the posts, it seems there are complications w/ the deeply grooved bbls {.016}.
Finding the right combination for an accurate load is a whole lot easier w/ a bll w/ .008-.010 deep grooves....sealing off the grooves is definitely a lot better. This eliminates the need for an excessively thick patch and/or OP wad which is an unnecessary component to fiddle w/.

Why the bbls are grooved .016 deep is beyond my comprehension seeing .008-.010 deep grooves work well w/ PRBs.....Fred

I don't think it has to be hard to find a load for deep grooves, but I would certainly agree the "excessively" deep grooves don't really add anything...at least in my limited experience. I have two with deep round-bottom grooves and one was quite difficult to get the right load (the .62 in my post above) which required thick denim patching and the other was at least as "easy" as any shallower groove rifle I have had. That one is my fullstock flint "Hawken" I just built this year in .58 and it took almost no time to work up a load. .575 ball and .015 cotton patch. So in this case, the patch isn't even "excessively thick." :idunno: I have often wondered about trying a .615 with a thinner patch in that .62
:hmm:

 

[nchawkeye]

Something isn't right, as already said...

Are you using real black powder or something like 777, which burns hotter and can burn through patches...

I have 2 Rayle barrels, both with deep groves, neither burns through with the proper ball, patch and lube...I use FFF Goex in each.....

 

[stretchman25]

For lack of better terms, my barrel is homemade. It was made by an individual who bored and cut the lands on his own. When loading you can feel rough and loose spots in the barrel. All patching materials I tried with the exception of canvas and denim were shredded. I settled on canvas because it cost less. I believe it is also a tougher material than denim. With either denim or canvas an over the powder wad isn't necessary as it was with the other patch materials.

I am currently using Swiss 1 1/2 F with a .615 ball and a .025 canvas patching lubed with bore butter. The rifle is now able to consistently shoot 4.5" 100 yard groups. While that isn't match winning accuracy, it is "minuet" of deer.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Rough and loose spots can be reduced or even eliminated with a lead lapping slug and some serious lapping. If you are interested in how to make and use one send me an email to [email protected]. :idunno: