Lyman Trade Rifle Accuracy??

[playfarmers]

I have a .54 Trade rifle that shot good right off the start with 80g of 3f Graff, .535 home cast round ball, home cut felt wad, stumpy's moose snot, and a 10th pillow ticking patch cut at the muzzle. I have run out of the patching so I got some pre cut patches from Track that mic out at 16th. The .535 ball was a brute to load and would not shoot strait, so I tried some .530 balls with this patch. Accuracy was a thing of the past using moose snot,or Hopp's 9 plus :shake: . I tries going to 2f Goex that I had but no luck either. I have just run some more .530's off and will try again.Is there anything that I am missing? Deer season opens in a couple of weeks.

 

[JCW]

try an .012 or .015 patch and 70gr. 3F w/.530 ball. accurate in my .54 trade gun.

 

[Trot]

Mine shoots great with 80gr of fffg Goex, .530 ball and .018 pillow ticking lubed with Balistol.

 

[playfarmers]

Trot, do you use pure Balistol, or a mix? I use Balistol for for wiping it all down, and have used it mixed with water for a patch lube at the range, but never even thought of using it strait up. After my post, I went through all my stuff and found some of the pillow ticking I was using. I need to get out and do some load work again.

 

[cowpoke1955]

I use four parts water and one part Ballistol. Works great on my pillow ticking patches :thumbsup:

 

[Josh Maloley]

Am I missing something here?

If it was shooting well, until you changed from a 0.010 patch to a 0.016 patch...why in the HECK are you trying different powders, lubes, and balls?

You need to go to the GOSH DARN fabric store...only play with one variable at a time! - JM.

 

[necchi]

If it was shooting well, until you changed from a 0.010 patch to a 0.016 patch...why in the HECK are you trying different powders, lubes, and balls?
..only play with one variable at a time! - JM.

Gotta agree with that.

Yup, a trip to the fabric shop in town with your micrometer is due,,just ask the ladies to show you where the ticking and denim is,,if ya feel bashful,, just stand around by the needles an thread till the place clears out abit. :thumbsup:

 

[playfarmers]

It is a 1/2 hour trip to town, and I haven't had the time. I need to go for motorcycle parts, so maybe I will pick up some pillow ticking too. I had taken my Trade rifle along with my .25-06, and .22 mag to tune them all up for the hunting seasons. I used everything I had in my shooting box to try and make it shoot. On a better note the other 2 rifles could take the head off a chicken at 100 yards.

 

[Trot]

I use Balistol straight for patch lube. I put a strip of ticking in a waterproof container and squirt some balistol in and let it soak in, if it is too juicy I squeeze some out.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Lay that strip of lubed cloth out on a board, or on wax paper, and use a spatula, or ink roller to move the oil through the cloth evenly, and remove the excess. If you can butter bread, you can put oil or lubes on cloth patches evenly enough to not worry about having " too much". :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[goldidig]

I've got 2 .54 Lymans, one 35 years old and another only approx. 5 years old. Both shoot absolutely fantastic with .530 home cast round ball, .015 cotton, home cut patches prelubed NOT EXCESSIVELY with TC Bore Butter over a 55 to 75 grain charge of Goex 2F. If I bump the powder charge up past 75 grains, groups start to open up. I have also used prelubed, home cut .015 patches with a lube recipe I found on the forum somewhere (lard with some beeswax) with virtually identical results. When I first started shooting the older one I tried .535 balls with thinner patches but unless I loaded them very mildly, I was getting burn through and erratic accuracy results so that's when I switched to .530 and .015. It's been working without any issues for a few years so far.
Al

 

[playfarmers]

Well I decided that I wanted to do a bunch of shooting and get the rifle to shoot as good as possible. I tried Ballistol for lube and 80g of 3f, felt wad and the pre cut pillow ticking patches. The best it would do was 3" at 60 yards. It was cold and the wind got up so I quit for the day. I have 5lbs of 2f so I loaded up 2 sets of speed loaders using 80g the same patches, wads and one set with moose snot, and other using Ballistol for lube. I will try them in the morning if the wind goes down.
I used to have a .50 Deerstalker that would shoot 1 1/2-2" at 80 yards, and I would like this rifle to shoot as good. Am I dreaming, or should it be possible? I have the week off so plan on doing a bunch of load work, but it has to be shooting strait for next week's Deer season opener.

 

[playfarmers]

Couldn't wait for morning and the wind went down a bit, so off I went. Both loads shot better than the 3f loads I was trying before. The winning load was the one using Ballistol for patch lube. It put 3 .532 balls into 2" at 65 yards, the other load was 4". It may do better with a bench and bag, but I just leaned over the car hood and let rip. All previous loads were fired from a bench. I had been using 2f that must be 4 or 5 years old, so I opened a new can to try these loads, so it could be a combination of everything or just one variable. My Grandson has started shooting rimfire with me and loves shooting, but my Trade rifle is way too big for him, so I must find a small muzzleloader for him to use, so that I will do more range work too. I never used it all summer, and it shows. Hope everyone has a good hunting season.

 

[William O.]

Glad to hear you are finding the best load for your rifle. Some times it takes more than a few trips to the range to get the right combination of powder charge, patch and/or lube but for me that is half the fun. A bit of good advice I was given is to keep a notebook of each shooting session so you can review it beforehand, which has helped me a lot. Good luck and keep us informed.

PS- Lyman rifles sometimes need to be "shot" in when new, taking as many as 100 loadings before the barrel settles down. Don't know how old yours is, but this was the case with mine.

 

[playfarmers]

I too enjoy my range time, but just haven't had the time this year. My rifle is only a couple of years old, and has only been used for hunting. There has been maybe 50 shots fired total. I sighted it in and shot 2 nice fat does with one shot each. I also have a 2 year old modern rifle with less than 50 shots fired. There just has not been enough time.

 

[William O.]

Never enough time, powder or lead- :grin:

After 50 shots your TR should have settled down but I have heard of Lyman barrels needing close to 100 loadings to be totally consistent. I think you are nearing that perfect combination of powder charge and patch thickness though, after which time you'll have an accurate and consistent shooter. The .54 cal round ball will take down the biggest deer too, use it with confidence.

 

[Ken Rummer]

I got a huge change in group size by firelapping my .50 Investarms. It went from 3" to 1.5" groups after firing only ten lapping rounds. I used the bullets (.501 dia) and lapping compound from Bear Tooth Bullets. Follow the directions and it will work.

As a work of advice, I also bought bullets for my 54s but the turned out to be .535 dia. I did not use them because I did not think they would expand enough to fill the bore.

Their website is beartoothbullets.com.

 

[Zoar]

You shot two does with it, one shot each, so it sounds like it is actually doing what it is supposed to do! :grin:

Now that you have new powder and the .530 round balls I would definitely try experimenting with the patch. My 54 is very accurate with wonder patches and a .530 round ball.

I would then try 80 OR 90 grains of powder to see what happens using the same patch.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

My Trade Rifle wins competitions...it's a .50 cal.

Now for the advice...first, take a deep breath! You stated that you found some more of the same patch material! So why don't you just go back to the load that you've already worked-up and is field proven for taking game? Or am I missing something here?

If you can't locate the same patch material, try an .018 pillow-ticking patch with the .530 balls, with a felt wad underneath the patch (on top of the powder), and you'll be bringing home the game :thumbsup: as I never saw a Lyman rifle that didn't like the .018 patch when fitted with a ball that's marked at .010 under bore size (the .530 balls you made).

My Trade Rifle shot a 50x50-2X just yesterday, at 50 yards distance, and I've been using mine all summer long.

Hope that you settle-down and good luck with the hunting

Dave

 

[playfarmers]

Yes smokin .50, I did find some of my old patching, but not much. Seeing that I have 500 new pre-cut patches that are suposed to be 18th, but mic at 16th, that is what I wanted to use if I could. The load I worked up using Ballistol will do for this season, but I sure do need to do more shooting. Zoar, I did shoot 2 Does with 2 shots, but that was feat of accuracy. I too them broadside at 40 yards form my ground blind. I found an old .45 Investarms today that needs some TLC. This will be a good winter project rifle for my Grandson use next year.