Mississippi Rifle PRB help

[kh54]

Forgive me if this is the sort of question you old timers are tired of seeing, but at the moment I’m limited to using my mobile phone and trying to search past threads for the information I seek is very cumbersome.

I have a .54 reproduction Mississippi Rifle with a bore diameter of .538, found by slugging the bore with an oversized bullet. What round ball and patch thickness would you recommend? This is my first musket designed for round ball and I just don’t know where to start. Thanks for any help!

 

[hawkenhunter50]

Are you planning on buying balls or do you cast? If buying, I'd try some .520 balls from Track of the Wolf with .015 or .018 patches. It'd be a starting point anyhow.

They also have .515 and .526 you could mess with using different patch thicknesses.

 

[kh54]

Thanks @hawkenhunter50. For now I’ll probably just buy some balls to try it out and see how I like it. I appreciate the tips.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@kh54, my recommendation for a starting ball is to begin with a ball that is about 0.010" less in diameter than the land-to-land measurement. Then I get a patch that is 0.005" + the groove depth. Knowing only the bore diameter which may include the groove depth, I will speculate that the 0.526 or 0.520 ball with a 0.018 cotton drill patch would be a good starting point. It will be best to be buying ball until you know what size performs for top accuracy on target.