New Barrel break-in/Load question

[dave63]

I was recently invited to go on a boar hunt, and that was all it took to get me to pull the trigger on a new Green Mountain barrel. I got a .54 cal, 1-70" twist drop in for my Renegade.

My hunt will be end of October and I want to get the barrel at least mostly broken in by then. I'll probably not have time to get many shots with it before then. What would you guys suggest to get the thing smooth so I can get it sighted in? Also, what load would you recommend for boar at say...50-75 yards?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Stumpkiller]

Short of 200 rounds at a moderate load you can use a couple shortcuts.

A piece of 3-M Scrunge pad (from housewares in the soap isle) and some oil (oilve will do) on the rifle's jag and 25 or 30 passes down tha barrel will clean out any remaining crud and oils from the manufacturing process.

If the gun isn't tearing patches with a relatively easy to set ball and patch combo I wouldn't worry.

If it has fixed sights there is no shortcut to shooting it in and then working up an accurate load and then adjusting the sights to it.

95 to 110 gr of FFg. Whatever gives you the best accuracy. I use 82 gr FFg in my .54 flinter, but that's my deer load. Would not be afraid to go after a hog with it, though. I'd just be preferring a broadside to slightly quartering shot to avoid the shoulder bone and gristle plate.

My old T/C Renegade .54 cap gun thrives on 90 gr FFg.

 

[roundball]

IMO, todays modern manufactured barrels are usually top notch quality right out of the box...I've accumulated a number of TC and GM barrels over the years and they had excellent out of the box accuracy from day one...so if it was me, I wouldn't even worry about trying to re-engineer a brand new modern made barrel unless there was a problem with it...I'd just go enjoy it
:front:

 

[thomas]

I have not had a TC since 1973, but their barrels & GM [which I do have how] shoot well from the first shot, as they're both as well made as any barrel out there.

Thomas

 

[Zonie]

Dave: It's possible you don't need to do anything, but if I had a new gun and needed to rely on it I would do as Stumpkiller suggested or use the steel wool method of smoothing out the bore.

The Steel wool method involves taking some #00 steel wool, wrapping a small piece of it around a cleaning jag and running it up and down the bore a few times.
Then re-position the steel wool on the jag to get some newer material to rub in the bore and repeat the up and down thing again.

The idea here is not to really polish or smooth the bore, but to remove any sharp edges on the rifleing.
This won't wear out the rifleing, it just removes the edges that could cut your patch (assuming you plan on using a patched round ball).

Good luck on your hunt and don't forget to shoot as many rounds thru it as possible to find out what load it likes and where it is shooting.

 

[dave63]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The Brown Truck just brought it today. I did run some steel wool through it a couple of times. Thought about loading and pulling a patched ball to look at the patch, but I think I'll just wait for the weekend and go shoot it. I'll let you know how it went.

Thanks again.

Dave

 

[Chiefs50]

My experience supports Roundball's observation. My Lyman Trade Rifle shot like a dream right out of the box. No need to do anything but clean the manufacturer's preservative out of the barrel.

 

[wwfeatherston]

I recovered a few of my patches, fired out of my new Pedersoli Country Hunter. Acording to the experts, they looked fine.

I just have to get used to shooting it!