New to me lyman GPR

[S.Kenton]

I recently picked up a GPR in a 54 caliber. Let me say first off, I really love the looks, handling and just all around balance of this rifle. Someone has taken most of the perch belly off the stock, added the extended Hawken rear sight and fixed most of the fit-to finish issues with the wood to metal finish. I got a chance to shoot it today, it shot great... but man did it blow the patches. The ones I recovered were totally frayed, I added more lube to the next couple of patches .. not as bad, but still blown through.
My load is 530 roundball, 80 grains of fff goex, pillow ticking for patch, lubed with bees wax/ olive oil..I know the rifling isn’t the issue, when I clean it I can feel it’s nice and smooth and no damage to my cleaning patch after several swabs. My guess is the lube isn’t applied evenly or just need more on the patch. I may just add an over powder card and see what happens. I may also try and saturate the patch rather than rub the lube on... which is what I did today, it was cold so each patch was rubbed rather hastily on my lube and loaded. I’ll figure it out.. but until I do it’s still very accurate and will be go-to deer hunting rifle.

 

[TreeMan]

Post a picture of your patches.

 

[Grenadier1758]

What about the crown?

A picture of the patches would help in our analysis.

 

[S.Kenton]

I’ll have to go out to my back yard and see if I can find them again, I honestly think it’s a “ lack of lube” issue, the muzzle has been coned. I was just posting to share, not so much for analysis.... but maybe others could beneifet.

 

[Boomerang]

Even though your cleaning patches run smooth up and down the barrel, a patch under pressure moving 1500 fps is another story. What I'm saying is that even though it doesn't cut your cleaning patches, your rifling might still be sharp enough to cut your shooting patches.

 

[Stubert]

If you pull a loaded ball, are the patches cut?

 

[S.Kenton]

I haven’t had to pull a ball yet. Also, I understand what your saying about the possible rifling issue. I spose it’s possible it hasn’t been shot a lot. I honestly don’t know a lot about this particular rifle, other than it’s very accurate, it blows patches, it LOOKS like it has some wear.. cosmetically and it has been tinkered with. I’ll look around for patches and show them.

 

[S.Kenton]

I shot a total of 10 shots.. these are the only two patches I could find. I initially found them right after the shot and they were near my bench this morning It’s cold so I didn’t look to terribly long for the others..Patch #1 had a small amount of lube,
Patch #2 had a more liberal amount applied... but not quite as much as I’d like. It was cold and I wanted to sight it in.. at 50 yards off hand I was ringing a 6” gong. It also had a great group off the bench.

 

[S.Kenton]

This is my range... I can move picnic table to 150 yards away from gongs

 

[Boomerang]

With patches that look like that, I'm surprised you had very good accuracy. Try putting a patch on top the powder and then load a patched round ball. Then try to find the patch that was around the ball and see what it looks like then after you shoot it.

 

[Pete G]

Patches too thin or ball too small.

 

[S.Kenton]

Pete, My patches are .016, ball is 530. That combination has been my go to for all my 54s. I still beleive that it’s lack of lube.
Boomerang, i had stated in an earlier post that I was going to try an over powder card. What I really need is a nice warm day to spend some time shooting... I’ll be doing that as soon as possible, but for now it’s an accurate enough load for deer season.

 

[FishDFly]

Reading here for a longtime, folks say it takes about 100 shots through one for the patches to stop tearing.

May just need to shoot some more.

 

[S.Kenton]

Yes fishdfly, very true, I’ve no idea how many shots have been fired through this, another thought I had is this; when I lubed these patches up, I only lubed one side... and I did so rather hastily as it was extremely cold. I know for a fact that I used a tiny bit on patch # 1... the shot was dead on, then as I always do, I look for the patch... patch # 1 was terrible... so I went ahead lubed one side of patch #2, but used a lot more lube... again only one side. I’d almost bet if I lubed both sides of the patches equally and liberally.... these patches would /should look a lot better. I shot about 10 times, but the wind carried the patches away and I havnt been able to recover any, except the first two.

 

[andy52]

Don't know how many times the rifle has been fired but it sounds like the barrel isn't broke in or seasoned well enough yet.
I use the same load in my .54 but shoot a .535 ball which works fine in mine.

 

[S.Kenton]

Hahaha... we don’t season rifle barrels, we season cast iron pots and pans...

 

[stewart.leach]

A few thoughts-

Try different patch materials. My favorites are Bottomweights 100% cotton twill from JoAnn Fabrics, and 100% cotton pillow ticking from Wally Mart. Both are washed and dried at highest machine temps before use.

Try FFg powder instead of the FFFg. Two eff has a slower pressure rise than three eff, and is gentler on patch material.

Try different patch lube schemes, greases, moose milk, Mr. Flintlock, etc. I've been [pleased lately with strips soaked in castor oil/alcohol 1/5, then laid out flat to dry. Loads seat easily, accuracy is excellent, fired patches are intact, and barrel clean up is quick. I tightly roll and store in plastic pill containers so they don't dry out.

And, as suggested above, load and then pull or CO2 discharge to see if patch damage occurs on loading.

 

[S.Kenton]

Stewart those are all great suggestions, however... this is the combination I’ve used for well over 15 years in different rifles. I bounced around with different combinations before that, until I found this one, I’ve never had patch blowouts until now... I do beleive it has to do with lack of lube or possibly a lube recipe. I normally use streight olive oil ... recently I’ve been trying this beeswax/ Murphy’s oil soap/ olive oil mixture. I’ve been having issues with it being difficult to work with when it gets cold... sure enough it was cold the day I shot. I’ve also considered sharp rifling as the culprit... but my accuracy is dead on so I’m inclined to not worry too much about for now. I’ll probably shoot it some more when the weather warms up. I’m taking it out deer hunting and will report back with deer results! Thanks for all the concerns.. but i got this and will for sure figure it out..

 

[firestick]

Had the same issues in my .50 cal CVA mountain rifle. Went to a "wet patch" of ballitol and water cured what ailed it.

 

[dragnetbill]

Stewart those are all great suggestions, however... this is the combination I’ve used for well over 15 years in different rifles. I bounced around with different combinations before that, until I found this one, I’ve never had patch blowouts until now... I do beleive it has to do with lack of lube or possibly a lube recipe. I normally use streight olive oil ... recently I’ve been trying this beeswax/ Murphy’s oil soap/ olive oil mixture. I’ve been having issues with it being difficult to work with when it gets cold... sure enough it was cold the day I shot. I’ve also considered sharp rifling as the culprit... but my accuracy is dead on so I’m inclined to not worry too much about for now. I’ll probably shoot it some more when the weather warms up. I’m taking it out deer hunting and will report back with deer results! Thanks for all the concerns.. but i got this and will for sure figure it out..

If she is really accurate and you do your part I'm pretty sure that the deer won't laugh at you because she shreds a patch or two.
At this point I'd say that shredding patches is a characteristic of your rifle; if she loses her accuracy that would be a problem.