Paper patched bullets help

[kh54]

I picked up a beautiful picket target rifle from @BigSkyRambler - my Christmas/retirement gift to myself. (If interested, here is the original listing with pics: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/scoped-picket-ball-target-rifle.189081/.) The land-to-land distance measures .406". I plan to try paper patched bullets and maybe later try a true picket ball. I want to order a mold to use paper patched bullets with tracing paper that measures .002" thick. So here are the questions:

1. It seems that others have success with a double-wrap patch, so for my paper that's .008" and that leaves .398". How much should I allow for loading the patched bullet?
2. Accurate Molds shows a bullet that I think would work, 39-295P: .392" diameter, .984 total length. Assuming the same paper patch, the total bullet and patch diameter would be .400, leaving .006 clearance. Is that enough? Just right? Too much?

I would accept any other advice y'all can offer...

 

[Uncle Miltie]

Nice rifle.
Indeed a picket rifle. Likely cut with a gain twist, often starting at 1/48" at the breech and 1/24" at the muzzle.

You will want a bullet no more than 1.5 calibers in length, so for .40 caliber keep your bullet around 0.60" in length.

You rifle was built to use a guide (piston) starter to start the bullet straight when loading. You can try loading without one and see how it goes though.

A picket bullet, once the mold is cut is quite easy to use. An oiled round linen patch is used for the bullet.

Paper patching for your rifle seems like a lot of work, and was not originally done with picket rifles.

You can try using a grease grooved bullet: it would be easier than paper patching.

 

[SDSmlf]

I’ve never worked with a Picket Target rifle….

I do shoot the bullet pictured below in 1-30 GM LRH 45 caliber barrels and find it very accurate. The ~410~ grain bullet starts out about .433”-.434 “ diameter, has two wraps of 9# onion skin paper (.002” thickness) and ends up .451”-.452 before sizing for a barrel that gauges at .450”. Loads with light finger pressure. Over an 1/8” thick .50” diameter felt wad it is very accurate.

If you want to explore more, check out posts by @Idaho Ron and his hot rod Hawken. I’m just working from suggestions he provided a few years back.

Oh, and for what it is worth, I haven’t found using paperpatch bullets all that difficult. Definitely not as messy as using grease.

 

[nkbj]

I picked up a beautiful picket target rifle from @BigSkyRambler - my Christmas/retirement gift to myself. (If interested, here is the original listing with pics: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/scoped-picket-ball-target-rifle.189081/.) The land-to-land distance measures .406". I plan to try paper patched bullets and maybe later try a true picket ball. I want to order a mold to use paper patched bullets with tracing paper that measures .002" thick. So here are the questions:

1. It seems that others have success with a double-wrap patch, so for my paper that's .008" and that leaves .398". How much should I allow for loading the patched bullet?
2. Accurate Molds shows a bullet that I think would work, 39-295P: .392" diameter, .984 total length. Assuming the same paper patch, the total bullet and patch diameter would be .400, leaving .006 clearance. Is that enough? Just right? Too much?

I would accept any other advice y'all can offer...

Good morning kh54.
To load the sugar loaf bullets so that they'll shoot accurately I think you'll have to get a replacement for the false muzzle. That said, none of my rifles require a false muzzle with the rifling twists they have. They're either set up for round ball or else for lubed lead and/or paper patches.
So, first off I'd ask what's the actual rate of twist in your rifle?
That will determine how long the bullets need to be. How long the bullets need to be will determine their weight and inertia, their resistance to forward movement when hit from behind by the explosion and therefore determine how they expand to seal off the bore.

About paper patched and clearance when loading, one or two thousandths under bore diameter will likely be about right. Then comes the gotcha of how best to achieve the right diameter. My preferred method is to size the bullets after lubing or after patching. I actually have some molds that just happen to come out the right diameter after patching but experience makes me think I'd be unreasonably optimistic to expect such good fortune on a recurring basis.

Just from the what-if department, there are lots of nominally .41 and slightly smaller diameter bullet molds floating around that you might use to produce bullets that you could size down. And if cast from dead soft lead it's easy with a push through sizer to size down bullets after paper patching.

``````````````````````````````````` < cat walking on keyboard again

 

[paulab]

I picked up a beautiful picket target rifle from @BigSkyRambler - my Christmas/retirement gift to myself. (If interested, here is the original listing with pics: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/scoped-picket-ball-target-rifle.189081/.) The land-to-land distance measures .406". I plan to try paper patched bullets and maybe later try a true picket ball. I want to order a mold to use paper patched bullets with tracing paper that measures .002" thick. So here are the questions:

1. It seems that others have success with a double-wrap patch, so for my paper that's .008" and that leaves .398". How much should I allow for loading the patched bullet?
2. Accurate Molds shows a bullet that I think would work, 39-295P: .392" diameter, .984 total length. Assuming the same paper patch, the total bullet and patch diameter would be .400, leaving .006 clearance. Is that enough? Just right? Too much?

I would accept any other advice y'all can offer...

Check out the PP moulds that Buffalo Arms offers. They are of the highest quality.

 

[kh54]

Thank you all for the comments and advice! Just what I needed. I haven’t yet thoroughly cleaned the bore - that’s my next task. Then I’ll check the rifling. As @Uncle Miltie suggested, how can I determine if it has gain twist rifling? I can thin of a couple of things to try but maybe there’s an easy test?