Playing with Maxi balls

[Stony Broke]

I recently decided to play around with some Maxi balls out of an old TC Hawken I had laying around here. ADK Bigfoot cast up some for me...and really did a great job of it....they are shiny as can be and done up to perfection as far as I can say.
I took it out to the range for a quick shooting session and to play with some different lubes. I had to hurry along as the wife was cooking up some whitetail backstrap and tenderloin for lunch and I wasn't about to miss any of that ! Just for the heck of it, I started lubing a few with plain old Criso, which I've never done before and tried a few shots at 50 yards.

For a second try, I tried some old lube I had made up years ago that was sitting in an old coffee pot in my shop. If I remember right, I used olive oil, beeswax, and threw in a tube or two of Bore Butter just for the heck of it. I smeared up a few with that mix and tried them at 50 yards.

I think I'll keep playing a little with the lubes just for fun. Between the great bullets that ADK Bigfoot made up for me, and a great lunch...I just had a fun afternoon !

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

Good shooting. They must be magic bullets! What load did you put behind those Maxi's?

ADK Bigfoot

 

[bore_butter]

maxi ball is all I shoot in my tc hawken 50. what has always amazed me is that the hole in paper looks like it was made with a paper punch instead of a bullet.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Still have my old T/C maxi and round ball moulds. Have not paid for bullets in years.
SM

 

[Stony Broke]

I was shooting 70 gr. of 3f behind the bullets. The second target didn't punch such neat holes, as I forgot to take some cardboard out with me to back up the target properly, and the bullets were basically tearing the paper. We are a little misty out this morning, but when the weather permits, I will be out trying some other lubes and working with the sights some. I have used the 70 gr. load behind PRB's for years for hunting and it always was sufficient. I took one buck with that same old TC this last season, but with a round ball.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I had the same result when I finally got around to trying a maxi ball in my .45 TC Hawken. I had a few loose ones in my shooting bag and decided to send them downrange. I didn't even lube them and ended up with 4 holes touching offhand at 25 meters. This was after I'd shot the last target at one if our matches and was killing time. I'll also be working up a 100 yd once I can go to the range.

 

[bore_butter]

I ordered maxi balls for my .36cal tc Seneca from totw. took them to the range and you had to beat them down the barrel. they all wound up in the lee pot. will stick with round balls in that rifle.

 

[Stony Broke]

Well went back to the range for a while today and played with the Maxi balls some more out of the old TC.

I started out at 50 yards again, using my old mix of lube with a felt wad under the bullet.

I didn't have any targets with me that would allow me to see the centers good at 100 yds., so I gave it another 3 shots from 75 yards.

I'm thinking as a hunting load, it's going to be sufficient as 100 yds is about the max distance for me due to the heavy foliage around here.

 

[Bledfor Days]

That's excellent for 75 yds. Did you make a sight correction to the right? The last target is more horizontally centered.

 

[Stony Broke]

That's excellent for 75 yds. Did you make a sight correction to the right? The last target is more horizontally centered.

Yeah...I did beat on the front sight a little. Unfortunately I didn't have a good hammer with me and that sight barely moved. I think it's going to be close enough for me though as it is.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I ordered maxi balls for my .36cal tc Seneca from totw. took them to the range and you had to beat them down the barrel. they all wound up in the lee pot. will stick with round balls in that rifle.

Not to hijack the thread, but I decided to see if I had same result with my Seneca .36. Yup. They barely go in. I'd have to beat them in. These are are some TC factory maxiballs that I wont be shooting anyways. They measure .367
I tried the .45 maxis on my .45 Seneca and .45 Hawken and they will drop right in. They are from a TC mold with no caliber marking on it. They measure .449. So I'm assuming the .45 Hawken and Seneca have bigger bores than the .36 Seneca
.36

.45 Hawken

Itll be nice when my range opens up again and I can do some more testing.

 

[Stony Broke]

I've used the TC Maxi's in a .45 TC Hawken to hunt with before, and they always worked just fine, but I've never had any experience with the .36's. Using the TC brand of maxi molds seems to be a good match up for their rifles in my experience. Most of my hunting and shooting has been with PRB's over the years, but these bullets seem to do quite good for hunting. I do like to use a felt wad under them between the bullet and powder and presently I'm using some of Frontiers wads which are working fine for me.
Unfortunately our club matches here are cancelled presently, and I sure miss all the smoke and fun there, so I guess playing with other things like these bullets will have to suffice for the present time.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I'll have to try the wads. I'm only target shooting but it's nice to hit point of aim consistently. I am planning some rabbit hunts with the .36 but the wife is adamant that no rabbits are going in her Instapot. She's not an anti but doesn't want me to hurt the bunnies. Lol. She has no problem bonking a salmon over the head. Go figure.

 

[Nessmuck56]

Use to have a Great Plains lyman percussion...and peep sights...from the bench @ 50 yards...those Maxi bullets would make a four leaf clover....without much fussin

 

[user 43911]

I ordered maxi balls for my .36cal tc Seneca from totw. took them to the range and you had to beat them down the barrel. they all wound up in the lee pot. will stick with round balls in that rifle.

If you have not put them in the pot yet try rolling them between two steel plates, add weight if needed, it works.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The design of the maxi ball was for the top band to be engraved into the rifling. As such the Maxi-ball should not drop down the barrel. There should be resistance at the top band. Still the maxi ball should almost be able to be pressed/engraved at the muzzle by hand. The best maxi-balls are cast of dead soft lead. If cast of wheel weights or other harder alloys they can be quite difficult to load.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I use them in my `63 Sharps 54 and they work great, but I also don't have to jam them down the barrel in that gun.

 

[BrokenArrow]

I shoot Maxiballs with the Pedersoli Tryon of 1987 make.

I have three different single cavity molds for caliber .45 . Steel molds made by Palmetto, Lyman and unsure of manufacture blacked Aluminimmold. Weight out of all molds is in the rnage between 238 to 245 grain with over 95% beeing 240 grain.

For casting I use lead for roofers with about 5% tin.

The Bullets which are casted when the mold is hot tend to have a little bit larger diameter.

Therefore I always size the Maxiballs to .452. with the LEE Lube and Size Kit in .452.

As Grenadier points out, the top band holds the bullet at the muzzle und needs a little pressure to start into the barrel. All the w y down than it is set without much pressure but not falling down the barrel by itself.

I do only target shooting and be aware that even a rifle of the same make by the same producer in the same year needs to betested for the best load to shoot. We have six of those Tryon rifle but the load to shoot those Maxiballs vary rifle to rifle starting with 35 grain of Swiss Nr. 2 (FFFg) to 60 grain of Swiss Nr. 4 (1 and 1/2 Fg) mine.

That was off hand 50m in competition. You can see, I really droped one shot. Scoring the higher value requires that 50% of the hole diameter is in the higher vallue.

 

[centershot]

When I started my muzzle loading hobby all those years ago (early '70's) I was using a .50 caliber T/C Hawken that I built from a kit. Nice rifle, and accurate no matter what I fed it. I liked the Maxi-Ball for it's simplicity and shot a lot of them those first few years. I found that nipple life was undesirably short, less than 100 rounds before the hammer would blow back to cocked position at firing. I switched to PRB's and the problem went away. I occasionally shoot a few Maxi's now and again but I'm pretty happy with round balls out of my present .54 Renegade.

I did notice that the Maxi seemed to hold it's accuracy better at 100 yds. than the PRB did. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Zonie]

I haven't shot Maxi's but your comment about accuracy at 100 yards probably is true.
A solid sphere is the lightest form possible and the light weight of a spherical ball is easier to blow off of its direction in flight than the heavier cylindrical bullet.

That's why a .50 caliber roundball shot at a muzzle velocity of 1400 fps will be blown 11 1/2 inches off course at 100 yards by a 10 mph crosswind.

In my roundball trajectory calculator, if I change the weight of the projectile, the calculations become based on a cylinder with a spherical front and back.
Changing the projectile weight from the 187.5 grains of a .500 diameter roundball to 350 grains with the same 10 mph crosswind the deflection off course at 100 yards becomes 6.9 inches (6 7/8").