proper powder load for 54 cal?

[tenngun]

Thanks for the input folks. I think I might try the sabots and if they don't shoot well, may go with a conical instead. If all else fails, there is always the round ball.

You don’t get ‘knock down power’ from a muzzle loader. Ball or conical you have low velocity and energy.
Conical keep velocity better than ball, ball delivers energy better to the target. But both are low yield guns.
Both depend on shot placement.
I only shoot ball, and except for griz and Alaskan brown bear ball is effective on everything in North America.
You want you best accuracy in your shot.
70 grains under a ball will shoot through deer and elk and if you have a good hit will kill them DRT or in a very short post shot run.
Number one rule, get close. Think of an ml as archery on steroids.
Plenty of guys have had clean two hundred yard kills. However these boys had good field of fire, know their guns and know their loads. In general aim for a hundred or less. And fifty or less is even better
Lewis and Clark had powder in lead jars. The jars weighed eight pounds and carried four pounds of lead.
So shot loads were 50% weight. If they had the .50 cal 1797 rifles that’s a 90 grain charge. If they had the .54 HF 1803 that’s 110 grains. But that was GI powder. Mere coal dust it’s been called. Most likely 1-1.5 f in todays world. And except for grizz they did real well, but same thing, they got close before taking a shot.

 

[jambuster]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I was reading some posts and the folks here seem pretty knowlegable so I thought I would give this a try.

I have been using 70 grains of pyrodex behind a round ball in my thompson renegade .54 cal. Accuracy has been pretty good, but I'm looking for a little more accuracy and a little more knockdown power for hunting. I bought some of those Hornady XRP 250 grain sabots. I was wondering if anybody on this forum has tried them in 54 cal and how big of a charge they were using. I would guess about 90 to 100 grains would be a good compromise between power and accuracy.

I had very good luck over the years with my Thompson Renegade 54 using 110grs of Pyrodex RS and a standard Thompson Maxi ball which as I recall is 430 grains. Today I use FFFG black powder ( usually Graff) . The maxiball kills with authority and is ideal for a thompson rifle. I have shot some round balls in mine and they were moderately accurate but if you want to hunt with round balls you should get a gun set up for them. I made this decision a while back and bought a Lyman GPR with a 1-60 twist. I haven't used my Thompson since I bought the Lyman but I will say the Thompson is built very well compared to the Lyman.

 

[renegadehunter]

My .54 Renegade shot PRB only so-so at 70 grains of 2f. When I tried 75 grains groups cut in half. 80 and 85 grains they were about the same, at 90 grains they started to open up a bit again. With 3f 80 grains was my most accurate charge.
Find the charge yours likes best. You already know what you get with 70 grains, so try shooting a group at 75 grains, then a group at 80 grains, etc., etc., until you reach a point that groups start to increase again. I think you'll see a big improvement around 80 grains.
My groups are also greatly improved if I swab every other shot (I just swab every shot for ease of loading), the 3rd shot without swabbing jumps out of the group by about 3".
I'll also mention that my groups were best with an .018" thick pillow ticking patch (with a .530" RB). .010" was way too loose, .015" wasn't bad but they burnt through once the powder charge was around 80 grains.