Round Ball For .62 Renegade

[nkbj]

Anyone shooting the Green Mountain drop-in barrels in .62 caliber?
I've had one of 32" smooth bore drop-ins sitting and me never getting around to it because of loving the one that's got rifling cut in it. It's really more of a .61 than a .62. I figger on trying .595 ball first. Think there's .580 ball mold in the fun box too.
Any how, anybody, what gave you the best round ball accuracy?

 

[Maven]

Make it easy on yourself nkbj and first test only the .595" RB @ 25 yd. (bench rest), varying only the powder charge and then patch thickness. I'd start with 65 - 70gr. FFg and work up to 90gr. If you get good groups, move out to 50 yd. and up the powder charge to ~100gr. FFg. If you get good groups, you're done. If not, try different patch thicknesses, e.g. .014", .018", etc. until you get the performance you'll be happy with.

 

[Dave Marsh]

nkbj, I have 2 Green Mountain .62 drop in's for my Renegade flintlock. One smooth and one rifled.

Turkey load
80 grains 3f Goex
one oxyoke wonderwad (up to 3 work)
1 5/8 oz #6 shot
1 circle fly OS card

Roundball
100 grains 2f Goex
oxyoke wonder wad
.018 pillow ticking patch
.600 roundball (Eddie May)

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Make it easier on yourself, @nkbj, and measure the bore. Use the ball that is about 0.010 inches less than the bore diameter.

 

[hanshi]

Being that there are no rifling grooves to take up compressed patching I'd suggest possibly a ball around .015"-.020" under bore diameter. Larger dia. ball does work better for bare-ball loads however. Mine's not a GM barrel but has a somewhat tight .62(?) bore. I get playing card or smaller 3-shot groups at 50 yards with a .600" ball, 70 to 75 grains of 3F and a thin patch. Velocity of this load is well over 1300 fps.

 

[nkbj]

Thanks fellas.
Looking forwards to working with the smooth rifle.