Snewbie questions again

[watto]

g'day all, I'm new to this smoke makin game but have a couple of questions. are the powders we get in oz, i.e wano, the same as US powders, so ffg and fffg should correspond to your powders?
I am waiting for a lyman gpr in .54 to turn up this week and expect to be using hornady round balls and ffg powder about 75-80 grains. patches would be pillow ticking from.010-018 see what fits and works. does anyone have some advice for breaking in the new barrell? I have a good knowledge of smokeless rifles and shotgun reloading, :cursing: but only new to blackpowder, my "friends that have corrupted me are invaluable but I have found you can't get enough advice to sift thru and find what works, what I have seen on this forum so far impresse me so post on.

 

[Vairochana]

Gday mate,
Where are you?
I am in Brissy and happy to steer you in the right direction, if you are elsewhere PM me and I will give you some contacts, There are a few others here also and on AHN.
Powder I usually use is Wano, as that is all I can get, occasionally some Swisse or a Chinese brand surfaces.
As to your load- only your rifle will tell you what it likes.
In Brisbane also Peter at QGE is the guy to talk to.
WS (Gloucestre)

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

The thicker patches tend to work a little better, especially with .530 balls. Other rifles like the .535 and a thinner patch. My advice is to get some of each (they sell them loose or in half-box quantities of only 50 pcs.) and see what your rifle likes!

A loose patch will burn and your groups will suffer. Collect your fired patches and take pix of them and show them to us so that we can help you even more!

Dave

 

[watto]

hi widow's son, I am in northern nsw, I see you ask for rain in your profile, haven't you had enough this week??? :nono: :rotf:

 

[Vairochana]

Hmmm- I should change that

 

[cowpoke1955]

The first thing to do is to scrub the bore clean. Lyman uses a protective coating in the bore that needs to be removed. A lot of us used brake cleaner. I have two .54 GPRs, one flint and one cap. You are going to love your's :thumbsup:

 

[BrownBear]

In my experience with Lymans, the advice you've received so far is excellent.

I'll add a few insights.

Lyman bores are a little rough or sharp when new, and 100-200 shots are required to smooth them out a bit. In the meantime they are prone to cutting patches. Just anticipate it and don't get too frustrated. Careful starting of the ball with a smooth push rather than a hard slap on the starter will help, along with attention to avoid folds in the patches.

You'll also find harder starting at first, but it will ease with time as the bore smooths. I anticipate .530 balls and .015 patches to be plenty tight at first, but after the breakin period you will notice that starting effort begins to ease. At some point a switch to .018 patches will be possible, and you are likely to stick with them thereafter.

 

[necchi]

Oiy!
Oh Yes, A thorough cleaning is due. They use a heavy packing grease in the bore and you want ALL of that out of there. With particular attention to the breech/fire channel area. Some advocate polishing the bore with a polishing compound with a tight fitting patch on a cleaning jag, I'm with BrownBear and shoot the 200 rounds for break-in.

Remove the Lock, Trigger and barrel from the stock. Look for and remove any wood burr's or chips that are always present from the factory routing jobs, a small sharp knife and/or chisel works great. De-grease, clean and re-lube with a light oil the lock and trigger. Be sure the 3 screws that hold the bridle plate inside the lock are tight. They are notorius for comming loose and causeing the lock to hang just short of nipple contact.

**Replace the factory nipple!!** Those things are junk, and WILL cause problems.

There's other Tip's-n-Tricks, but we wanna get ya started and not overwhelmed, good luck.

I'm happy it's getting to be fall for you guy's, that means it's getting to the end of winter for us. :grin:

 

[Zonie]

Welcome to the Forum.

I'm not sure if you can find the values for the granulation sizes that are shipped down there but Dixie Gunworks gives the sizes that are used in the U.S.

The following values are in inches

F = .0582 MIN, .0689 MAX
FF = .0376 MIN, .0582 MAX
FFF = .0170 MIN, .0376 MAX
FFFF = .0111 MIN, .0170 MAX

Have fun with your Lyman. :thumbsup:

 

[watto]

thanks all, everything appreciated and a lot of thinking and anticipation is going on...