T/C Hawken .45 -vs- .50 Accuracy

[Urban Coyote]

I know there are many variables however having owned more than one of both my experience has been the .45 model seems to shoot PBRs more accurately than the .50. I'm thinking this might be due to the smaller ball size the 1 in 48" twist works better with the .45.

Your experience and or thoughts?

 

[ZUG]

Much depends on the rifle and load combination. I do like the .45 for target shooting.

 

[nw_hunter]

IMO the 45 has less recoil than the fifty and therefore most will experience less flinch. Most all can shoot the lowly 22 cal rifle better than a larger cal.I think the same will apply to shooting muzzleloaders as well. Most of us don't flinch when shooting :redface: Just hand someone an unloaded ML and watch them as they attempt to fire it.

 

[galamb]

I would suggest that it may be something as simple as:

The 45 will generally have a greater velocity than the 50 for the "average shooter".

That will translate into a little flatter trajectory, better/tighter point blank range, all else being equal.

So any little twitch, pull etc on the part of the shooter, plus the "less likely to flinch" with the smaller caliber, all lead to the "perception" of more accurate.

I think if you clamped a number of calibers from 32 up to 62 in a shooting machine and loaded them with the "sweet load" for each rifle, they would all be as accurate as each other.

Just my theory... :hmm:

 

[Bugflipper]

It generally boils down to the twist rate if everything else is out of the equation. 1-48 is ideal for .40 cal and a ball. As you go up in size there would need to be a slight reduction in twist rate for every successive caliber for it to have the perfect twist rate. The same can be said with the smaller balls the 36 and 32 would need successively faster twists to be in the ideal twist rate.

There's no secret why the 40 is always regarded as the most accurate caliber. 1-48 has been the standard twist for them for years.On the further end of that scope try a 54 in a 1-48 and a 54 in 1-70 where it is truly matched for a roundball and you'll see a dramatic difference. It just boils down to a If it has a 1-48 with a ball and all things are optimized for accuracy, the accuracy from greatest to least is 40, 45, 50, 54 then 58. Also the other direction the same applies 40, 36, 32 then 25 if they all have a 1-48.