Who uses a .40 for small game?

[Herb]

Here is a .40 Vincent I built for a dentist, thus the sterling silver human tooth inlays. This test is from rest at 50 yards. The first shot with .400 balls and ".020 OxYoke" patching was higher in velocity than the rest of the string, usually it is slower. (The .020 OxYoke probably really measured .015 to .018 thickness). With the last three balls left, I used .010 OxYoke patching with this result. I have not repeated this test, but with other rifles in other calibers, sometimes thin patching does very well.

 

[sky hawk]

You may be right. I was just thinking that if the .395 balls were too tight of a fit, I might need the thinner patches. The .389 rb's with .018 patches are pretty darn tight right now. They were slightly more accurate than the thinner patches, but it takes considerable effort to get them started and to load them. I'm not sure the exact diameter land to land.

 

[roundball]

Sky Hawk, if you happen to have or can borrow a 'dial caliper', you can take a moment and check a dozen balls for their average diameter.
If they're supposed to be .389"s, they'll mostly probably fall into the range of .387"-.391".
But you might find they're averaging down around .384" or up around .394"...sometimes there can be a lot of variance in commercial cast balls.
It's not necessary to check them, sometimes just an interesting thing to do.

Also, a short starter with a large size handle for a good hard 'palm smack' is worth its weight in gold