- Joined
- Feb 5, 2015
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 14
I decided to play around with my old TC New Englander 54 cal 1-48 twist rifle. I mostly shot Ball-ET's out of it 20 some years ago and as I remember the accuracy was good. Since I got back into muzzy hunting I have been shooting some fancy inline that might as well be a center fire rifle.
So I cast up some 220 grain round ball and 300 grain Lee REAL bullets but I can't get them to group worth a darn, were talking 8 plus inches for a group size at 100 yards and no real rime or reason between shots.
For the RB mine cast at 222 grains and .532", I tried .010 and .013 pillow ticking patches lubed with Bore Butter with 80 and 90 grains of RS Pyrodex. Am I driving them to hard? I do have some .015 and .018 patch material coming.
The REAL bullets cast at 302 grains and measure out at .54 on the top and mid driving band. They sure seem easy to load once I get them started. Bullets are lubed in the grooves with some BP lube I have had for ages. I tried shooting just the lubed bullet, bullet on a 20 gauge felt wad lubed with Bore Butter and bullet, felt plus a 20ga overshot card. Here again I shot both 80 and 90 grains of RS Pyrodex.
I just can't see or shoot the iron sights well enough anymore, back about 10 years ago I acquired the mount and base to be able to put a scope on the rifle so I decided I would mount up a scope for this load work up then eventually purchase a peep or fiber optic sight. I happened to have a 3-9 scope laying around which sure makes target work nice although its kind of a travesty to have a scope on this nice old traditional rifle.
Any tips or ideas you might have would be great.
Thanks Jim.
So I cast up some 220 grain round ball and 300 grain Lee REAL bullets but I can't get them to group worth a darn, were talking 8 plus inches for a group size at 100 yards and no real rime or reason between shots.
For the RB mine cast at 222 grains and .532", I tried .010 and .013 pillow ticking patches lubed with Bore Butter with 80 and 90 grains of RS Pyrodex. Am I driving them to hard? I do have some .015 and .018 patch material coming.
The REAL bullets cast at 302 grains and measure out at .54 on the top and mid driving band. They sure seem easy to load once I get them started. Bullets are lubed in the grooves with some BP lube I have had for ages. I tried shooting just the lubed bullet, bullet on a 20 gauge felt wad lubed with Bore Butter and bullet, felt plus a 20ga overshot card. Here again I shot both 80 and 90 grains of RS Pyrodex.
I just can't see or shoot the iron sights well enough anymore, back about 10 years ago I acquired the mount and base to be able to put a scope on the rifle so I decided I would mount up a scope for this load work up then eventually purchase a peep or fiber optic sight. I happened to have a 3-9 scope laying around which sure makes target work nice although its kind of a travesty to have a scope on this nice old traditional rifle.
Any tips or ideas you might have would be great.
Thanks Jim.