besides bullet weight and mass how much better would the .62 be compared to my .58/ ive got some sxs smokepoles that i use a .690 rball and it knocks them right over with 80 grains of pyro rs
Howie,
Back when I was shooting/hunting, I never got caught up in the weighing/measuring craze that currently exists in both traditional muzzleloading, and so-called modern/inline muzzleloading.
I was talking with MtMonkey earlier this morning, and neither of us had anyone to teach us
anything about muzzleloading.
He's been doing it for about a decade. I started at 16 with an Italian, percussion,
Colt 1860 Army revolver. Less than a year later, I purchased a semi-custom, .45 caliber, flintlock longrifle for $330.00. More than enough in 1971 to purchase a Remington 700BDL bolt-action rifle with a 3-9x Leupold scope on it. As I was reminded
EVERYTIME one of my relatives/peers saw the flintlock.
My only "
Teachers" were the Lyman Black Powder Handbook, as well as copies of Muzzleloader & Muzzle Blasts magazines. I had no human mentor.
NO INTERNET. NO GOOGLE. NO YOUTUBE. NO ability to hit a computer and find
SOMEONE ELSE in the world who has the answer to my question.
RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!
So, I learned everything the hard way. Sometimes, GOD was looking out for me, and I escaped killing/maiming myself. And, other times GOD saw fit to let a passionate 17 year old kid learn something hard the
EASY WAY.
I always followed the maxim of ordering my ball moulds 0.005" under bore diameter. My rifles over the years were........
.45 caliber = 0.445" diameter ball
.50 caliber = 0.495" diameter ball
.62 caliber = 0.615" diameter ball
ALL WEIGHTS ARE IN PURE LEAD
0.445" diameter = 132.1 grains
0.495" diameter = 181.8 grains
0.575" diameter = 285 grains (284.9866523)
(your BIG BOAR's)
0.615" diameter = 348.7 grains
285 gr. ÷ 348.7 gr. = 0.8173215 × 100 = 81.7%
100% - 81.7% = 18.3%
18.3% = percentage greater in mass that a 0.615" caliber ball is than a 0.575" caliber ball.
So, to answer your question, for roughly the same amount of propellant, at a slightly lower muzzle velocity, with 18% greater mass, the .62 caliber ball
WILL OUT PERFORM the .58 caliber ball. It's going to punch a bigger hole in any game animal it strikes, and create a larger wound channel.
Now take my new favorite, the Rice .66 caliber, which is really a 0.672 caliber.
I would order the custom ball mold in 0.668" diameter, which is only 0.004" under bore diameter.
0.668" diameter = 446.84 grains
285 gr. ÷ 446.84 gr. = 0.63781 × 100 = 63.8%
100% - 63.8% = 36.2%
A ball measuring 0.668" in diameter has 36.2% greater mass than a 0.575" diameter ball.
348.7 gr. ÷ 446.84 gr. = 0.7803688 × 100 = 78%
100% - 78% = 22%
A ball measuring 0.668" in diameter has 22% greater mass than a 0.615" diameter ball.
A 0.690" diameter ball weighs 482.5 grains.
Which has 9.3% greater mass than the 0.668" diameter ball.
It's all relative. How much recoil are you willing to withstand?
Lightweight rifles & heavy patched balls make for substantial recoil. Assuming, like most males, you
CANNOT RESIST THE TEMPTATION to keep increasing the powder charge.
That is why if I decide to have Jason make me a .66 caliber barrel that is short & handy, it will have a rate of twist
NO MORE than 1:48". I am tempted to order the barrel with a 1:40" twist, just so I
WON'T BE TEMPTED to go for big powder charges.
A 1:40" twist coupled with a 0.672" diameter bore, probably will not like 90-100 grain powder charges. And, truth be told, 75-80 grains behind the 466.84 grain ball will have
PLENTY of killing power out to 60 yards, my maximum distance with open sights.
I would still have Jason make the breech diameter as large as his machinery will allow, which is 1.330" in diameter.
The swamped octagon barrel I am visualizing would be something as follows.......
1.330" diameter (beginning of the breech) {0" from the breech} × 1.290" diameter (end of the breech) {5" from the breech} × 0.850" diameter (waist) {13" from the breech} × 1.090" diameter (muzzle) {18" from the breech}.
The 1.330" to 1.290" × 5" long breech section will have sufficient barrel wall thickness to allow Jerry Dove, at Dove's Custom Guns, to machine Talley scope ring dovetail bases with recoil shoulders into the top flat of the octagon.
Put that short, swamped octagon barrel in a straight comb Jaeger stock with matching right & left cheek pieces. Add a Chris Laubach, CNC machined, 1740's, curved lock plate, German flintlock actuated by a single trigger. Probably, use brass, Brandenburg style, Pistor buttplate and triggerguard. One 7/16" diameter forward ramrod pipe, with matching entry ramrod pipe. Front & rear sling swivels. English walnut fullstock. Tang-mounted ghost ring rear sight, with front sight
THAT I COULD SEE.
And, I would search real hard for an Old School, German/Austrian, 2.5× to 4× fixed power riflescope that would accept 1" scope rings. A scope like that, especially if you could find one with a 42mm objective bell, would be able to gather all kinds of light early in the morning, and late in the evening.