Hi there, nice to meetchya

[Anonymous]

My first muzzleloader was actually given to my father in the mid 1970's for christmas. It was a CVA flintlock kentucky rifle kit in .45 cal. It was the ugliest rifle I had ever seen. It came with a two piece stock in some unknown mismatched whitish straight grained wood, It might have been birch? The two pieces of the skock seperated about halfway down the barrel and were fit together with two small pins. My dad tried to put it together but drilled a hole for the tang in the wrong spot and gave up. In the early 80's he gave it to me and I drilled and plugged his holes with dowels and completed the kit. That gun scared the hell out of me but I shot it anyway. I didn't use it for anything but learning to shoot flintlocks. I eventually tried to convert it to caplock which put it in a well deserved grave.

The next one was a T/C renegade .54 kit I bought in 1984. After firing several thousands of rounds the barrel just didn't want to group anymore so I installed a green mountain .50 cal 1:28" and now that one won't group better than 3" so I'm looking for a new barrel.

After that one I put together the vincent ohio rifle kit from track of the wolf. .50 cal 1:70". That was with a huge amount of help from a machinist/gunsmith friend, it was a bit over my head back then. I shot one deer with it but i didn't really like the deep curved buttplate and sold it in a moment of incredible stupidity.

I recently bought an omega .45 which has only served to spark the fire for a new sidelock or maybe replacing the renegade barrel. So, after 30 years of playing around with the traditional rifles I am still drawn to the good old sidelocks.

 

[rat trapper]

The problem with your barrels may be a build up of lead or plastic. I'm sure you have cleaned the barrel, but if that is the problem it can take a lot of effort to get it out. With lead the barrel can look clean and still have lead in there. Try some JB bore paste and some shooters choice bore cleaner. The JB or fine steel wool will work the best on a lead problem. Shooting lead conicals will lead up a barrel pretty fast. The shooters choice should remove the plastic from sabots. Wet the barrel and let it sit for a few hours. The amount of plastic I get out of my over and under skeet gun would shock you! If this doesn't work you are out nothing, but I'll bet it will help.
There are guys who have made some money buying TC Hawken rifles that no longer shoot cheap and cleaned them up for resale after getting them to shoot.

 

[GM54-120]

Montana Xtreme Copper Cream works very well to remove all kinds of stubborn fouling.

http://www.montanaxtreme.com/products/? ... opperCream

 

[cayuga]

Well what you described happened to a lot of us. The barrels can be brought back to life with a lead, plastic, and copper remover and a good brush. Some JB Bore Paste is what I use.

That .45 should be a good hunting rifle. But I understand, they don't have the charm of a sidelock.

 

[Anonymous]

I pulled the breech plug on them older barrels and I am pretty sure the .54 is done for, it's been sitting in a corner in the basement for over 10 years and corrosion has had it's way. The bright side is another project goes on the list. The .50 is still shinny and clean so I will try to bring it back using your suggested methods. I am going to guess that red locktite is used to put the breechplug back in?

I shot a nice doe with the Omega yesterday to fill a tag for the MN ML season. It's been a long time since I took a deer with a ML. 80 yards just at dark, if not for the true glo sights I would not have had the shot. Using 200 gr T/C shockwave and BH209. I don't like these sabots, too hard to puch down the barrel for a possible follow-up.

 

[Semisane]

I installed a green mountain .50 cal 1:28" and now that one won't group better than 3" so I'm looking for a new barrel.

A few questions 45otto. At what distance were you getting 3" groups with that GM barrel? And what bullet/load were you shooting?

I have those fast twist .50 caliber GM barrels on a Renegade and on a TC Hawken. They shoot great with 250 grain .45 caliber bullets (either Hornady XTPs or Speer Deep Curls) in Harvester H5045SB sabots. With a charge of 95 grains of GOEX or 90 grains of Pyrodex RS I get 100 yard groups of an inch to an inch-and-a-half with a scope and under three inches with a peep sight. I haven't tried round balls or lead conicals in them, but wouldn't expect them to do well out of a 1:28.

If that barrel is in good shape and you want to sell it, shoot me a PM.

 

[Anonymous]

The .50 was usually loaded with 100 gr of pyrodex and sabots with hornady .452 pistol bullets of 250 to 300 gr. When it was new 1" at 100 yards was typical. When I stopped shooting it 3" at 100 yards is all it would do. I just picked up some shooters choice and I will try that before anything else.

 

[JMG1894]

Could it be that the groups got bigger due to age of shooters eye sight?
It does happen to all of us regrettably.