- Joined
- Nov 2, 2023
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I am getting some 50 caliber balls for my muzzleloader and I’ve never hunted with one before. It seems like people use patched balls for deer but what are the limitations with accuracy or range?
It’s a Traditions sporter mag with a 1:28 twist. I got it from an auction pretty rusty. There is some rust in the rifling grooves and some potting I think even after a lot of cleaning. Would that affect it much?They can be very accurate…Moa even..in the right rifle with the right load..I have takin a few deer with them. In fact my first deer was with one at around 80 yards. Dropped in its tracks…what’s the rifle you using? And do you know the twist rate?
I’ve used regular bore cleaner and brass brushes a lot, and lots of patches and it’s a lot better now. I’ve also shot it at 20 yards with some accuracy but that doesn’t mean muchWhat have you done to clean up the barrel?
ThanksYou might want to do a search on here about cleaning a rough bore.
Thanks. I’ll Start testing soon when I have the balls. I’ve shot it a couple times with conical bullets with 30 and 60 grains of powder.You never quite know what to expect from any rifle until you start testing loads. I've killed tons of deer with patched ball in the .45, .50, .54 and the .62 smoothbore. I've never used anything other than patched ball in any gun I've had. I'd suggest starting off using a rather tight prb; but not so tight you have to pound the ramrod in order to seat it. I'd be willing to bet that with a 1-28" twist it also has shallow rifling grooves. So if it has shallow grooves a snug load will likely be the way to approach finding a good load. I do not agree that a ball can be "over twist/stabilized" so as not to be accurate. Twist rate is not nearly as important as groove depth when it comes to patch ball. The problem is the prb "stripping" or sliding over shallow grooves and failing to gain the spin, rather than getting spun "too fast" to be accurate.
Sixty grains of powder is more than enough to kill a deer or black bear with a .50. Start off low, maybe 30 grains and go up 5 grns at a time, 2F might be a good choice or maybe even 3F. Experiment and you may find what you want to use.
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