rb in an inline?

[troy_mclure]

ive got some .454 round balls and some .454/.50 sabots.

any idea what this load would do?

[thunderthud]

twist is too fast for a rb. when loaded in a sabot who knows. they are not meant to shoot rb.

[Maven]

Troy, In spite of the fast twist, inlines CAN shoot cloth patched RB's accurately, but not as fast as slower twist ML barrels. You may want to search this forum for my posts on my .50cal. Knight Bighorn for more information on RB's & inlines. I will say this, though, my rifle is sensitive to powder granulation (prefers FFg or Pyro. RS to FFFg or Pyro. P); RB diameter (.490" works better than .495"); powder charge (50 grs. FFg gives good accuracy, but 60grs. opens the groups); and patch thickness (.016" compressed cotton pillow tick works best). However, your rifle may have entirely different preferences. Moreover, while the rifle is quite accurate with sabots designed for .430" jacketed bullets,* it never occurred to me to try the larger (e.g., .458") ones with RB's.


*I use MMP sabots with either Ly. 429421 or the RCBS 250-K. Both are quite accurate.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Troy said inline, and never indicated twist.

How the heck did you know that answer you gave was reasonable, thunderthud? Please explain your basis for your statement.

BvT

[troy_mclure]

its a knight wolverine with a 1-28" twist.

i was just curious because the ball will be non marked sh should be a bit more accurate than one that has rifling grooves in it.

[thunderthud]

Baron, I gave the answer because inlines are meant to shoot primarily conical bullets most in a sabot. Hence a fast twist. its a given in an inine. TC makes most of their traditional sidehammers with a 1 in 48 to accomadate both rb and conicals or the Thompson minie. Rb barrels are usually much slower especially the big calibers some out to 1 in 72 in .54 & .58. My Colerain "C" weight .50 is 1 in 66.
hope this clears it up.

[mooman76]

An inline with a slow twist is a rare thing!

[leadman]

I have 2 slow twist in-lines. Old H&R Huntsmans in 58 caliber, made in the mid to late 70s'.

That said, I have seen patched round balls in recent vintage fast twist in-lines. Did o.k. with lower velocity loads.

[daddywpb]

Load them up and try it. Should be interesting to find out.

[thunderthud]

Leadman, are these inlines or hammer guns? What most refer to an inline is a firing pin simialr to a hi-power rifle with no external hammer. good discussion here.

[DIRT Farmer]

Think a H&R shotgun with a sleaved plug in the chamber. The huntsman was a tip-up inline. The plug was not fixed in place but a slip fit. There was some issues with hang fires or a long nipple in the guns.

[troy_mclure]

well i went and tried it. using 2 50gr pyrodex pellets, at 50yds i was getting real nice 1.5" groups. at 100yds it was about 6" very little recoil tho.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I have the nef huntsman it shoots round ball , i haven't spent much time with it on paper from a bench with round balls . but from the off hand target shooting it seemed faily consistant from point of aim

i was only loading 60 gr of 777 when i did this

i say don't accept someone elses rule of thumb as long as it is safe to do so test it for yourself. thats the great part about muzzle looders if you can stuff it down with your ram rod the powder should be able to get it back out.

start low and work up do note that the NEF huntsman has a rececced area in front of the breech plug with plug removed put your ram rod down so that it is right to that recessed area and mark it replace the plug and add powder 10 gr at a time checking with your ram rod till you reach just past your line, you need at least that much powder now you know your minimum safe powder ammount now have fun with it.

30 gr is a nice target load for 25-50 yards if it will work in your gun.

i also tried 60 gr and it got them out to 100 well enough didn't get any results on paper for that.

100 gr is a bit much for any round ball try 1 pelet under a round ball and see how you do.

my huntsman likes 90 gr 777 under a 410gr hornady great plains connical deer fall with no problem to that combo inside 100 yards

[thunderthud]

rb's in an inline sounds like a great way to shoot more, those sabots are expensive. We have guys in our club that use inlines but only for deer hunting. Doubt they ever thought about stuffin' a round boolit down the pipe.

[Maven]

thunderthud, RB's in inlines work well enough, but you may need to experiment with RB diameter, patch thickness, and even powder granulation. E.g., the often stated advice to use a bigger ball with a thinner patch didn't work in my Knight Bighorn at all. It preferred a .490" RB and 0.18" patches to the .495" RB and ~.012" patches, and was sensitive to powder granulation to boot. FFg or Pyrodex RS worked equally well, but FFFg or Pyro. P caused the groups to really open up.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

rb's in an inline sounds like a great way to shoot more, those sabots are expensive. We have guys in our club that use inlines but only for deer hunting. Doubt they ever thought about stuffin' a round boolit down the pipe.

That and casting your own R.E.A.L s

thats how i got started casting was borrowing a freinds R.E.A.L mold and casting up a bunch.

[troy_mclure]

forgot to mention that the round balls were in .454/50 sabots.

[RhodeHunter]

its a knight wolverine with a 1-28" twist.

i was just curious because the ball will be non marked sh should be a bit more accurate than one that has rifling grooves in it.

The ball should not get grooves because the cloth patch engages the rifling, not the ball. I would be careful that your short boolit starter matches the shape of the ball, however. I don't like the circular ring I was getting when pushing hard on the soft lead ball to get it started downbore.

[troy_mclure]

single 50gr pellet this time. fired 6 shots.

50yd 3 shots, 2" group.

100yd 3 shots, 4.4" group, but way low and right of poa.

still using the sabots.