.47 Renegade

[Good Cheer]

Been threatening forever to put together a long .47 barrel with a twist fast enough to work with pistol molds. Would appreciate hearing opinions on what's the slowest twist I could get by with.

[Good Cheer]

Got a 38" barrel that could be rebored. Could go with a .45-.46 bore, a .47-.48 bore or a .51-.52 bore. The .45-.46 is the most attractive seeing as I'm set up for it and using them in my .458" bored New Englander. Got various molds already. And my brother makes swaged boolits that he paper patches for 45-70's. Hmmm...

Got Renegade stocks to use. A globe front sight and a couple of styles of peeps in the parts box. Could alter one of the Renegade stocks to give more than just one wedge holding it all together and have it dedicated to that barrel. Would want to glass bed it any way.
I should do this.

[idahoron]

That depends on what you want. I have had some luck with the smaller 45 cal pistol bullets. The twists I have are 1-18 and 1-30. I was surprised that my 1-30 stabilized the RCBS .446 bullets. I like that bullet a lot but I haven't used it on game yet.
Like I said before it all depends on what you want. I don't think you need than one wedge to be honest. Ron

[Black Powder Bill]

I'd go for a 40 cal a long bullet for fast twist.

[idahoron]

That would be interesting but illegal in Idaho for anything but targets. Ron

[Good Cheer]

I've got a 32" long .40 bore / .41" groove 1:16" twist that I've been enjoying working with. Seems to like long and heavy boolits the best. Less than 300 grains all the way down to round ball shoots pretty much the same. Go over approximately 300 grains and it tightens up. But I'm still determined to discover the magic formula to make .41 mag round noses shoot straight.

For this 38" long barrel I've been pondering what bore diameter might work best with the available barrel length. Not saying it has to stay that long! I kinda keep leaning towards a bore sized to use standard .45 caliber rifle molds. Doing the same thing for .50 caliber rifle molds has good points too.

[rhbrink]

Good Cheer what do you consider "standard .45 caliber rifle molds" I would vote for a 405 grains + or - as pretty much middle of the road in boolit weight? I would think that the old government twist of 22" would work just fine and up to 500 grains if you thought that you needed it. I have played around a little with a 18" twist Green Mountain muzzleloading barrel and it really didn't seem to like anything under 475 grains.

Richard

[Black Powder Bill]

Years back I picked up a box of 350 gr BBFP in .458. Hard cast. I shot those in my trapdoor at steel. Load was LRP 65gr of clean shot /American Pioneer powder,top with a pinch of grits and compressed load. I literally rolled pigs at 100m.

I also used maybe 14 gr of 2400 and 12 gr Unique for that round and they hit steel also. I didn't work on the group size because I felt if the steel fell over when hit why worry about another varaible.

A gunsmith I know has a Pedersolli Tryon in .451 think he said his bullet is 425 gr. over 120 gr of Swiss.
Anyway, he shot a big slob of a doe at almost 200 yards and when hit she sat down like a mule.

NY has a 45 cal limit as well. I see a few states allow 40 cal. ML. I'd love to pop a deer or hog in the head with my 40 rb rifle. hehehe

[Good Cheer]

Good Cheer what do you consider "standard .45 caliber rifle molds" I would vote for a 405 grains + or - as pretty much middle of the road in boolit weight? I would think that the old government twist of 22" would work just fine and up to 500 grains if you thought that you needed it. I have played around a little with a 18" twist Green Mountain muzzleloading barrel and it really didn't seem to like anything under 475 grains.

Richard

I think of standard as 400 to 500 grains. I'm currently shooting the Lyman 457124 as cast (finger loob)in the New Englander with a 24" twist. The mold drops out at 407 grains with straight lead and is doing better than I am.