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I freely admit that I’m an idiot on days that end in the letter y. That being said... I bought a hiwall in 45-90 and it’s said to have a paper patch chamber. Does this exclude the use of GG bullets, GC bullets, and smokeless powder?
Any direction in an educational article on the subject would be great!
If it’s strictly a black powder and paper patch bullet rifle, I guess I’m learning a new skill, and have been meaning to do some smokey powder shooting anyway.
Thank you for your time
Mayne
I would do a chamber cast and get the chambers dimensions along with throat and leade. paper patched chambers sometimes were smaller dias given the bullets dia. Grease groove and jacketed .457-.458 and bore riding PP .449-.450. Some chambers were sized to these bullets. If this is the case then a round loaded with a groove dia bullet may not chamber in the rifle. The cerosafe chamber cast will show this right off. Paper pathed bore riders in a 45-90 will get you close to 45 - 110
Wrights book Loading and Shooting the Paper Patched Bullet A Beginners Guide is a very good starting point. A lot of good information laid out in a very good format .
I will look into getting a copy of that book. It’s a modern hiwall by FBW with a Douglas barrel that’s better than an inch diameter. I will say that it chambers a round nose 500 grain bullet loaded at lyman’s Specified length, with no resistance what so ever, and extracting the case isn’t difficult either. I’m going on the sales description that it’s paper patch? I’ll look into the bore cast as well.
It depends on who's definition of paper patch chamber the rifle is labeled with. Some so called paper patch chambers are indeed spec'd so tight they won't accept a grease groove bullets. Others the "paper patch" chamber has a long and tapered lead from the case mouth to the rifling.
Best bet would be to do a chamber cast , or find out who used what reamer to chamber the thing.
Gun shop I bought it from seemed to think or at least stated that was the case lol. I’ll get a casting done for sure.
The thing is, all chambers will shoot a PP bullet you just have to work out which diameter and length bullet works best.
As has been said you really need to make a chamber cast to determine what you have. Texas mac (Wayne Mclearen) has a good tutorial on the method if your not familiar with the process. Kurt could probably give you some pointers as well as his casts are some of the nicest you'll see.
Todd