The Corn Tundra

[Good Cheer]

Got a question for yall.
Looks like I'm taking the wife home to the Indiana / Illinois border country. Part of the process is going to be changing out some muzzleloaders and I'm gonna need something to reach on out across the fields. What I'm planning on is a paper patching .52 bore.
So, leading up to the question, I've got a.40 bore 38" long Green Mountain TC Renegade drop-in. It could be rebored to .52 for a pretty sweet fee. Or, I could keep it as a bench gun for what I hear of matches at Friendship and just have a drop-in made up from scratch, me supplying the breech plug, sights and other hardware.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter. Somebody is bound to have points not thought of yet.

[Tatume]

Instead of swapping barrels, I'm building a dedicated gun, and my goals are similar to yours. It is easier to get one barrel to shoot well in a gun. No two are identical, and getting two barrels to work well is problematic. When you get one bedded and shooting well, the other won't fit perfectly. If you shoot the less well fitted barrel extensively, it can change the bedding so the better barrel stops shooting to its full potential.

My barrel is 45 caliber, a Green Mountain blank intended for the 45-70 family of cartridges. There are plenty of paper patch molds available for this particular bore size. Since you've already made up your mind on caliber, I presume you already have your mold. But if not, 45 is a good choice for paper patching.

Take care, Tom

[johnson1942]

if your ever going to hunt elk with it then a .50 or .52 would be the choise. if your going to stick to deer and antelope a .45 fast twist is a good choise. they are so easy to paperpatch for and will shoot way out their. if you did go with the .52 you will need some way to make good wads for it. .50 and .45 wads are avail in bulk but im not sure about .52 cal. wads. the good point about a .52, the larger the bore the less recoil. you probably wouldnt shoot over a 500 grain bullet in a .52 or maybe even less weight. make sure you design the twist around the bullet you pick to shoot in what ever cal. you deside. the bullet comes first and then the barrel. the oregon rifle barrel co. has made me a couple of good barrels. they are very familiar with drop ins for the thompsons. one of my favorite guns is a drop in barrel in .50 cal 36 inches long and 1/28 twist. it shoots a 530 grain paperpatch that is a consistant tack driver. for target i shoot 70 grains behind it and for hunting i shoot 100 grains behind it. i put that barrel in a thompson hawken stock. it has good ballance also. a .52 would have even better ballance as less weight in the barrel. keep us posted as to what you do as it sounds very interesting. the deer should be fat and big in that corn country.

[koger]

I would go with Rogers advice. Please, please, don't do anything to the GM .40 drop in barrel, they are no longer made and fetch a premium price!

[725]

I agree. Don't mess up the GM .45. Talk to a good barrel guy, like Bob Hoyt (717-642-6696) for advice.

[johnson1942]

what i like about my .50 1/28 twist is that it looks and feels like 1840/s except for the nipple. brass tacks and everything. however its a sleeper. i would put it up against any 50/90 sharps out their and stay with them. if i ever mounted a longrange tang sight on it i wouldnt be afraid of real long distance shooting with it either. if it wasnt 100 degrees out to day i would shoot it as i have quite a stash of containers to blow up in the garage.

[Good Cheer]

I would go with Rogers advice. Please, please, don't do anything to the GM .40 drop in barrel, they are no longer made and fetch a premium price!

What I'm thinking is that if no one wishes to pay the premium price as it currently exists then it's what? A blank ready to be rifled. The steel and the quality of machining is excellent as is generally the norm for Green Mountain. In fact, I really don't know where you could go now (these days) to get it's equal. In a nutshell, that's pretty much why I'm thinking on having it rebored. The only reason I haven't had it rebored is because the rifling is in excellent condition and there's something inside me that seems horrified at the prospect of reworking a bore that isn't a write off from neglect or abuse.

[Good Cheer]

Did the research and went with 28" twist. Now, the waiting for it to arrive.

[bigted]

Good Cheer ... depending on the twist rate in your 40 ... if it be 18 or 20 twist ... i would try it as is with some paperpatch 40's of 350 to 400 grain weight ... that would for sure knock down any deer or critter found in that area i would think.

on the other hand ... if you were interested in getting off that 40 cal barrel ... PM me with details.