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Thread: Retrofitting A Spaghetti Plains Rifle

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
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    Retrofitting A Spaghetti Plains Rifle

    Question for ya, boys:

    I have an out house spaghetti plains rifle from Interarms, probly made back in the 70's when the manufacturers made a lot of these rifles more as toys and novelties - which is pretty much how I shoot this rifle. Patched round balls fly nice with about 55 gr. of the Holy Black, but accuracy falls right off with serious charges. It has that friggin 1:48 twist on it that shoots pretty much everything badly when the powder charges are barked up to serious hunting loads. (Conversely it shoots target weight charges fairly well).

    Does anyone sell after market barrels for these? Mine is a caplock and I love it … but boy oh boy... it sure would be nice to shoot a heavy bullet with a heavy charge out in the field.

    Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated! Have yourselves a great weekend - and we'll see ya out there!

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master Good Cheer's Avatar
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    Guy, if you want a different barrel it's probably best to look first at reboring.
    Is yours a fifty? If the rifling is shallow like a TC barrel then it will clean up as a .52 and you can pick your rifling geometry and twist.
    The ball from my old .515 Lyman mold falls out at 206 grains, aint nothing to sneeze at.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guy La Pourqe View Post
    Question for ya, boys:

    I have an out house spaghetti plains rifle from Interarms, probly made back in the 70's when the manufacturers made a lot of these rifles more as toys and novelties - which is pretty much how I shoot this rifle. Patched round balls fly nice with about 55 gr. of the Holy Black, but accuracy falls right off with serious charges. It has that friggin 1:48 twist on it that shoots pretty much everything badly when the powder charges are barked up to serious hunting loads. (Conversely it shoots target weight charges fairly well).

    Does anyone sell after market barrels for these? Mine is a caplock and I love it … but boy oh boy... it sure would be nice to shoot a heavy bullet with a heavy charge out in the field.

    Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated! Have yourselves a great weekend - and we'll see ya out there!
    Call Bob Hoyt he will fix your barrel in what ever twist /rebore you need , but ask him (he knows More than Most )

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Bloomfield, Nebraska
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    Actually many folks sell fine barrels in the 15/16 you want the problem is fitting it you will need to cut crown breech attach the under rib and lugs cut the sight dovetails and fit sights and then either brown or blue.

    We have don't this to many eyetie guns with great success we also tighten the hook breech. A good barrel will be $100 or more and another 100 for machine and browning.

    If you can do the work yourself look to Track of The Wolf first for parts.

  5. #5
    Boolit Bub
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    Thanks a lot boys!

  6. #6
    Boolit Master taco650's Avatar
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    Have you tried shooting the various conicals available for faster twist barrels in it? Also, sometimes they will shoot good with light loads and really heavy loads but everything in between is lousy. What's the biggest load you've tried?

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master

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    You might try some minies. Shallow rifling does better with the.
    Aim small, miss small!

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    If it were me, I would keep that one since it is an old one and has some meaning for you. You can get any number of Hawken style rifles on Gun Broker for little $$$$$$ even if brand new. They generally do not require a FFL to receive them, even in our screwed up state of CA and you can get one to experiment with stock refinish or refinish of the barrel with Ox-Pho Blue or all sorts of things and your "baby" will be safe!
    John

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    unless that barrel is rotted out it should shoot just fine. one in 48 will shoot round balls just fine if you have the right patch. what is these hunting loads of powder you are talking about? a ball going clean through and bouncing around on the rocks behind the deer will not make them more deadly.

  10. #10
    Banned


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    bobby reamed out a GPR .50 of mine to .54 though it could have gone further to a .58 smoothie. bobby is top shelf, he's done a lot of my gun barrels and chambers, and that's more'n i got fangers.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guy La Pourqe View Post
    Question for ya, boys:

    I have an out house spaghetti plains rifle from Interarms, probly made back in the 70's when the manufacturers made a lot of these rifles more as toys and novelties - which is pretty much how I shoot this rifle. Patched round balls fly nice with about 55 gr. of the Holy Black, but accuracy falls right off with serious charges. It has that friggin 1:48 twist on it that shoots pretty much everything badly when the powder charges are barked up to serious hunting loads. (Conversely it shoots target weight charges fairly well).

    Does anyone sell after market barrels for these? Mine is a caplock and I love it … but boy oh boy... it sure would be nice to shoot a heavy bullet with a heavy charge out in the field.

    Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated! Have yourselves a great weekend - and we'll see ya out there!
    Guy
    1:48 is a compromise twist - shoot roundball well with moderate charges but none of em seem able to take a proper hunting charge and shoot good (at least none that I am aware of) I would try a LEE minie in it or some of the maxi balls with a good stiff charge, there should be something that will shoot straight and give some punch without a rebarrel .
    I have a 45 flinter with a 1:48 and 55 grains of FFFg black its deadly, - thats a useful load - gets just 1500fps - with 65 grains of the same powder, same everything and ya might as well throw a rock!

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master pietro's Avatar
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    .

    I shoot/hunt with a .45 T/C Seneca that has a 1:48 twist - it shoots T/C Maxi-Hunter conical's accurately, and has put down over a dozen large New England whitetail's over the past years.

    Good 'nuf for me !

    .
    Now I lay me down to sleep
    A gun beside me is what I keep
    If I awake, and you're inside
    The coroner's van is your next ride

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check