Gentlemen:
I wanted to garner some opinions about what could be the cause of the loss of accuracy in my Pedersoli Sharps 45-70. First some background: I have had this rifle for about twenty years and have shot around two thousand rounds through it ( mostly lead boolits with BP). The rifle has consistently been able to group 1 MOA with a load of 67 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 FG and a Lyman 500 grain RN boolit. In fact, I used that load to harvest an antelope with one shot through the heart at 200 yards two seasons ago. I was very confident with the rifle and that load until recently. There’s nothing going on in the bore that I can see that would explain the accuracy going to about 7 MOA at 100 yards. I also checked the firing pin to see if it was broken and it was good. I can’t think of anything else to check.
If re-barreling the action is necessary, do any of you have recommendations as to brand? I have been looking at a Krieger barrel. They sell one with Henry rifling and one with conventional cut rifling. I have never heard of Henry rifling before, but apparently it has rounded lands and grooves and is claimed to be superior for BPCR. Does anyone have experience with this type of barrel? Will such rifling shoot paper patch boolits, or only conventional grease groove boolits? If I am going to have to re-barrel my Sharps, I want to optimize it for BPCR.