Sending It Off To Be Refreshed

[Good Cheer]

Got a .50 TC 1" barrel in swapping around that has one of those nasty neglected pawn shop type bores. And, it's been drilled and tapped for scope mounts. So, I'm gonna spend the money and have it rebored out to be a heavy boolit shooter. I've got molds for the old Lyman heavy skirted .54 minie, for the .54 maxihunter and the .54 REAL's. Anybody got ideas on the best rifling style and twist to most likely get them to work?

[Tatume]

Hi Cheer,

T/C used 1:48" rifling and recommended bullets and patched round balls. If it were me, and I knew I was going to use only bullets, I would go faster. Rifling of 1:30" would not be too fast for the 54 Maxihunter.

Take care, Tom

[gnoahhh]

Sounds neat. Keep us posted. Who will you have open it up?

[Good Cheer]

You know, if I do this with a barrel that was drilled and tapped, I'd probably go fast twist and see how far it would hit with a scope. I'd go back to Mr. Hoyt. Had better experiences with him.

[Good Cheer]

Gonna call him today. Been wanting to send him a revamped Renegade stock to fit a tapered flinter smoothie barrel to and just haven't got around to it yet. I'll ask Mr. Hoyt what he thinks would work best.

[gnoahhh]

No one in the business is better than Bobby Hoyt. He did a M1841 Mississippi rifle barrel for me many years ago, a perfect copy that allowed me to shoot the rifle while keeping the original barrel with a rotten bore for posterity. I lived fairly close by back then and several of my shooting buddies had him do things like re-boring and lining, always with superb results.

Not a lot of meat left in a 1" barrel after boring out to a large caliber. I wonder if barrel harmonics will come into play after doing such, which might dictate the style of projectile? Probably over-thinking it, just wondering.

[tomme boy]

You sure a .54 will clean up the old rilfing if you go a faster twist.

[Good Cheer]

No, I'm not absolutely certain, but it should unless there's some real craters in it. It's rough but pits don't usually go very deep. Reckon I'd have to get me a new sizer die too to match the bore.

[whtsmoke]

why not just get a Green Mountain bbl in 54 caliber,mineisa slowtwistfor round balls and itshoots very good.

[OverMax]

whtsmoke brought up a good point. It probably would be less costly in the long run to purchase a new barrel verses the re-bore or reline of an old one. You may want to check that out Good Cheer. By the way to shoot conical's you would need a faster twist rate. 1-36 1-28. Too shoot Rd ball out of a fast twist accurately. You would need to reduce your powder charge drastically. A 1-48 will accommodate both but offers nothing spectacular in doing so with either. I consider the 1-48 a middle of the fence twist rate. I hope the info whtsmoke and I offered plus all the other opinions on this subject helps. Good luck with your project Sir.

[jh45gun]

I shoot a 1 in 28 twist in a green mountain barrel in 54 cal and it shoots conical's very accurately I would just get a new barrel.

[725]

Good Cheer,
Bob Hoyt all the way. Follow his advice as to rifling choice and twist rate. He is the man. Did a half dozen ML I'm familiar with and they all are spectacular. .50 to .54 is no problem. I got mine .50 to .60. Works like a champ. Decide ahead of time what boolit type you want to shoot and Bob will dial you in. I like round ball, so mine are all RB. Fantastic.

[Good Cheer]

So far he's done
a .458 bore 24" twist (percussion) that loves 45-70 boolits as-cast from pure lead.
a .46 bore 56" twist (flint) that loves .453 round ball.
two .58's 48" twist (one flint and one percussion). The flinter is great and some day I'll get around to the percussion.
and a flinter Green Mountain .62 he rifled.
The man is a national treasure.

[725]

Way to go!

[Geraldo]

why not just get a Green Mountain bbl in 54 caliber,mineisa slowtwistfor round balls and itshoots very good.

That used to be a good solution, but GM's production of ML barrels has been nil, and I've heard that they're getting out of them entirely.

Goodcheer, do you have Bob Hoyt's contact info? I've got two GM smoothbore barrels I'd like to have him rifle.

[Good Cheer]

That used to be a good solution, but GM's production of ML barrels has been nil, and I've heard that they're getting out of them entirely.

Goodcheer, do you have Bob Hoyt's contact info? I've got two GM smoothbore barrels I'd like to have him rifle.

phone number 717-642-6696
I've been getting the answering machine.

[Good Cheer]

The mailing tube is packed. Will mail her off tomorrow and keep trying to call.
The deepest hole from the scope drilling and tapping is .145" deep. Plenty of wall left for .54 caliber.

[whtsmoke]

from the looks of the gm web site it needs to be changed drastically if they are getting out of thr business.

[Geraldo]

whtsmoke, I looked around some more and it seems that the shut down is supposed to be temporary. Sorry for the bad info.

That said, their barrels have been hard to get over the last few years. At one point they closed out almost all of their interchangeable barrels. I also couldn't find the blank I wanted for a project. My advice would be if you want one and see it, buy it immediately. You never know how long until they make another run of them.

[Good Cheer]

They've been shifting their production around back and forth for years so much that I'd be shocked if many people didn't believe they were going out of the muzzle loading barrel business whether they are or not. Me, I don't have a clue... except I have a virgin .58 IBS drop-in and a goofy 38" long .40 caliber drop-in that I've tried to sell in the past but now cannot convince myself that I should let go of. I keep looking at that long .40 and thinking about how I'd like to try it out as a long .458" bored fast twist. Or maybe as a .50. Or, maybe as a .47. But, that's the trouble with a mind, you make it up as you go along!
[smilie=l:

[Good Cheer]

OK. Talked to Mr. Hoyt so I'm good to go (to the post office).
The .40 to a .458 fast twist is doable too at a reasonable cost as the amount of metal to be removed isn't too much.

[Tatume]

OK. Talked to Mr. Hoyt so I'm good to go (to the post office). The .40 to a .458 fast twist is doable too at a reasonable cost as the amount of metal to be removed isn't too much.

I thought you were reboring a 50 to a 54 caliber?

[Good Cheer]

Getting the nasty old .50 drilled and tapped Renegade barrel rebored to .54 fast twist.
There's a .40 GM barrel (38" long) that I'm considering having rebored to .458 bore for long range shooting with .45 caliber rifle molds.

[Geraldo]

You might want to shoot that .40 first. My 32" .40 GM shoots very, very well. It's one of two GMs (my .58 being the other) that I would never get rid of.

If you don't want the long .40, shoot me an email or PM.