Barrel break in?

[varsity07840]

I built a Gemmer trapdoor .45-70 several years ago that I've had little time to shoot.
My first outings were not great but I attributed that to 63 year old eyes and open sights.
I put an MVA tang sight on it and recently took it back out. The first load tired were some left over hunting rounds for another rifle. WW case, 70 gr 1.5 Swiss .030 wad
330 gr Gould HP sized .459 20/1, powder die compressed to allow crimp at top band. At 50 yds three shots were way high on a 10" bull with 6 0'clock hold and grouped around three inches. Blow tubed after each shot. Not good. I used up the rest of them with the same results.
Next load was exactly the same except the bullet was a 500 gr Government roundnose again compressed to seat at the top band. Eight shots were dead center, one big hole!
Next were some my first attempt at PP bore rider loads. Ten rounds gave a group only slightly bigger. I think they would have grouped better but the guys on each side of me were shooting black guns and the concussion and brass hitting the screens started to get to me.

So, now to my question. The barrel has a 1/18 twist. Could it dislike the shorter, lighter
bullets that much or did the barrel just need some rounds put through it before it settled down and broke in?

Thanks,

Duane

[powderburnerr]

the govt. bullet always has shown good accuracy ,without being overly finickey. you might have to play with the gould a bit more to get it to shoot , and the fast twist may not be the best for the short bullet ,

[kokomokid]

I like 57 to 60 grain swiss 1 1/2 with the govt round nose and light compression. It will kill rams at 500 meters with an 18 twist bbl. What kind of front sight were you using? LB

[varsity07840]

I've loaded the Gould in my 30" 1874 Military over 70gr Goex fffg, and had sub 2" groups without using a blowtube. You might try less/more powder, or another granulation.

The Gould load was originally for my Perdersoli Sharps in which it shot very well with the same twist. I suppose different chambers could could account for that. I think I'll nix the Gould in the Gemmer TD.

Duane

[varsity07840]

I like 57 to 60 grain swiss 1 1/2 with the govt round nose and light compression. It will kill rams at 500 meters with an 18 twist bbl. What kind of front sight were you using? LB

Standard open blade.

Duane

[1Shirt]

Like excess650, suggest you spend more time on load development. Might want to try some of the old Lyman recommended loads for Trapdoors.
1Shirt!

[herbert buckland]

Try a longer bullet,I bet it improves acuracy

[varsity07840]

Try a longer bullet,I bet it improves acuracy

Well the 500 gr. Government seems to be the ticket in the Green Mountain barrel and I'm also interested in working on the PP load which also is a long 500 gr. I'm not married to the Gould in this rifle since I don't think I'll ever hunt with it(I don't want to bang it up). I was just surprised how two bullets could group so differently, especially at 50 yards. The Gould may indeed work better in a slower twist original TD barrel. I have an '88 TD that I may try it in sometime.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Duane

[bigted]

I for 1 would dearly love to see photo's of your Gemmer Trapdoor.

[varsity07840]

Here you go.

Duane

[1Shirt]

That is a beautiful rifle!
1Shirt!

[bigted]

Thankyou very kindly. that is a very beautimous rifle. lives up to everything I held out for in the looks dept. detail of the barrel and did you build this yourself? very nice and again thanks for showing it. also did you do the stock and if so where did you get the start of it?

[TXGunNut]

Very nice, Duane. On second thought, I'm pretty sure "awesome" better describes it. Thanks for sharing!

[varsity07840]

Thankyou very kindly. that is a very beautimous rifle. lives up to everything I held out for in the looks dept. detail of the barrel and did you build this yourself? very nice and again thanks for showing it. also did you do the stock and if so where did you get the start of it?

The barrel is a Green Mountain on an 1884 receiver. The rifle came to me rough assembled in the white in a deal i could't pass up. After getting it I tore it down and made some changes to it. I had to refit the butt plate and toe plate and changed how the
under rib was fastened. I replaced the trigger guard with a better quality one and took down all the other metal parts to a finished state. The hammer nose had to be reconfigured. In retrospect I could have lengthened the striker on the firing pin rather than having the hammer nose so long. I sent the breechblock to Classic Guns LTD for case coloring and I rust blued all the other hardware. The stock needed shaping and some tweaks to some inlets. I finished the stock using a mix of two of Homer Dangler's alcohol stains, hand rubbed linseed oil and rubbed top coats of oil based varnish that was slightly thinned.

Duane

[varsity07840]

Thankyou very kindly. that is a very beautimous rifle. lives up to everything I held out for in the looks dept. detail of the barrel and did you build this yourself? very nice and again thanks for showing it. also did you do the stock and if so where did you get the start of it?


Double post

[bigted]

thanks for the info. very nice and I have definitely got a bad case of lust for another mans rifle. srry! :kidding:

really nice looking shootin iron for sure. thankyou for sharing your pictures and details of it.