For Paper Patched .41 Molds

[Good Cheer]

If you were designing a barrel to shoot paper patched .41 mag boolits molded with soft lead...

What rifling pattern, bore diameter, groove diameter, twist and barrel length would you go with?

[johnson1942]

if you are shooting a muzzle loader you will want a bore of .40 and the depth of grooves .408, no deeper. that leaves out the douglas barrels as they are .410 deep in the .40 cal. the bullet shoud be .392 with number nine onion skin paper. the twist should be no slower than 1/16 twist. with a 1/16 twist you can shoot a 400 grain paperpatch bullet. you could get the wads and some bullets from buffalo arms to try in this type of gun. if you like the bullet get a mould made like it. dont do a 1/18 twist as ive been their, you will need at least a 1/16 twist and if your going to get a barrel made you may even want a 1.15 twist. about 70 to 90 grains of 3f real black should be the powder charge. this type of gun can be really accurate and fun if you do it right. have fun.

[Nobade]

Well, since 41 mag pistol bullets are .410 - .412, if you add a patch of, say, 15# paper, you will end up with .421 - .423. There aren't many normal barrels in that range. The only thing close that I know of is the 425 Westley-Richards with .425" X .435" bore/groove and 1-14 twist.

Now if you wanted to either size those boolits down a bit to about .400" or use ones designed for the 10MM, you could use thin onionskin paper and patch them to .406" - .407". A normal 416 barrel is .408 x .416 with a 14 to 16 inch twist. They are way more available and cheaper and would work, though the twist is pretty tight for pistol bullets. But you could shoot 40 cal. BPCR bullets either patched or naked as well as slicks if they are about .400" as well.

-Nobade

[Good Cheer]

Oh my. A liner meant for a 44-40 might work instead of reboring to a .42 bore.

[Nobade]

You're right, I hadn't thought of that. Track Of The Wolf has liners called 44 Henry that are .420" x .428" with 1:24 twist. That would be a good solution to use normal 41 mag bullets with thin paper. They also have 44-40 ones but the twist is faster. Good call!

-Nobade