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View Full Version : Well the experimenting has started with my new 45 cal muzzleloader



oldracer
03-04-2014, 06:16 PM
If you remember the earlier pictures of the slug gun I built from parts I purchased from Pecatonica River, I finally got all those coats of lacquer polished out, first with Rotten Stone, then commercial clear coat auto lacquer polish and I will have to say it sure shines! Anyways, I have shot it a couple times to make sure all the pieces fit together and it actually went boom! Yesterday I started the serious loading work basing most on my Pedersoli Gibbs since it shoots pretty fair. I used 80gn of Goex FFG with no compression, a plain fiber wad on the powder and a lube groove 0.449 diameter 540 grain bullet as per what I use in the Gibbs. I had some advice to use a blow tube between shots instead of wiping so I tried that but the shots were all over the target at 100 yards. So I switched to wipe with a wet Ballistol/water then dry patch and the next three shots touched about 3 inches above the bull. The wind moved a bit and the next two went left about 2 inches, same height and were also touching! I was a happy boy to say the least and the next 5 were nearly the same with wiping 1 wet/1 dry between shots and I think there is still a slight bit of residue in the lands which must help a bit.

When I cleaned the barrel last night, I took a look with the bore scope and there were NO machine marks at all in the barrel so it appears their barrel source is pretty darned good! I'll try some different powder loads over the next few times at the range to see what happens but I think this is a pretty good start out to 300 yards which is what our range maxes out to.

I plan to try a paper patch bullet in the future since Lee Shaver and most of the folks that shoot the 1000 yard matches wrap their bullets suggested the accuracy will be a lot better. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas please let me know?

dondiego
03-04-2014, 07:12 PM
Pictures of the finished product were requested. Glad it shoots for you too!

oldracer
03-04-2014, 08:12 PM
I took a couple additional pictures but I need to find out how to take some better ones I guess. Here is the link to the original post I made before I did the polishing.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?231325-1000-Yard-45-Caliber-Muzzle-Loader-is-Together-Named-Big-Louie-after-our-Maine-Coon

johnson1942
03-04-2014, 09:21 PM
oldracer, i was wondering about that gun today. like to see the polished out stock. 500 to 550 grain .440 bullet slight hollow base. dry wrapped with number 9 onion skin paper. all wood fiber paper is as good as 25 percent cotton especially when you dry wrap. by a few from buffalo arms and have a mould made just like them. use a 60 thousands poly wad or .60 thousands fiber wad behind the bullet. one wet patch and two dry to clean between shots. this combo will shoot holes in holes at any range. keep it simple and keep it consistant and it will preform for you.