Bert2368
12-07-2020, 01:59 PM
I've been playing with a Palmetto "Ridge Runner" in line .54 muzzle loader, picked up this lightly used rifle and a bunch of accessories at a gun show some time back for cheap. It has a 22" long, 1 twist in 28", 8 lands, .009" deep grooves barrel per the manual specs.
Rifle came with a couple of boxes of swaged, dry lubed? Hornady "Great Plains" 390 gr. hollow base bullets, they have knurled rings with spottily applied white, flaky lube. There is an irregular mass of some more lube partly filling g the hollow base as well, base lube is cracked in several of these factory swaged bullets.
I am shooting these over 100 gr. of GOEX FFG (manual says 90 gr. starting load, 120 gr. max load) ignited by a Winchester 209 primer, cleaning bore between every shot with first a tight fitting 12 gauge cleaning patch over a .50 cal. plastic bore brush wetted with glass cleaner, followed by several dry patches between every shot, blowing the touch hole clean with compressed air after cleaning also. Seems to work, each bullet seems to requires same amount of force to seat as first one, so far as I can tell. No evidence of leading in the barrel. No failures to fire.
I DO note that the first 4 inches of barrel starting from muzzle seem a bit tighter than the rest of barrel down to seating on the powder, takes significantly more force to get an already "started" bullet which has been pushed in until tip is flush with barrel crown through the first few inches, then it get real easy from there on down until it is seated on charge.
When I removed breech, dumped a charge and pushed a fully seated bullet I had loaded but did not wish to fire out, going the other way, I noted a bit of extra tightness in last few inches of barrel again, not as severe as on the way in, but noticable.
Accuracy is horrible. Rifle is scoped, scope has been checked, it's the gun/load. A pie plate would be missed every 3rd shot or so at 50 yards, the whole 11" x 17" paper target is missed frequently at 100 yards. This is supposed to be a hunting weapon but I wouldn't care to shoot a deer at 50 yards with this load/rifle, it's that bad.
The hollow based bullet I recovered shows a significantly uneven base, see pictures, the one on right. Don't know if that is my seating technique, I don't have a "false muzzle" but DO try to take care on starting. I think I'll try to make a false muzzle, I do have a drill press but unfortunately not a metal lathe.
I have read a claim that these rifles performed better with a FLAT BASED bullet. I can see why this might be so, assuming a good base was obtained in molding and not dammaged the loading process.
Questions for people who have more experience?
Suggest a .54 mould and proper lube/size method? Is it reasonable to change to a flat based/lube ringed design as per "free information found on the internet"?
Does anyone even MAKE a .54 sabot/.44 or .45 bullet combination any more, and if so, would it be worth trying? Rifle came with 6 such sabot/JHP bullet combinations, no local store I have spoken with carries ANNYTHING for .54 projectiles or sabers at all. I have not tried these few sabots, figured they might be collector's items.
Is Blackhorn 209 really clean enough to not need barrel cleaning between rounds for say, 10 shot strings. Not that anyone has it in stock! Yes, I noted the information on which 209 primers are "hot enough" for this BP substitute, if I ever see any. Got about 3/4 of a ton of BP on hand but sure would like to spend more time shooting and less swabbing the bore.
What ELSE should I look at. What other information would help diagnose this inaccuracy issue.
Rifle came with a couple of boxes of swaged, dry lubed? Hornady "Great Plains" 390 gr. hollow base bullets, they have knurled rings with spottily applied white, flaky lube. There is an irregular mass of some more lube partly filling g the hollow base as well, base lube is cracked in several of these factory swaged bullets.
I am shooting these over 100 gr. of GOEX FFG (manual says 90 gr. starting load, 120 gr. max load) ignited by a Winchester 209 primer, cleaning bore between every shot with first a tight fitting 12 gauge cleaning patch over a .50 cal. plastic bore brush wetted with glass cleaner, followed by several dry patches between every shot, blowing the touch hole clean with compressed air after cleaning also. Seems to work, each bullet seems to requires same amount of force to seat as first one, so far as I can tell. No evidence of leading in the barrel. No failures to fire.
I DO note that the first 4 inches of barrel starting from muzzle seem a bit tighter than the rest of barrel down to seating on the powder, takes significantly more force to get an already "started" bullet which has been pushed in until tip is flush with barrel crown through the first few inches, then it get real easy from there on down until it is seated on charge.
When I removed breech, dumped a charge and pushed a fully seated bullet I had loaded but did not wish to fire out, going the other way, I noted a bit of extra tightness in last few inches of barrel again, not as severe as on the way in, but noticable.
Accuracy is horrible. Rifle is scoped, scope has been checked, it's the gun/load. A pie plate would be missed every 3rd shot or so at 50 yards, the whole 11" x 17" paper target is missed frequently at 100 yards. This is supposed to be a hunting weapon but I wouldn't care to shoot a deer at 50 yards with this load/rifle, it's that bad.
The hollow based bullet I recovered shows a significantly uneven base, see pictures, the one on right. Don't know if that is my seating technique, I don't have a "false muzzle" but DO try to take care on starting. I think I'll try to make a false muzzle, I do have a drill press but unfortunately not a metal lathe.
I have read a claim that these rifles performed better with a FLAT BASED bullet. I can see why this might be so, assuming a good base was obtained in molding and not dammaged the loading process.
Questions for people who have more experience?
Suggest a .54 mould and proper lube/size method? Is it reasonable to change to a flat based/lube ringed design as per "free information found on the internet"?
Does anyone even MAKE a .54 sabot/.44 or .45 bullet combination any more, and if so, would it be worth trying? Rifle came with 6 such sabot/JHP bullet combinations, no local store I have spoken with carries ANNYTHING for .54 projectiles or sabers at all. I have not tried these few sabots, figured they might be collector's items.
Is Blackhorn 209 really clean enough to not need barrel cleaning between rounds for say, 10 shot strings. Not that anyone has it in stock! Yes, I noted the information on which 209 primers are "hot enough" for this BP substitute, if I ever see any. Got about 3/4 of a ton of BP on hand but sure would like to spend more time shooting and less swabbing the bore.
What ELSE should I look at. What other information would help diagnose this inaccuracy issue.