30 caliber black powder rifle

[ebb]

I have a guy that lives in the neighborhood that wants to convert his Encore to a 30 caliber BP rile by making a breach plug to go in a 308 Winchester barrel he has bought for that purpose. He has asked me about finding someone to cast him some 30 caliber bullets. Do any of you guys know a commercial shop that makes something that would work for him? He seems to think he has the breach plug figured out, but I am unsure. The says I found someone to do it for him but he lost the contact info. I know I fgound someone to make some bullets for a 45-70 but I don't recall the 30 caliber bullet. He talked to the guy in the spring and the guy want him to slug the barrel and send the slug.

[LAGS]

I don't think the rifling on a .308 will work well for BP.
When I was younger,
I made a BP barrel out of an old Mauser 8 mm barrel.
It didn't shoot well and fouled after EVERY shot.

[725]

Beat me to it, LAGS. Mouse fart loads with RB, maybe.

[Texas by God]

A better thing to do would be to load cast bullets in the .308 at .32 caliber muzzleloader speeds.
Cheaper and more accurate.


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[TD1886]

The 303 British was originally loaded as black powder cartridge. I believe the powder was solid in the case, not sure, but it did pretty well. Then they went to smokeless Cordite.

How was this fellow going to load the rifle...muzzle??? I wouldn't want to do that LOL

[indian joe]

Beat me to it, LAGS. Mouse fart loads with RB, maybe.

If he gets it to work with round ball all it will be is a mouse gun

To make anything of it will need a slug gun and unless hes a seasoned blackpowder shooter he should stay well clear of that.

[freakonaleash]

Most .308s are 1 in 10 twist. Too fast for muzzleloaders. .30 is going to foul out bad too

[Good Cheer]

If he makes a plug and loads from the muzzle...
He will be able to clean from the breach.
His bullets will need to be about 0.298" diameter (or about 0.002" under bore diameter).

If he uses empty primed 308 cases...
The .308 case will have a lot more case capacity than what's needed.
Then there's the distance from the case mouth to the rifling to think about.

It's a whole lot easier to muzzleload with a larger bore rifle and less case capacity.
But, that said, it can still be done.

[Richard66]

Tell him to use cast bullets and it will work just fine also he may need to run them thru a sizer to get the correct diameter. I have one made from a 8mm Mauser barrel and use pistol bullet and maxi balls in it just fine

[triggerhappy243]

i don't think the rifling on a .308 will work well for bp.
When i was younger,
i made a bp barrel out of an old mauser 8 mm barrel.
It didn't shoot well and fouled after every shot.

lags, sending you a pm.

[LAGS]

I made several PM responses

[ebb]

I guess this is my bad. I think he wants a gun to use in primitive weapons season. I have always called BP, but I am sure he will use a clean substitute. This guy is almost on y last nerve, he bought 45-70 encore barrels for him and his son then when he shot it he said it kicked too much he wanted a lighter bullet, and a reduced load, but still wants to make lethal shots at 200 yds. I don't think you can have both. now he says he lost the info I gave him on 30 caliber bullets for this homemade 30 caliber muzzle loader.

[Texas by God]

I would leave him alone at this point- but that’s me.


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