.60 cal

[NARLINMARLIN]

I recently got an old (1798) double barrel rifle in .60 cal had it checked out and is shootable now that I know this I have to shoot it I have a mold .575 round ball how heavy of a patch do I use for this? also I figured I would start with 60 grains of powder

[MBTcustom]

sweeeet. I want one.

[longbow]

Me too! Pictures?

Slug or mike the bore and groove to get the actual dimensions. The ball should be about 0.010" under bore diameter then patch thickness to fill the grooves.

So ball diameter + patch thickness x 2 = groove diameter.

If your .60 cal. is .600" bore then the .575" ball is too small. If it is 0.600" groove then the .575" ball should be about right with about 0.015" patch.

Did I mention... pictures?

Longbow

[montana_charlie]

Obviously, you are after information for a muzzleloader.
There's an app for that http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

CM

[NARLINMARLIN]

I created a new album titled black powder from the past on my page for those who wish to view thanks for the info I micd the barrels and the smooth bore side is .60 the rifled side is .590

[NARLINMARLIN]

The rifle came to me with a ton of history . It has been in the same family for five generations, imported to the U.S. in 1800 , in 1835 hunted with in Africa

[waksupi]

Nice gun, but it definitely was not converted from flint to percussion.

[StrawHat]

The rifle came to me with a ton of history . It has been in the same family for five generations, imported to the U.S. in 1800 , in 1835 hunted with in Africa, in 1875 converted to ball and cap

Imported from where? It appears Germanic but Austria and Switzerland also made similar rifles. Under the forearm you should find proof marks stamped on the barrels. They can tell you a lot of information.

[gunplumber]

from the pic of the end of the barrels the rifled side looks like it would use an octagon slug. Ive seen pics in articles about them in an old magazine thats no longer around called black powder hunting. for some reason it wintworth rifles seems to stick in my mind but in a quick google search i couldnt find anything. i still have a stack of those old magazines, ill flip through them and see if i can find it there

[Wayne Smith]

Yes, the Witworth rifles used an octagonal bore with an octagonal bullet. The most accurate rifles of their day and popular with the Confederate snipers. The Italians make a copy of it and make the mold/press to make the bullets.

[StrawHat]

A lot of old rifles have rifling that appears to be polyagonal. Fortunately, they can be shot using round bullets just fine. The Whitworth is a classic example of the octagonal bore and it works fine with a proper round bullet in lieu of the eight sided one. The big secret to the Whitworth was the smaller caliber (45) and quick rifling twist (1/22). A huge improvement over the 58 Enfield but really no better than the 45 caliber quick twist Volunteer rifles of the day (or the current reproductions.)

[calaloo]

Whitworth bores are hexagonal (six sided).

[montana_charlie]

Whitworth bores are hexagonal (six sided).

Yup ...

[StrawHat]

Whitworth bores are hexagonal (six sided).

You are correct, for some reason I had forgotten that point. The basic premise remains the same.

[725]

I shoot a converted .50 T/C that is now bored to .60 by Bob Hoyt with a 1/60 twist. With the modern metallurgy and construction, I use 80 grains of FFg Triple Seven, pillow ticking patch, a 20 gauge shotgun wad all under a .593 ball from Jeff Tanner. Have gone as high as 100 grains of Triple Seven but got better accuracy with the 80 grain load. For your period gun, 60 grains sounds like a good starter and I wouldn't look to go much higher. You may be interested in using those lubed 20 gauge shotgun wads (got mine from October Country) as they gave a markedly improved group as opposed to the patch & ball alone. Good luck.

[NARLINMARLIN]

thanks I will have to give that a try ,you wouldn't want to sell four balls for me to try out?

[725]

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