Elk and a 50-90 rolling block

[Chill Wills]

I drew a cow elk tag north of here for this winter and hope to take one with my Remington rolling block chambered in 50-90 or 50 2-1/2"

I have not hunted with this rifle before and I am not all that crazy about the sights. They work and I will use them unless I come up with something better. I have a flip up 'Beeches' front sight and a Remington correct 'Rough & Ready' barrel sight, which I hoped I would like for the field/hunting, but it is not very easy to line up. The rear notch is almost invisible in good light(!), it might be like using a shotgun bead in poor light if I can't find the rear notch in the heat of battle.

I'll work on it. I have time.

I just started to work on a hunting load.
I have a 600grn round nose mold made by Brooks and I'm wanting to use up some old Elephant FFg powder. The elephant burns clean. I have shot a few of these. I just need to find the right charge level.

88 and 90 grains produces Okay groups at 100yd, at 1275 and just under 1300 feet per second.
I'll get a picture of the rifle posted soon. Here is the loaded round and the 50-90 case empty with the bullet next to it50 cal ammo resized.jpg.

[HWooldridge]

If you make contact, the elk will be DRT…

[hoodat]

You must not realize that these "modern elk" won't even be phased by an old slow bullet like that. jd

[ChristopherO]

That boolit is nearly twice the weight of the T/C Maxihunter I've used to kill whitetail deer with. Plus, your velocity numbers are a tad faster than my loading in a muzzleloader. I expect the trajectory will be more noticeable, but with dead soft projectiles elk won't stay on their feet too long. May not be DRT, but tgey will be dead.

[Chill Wills]

but with dead soft projectiles elk won't stay on their feet too long.

Yes, I am now sorting out the accurate load with harder bullets than I hope to hunt with. Once I settle on a good accurate load, I will cast softer and softer bullets to test and go with the softest bullet alloy with good accuracy for my hunting load.

[lar45]

Sounds like it will be a great time.
I picked up a 12.7x44R Swedish rolling block. it's their version of the 50-70 that uses bullets around .504"





I have not tried Black in mine, only 4198, but it shoots pretty good.




the original sights were terrible.






I got a taller bead front and a tang mounted peep that installed pretty easily.



The trigger spring on mine was very heavy.
some of the guys on here showed me a picture of a piano wire spring. .049"? take one wrap around a screw driver and cut it to length. 3.5# trigger. it's soo much nicer.



Your 600gn bullet will definitely do the job, but something with more of a flat point might hit harder and transfer more energy?

[Chill Wills]

That looks like and interesting rifle. You have made some good improvements to it.

The groove is 0.504"? interesting. What is the twist? If I had to build this rifle over I might have considered 50-70 Govt. more but the 50-90 is fine too. I really wanted to go for the T-Rex killer.

I have a tang sight I may use for developing accurate ammo but I would much prefer a receiver sight for hunting. Besides, I have scratched my glasses lenses a few times with recoil and tang sights. I am a safer shooter and so are my glasses with barrel sights or a receiver sight. Oh' well, as much as I like tang sights I better be smart this time.

About the bullet nose. I have not shot a thing (living) with this bullet so there is that. But, I scaled up the US Army 1873 405grain bullet to 50 cal. I have shot a few mule deer with the 45 cal version with my 45-70 1886. They are great hunting bullets. For bullet alloy, going soft is the way to go. I know that. I will just have to see as I get closer to the season.

On your rifle, is the barrel scratched? It looks like it has a pattern on it. I doubt it is forged is it?

Anyone know of a receiver sight for a roller?

[HWooldridge]

I think that Swedish rifle may have a draw filed finish (done lengthwise, not on a lathe).

I once shot a small Texas doe in the neck with a heavy 45-70 load in a Marlin 1895, using a 445 gr linotype NEI boolit, and having a mostly flat nose. I missed the vertebrae and she acted like I had missed, so I put another one into the shoulder. She kept walking and I just watched in dumb amazement, until she finally dropped after a few steps. Two nice clean 45 holes straight through but zero expansion.

Soft lead certainly makes more sense for hunting…

[GregLaROCHE]

You might try a bit of white paint on the back of the rear sight, to make it easier to see in low light.

[Rockindaddy]

I shoot plenty of 45-70, 45-90, and 50-70. When shooting big game with cast boolits, make sure your cast boolits are dead soft lead. Made the mistake a few years ago when hunting with an original Sharps 50-70 on my farm in SW PA; I grabbed my target rounds that have some lynotype mixed in the lead alloy. When I drilled a nice buck at 50 yards the ole guy just jumped and looked around like nothing ever happened! Quickly reloading; I tried to break his shoulder. The second round hit ole bucky who jumped in the air this time and calmly walked 60 yards and stopped and looked around. Was I shooting blanks??? A few more steps and he fell over as I was reloading!! When I got this buck loaded up in the back of the quad and hung him up in the garage, skinned him and removed the entrails, I saw two nice neat holes in the heart. The 450gr lynotype boolits had not expanded and passed through both sides of the animal with 1/2" holes on both sides. Soft cast lead boolits make big exit holes and give up energy. Often they do not pass through an animal. Shot a 1300 lb Bison last October with a Sharps 45-90 at 180 yards. The 400 gr soft boolit took out both lungs and never exited the animal. All that energy was absorbed by that big critter that walked 50 ft and fell over! SOFT BOOLITS!

[Chill Wills]

I shoot plenty of 45-70, 45-90, and 50-70. When shooting big game with cast boolits, make sure your cast boolits are dead soft lead. SOFT BOOLITS!

Yup! That is my experience as well. I have shot the majority of the elk with cast bullets. 338-06, 348 Winchester, 35 Whelen and 375H&H all got two part hard body, soft nose bullets.

Just what this fifty bullet is going to be made of is yet to be seen, but even if it turns out to be a two-part bullet, the nose will be soft.

[Texas by God]

I predict a half inch hole going in the elk and a one inch(or bigger) hole coming out of the elk.
Good hunting!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[koger]

I would like to see pics of this fine rifle.

[MGySgt]

I have harvested elk with my repro 1886 Sharp's Business rifle, 430 gr large flat point at 1470 fps. Each took about 10 steps and fell over. The off side looked like someone took a bucket of blood and just threw it. Boolits hit bottom of the lungs.

[Chill Wills]

I would like to see pics of this fine rifle.

I don't know about it being a Fine rifle, but thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. I made it from a $200 loose action and still have a little wood and bluing to complete. But it is close and shootable. Yes, I have been slow to post a picture. I just have not been able to "NOT" shoot it, and wait until everything was finished. I will try to get a photo posted tonight.
I was up and out at 05:00 today to shoot a silhouette match a few hours to the south.

[Chill Wills]

Please excuse the poor lighting. This is the incomplete rifle. This wood was an Ebay low end 2-piece blank from a Turkish dealer here in the USA. He had some very expensive blanks, and then some very very expensive blanks, and this one was basiclly a "get rid of" give-a-way at $40 and shipping. I had CPA turn it for the roller. I have a home shop lathe and mill (small) and did the Badger barrel and slow rust blue. Some parts on the action still need to be blued.

[koger]

Thanks for sharing the pics, it is a dang nice looking rig. I must confess, though I like all kind of single shots, I have a long love for rolling blocks I have had one or another for over 40 years. I have sold a few I have duplicates of caliber wise,and currently have 10 in assorted calibers.

[lar45]

Thanks for the pics. That wood has a great color to it.
I think the barrel on the Swede was draw filed also. That's the way it came to me.
I'll have to dig through my notes for the twist rate and groove on it, but I'm pretty sure the groove is .504". The twist seemed pretty slow, so I went with lighter/shorter bullets.
I make brass from cut down 50 Alaskan Starline cases.
I load with a combination of 50-70 and 500S&W dies.
The trigger spring was very easy to make and made a huge improvement.

[krems]

Sounds like a fun project and hunt coming up. About 10 years ago I filmed a friend on a canned buffalo shoot/hunt shooting my 50-90 Ballard rifle with a 585 grain 30-1alloy cast bullet and black powder. In slow motion you could see the shock wave going throughout the buffalo upon impact. The buff stood still leaking blood and 2 follow up shots all within a 4 inch circle finally ended the shoot. The landowner guide dude kept telling him to shoot thinking he missed cause he kept seeing bullets ricochet off the dirt on the back side of the buffalo. I eventually sold that Ballard rifle after it bloodied my nose shooting off a bench. Haha…..

I’ve since shot 2 elk with a 45-110 Shiloh Sharps and black powder. You’re 50-90 RB will get the job done. Have fun!

[lar45]

Yup! That is my experience as well. I have shot the majority of the elk with cast bullets. 338-06, 348 Winchester, 35 Whelen and 375H&H all got two part hard body, soft nose bullets.

Just what this fifty bullet is going to be made of is yet to be seen, but even if it turns out to be a two-part bullet, the nose will be soft.

Those sound like some great calibers. I've always wanted a 338-06. I've got the 35 Whelen, 350 Rem mag, 338 Win mag, and 375 Ruger.
All of the Elk I've shot with a rifle has been the old 30-06, it still gets the job done. Most of those were 165 Corelokts.
I always wanted to try Elk with a 375 H&H, but just haven't got around to it yet. May be awhile with me in Arkansas vs Idaho now