Twist question

Hello,
was given this rifle and looking to find out how to tell the twist of my CVA frontier 50 cal rifle, the barrel is 24 inches long and the rifling is clean and in great shape with no rust.

Second question, have no paper work on how much powder to use was hoping someone could help me out on a safe powder charge to start out with and what would be the max charge to not go over. the powder i have is Pyrodex RS. Thank you

It looks like 1:32 or 1:48.

Look here:[url] http://www.thebuckskinner.com/barrel_chart.html[/url]

Welcome to the forum! :hatsoff:

muzzlejoe:
If you put a lightly oiled cleaning patch on a .50 cal cleaning jag and run it down the bore with the the ramrod until it hits the breech you can then wrap a piece of masking tape around the exposed rod flush with the muzzle.
Make a mark in line with the front sight on the tape with a pen.
Slowly withdraw the rod allowing it to turn with the rifling until it has rotated 90 degrees.
Measure the distance from the muzzle to the start of the tape. I'm betting it will be 12 inches.
Whatever the distance from the muzzle to the tape is, multiply this number by 4 to obtain the twist rate.
zonie

Do this a couple of times. Until you get a feel for the rifling's twist, you are likely to get strange results the first couple of times you do this trick. It takes a very light touch to pull that tight patch out of the barrel AND let it turn with the rifling.

MY brother's new .45 has a 1:48" twist, but the first time he did the tight patch test to determine what the ROT actually is, he got something like 6.5" to the quarter turn. I knew that was wrong, and insisted that he do it again. This time, he got 13 inches to the quarter turn, and I knew that was wrong, too! So, I had him do it again, and he admitted that he was holding the rod too hard when he first started pulling. He put the rod back down on the breechplug, and began again. This time, he got 12 inches in the quarter turn, or 1:48. I had him repeat it three times, mostly to teach him how to do it, as I knew he would have other rifles, and he finally got the hang of it.

You may actually do this better if you put an oiled cleaning patch in front of a brush, instead of using the jag. The brush bristles will pierce the cloth of the patch, and get down into each of the grooves of the rifling, locking the patch in place. I found that I got a much more uniform reading using that technique than trying to find a correct jag, and patch combination that would allow a tight fit, so that the jag did not rotate under the patch and give me strange results.

Thanks for the great info and helping me figure this twist rate out, its 1:48 for sure.

what is a good starting point for a powder charge? looking to use a patched round ball, what should I not max out for a charge? Thanks again you guys are great help and fast on a reply.

Welcome to the forum! 50 grains would be a good plinking/target load to try as a starting point. That's 1 grain per caliber. In a 24 inch barrel with patched round balls (PRB's), I'd say that 60-70 grains is all that the barrel will burn. Anything after that will just make more noise and smoke AND recoil! I have a 28" barrel Lyman Trade Rifle .50 cal and use a 70 grain charge that's very accurate. More powder than that and I start to "crud-up" the barrel, which requires more cleaning between shots.

Have fun and make smoke!

Dave

Hi and thanks, so pretty much your saying to much powder say over 70 grains will be a waste by not burning all the powder? Just want to make sure I don't do something stupid like split this octagon barrle. thanks again

Only way you are likely to split the barrel is if you were to use ANY Smokeless powder in it. DO NOT EVER use ANY Smokeless powder in a MLer.

hi heard some stories about some new inline magnums blowing up spliting etc. and not using smokeless gun powder, just a scarry thought

Your short-barreled .50 caliber gun is just not going to move mountains. Its maximum amount of powder to burn behind a PRB is only 55 grains. Start 10% less, or at 50 grains, and see how that shoots. Then go down to 45, and then up to 55 grains.

This short barrel makes your gun basically a 50-75 yard deer gun. Its fine when you hunt river bottoms, and thick woods and edge areas, which is where deer live. Most whitetails are shot at under 50 yards, year in and year out. Don't believe half the stories you hear guys tell about making long shots. Where i hunt, you rarely can see a deer 50 yards away! At those ranges, the limited powder charge you can put in your gun is more than adequate to kill a deer. But, --- and this is a big but ---- this is no 100 yard deer gun. The distance between the front and rear sight would make it difficult to shoot a good group at those longer ranges. 50 grains should give you about 1300 fps, which is more than enough to drive a 175 grain lead ball clean through a deer broadside.

You can safely load much more powder than this maximum burn rate formula, but all you are doing is making a bigger muzzle flame, as the powder burns outside the barrel. The added weight of the powder adds to the recoil forces you feel, and that in turn will produce a flinch, and distract you from holding your sight picture through the shot to make a good hit. ( lack of follow through is the nice way to say, " you jerked your shot!")

I shot a 25 inch barrel .45 caliber " Kentucky Carbine " made in Spain for a number of years. It was its own challenge, but I learned much on how to make a percussion lock work correctly, and then learned what loads to use in it.

In your .50 you can use FFFg BP, which will give you higher velocity, between 10 and 15% on the average, than using a similar volume of FFg powder. I used FFFg powder in my .45 and eventually found a load combination that worked well enough that I was doing exhibition shooting with the gun.

If you decided to use FFFg power, start at 45 grains, and work your way up. Try to find a load that give you the best accuracy at 50 yards. With a .50 caliber round ball, placement on an animal's body is all important. Between accuracy and a bit more velocity, go with the accurate load every time.

You can do your own penetration tests with your " light load" and your " monster load" the one your buddies are telling you GOTTA USE when you go hunting. The penetration test will tell you which load to choose, and why.

Hello, thanks guys for all the replys and help.