Vearl said:
Just bought a used ( new to me) .50 cal T. C. New Englander rifle. Should be in my hands by this coming Friday. Hurry up UPS.
Figure I will start with .490 RB with 60 gr. of 3F BP to see what grouping I get. Work up from there to get my tightest grouping. Also start with a .018 lubed patching.
Does anyone know if the 12 ga. shotgun barrel will interchange with this stock ?
Looked at a nice .54 cal New Englander, but the stock was cracked by the lock bolt. Figured the .50 cal will be able to take down a deer at 75 yds. if I do my part.
Be waiting responses from other New Englander owners in regards to their loads and how it performs.
Vearl
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Your new (used) .50 caliber rifle will "do" a deer really well at 75 yards. I use 70 grains of Swiss FFFg behind a round, patched rifle ball in my older, .50 caliber cap-lock CVA Carbine with a 24-inch barrel which is a VERY accurate load. However, the 65 grain load is just as accurate, but has a slightly lower muzzle velocity.
Goex FFFg seems to work as well and as accurately as the Swiss FFFg with only a slight velocity loss... and the deer don't seem to be able to tell the "difference"!
My "accuracy load" for both my "hunting rifle" (an older cap-lock .50 caliber CVA Carbine with a 24-inch barrel) and my older, .50 caliber CVA cap-lock with the 28-inch barrel (my "target rifle") is
47 grains of either Swiss or Goex under a round, patched .490 Hornady swaged lead ball with a .016ths cotton denim cut patch lubed with a mixture of bee's wax and Crisco Oil.
I use a fairly thin .516" diameter vegetable fiber wad (bio-degradable) between the powder and the patched ball which I buy from John Walters of Moore, Oklahoma (ph: (405) 799-0376) to keep any patch-lube contamination from getting to the powder when leaving the Carbine loaded for several days at a time.
If you order from John, he'll send you the wads with an invoice asking you to send your payment... he's a very trusting soul, but sez that most muzzle-loader shooters are "good guys"... and he's right about that, in my humble opinion. :wink:
I also believe the veggie fiber wad seems to help give more consistency (and thus, greater accuracy) to my "target" rifle's muzzle velocity when target shooting... (of course, I could be wrong)... therefore, I use the veggie fiber wad in all my loads.
I found that both a 65 grain powder load as well as a 70 grain load yielded excellent accuracy in my 2 older CVA cap-locks, but for "paper-punching", the 47 grain load was more accurate as well as using up to 33% less powder (70-47=23÷70=32.85 or 33%) more economical.
Good luck in your endeavors... make
GOOD smoke...! :thumbsup:
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.