62 cal loads

Hey gents Just got word ,I got a 62 cal Factors rifle comin in the mail...woohoo.
I have a 20 gua trade gun,that I love to shoot and it takes 65 grains of powder for roundball and 80 for shot.
Just wondering if anyone has similar and what loads you use ?

Don't know nuttin bout a Factor,but would think that being this one is a rifle,if your smoothbore likes 65grs for PRB,then that would be a starting place.For my 62/20 I use 70grs for all loads(buck-ball). Good shooting!! :wink:

Hawken12 said:

Just wondering if anyone has similar and what loads you use ?

Click to expand...

Dunno the gun. But with the addition of sights and the potential for longer shots, I like a flatter trajectory in my 62 rifle than my 62 smooth. Best ball load with my smoothie is 80 grains of 2f, and I almost never shoot at game past 50 yards, much less paper.

My rifle is a different matter. It's sighted in dead on at 75 yards, and I'm not the least worried about 100 yard shots if I can find a rest. Tried the 80 grain charge with a 75 yard sight-in, and it was almost 3" high at 50 and about 10" low at 100. Loopy as a rainbow, so I started pushing the load up. At 140 grains of 2f I was getting trajectories about like I get with my 58's and 54's: An inch high 50 and about 4 low at 100.

But it was getting real snorty on the back end because the rifle is a little light. Settled back down to 120 grains, which puts me barely more than an inch high at 50 and about 6 low at 100. I can live with that and so can my shoulder. Of course if I spent all my time on the range murdering defenseless paper, I'd drop it back down to 80 grains for pussycat shoulder wear and the heck with trajectory.

Hawken12 said:

Hey gents Just got word ,I got a 62 cal Factors rifle comin in the mail...woohoo.
I have a 20 gua trade gun,that I love to shoot and it takes 65 grains of powder for roundball and 80 for shot.
Just wondering if anyone has similar and what loads you use ?

Click to expand...

You'll have to specify the particulars....Factors appears to be an English Sporting Rifle of the FL persuasion. I see that they are using Colerain barrels on their fowlers.

My Colerain .62 is 1-66" and seems to like 100-120gr fffg Goex behind a .605" RB in thick pillow ticking. I've shot lighter and heavier charges, but it gets pretty snorty despite it 2"+ buttplate.

80 gr. for a shot load seems very hefty to me. But, if it doesn't blow your patterns you are good to go.
For my 20 ga. fowler I get happiest results in the 50 to 70 gr. range. Shot and ball.

Not familiar with that gun...but as one possible reference, my Early Virginia 'smooth rifle' shoots PRBs better the faster I push them.
During deer load development when I worked up through 10 grain increments and got to the 110grn Goex 2F charge, a distinct "crack" sound became noticeable...and the 50yard group size shank in half.
Tried 120grns and got no further improvement so I settled on 110grns Goex 2F...excellent accuracy / trajectory, and the first deer I took with it was a beautiful 10 pointer so I would be hard pressed to bother changing anything, LOL.

,tis like an English sporting rifle.also it is a 1 in 66 twist Colerain barrel...good call...31 inch barrel swamped chambers lock Mike brooks made it for me,,can't hardly wait til she hits my door.
Based on John Clark gunne

Many thanx on replys all included gives me a good starting point from the best.Gotta say this is a great forum.,lots of people here are so generous in imparting their knowledge.Again thankyou .Thankyou Claude and all the moderators

My .62 has a 31" swamped rice bbl with round bottom grooves. It liked two loads best: 95 grs of 3F Swiss or 100 grs of 2F KIK. Both with a .610 round ball and .025 denim patch lubed with ballistol/water mix. Only lose a couple inches between 50 and 75 yards. Another 4" from 75 to 100.

Thanx for reply ,hmm round bottom grooves,not sure what colerains have...How is you experience with them?

Hawken12 said:

Thanx for reply ,hmm round bottom grooves,not sure what colerains have...How is you experience with them?

Click to expand...

From Colerain's website: "Rifling depth is .016” per side for all but the 36 and 40 caliber barrels which are .012” deep per side. We cut round bottom ( radius groove ) rifling. This is an old form of rifling that because of the lack of corners in the grooves is much easier to clean, and also allows the patch to better seal. All rifling is 6 grooves."

I like it and I've seen many other forum members comment quite positively on this type of rifling.

My .45, .50, and .58cals all have round bottom groove barrels...after getting my first build done with one, round bottom grooves have been my barrel of choice ever since

it just gets better an better Thanx now just to git my baby cross the border and we're good to go ,pics to follow and also range report.

Hey Spike,Thanx how is is that lube in the winter ? shure gets chilly up here,bout now.concerned about freezing in the barrel...

Hawken12 said:

Hhow is is that lube in the winter ? concerned about freezing in the barrel...

Click to expand...

With a "dry" patch there is no water to freeze. You mix the Ballistol and Water (you need to experiment to find the mix best for your gun, but Dutch states 4-1 is a pretty good mix though perhaps not optimal, though I am using 2 parts water to 1 part Ballistol so I'm on the "slick" side). After you have soaked the patching material, you let it dry on a perfectly flat, nonporous surface...so all water evaporates and all that is left is the Ballistol.

If you search around, you'll find all kinds of posts discussing this dry-patch method.