loads for new .36 long rifle.

Hello,
I just finished a project that I started last Christmas. It is a .36 flint pa long rifle. The gun has a "A" weight 42 inch barrel by colerian. I am looking for advice on what loads work well with that barrel. So far 50gr of 2f seems to work well but I want some edible meat from the tree rats I plan on hunting. I have tried 15 grains of 2f at 35 yards and have so so results...
Any advice would be very welcome.
Twig.

Try 3f with your light loads. Don't have the same barrel, but my 36 really shines with light loads of 3f. Currently I'm shooting only 15 grains, but contemplating going even lower. Shooting snowshoe hare rather than squirrels, but I have to be really careful to take clean head shots. If I drop it down into the neck, the front shoulders are completely ruined due to blood shot. At only 15 grains, it's still waaaaaay more destructive than a 22lr.

My .36 caliber load for squirrels is 28 grains of 3F goex, .015 patch, and a .350 round ball. The combo shoots good out to 50 yards. But the barrel is a 3/4" straight barrel not sure of the manufacturer because of no markings on the barrel.

How do you like the 42" A Weight swamped barrel. I have been thinking of building a kit with that barrel in a .36 caliber.

Each rifle is different and what works in one similar rifle may not work the best in your specific rifle. You have to discover what your rifle likes. The absolute best advice for discovering the most accurate load for your rifle will be fond in this material:
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Buy it, read it, understand it and follow it to the letter and you will be amazed at the accuracy you will be getting from your rifle. No one can give you any better advice than you will find in this material.

I really like the swamped barrel. I buddy of mine had a 50 that was straight profile and it was muzzle heavy. I think the barrel is just starting to be broke in. Fouling is not so bad and with 20 grains of 2f was consistently hitting a soup can at 35 yards. If I had to do it over again I would not go without the swamped barrel. My next project for the next winter will be a .62 transitional rifle w a patch box for our winter flintlock season. I plan on using the 36 for tree rats ground hogs and fall turkey this year.

Thanks for the advice. I gotta get a can of 3f next..I only have about 200 grains of 2f left.

Thanks for the advice...will be getting a copy next week gotta watch the budget or :yakyak: from my better half.

I have two swamped barrels one in a early virginia and one in a late lancaster both of which are in .50 caliber. I really like how the swamped barrels balance out these rifles.

But my three squirrel rifles all have straight barrels. My .32 caliber southern mountain has a 3/4" straight barrel, my .32 caliber tennessee rifle and my .36 caliber virginia rifle have 13/16" straight barrels. I want a .36 caliber southern mountain rifle with a A weight swamped barrel. You can never have enough squirrel rifles. "LOL"

Former buddy used to tell me I would soon lose a chance at a big bull trying to decide what to shoot it with! But no, one can ever have "too many" muzzle loaders! Wife was near kicked outta gun shop once for stating it was possible a bit too loud! :rotf:

twig said:

If I had to do it over again I would not go without the swamped barrel.

Click to expand...

This confuses me. Does this mean that your future builds will be with swamped barrels?

Gotta love the little calibers; they're so cheap to feed and ready to please. My .36 SMR has a 3/4" straight barrel, and while it sings with about any load; it especially likes loads up to 30 grains of 3F. A favorite load of mine is 20 grains of 3F, a .350" ball and .024" patch lubed with Hoppes. At 80 yards that load will hit tin cans consistently. I'll soon be testing 15 grain charges, however, to see what they will do. I plan on using the 20 grain load on turkeys this weekend. 30 grains is just as accurate.

I have a .36 cal long rifle that has a 42 inch barrel. I ran an extensive test to see what it liked and came up with 40 grains of fffG Goex, .350 ball and a .015 cotton drill patch with spit as the lube. The washed patch material measures .015 uncompressed but only .008 when compressed. It's the best patch material I have found.

000 buckshot pellet, .015 patch, 30 grains of 3f

Best use of Buckshot that I can think of. Buy a bag and you have years of shooting.

I used to use buckshot in my .32. I had to weigh every ball, though, because they varied in weight more than you might think. But, as long as I used balls that were close in weight, it worked just fine. I ordered the buck shot directly from the manufacturer. Back then, I could order it and they would ship it directly to my house and didn't even charge shipping. That didn't last long. Now, that same bag of shot is priced at over $35 plus shipping. At least that was the price the last time I looked.....but that was a while back.

I'm not familiar with the twist rate for those barrels, but the semi-rule-of-thumb is that slower twists need more velocity for accurate groups than the faster twists. This is the reason TC put a fast 1-30" twist on their Cherokee and Seneca rifles. the .32 and .36 bores in those rifles shoot fairly good groups with 10 to 15 grains of FFFg. Slower twists probably won't respond to light loads and you'll have to up the charge to get better groups. Try loads from 25 to 40 grains and see what your rifle likes best. Ball sizes and patch thickness changes my help as well.

it is confusing how i have it worded there.
the swamped barrel is a must for me after handling some 42 inch straight profile barreled guns. They(swamped barrels) balance better when shooting and carrying imho.

I haven't weighed the buck shot I am using yet....might be why the best I could do the other day was 3.5 in at 70 yards....plus the wind was blowing a bit...

1in 48...

I always record all of my tests and experiments in a bound ledger book. Somewhere I have the book that I recorded the experiment where I picked out a random sampling of 100 .310 buckshot balls and weighed them. Unfortunately, I don't have that data at hand. When we moved, all of that stuff was packed up in boxes and we have not unpacked all of those boxes. If I run across that data, I will post it on this forum. I was surprised by the variation that I found in the ball weights.

But, 3.5 inches at 70 yards. That is pretty darned good shooting. It would be interesting to see what weighing the balls and selecting only those that were within a variance of plus or minus 0.5 grains. Why not give it a try and let us know if it makes any difference in your group size.