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.58 cal. Renegade nipple

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ndbilly

40 Cal.
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Have a Renegade with a GM drop in barrel in .58 cal. Also have a musket cap nipple in addition to the original. Anyone have any experience with musket caps vs No. 10's or 11's in terms of ignition reliability? I'm a newbie to .58 cal. FWIW, the barrel is 1:70 for PRB. Also, I'm guessing about 80 gr of 2F would be a good place to start, no?
 
According to the Hodgdon reloading manual, start a 50 grains, and go up to 70 grains of FFg in that .58. Remember that you are shooting a heavy ball, and its going to keep on going once you get it started. It may start out slow, but it will lose less velocity than a smaller ball going faster. Figure out a good paper load, for 25 and 50 yard shooting, and then work up a HELLO load for hunting and to shoot at 100 yards. The ball will kill at many times that range, but the trajectory of a round ball is such that it begins to drop off very fast not much beyond that 100 yard mark.

You want a hunting load that has a point blank trajectory of no more than 3 inches above the line of sight, and no lower than 3 inches below the line of sight( Point of aim) either between the muzzle and the zero range distance, and a calculated distance beyond your zero distance.

For instance, I zero my .50 caliber rifle to put the ball 2 inches high at 50 yards, and 1 inch low at 100 yards. At 125 yards, it drops that next inch, so my point blank range for that gun and load is plus or minus 2 inches to 125 yards. If I were to zero the gun at 100 yards. that would put the ball 3 inches high at 50 yards, and 3 inches low at about 140 yards. That is a very long shot for me using open sights. I want to be closer, and I usually can get closer, if I see the deer in time to move.
 
ndbilly said:
Have a Renegade with a GM drop in barrel in .58 cal. Also have a musket cap nipple in addition to the original. Anyone have any experience with musket caps vs No. 10's or 11's in terms of ignition reliability? I'm a newbie to .58 cal. FWIW, the barrel is 1:70 for PRB. Also, I'm guessing about 80 gr of 2F would be a good place to start, no?
If you're using black, a musket cap is overkill, unnecessary...#11s are all that're needed for blackpowder.

I have the same GM barrel in Flint...if you're using a PRB, 80grns is the entry level for the powder charge range posted in TC's data charts (80-120).
I found 80grns to be a nice plinking charge for shooting cans and such at the range with just a pillow ticking patch.
I use a mid-range charge of 100grns and an Oxyoke wad for deer hunting in my thick woods where shots are 40-50yds.
 
ndbilly, I got the same barrel in a renegade stock. The barrel is very accurate with almost any powder charge ive tried. I settled on 105 grains FF goex with a pillow ticking patch and mink oil lube,for my hunting load this year. I have to agree with Roundball if youre using real black powder a no 11 cap is all you'll need.
 
doulos said:
ndbilly, I got the same barrel in a renegade stock. The barrel is very accurate with almost any powder charge ive tried. I settled on 105 grains FF goex with a pillow ticking patch and mink oil lube,for my hunting load this year. I have to agree with Roundball if youre using real black powder a no 11 cap is all you'll need.

.018 and .570?
 
While I normally agree with Paulv. I suspect that he was thinking of a .58 cal rifled musket when he suggested the 70 grain max load? Then again, I don't have a Hodgdon manual for black powder loads so I might be mistaken.

The Lyman BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK loads for a .58 cal Non musket barrels starts at 60 grains and goes up to 140 grains. I must add that in my opinion, anything above 120 grains produces some formidable breech pressures when loaded with anything except a roundball.
 
Jim: I don't have the kind of gun used for the tables in the Hodgdon manual. Not the make, or barrel length. That leaves the data just a general reference. Obviously, if you have a good strong octagon shaped barrel in .58 caliber, you can stoke it with more powder. I suspect that they were using those re-production .58 caliber Zuave rifled muskets for these velocity tests, but there is nothing in the book to say one way or another.

Thanks for the observtion about the heavier loads. The Hodgdon manual does list loads for the minie ball but none uses a charge heavier than 70 grains.
 
Zonie said:
While I normally agree with Paulv. I suspect that he was thinking of a .58 cal rifled musket when he suggested the 70 grain max load? Then again, I don't have a Hodgdon manual for black powder loads so I might be mistaken.

The Lyman BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK loads for a .58 cal Non musket barrels starts at 60 grains and goes up to 140 grains. I must add that in my opinion, anything above 120 grains produces some formidable breech pressures when loaded with anything except a roundball.

Yes,[url] incorrect...in[/url] fact not only is 70grns not a max charge for a PRB load in any muzzleloading rifle I'm aware of, it usually isn't even the entry level powder charge on the load data tables...as I mentioned, just as one reference TC's load data lists 80-120grns 2F as the optimal range for a .58cal PRB, and you know there's even a liability buffer in there to boot.

In the large volume .58cal bore of my 33" GM Flint barrel, 120grn PRB loads are surprisingly pleasant to shoot...the little 100grn loads are powder puffs...and this caliber (or barrel or both) doesn't seem to care what powder charge I use...it just drills them into the center over and over...an incredibly accurate barrel.
 
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ndbilly, actually the pillow ticking Im using is the white and red striped I found at Jo Anne Fabric. It seems a little thinner than the stufff at Walmart. I believe its in the area of .018 -016. I dont trust my measuring techniques on anything that pliable. Actually the barrel has shot well with almost any thickness Ive tried with a Hornady.570 ball. I also have to agree with Roundball about the charge. I thought 105 grains was pretty easy to handle off hand or from sticks. It is not pleasant from a bench but then again that Renegade stock doesent fit me that great.
 
I've used TC's .018" precut/prelubed pillow ticking in my .58cal with .570s, but I know it starts easy enough it could take a .020" without any problem...and I stumbled across a steal on 20 bags of Oxyoke .020" precut/prelubed patches back in the fall so I'll probably see how .020" does too...save the .018" for other calibers
 
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