Proper Pietta Smith Artillery Carbine Bullet Calibre?

[Magnus Pym]

Was excited to receive from DGW the above Pietta carbine along with black, plastic cartridge cases and “Cast Odd Bullets Smith .52”. Have spent day assembling 20 bullets with thoughts of hitting the range tomorrow. HOWEVER, just noticed inscribed on carbine barrel: “.50 cal.”. Did I receive wrong bullets? Should I shoot or not shoot?

Thanking any helpful soul in advance!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Shoot it.

 

[Trot]

I shoot .518 bullets in my original.

 

[Magnus Pym]

So, .02 increase in bullet calibre makes no difference? Anyone want to stand next to me when I pull the trigger?

 

[Zonie]

Like the originals, the Pietta Smith Carbine is a .50 caliber gun. That caliber size indicates what the bore diameter is and because the rifling grooves are a larger diameter than the bore and because the gun is loaded from the breech, the bullet or ball must be larger than .50 caliber.

In my old 2005 Dixie Gun Works catalog they have an ad selling the Pietta Smith carbine. In it they say the bore diameter is .500". The rifling groove diameter is .514" and they recommended a .515 diameter conical bullet along with a 40 grain, 3Fg powder charge.
If Dixie sent some .520 diameter bullets or balls, they should work assuming you can load them into the rubber cartridge.

In another part of the same catalog, they offer two cartridge cases for the Smith. One is a brass case designed with a reduced powder capacity for target shooting. The other is a hard rubber case made out of modern rubber. (For those who don't know, the original Smith cartridges were made of natural rubber.
The cartridge case does not have a percussion cap or primer in it and the gun must be capped with a separate Musket size percussion cap. This cap is fired by a side hammer.
Because this gun uses a separate primer, it is now OK to talk about it on the MLF.)

 

[Zonie]

So, .02 increase in bullet calibre makes no difference? Anyone want to stand next to me when I pull the trigger?

As I forgot to say, in my last post, when the gun fires, the excess diameter on the bullet or ball will be sheared off by the bore and rifling.
This is the same idea that is used on Cap & Ball pistols.
They have a .440 diameter bore but the rifling grooves are larger. The balls often loaded into these pistols are .457 in diameter. The chambers in the cylinder are larger than the bore and shear off some of the excess lead when the gun is loaded. When it is fired, the rifling grooves and bore shear off more of the lead on the ball/bullet when it enters the rear of the barrel.

 

[Magnus Pym]