Fun with a couple of Renegades

[Timber Wolf]

This thread could also be titled: “Burning up a bunch of old Pyrodex”. One thing leads to another it seems and I wanted to do some casting while the weather was still cool. I pulled out an odd assortment of muzzle loading molds I had not used in a while (if ever) and set to casting. One of the molds was for two 380 grain .54 Lee R.E.A.L. Slugs. A somewhat unrelated, but concurrent project for me was to make lubed wads out of a Durafelt scrap I bought a while back. I melted 50/50 beeswax and Crisco, lubed the felt, and after it cooled proceeded to punch out some 9/16” and .3/4” wads. The 3/4” are for my CVA SXS 12 Gauge, but I figured the 9/16” would work in both my .56 SB Renegade and a .54.

So having a bunch of .54 R.E.A.L. bullets on hand, I began to ponder a suitable launching platform. I remembered an old .54 Renegade I had stashed. I don’t remember where, when, or how I came to own it but it is here, and definitely needed some love. I had never shot it, and had not even looked at in years. I also have a .54 “Round Ball Twist” Renegade I like shooting a lot, preferring to shoot patched round balls so the standard Renegade has just gathered dust. I pulled the standard Renegade out for evaluation, ugh. Not terrible, but a few dings and scrapes, was missing the front ram rod pipe, had a fiberglass replacement ram rod just cut off to length, and the nipple looked like it had been filed off at an angle. But worst of all, the bore looked brown, rusty brown that is. As I said, ugh.

Launching into the Renegade I took the barrel off and proceeded to swab the bore with a few Scotchbrite pads. I was rewarded with a lot of rusty powder dropping out of the bore. I followed the Scotchbrite with some tight patches soaked in “Moose Milk” and then some dry patches. It seemed to clean up somewhat but I wasn’t sure it would be alright. Then, since the hammer seemed to line up pretty good on the nipple, I decided to replace the nipple with a T/C threaded Musket nipple I had on hand. I bought the nipple, and some Musket Caps a while back since regular percussion caps were/are hard to find. I was ordering some other stuff from T.O.W anyway, so added a threaded end for the rod. I cut the rod off, sanded down the rod diameter for the new tip, epoxied it on and cross-drilled and pined it. Ready to go.

Switching gears, a while back I got curious if some .562 balls I had would work out of my .56 Smooth Bore Renegade. Measuring the balls and the Renegade’s bore I decided they just might work. So today I gathered up both Renegades, the 9/16” lubed wads, .562 balls, .54 R.E.A.L.s, musket caps, #11s and some ancient Pyrodex that need burning anyway and headed for the range. Long story short, after a little sight adjustment the R.E.A.L.s are shooting great, even out of the suspect bore of the ran hard and put up wet Renegade. The load was 80 grains of Pyrodex, followed with a lubed patch, and a naked R.E.A.L. set off with a CCI Musket cap. I only had 25 meters to shoot at but they were shooting good enough to take it out father in the future, and to think about hunting with this combination at some point. The SB Renegade shoot pretty good with a lubed wad under a naked .562 ball shoved down over the same 80 grain Pyrodex load. Although I had few shots strangely go high. Dead on for windage, but high. Probably me but I will have to to do some further experimenting before trusting it. All in all this was a rewarding range trip. I think next I need to drag the old .54 Renegade to a Woods Walk and see what the naked R.E.A.L.s and lubed patch will do on steel.

 

[bubba.50]

You should've taken the roundball Renegade too and surprised yourself at how well it'll shoot those Lee's. Used to shoot them all the time in my Great plains roundball barrel.

 

[Timber Wolf]

You should've taken the roundball Renegade too and surprised yourself at how well it'll shoot those Lee's. Used to shoot them all the time in my Great plains roundball barrel.

I was originally going to also take my 12 Guage and try it with some .69 patched round balls, but decided I only wanted to clean two muzzle loaders at a time! So many guns, so little time.

 

[bubba.50]

I was originally going to also take my 12 Guage and try it with some .69 patched round balls, but decided I only wanted to clean two muzzle loaders at a time! So many guns, so little time.

Haha. I heard that.

 

[Centurion]

Okay, a dumb question: when using a bare ball, even in my .56 SB, am i not going to get any leading in the bore? What about in a rifled barrel?

don

 

[Centurion]

Or are talking about only the REAL bullets there, of which i admittedly know very little?

 

[leadhoarder]

That 1:48 will shoot rounds balls pretty good as well. I do not know how the myth that 1:48 makes for a poor ball shooter got started.

 

[Bad Karma]

Okay, a dumb question: when using a bare ball, even in my .56 SB, am i not going to get any leading in the bore? What about in a rifled barrel?

don

You may want to post a question in the smooth bore forum someone who knows smoothies will be along directly…

 

[Grenadier1758]

That 1:48 will shoot rounds balls pretty good as well. I do not know how the myth that 1:48 makes for a poor ball shooter got started.

When T/C started making their rifles using a button to cut the rifling in one pass, the rifling was shallow and worked best with their (and Lyman's) newly developed Maxi-Ball conical bullet. Engraving the grove diameter bands on the Maxi-Ball is much easier when the grooves are shallow. Since T/C promoted their rifle for both the Maxi-Ball and the round ball, they referred their rifling as a compromised twist that was good for both. In practice, the shallow grooves when used with a round ball wrapped with a thin patch did not grip well on the rifling starting the myth that the 1 in 48 twist was not good for round ball. In the 19th century most rifles had a twist rate of 1 in 48" with narrow lands and deep grooves. They shot round balls very well. The Hawken brothers only offered rifles with the 1 in 48" twist. I have never heard that anyone complained about the performance of their rifles with a round ball.

 

[centershot]

^^^ What Grenadier said! In order to shoot RB's well the T/C barrels must be tightly patched. They can be a P.I.T.A. to load, depending on the individual barrel, but I've always found them to be accurate once you figure out what they need.

 

[burlesontom]

I have owned 3 T/C Renegade rifles and can't remember why I sold any of them. They were all good shooters. They do seem to have a comb high enough that its hard for me to get my face low enough to use the open sights.

I cast the Lee 325gr .50 caliber REAL bullet and sometimes shoot them in my GPR with 1/60 barrel and at least out to 90 yards they are more than accurate enough to hunt deer with. I also just bought the Lee 250gr REAL 50 caliber mold to try in the GPR rifle and another Investarms rifle I picked up that looks like the Cabelas Hawken but is not Cabelas branded that has a 1/60 twist with a 6 groove barrel instead of the 5 groove barrel of my GPR. I can't wait to shoot this one. I am just waiting for the temps to drop so I can cast some of the Lee bullets. I hope this rifle shoots as well as my GPR.