Hard/Difficult loading

[Jotto626]

Loading my Isaac Haines Rifle is difficult.

38" swamped barrel .54 cal (Buckeye-Chambers' Offering)
.530 swaged round ball .010" cotton lubed patch.

Really hard to load. I use a range rod to load before hunting and even then it is very hard to run down the barrel. I'm afraid i can't even reload if needed with my wood ramrod.

I don't think a .525 ball is a standard offering. Thinner patch? Silk?

 

[Britsmoothy]

No way could I live with that buddy.
Get a smaller ball somehow some way.

 

[smo]

What’s your lube?

Is the bore rust free?

Sorry , I had too ask.

I can load a .530 ball and an .0018 patch without any issues in my .54, after getting it started it will usually slide down the bore with a single push....

 

[azmntman]

Smaller ball for sure. May have to have custom mold made. Billie Mays? on this forum has tons of different sizes and molds and sells em. Others can offer other alternatives. I would mic the bore.....54 is .54 unless is isn't

 

[Grimord]

I agree, that a smaller ball may be the ticket with a thicker patch. Try some .520 balls with a .022 patch. The other option is to use some jb bore paste on a scotch brite patch and scrubb the he** out of the barrel. You may just have a rough bore that needs smoothing out. If you can get a endo scope (cheap on evil bay) check your bore for rough spots or pitting.

 

[Jotto626]

Brand new bore.....65 shots into it. no rust....sharp lands...yellow pre-lubed patches.
Daughter bought me a .530 mold for Christmas. Will hand poured balls load easier than swaged?

 

[Grimord]

Whether had cast balls versus swaged balls will load easier is hard to say. Mike a few of the hand cast to see how they come out. My .530 mold produces .532 balls of pure lead. Check the swaged balls too. they might be larger than .530 on the average. You also might try a different lube as was mentioned in an earlier post. Are the patches coming out torn or shredded? Those sharp lands may need to be smoothed out some, and that could make for easier loading. It appears you have some experimenting to do to find out what works best. I wouldn't spend any more money on molds until I exhausted some of the other variables.

 

[smo]

Your patch material could be old, add a little more lube of your choice and see how it goes.

 

[buford87]

Loading my Isaac Haines Rifle is difficult.

38" swamped barrel .54 cal (Buckeye-Chambers' Offering)
.530 swaged round ball .010" cotton lubed patch.

Really hard to load. I use a range rod to load before hunting and even then it is very hard to run down the barrel. I'm afraid i can't even reload if needed with my wood ramrod.

I don't think a .525 ball is a standard offering. Thinner patch? Silk?

I would not use silk as a patching material. As I understand using silk is a myth created by t.v. and the movies because silk will be consumed by the powder burning leaving you with an unpatched ball...............watch yer top knot...............

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a TC kit gun that won't load a .495 ball with any patch combination and will not load a .490 with any patch thicker than .012. I have a green mountain .40 that won't load a .395 ball with any patch. I have a .54 Rice that I scrubbed out with a oiled gray scotch bright pad and later JB bore paste on a patch that will now load anything I put in it.

 

[Stumpkiller]

That's odd. A 0.530" ball IS the looser of the normal .54 options (the other being 0.535").

Is that an L.C Rice barrel from Buckeye? His are baby-bottom smooth (he swages the bore with a carbide die).

What is you lube and application method? I shoot a 0.530" ball and 0.018" patch and like to shoot five times (loading with the wood rammer and no short starter) before spit wiping.

 

[dlpowell]

2 things right off.

throw away the patches. go to Walmart and buy some pillow ticking. wash it. do not worry about the thickness of the pillow ticking patch. cut it into strips that can be rolled up n kept in your bag.

get some bees wax and cooking oil. 50/50 mix by volume. melt n pour in a metal lozenge tin. you'll have some left over. I melt mine in a veggie can n store it till I need more.

you can take the patch roll n dip it unrolled in the lube n let dry. roll up n put in bag.

I can load my gun 1 handed with this combination all day long.

 

[WKD]

Measure your bore. Measure your roundball. Measure your patches. Then do the math.
Right now everyone is guessing what might work.
If you know the facts you can figure it out without guessing.

 

[gsbell26]

The above advice concerning the actual size of the ball and bore is right on. I had a similar situation with my new .40 cal. now, one would expect the mold to throw balls that were the stated size...but that's not the case. I got a new .390 mold that produced balls that miked at .394. I did some research and discovered that the hardness of the lead is very important, harder lead will produce a different size ball than softer lead from the same mold. I cast another batch of balls using softer lead...now the mold throws balls that are right on .390...go figure! Forty years of shooting black powder, and I'm still learning

 

[sprucefly]

Loading my Isaac Haines Rifle is difficult.

38" swamped barrel .54 cal (Buckeye-Chambers' Offering)
.530 swaged round ball .010" cotton lubed patch.

Really hard to load. I use a range rod to load before hunting and even then it is very hard to run down the barrel. I'm afraid i can't even reload if needed with my wood ramrod.

I don't think a .525 ball is a standard offering. Thinner patch? Silk?

 

[sprucefly]

had the same problem w/my .54. My quick solution was to go w/,520 balls.