I think I found my .54 load

[Canute Rex]

My last post was about how I had tried a .495 ball in my .540 bore matchlock. I was thinking about getting a .520 mold and I did.

I may review the mold (a Lee six cavity) in another section - tough to use. But I got some .520 balls made. The lead is a high zinc alloy I got as scrap, so the balls are a few grains light. Pure lead would be 212 gr and these were 203 gr. (Any way to calculate the % from that?)

My load is 75 grains Goex 3F, a thin cardboard OP wad, and a .520 ball patched with ~0.022 mattress ticking. I used Hoppes #9+ and racked up my shots in a few ball blocks. I also spit on the bottom of the patched ball before I put the ball block to the muzzle. Probably overkill, but it makes ramming easier.

It takes a bit of a smack on the starter, but not too bad. The shots really bark leaving the muzzle.

I shot from the bench at 50 yards and offhand at 25 yards.

At 50 yards I was erratic, but kind of not. I fired two shots almost touching, 9/8 ring at 1 o'clock, two shots almost touching, 7 ring at 10 o'clock, and one an inch down from them. I think that's me and my sight picture, plus mirage and changing sunlight. My front sight was shiny brass, which I think was a problem. All the shots were within 1 1/2" vertically, so I think I had consistent velocity,

At 25 yards offhand I made a group about 1 1/2" high by 2" across with 5 shots. 3 were touching at the 9/10 line at 6 o'clock, one 10x, and one 8 o'clock in the 9 ring. I felt pretty good about that.

Odd thing: I took a 6 o'clock hold on the black (8 ring) at 50 yards and hit about 4" above my POA. I took the same hold at 25 yards and hit 2" above my POA. Bench vs. offhand? Still on the rising part of the arc at 50 yards?

So now I have to work on my horizontal hold. That may be a question of compensating for my aging eyeballs as much as anything. Fuzzy front sight, fuzzy target, or fuzzy breech horizon? Or all three for the price of one? The temperature was in the low thirties while I was shooting so eventually the mirage got so bad I was seeing camels and palm trees and blue water.

I'm going to try offhand at 50 yards with a blackened sight and see how that goes. I'll report back.

 

[sb 54 cal.]

using patch .520 in my .54 rice smooth bore the bore mics right at .540 . Have tried using chewed .535 with wadding and have found .520 with .18 thousands pillow ticking is more accurate but a lot slower to load than a larger ball with wadding only,
.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Hard to give advice based on this experience. Your balls are a bit hard but OK for a smoothie. Your lube choices are weird, IMHO. And a matchlock :shocked2: to boot. Methinks yer doin' OK as is. But, keep playing with it. Enjoy.

 

[azmntman]

Never had nothin but good luck with Hoppes myself. Would still use it but switched to Dutch's dry lube.

 

[Canute Rex]

Rifleman, don't dismiss a matchlock. The Germans used them for target shooting into the early 18th C. The reason? Zero lock time. No flinch. Or, more accurately, by the time you flinch the ball is long gone.

In my rifle I use pure lead, but right, the smoothie doesn't care.

I thought Hoppes #9+ was fairly commonly used, as is spit.

Anyway, time to play with the optical side of things.

 

[excess650]

I see no reason to NOT use Hoppes 9+ if its working for you. Likewise, a smoothbore is a good place to use up mystery metal RBs and save the soft stuff for rifles.

I'm more interested in shooting than cleaning, so will continue to use lubes that allow me to shoot all afternoon without cleaning. Shooting with nearly dry patches and then having to wipe the bore prior to loading the next round might be fine if you don't mind. :td:

 

[tenngun]

I get 95.2% on you wt question.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I use to use hoppes liquid in a rifle, it was good but I just started making my own.

 

[Canute Rex]

"I just started making my own. "

Recipe?

And thanks, Tenngun, for the calculation. How did you do that?

 

[Britsmoothy]

Olive oil and candlewax, beef fat. Coconut butter sometimes but always cut with olive oil.

Very unscientific but I shoot all day and not crusty fouling :thumbsup:

 

[Canute Rex]

"Coconut butter sometimes but always cut with olive oil."

"It's a patch lube!"
"No, it's cooking oil!"
"Patch lube!"
"Cooking oil!"
(Announcer) "Don't argue! Britsmoothy #9+ is a patch lube AND a cooking oil!"

I'll run your ad campaign, ok?