Buster95 said:
I'm interested in a Lyman Great Plains or Lyman Great Plains Hunter, I know the first one have a 1:60 barrel twist good for round balls and the second 1:32 good for balls, sabot, etc... but what are the best choice for target shooting. Also which caliber .50 or .54. THANKS.
I've got both a 50 and 54 cal GPR. I much prefer the 54 for hunting because it's balance is not quite so barrel heavy, making for quicker mounting and swinging on game.
The 50 OTOH, is noticeably more barrel-heavy, and I consider it the better truly "target" gun. It just hangs steadier for critical aiming on offhand shots. I've never measured, but my solid impression is that I can cut my offhand groups in half out at 50 and 75 yards by switching from the 54 to the 50, yet both shoot about the same groups off a bench.
As for fast twist versus slow, these guys are using you for their favorite one-legged hop around the old conical/RB fire hydrant. Buy into it or ignore it at your own peril.
The biggest things I notice going back and forth between fast and slow, the fast twist shoots RBs just fine up till you get much past about 60 grains of powder, then groups start to spread. And in my experience anyway, they're also fairly critical about powder charge for optimum accuracy with conicals. You'll hit a "sweet" spot as you go up in charge, but accuracy will suffer on either side of that. Just not real versatile for me.
The slow twist barrels won't shoot long conicals worth a hoot, but all that I own are accurate over a very wide range of powder charges with RBs.
And here's another thought for you. If you get serious about target shooting and more or less traditional offhand matches inside 100 yards, as far as I know they're virtually all RB matches. And I'll tell you for sure that shooting 100 RBs in an afternoon is no big deal, but if you go out and shoot 100 conicals at hunting velocities, you're going to feel like you been rode hard and put away wet. Flinch time, maybe? :hmm: