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Pedersoli Kentucky .50

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Joined
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Have had it for a little over a year. For the most part I have been loading it with 70gr ffg with a PRB. I want to experiment with using fffg for the main charge. Before I do, I wanted to see what gems of advice I can gleen from here. There is such a wealth of knowledge here I'm sure I can benefit from asking.
 
I have a .50 calibre Pedersoli Alamo Rifle...which I believe is essentially your gun, with the addition of a brass patch box that says Alamo 1836, etc. I believe the barrel on mine is a 7/8" barrel, It's definitely not a 15/16"...I bought the gun at a pawn shop for $160.00 back in the late 80's. I had accuracy issues with the gun initially; 5" groups at 50 yrds and torn patches. So I burnished the bore with some valve grinding compound and a cleaning patch. Gun has shot very accurately ever since.

That gun became my elk rifle for about 20 years +/-...Light to carry and wonderful reliability. It shot best with a load of 100 grains fffg under a patched RB and 90 grains under a conical bullet (Maxi-Ball). It shoots both projectiles with equal vigor and is more accurate than I can hold.
 
To have approximately the same performance as your 70 grain FFg load, reduce the charge by roughly 10%. Since most volume measures are graduated by 5 grain markings, Start at 65 grains. Load development is certainly called for here. Shoot groups of 5 shots off a rest (hand under the forearm that is on the rest). Clean the rifle. Shoot another group at 70 grains. observe if the group is getting smaller or larger. Hopefully smaller. Increase the charge by five grains until the groups start to open up. Reshoot the load that gave you your best group.

The more we know about your load and your rifle, the more likely we will be able to share our best advice. Otherwise, you get our wildest speculation, which may be humorous, but may not be helpful. And up to 20 pages of advice.

What patch material and thickness are you using? What patch lubrication? What are you doing to control the possibility of filling the chambered breech and flash channel with fouling? What do the fired patches look like? Any holes or tears in the material?
 
In my career I've used charges all over the map. But for a long time I've used 70 grns of 3F for power and excellent accuracy. My current .50 isn't a Pedersoli - I did own a Pedersoli .50 for many years - but I have hunted with a wide variety of makes over the decades. My only .50 is a custom that was built to fit my build.
 
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