Thompson Center Renegade .56

[gunsnrods]

Hello all. I just bought a .56 smoothbore barrel on eBay. I have a .50 Renegade that I bought new in 1983. Smooth barrel in pretty good shape, some pitting but very shootable. I just cleaned it with soapy boiling water, plan to shoot it as a shotgun.
I would prefer to use my supply of Triple7 powder, thinking 60 grains under 7/8 ounce of shot would make a nice skeet load.
Any suggestions? I have never shot a muzzleloading shotgun, looking for any advice.

 

[Britsmoothy]

You won't be far off at 7/8 but bets that thing will shoot an ounce just fine.
My advice is dontd uses wads as we know them today!
Use three thin cards as a wad.
Not got cards or a punch? No problem.
Simply cut some squares of news print and scrunch into balls. Ram one on the powder and one on the shot. Go shooting. CAUTION; with paper and black powder the shot paper can smoulder so watch for fires if the ground is dry!

B.

 

[gunsnrods]

OP here. I would like to try some round balls, old TC literature calls for a .55 round ball. I have read in some forum that a smaller ball with a thicker patch works better.
Anyone out there that has experience with the Renegade .56?
Thanks!

 

[Maven]

I purchased an unfired T/C .56cal. SB several years ago and was fortunate enough to find a Lyman .550" RB mould on e-Bay for a most reasonable price. With a thin patch, it is quite accurate. However, after reading many glowing reports of how well a .535" RB + thicker patch was, I purchased one of them as well. Using weighed RB's (pure Pb) from both molds, I found the .550" RB was significantly more accurate than the .535" one. Yet, if I were to recommend a RB mould, I'd go with the .535" one for two reasons: First, it's more commonly found and second, you can try several thickness of patch material from .018" to .024" (100% cotton denim) until you get the accuracy you'd be happy with.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I purchased an unfired T/C .56cal. SB several years ago and was fortunate enough to find a Lyman .550" RB mould on e-Bay for a most reasonable price. With a thin patch, it is quite accurate. However, after reading many glowing reports of how well a .535" RB + thicker patch was, I purchased one of them as well. Using weighed RB's (pure Pb) from both molds, I found the .550" RB was significantly more accurate than the .535" one. Yet, if I were to recommend a RB mould, I'd go with the .535" one for two reasons: First, it's more commonly found and second, you can try several thickness of patch material from .018" to .024" (100% cotton denim) until you get the accuracy you'd be happy with.

Did you ever try the .550 without a patch, just wadded?

 

[Maven]

I purchased an unfired T/C .56cal. SB several years ago and was fortunate to find a Lyman .550" RB mould on e-Bay for a most reasonable price. With a thin patch, it is quite accurate. However, after reading many glowing reports of how well a .535" RB + thicker patch was, I purchased one of them as well. Using weighed RB's (pure Pb) from both molds, I found the .550" RB was significantly more accurate than the .535" one. Yet, if I were to recommend a RB mould, I'd go with the .535" one for two reasons: First, it's more commonly found and second, you can try several thickness of patch material from .018" to .024" (100% cotton denim) until you get the accuracy you'd be happy with.

Did you ever try the .550 without a patch, just wadded?

No, mostly because it never occurred to me to do so since it's quite accurate with the patched RB. However, you've given me the idea to try the RB + tow wads fore and aft or lube felt P wad and a thin yardstick OS wad once our range reopens. Btw, I realize that all guns are different, but my 20ga. NW trade gun doesn't like wadded loads at all, so I've been using a patched RB + thin OP wad in it to good effect. Maybe that's why I hadn't tried the wadded load in the T/C?

 

[Grimord]

I use a .550 ball from a Jeff Tanner mold with .012 mink oil lubed patches with 80 grains of 3f to get 3" groups at 50 Yards from the bench. It shoots somewhat better with a plain felt wad over the powder before the patched ball. This load goes down fairly snugly, so I use a recessed hole in my short started over the ram rod to give me additional ummph without hurting my hand.
As for shooting shot. I use the T/C recommended load in the manual and get decent patterns out to 25 yards.