sproulman

i have .50 caltc hawkins,1-48 twist. i would like to get a barrel that would shoot the roundballs real good.any suggestions on barrel and twistand make.thanks

cayugad

15/16th Green Mountain .50 caliber or .54 caliber barrel with a 1-70 twist will shoot roundball like you can not believe.

roundball

TC makes .50 and .54cal x 1:66" round ball barrels for the Hawken and Renegade...TC's Fox Ridge shopat 800-243-4570;

I have TC's RB barrels in .45/.50/.54cals and they're outstanding;
I have a GM .58cal RB barrel and it's also excellent(TC doesn't make a .58cal RB barrel)

GM also makes "drop-in" barrels to fit the TC Hawken and Renegade;

keyshunter

I have an old T/C Hawken flintlock (pre QLA),that I use for hunting. It has the standard T/C .50 cal barrel. It will pile round balls one on top of another at 25 yards, but at 50 yds. the groups open up to about 6 inches, andbeyond that really open up.Since I try never totake a shot over 50 yards, I have not worried about it. Could I expect better groups with a slower twist barrel?

eldeguello

Probably. But the grouping of your present barrel might improve as well, if you reduce the powder charge somewhat. What is your current load? You might be able to reduce the charge, get better accuracy, and still have a heavy enough load to use for hunting. My lower limit load for a hunting load for a PRB in a .50 would be between 60 and 70 grains.

cayugad

keyshunter-

I think you should expect better then six inches at 50 yards. The first thing I would do is get some BOILING HOT SOAP AND WATER and clean that barrel of all gunk and crude that might be in it. Over all the years it could be the rifling is just filled with gunk. After that I would take some strong solvent and with a brass brush scrub that bore spotless. After swabbing any and all crud out of the barrel with solvent patches, then run a couple alcohol patches down it followed by three or four dry patches. Now immediately swab that bore with a quality gun oil that will soak into the pores of the metal in the bore.

After you have the rifle nice and clean, swab the oil out of the barrel before you shoot next time with an alcohol patch. Then start all over working up a patch and roundball load.

Good luck with the rifle.

ENCOREMAN

keyshunter,
I'd clean the barrel as cayugad suggested, but the1st thought that came to mewas how are you seating the ball on your powder charge?Could you damaging the aerodynamic's of your round ball by the way seat it?

cayugad

The reason I suspect a barrel full of gunk is many years ago I had a Renegade that did exactly the thing you're describing. At 25 yards I was fine. Then I made the mistake of taking it hunting and took an EASY shot at a little buck. I ended up gut shooting him. I knew the sight picture I had was perfect, the deer was not spooked and was unaware I was there,I never rushed the shot, the ignition was instant, and I had loaded it the way I always did. It had to be the rifle.

After spending the rest of the day and into the evening walking that deer down, I took thedeer andrifle back to the cabin where were staying. An old hunting friend of mine listened as I told the story of the great hunting disasterand tracking job and he commented that he thought my rifle barrel was filthy. I of course argued telling him I water bathed it every time and the patches came up clean. He then said that I needed to brush the barrel back to metal time to time and asked when I had done that last. I admitted the rifle was about 15 years old and I might have scrubbed it twice in my life.

We then made the boiling water bath and worked the barrel over with solvents, brushes, patches, you name it. The chunks of old bore butter and gunk that came out of the barrel shocked me. Two days later I shot at a target on a range at 100 yards and shot a little under a four inch group (as I remember)with the T/C peep sights on the rifle. That was the end of my use of bore butter by the way.

roundball

In my personal experience running side by side tests between 1:66" and 1:48 barrels, there is very little difference.
And you should be getting far better groups than that with the standard 1:48"barrel you already have.

The following deer hunting loadin my TCstandard 1:48" barrelsshoot 2"-3" groups at 100yds off the bench.

90grns Goex 3F
OxYoke wonderwad over the powder
.018" TC prelubed pilow ticking
Hornady .490 ball

IMO, the over powder wad and the thick pillow ticking patch are very important to consistent accuracy and good groups.

lemoyne

I have both 1-48 and 1-66 as a matter of fact I have a 1-38 too they all shoot 3 inch groups they do have to be clean as mentioned above and if you have any off center ramrod ware you have to cut a couple inchs off and rebutton the barrel.The big differance that twist causes is in the loads that they require to shoot good;each gun is an individualso their may be some exceptions but in mine the 1-38 takes 70 the 1-48 takes 110 and the 1-66 takes 120 of RS pryodex. Lee