shooter50

Went to the range today with my dad. Took my 50cal renegade. at 25yard was shooting baseball size group offhand and at 50 yards softball size group. When I went to 75 yards I was probally shooting a 18" group. So I set up the sandbags and still was shooting an awful group. I know for a fact this gun shoots great out to 75yards with prb with real black powder. I really think that it was the powder. I even shot my dads hawken at 75yards and shot a really good group so it wasnt me. He uses goex ffg. I was running a patch through the barrel between shots and was getting a really thick greasy build up not the kinda dry cake like build up you get with black powder, not using the triple seven anymore. Going back to the real stuff. Gonna take a 1.5 hour trip monday and my dad and I are going in together on a 25lb keg of goex ffg ends up being about $10.60 a lb.

cayugad

the thick greasy build up is what concerns me the most. Are you a bore butter user?

I shoot Triple Seven but I admit that I normally do not shoot it in traditional rifles. Although I have. Also I use a bore button or wonder wad when I shoot Triple Seven.

But Goex is a hard powder to beat....

sabotloader

shooter50

I certainly do not have an answer for you, I shoot T7 all the time in my Renegade's and really have never had a problem as you describe.

It had been really accurate for me.

Tell us more about the load you were shooting...

shooter50

No I do not use bore butter. Was shooting a .490 ball with a .015" patch with 40 grains of triple seven. Changed powder charge a couple of time with no improvement. Shot a couple of the hornaday fpb bullets they shot about a 3 inch group off the bags. In the past Ive shot them 1.5 to 2inch groups. Also am lubing patches with greased lightning cleaner water mixture(put about an inch of the greased lighting in a 20oz drink bottle and fill it with water) My dad swears by that, he says it cleans as you shoot (we only use it for range use) he shot probally 30 shots today and didnt clean the gun once and never lost accuracy and always loaded easily.

cayugad

I do not know what to tell you. I shoot it, and it works for me. Normally I shoot 85 grains of it with a roundball.

sabotloader

shooter50

Guess i should have said that for PRB's for me - I shoot 60 grains of T7-3f and feel that is pretty light, but I using that load for target shooting only @ Rhondies - Do not think I would hunt with that light of a load... but I really do not know...

Cayugad might have a better thought about what 40 grains might give you...

Here is a target I shot the other day with T7... just for reference. It is only a 30 yard target but later I shot clay pigeons out to 100 yard with the same load.

shooter50

In not planning on hunting with 40 grains of powder, hunted with 80 grains this past season. Im just out making smoke, but wanting to do it a little bit more accuretely, by the way the powder seemed like it was kinda sticking together. It wasnt lumpy or anthing it just had a funny consistinsy (i know that isnt spelled correctly)

nchawkeye

I noticed that ya'll are using FF Goex...Have you tried FFF???

The reason I ask is because back in the 70s, everone was told to use FFF in .45 and smaller and FF in .50 and larger...What we have found in the past few decades is this isn't necessarily true...I shoot
FFF in both my .40 and .54, with no problems...It burns cleaner and since the grains are smaller, cleanup is easier...You might want to drop down in powder charge a little, but that just give you more shots per pound...80grs of Goex FFF in a .50 is a good deer load, that's what I use in my .54...

Now...If your dad just likes FF and the gun shoots it more accuratly, forget the above...

shooter50

Yea we are going in on the keg of powder together. I kinda got to go with the powder he wants

Semisane

Hey Shooter, if you're picking up that 25 lb. keg from a GOEX distributor, get a can or two of FFFg while you're there to try. My .50s, .54s and .58 all shoot real well with FFFg, and it is cleaner.