Conicals in a roundball barrel??

[Strut10]

Anybody using conicals or minnie balls, etc. in a 1:66" twist roundball barrel??

My sis has a T/C Hawken flint gun with the 66 twist barrel. She was wondering if there were other lead projectiles that would give better performance on whitetail than a roundball but still stabilize.

[LETMGROW]

I used some " Buffalo " bullets a few years back and they were much more accurate than round balls. Can't remember the weight though. I would start with an equivelant of what she is shooting now.

[wtnhunt]

Old sidelock carbine I shot maxi balls(385 grain buffalo bullets), on paper they were great, however for whatever reason the few deer I shot with them I did not get great bloodtrails. Matter of fact of 4 deer I shot with that gun bullet combo I remember only finding blood with one and that was the last deer I shot with that gun.

I will have to look to see the twist rate of that gun. I was using 85 grains of pyro if I remember right and ranges were fairly close. When I switched to the inline, went to sabots and have not looked back.

[Tecumseh]

I have a T/C Renegade with a 1-48 twist and shoot Hornady great plains bullet with a 90 gr charge of pyrodex select.

[PA_RIDGE_RUNNER]

Strut what you have is a rifle designed to shoot round balls and you just may be able to drive them pretty fast. In a 1:48 you can only drive a round ball so fast till it starts stripping down the barrel. With a 1:66 that does not happen. If it is a 50 cal the round ball is from 172 to 179 grains. You might want to try Buffalo Ball-ets. It is shaped at the front like a round ball but does have a bit of a skirt. I will have to look at mine to see if they are a hollow base or solid base and their weight. You can try the tc maxi ball to see if you can stabilize it in that twist. I do not have much faith in the minnie ball as most times they just fit too loose for hunting as they do not engage the rifling till shot then the skirt expands to engage the rifling. The Maxi ball is Erics new favorite in his Lyman Deerstalker 50 cal because he got a doe on Friday. The maxi is a 370 grain chunk of lead. He got tremendous penetration as the ball entered the front shoulder and we found it in the back ham. Haven;'t weighed it yet but there was little expansion it did not hit any bone in the front leg but did break a rib right behind the shoulder and must have ranged back through the entestines and lodged in the back leg without coming out on the far side. We did not have much of a blood trail for about 50 yds but she did start to bleed after that.

[wtnhunt]

I will have to look to see the twist rate of that gun.

Never was able to figure out the twist rate on that sidelock. It is an investarms carbine made in Italy.

Will be interested in seeing what type expansion/penetration you get if you do any testing. The buffalo's I was using were 385 grain hollow point hollow base if I remember correctly.

[magnatecsteve]

you can run a patched cleaning rod down the barrel, mark it , pull the rod out until it rotates one full turn. Mark it at that point, remove the rod and measure, that will give you the rate of twist.

[PA_RIDGE_RUNNER]

To add to mag's post. If the ramrod exits before one full turn reinsert it and pull it out till the rod turns exactly 1/2 turn and mark it there. Remove and measure that distance and multiply by 2. That will give you the rate of twist also. For instance if it is a 24 inch barrel the ramrod will only be half way when it exits the bore. Most rifles will be pretty much a standard rate of twist such as 1:28, 1:32, 1:36, 1:48, and so on. Generally the 1:48 twist is the standard.