Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders .54 or .58?

I picked up a rusted out .50 Renegade barrel some years back. It will get rebored this spring.

So, .54 or .58? Which and why?

I don't "need" either.

As to the rest of the stable, there's a .32 (coming home soon), three .50s (one likely turning into a .54 RB twist), and a .56 smoothbore already, if this makes any difference to the curious.

.62 lol.

Ed Rayl in West Virginia does a good job cutting a new cal.
He did one a few years ago for me going from a .32 to a .40

Saving the .62 for a James River rifle build some day.

Figure I will take it to Bob Hoyt in PA. Talked to him about that barrel and another one or two. Raul does great work, no doubt, but is backlogged and doesn't work on the other type of barrels I'm looking to have rebored.

jmo i'd take it on out to .62 smoothbore.
i wouldn't mind having a single m/l
shotgun. and wads would be easy to find.
you can still use a prb for deer.

EDIT- should have added that boring out
smooth sans rifling should be much less
expensive

I really like my 54, and I looked hard at a 58 on Track of the Wolf recently. Lucky it just sold. I guess the biggest reason I did not get the 58 was ammo availability, (and I have a 5 gallon bucket of 54 projectiles). 58 ball is pretty pricey and the 58 thumps on both ends. I live in a world of 125 pound whitetails, so a 58 is pretty over powered.

If I was going to get a smooth bore, then bigger the better, even a 62 would be good. I personally like the idea of a light carbine in 54. I have a 54 Renegade and it is a bit too heavy to drive deer all day comfortably for me.

Looked at 58 and 54. Settled on 54 for slightly improved trajectory and still good energy. Either is great, but very happy with the 54.

I like a PRB, but lately I have had a hankerin' for a conical.
Make it a .50 and put a fast twist to it say 1:21. Play with a paper patched bullet. If done right they can be extremely accurate.

Sorry I forgot you are reboring so 50 would not work, 54 would.

I'd go 58 cal round ball twist, does Green Mountain not make a barrel that would be more cost effective than reboring?

I have a Mike Adcock custom 58 cal round ball rifle that was built and sight regulated for a full 140 gr charge of 2F black, it is a very serious rifle out to about 130 yards or so.

It chronos at 1988 fps and really puts the smack down on deer, a sample of only two so far, but damn, they died quick and hard.

That sounds like a fun hammer. What is accuracy like at 100 with that .58?

It is J2, the sights are regulated for a 6 o'clock hold on a deers heart all the way out to 125 yards.

The day I picked it up, I sat down at the builders bench and proceeded to shatter two orange clay birds at 50 then 75 yards with a 6 o'clock hold.

I shot a doe in the shoulder at 82 yards and a 260+ lb white tail buck at 44 yards in the shoulder, ball exited off ribcage, both deer dropped and got complete penetration on both.

I placed the front sight blade on both deer knowing the ball would land right on top of the sight.

I love that damn rifle, they are a hoot.

Green Mountain no longer makes replacement barrels for T/Cs.

j2,

I have a couple 1-20" twist .50s already. If you have suggestions for a paper-patched bullet that will work in those twists, I'd be very much obliged if you could share it.

Well that sucks, wish my little Big Boar 58 wasn't so pretty, Id sell it too ya for a good fair price.

I envy you 4ager. I have no experience with one, I was speaking from what I have gleaned from the net. I have been wanting one to wring one out. Don't know if you have already seen this, but have had it saved to my favorites.
http://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23178

I have been told (and may have it in print somewhere) that by the 19th Century .53 had been settled upon as the "ideal" caliber for RB rifles.

The Mississippi Rifle of 1841 was originally produced in that caliber as a RB weapon, tho a bunch were later bored out with a slow twist to fire a .58 Minie.

The other thing is, again IIRC, a 1 in 48" twist or thereabouts was already present in the .53 Harpers Ferry 1803 and was later common from Hawkens to that same Mississippi Rifle. We commonly produce RB barrels with with slower twists than that today. Perhaps in that pre-chronograph era they used lighter powder charges.

Dunno if any of this is relevant to your decision.

Birdwatcher

I don't think there's a right or wrong answer there. I certainly preferred .58 when I was shooting round balls and elk were a consideration (even though I never actually got a shot at one). For deer, or for conicals, I might lean toward .54 instead. There's a lot less .58 stuff around than there used to be, even .54 doesn't seem as popular as it was.

I have a Hoyt barrel on my custom flintlock. He makes a nice barrel. I would think you'd be pretty happy with a rebore job from him, too.

I went 62. Shooting 300+ grain spheres of lead makes you smile a big goofy smile.

Love mine, what is your powder charge for the .62?

I use a 0.600 ball, ticking patch with bear fat/beeswax lube (for hunting, spit or Hoppes 9 for the range), and 120gr 2F.

Why 120? Because my barrel hits where I want (+2.5" @ 50, -1" at 100) at that charge. It hits progressively lower and righter as I reduce the charge.

It's a 1:56 twist, so I have to be careful how fast I push the ball through the barrel. I went into it thinking I'd be shooting 80-100gr, but that's where the rifle took me, so I roll with it.