Well here is another one. My guns are starting to look alike. This one is another Green Mountain barrel. They had a small limited run of 1-18 twist, .458 dia, 32" long barrels. I ordered my as soon as I saw the add. I put another TC renegade hunter stock on this one. The stock was a smokin deal on ebay. No one wanted it because it had a big piece of the stock filed out. It was fitted with a GM barrel before I got it. The wood missing was wood I was going to have to file down anyway. I put a Lyman 57 sml peep sight on it, and a 17 aml globe site. I added the usual Lee Shavers inserts. Like I said this one looks just like the rest but it has a blue barrel.


I took it out for the first shooting today. I got it to hit the paper with some Lee REAL 250 gr bullets at 50 yards.


Then I shot some 475 gr whitworth bullets at 100 yards. These were poured from soft lead. They shot ok. I can say that I would use them. I have seen better but I have also seen worse.


I backed off the powder a little bit and tried them again after cleaning.


I also shot some Lee 45-70 bullets. They are 387 gr hollow base. These bullets were sized .459 I had a he11 of a time getting them down muzzle. Once I got them down they shot pretty good. I shot them into one target and covered the holes with tape. I can say that most of those groups were under 2" but nothing super. The big problem was getting them down the barrel.
Then I went to another Whitworth bullet. This time I poured them out of lead shot. These bullets are harder and a little bigger in Dia. The actual weight is wrong on the picture. The weight was 470 gr. I bumped the powder a little because the bullets were hard. I shot three shots and then I cleaned the barrel. and shot two more shots before I ran out. I measured both as individual groups then as a 5 shot group.


My overall opinion of the gun is I hate the trigger. It has to be in the 9 poound range. Next The overall weight of the gun is 13 pounds. That is a big gun! Last is I think this barrel has promise. I like the 45-70 bullet and next time I will size some to .457 and try them. The Hard whitworth bullet has some good stuff going for it. I am sure it would fully penetrate a elk as hard as they are.
I am going to pour some more and next time I will Chronograph some. I used a felt wad under all the loads. I used a 3/8 pipe nipple I sharpened up and cut my own wads. Then I soaked them in Hornady lube. The bullets were lubbed with a lube that is like SPG lube that the BPCR shooters use. This lube was great. It was getting hot but the lube stayed firm and the bullets went down good. I think it will be a shooter. Ron

That's probably the quickest twist I've ever heard of on a muzzleloader. I'd rather have the weight than the recoil. Nice shooting.

I was beginning to think that no one even saw this thread. Thanks, Ron

IdahoRon,

How about copying the White ML Rifles and using a lead bullet that is a slip fit with the bore? That 18" twist is a bit faster that that used in the Whites, but not that much faster. The strategy makes it much easier to load the rifle, or reload in the field for that matter.

They shoot well too.

jim

Have you run your heavy conical loads over a chronograph yet? It will be interesting to see what your sleeper "Whitworth" will do for you once you've had the trigger tuned up. Unless you're going to shoot over crossed sticks I wonder if a mercury reducer in the stock would help the balance.