Hello All,

I bought this 8 Bore Big game rifle at the last Poulin Auction but I have no clue what to load for it.

Bore measures .850" and I bought some .830" round balls. Now I need to find out how much powder to use and patch thickness.

any suggestions?

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8bore-000.jpg

No load suggestions sorry but great rifle wish it was mine, it’s still a little light at that weight for a 8 ?

I had an awesome 12bore ML period rifle but it didn’t look as nice as your big 8 !

Friend of mine had an 8 bore double rifle by Tolly.
He loaded it with 8 drams and a ball to keep the recoil down, but his favourite load was a three ounce lead bullet with 12 drams of black.
As I recall the rifle weighed around 17 pounds, but it still walked me back when I fired it.
Once that weight was moving back it didn't want to stop.

Thanks for the reply. I've pictured some of the proofs for interest. There is a small J.N. stamp in front of the wedge cage. I wonder if anyone knows anything about this stamp.

Per suggestion from a different forum, I used an old tapered plum bob with various grit papers (120 to 600) to bevel the muzzle. When I removed the barrel from the stock, I found that the wedge was years ago broken with half missing. (see pics) Not sure if this is a shooting issue or not.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8bore-proofs.jpg

Beautiful Rifle and piece of firearms history. Were it mine I would not fire it with that wedge. It would not be hard to have a smith make one that fits and save the original one for show. Great purchase please report on shooting it.

Fotunately I had the piece of the wedge that broke off, so I silver soldered it back in place. It fits nicely and looks ok.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/REPAIRED-WEDGE.jpg



UPDATE ...

Well, I went to the range to test my newly acquired muzzle loader. I have reaffirmed my dislike of muzzle loaders. When I go to the range with a cartridge rifle, all I bring is the rifle and a box of ammo. When I finish shooting, I go home. Not the case with a muzzle loader. Look at the picture of all the crap I had to bring. And, after shooting for only 20 minutes, I had to spent the next hour cleaning everything. Below is the target showing the results.
I am not sure if the results is good or not, so comments are welcome.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/bp8-2.jpg



http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/HOLLIS-TARG.jpg

Nice group patches look ok. Looks like you got a good one.

Instead of increasing velocity with a heavier load to lower the bullet impact, I raised the front site. According to my math, I needed to raise the front site by 0.12" which would result in hitting 3" high at 25 yards, thus being dead-on at 100 yards. As I have done in the past on some of my other rifles, I glued on a small copper hood over the original site. This copper hood is easily removed by heating with a match so that the original site is not harmed. Next trip to the range should tell if I'm successful.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8-bore-site-redo.jpg

Good luck. Nice job on the wedge.My initial post on the wedge was that if it failed you would have a cracked stock on such a heavy recoil rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by clayman216: ... "Nice job on the wedge."

Yes, today I added a pin to keep the wedge captive so it won't get lost.

Buckstix,
I have a 10 bore English double rifle an uncle completely refurbished to include refreshing rifling, fixing broken stock, etc…. It now looks like a well used and well maintained rifle of the 1800’s, likely the same era of the one you have there. The round balls are basically 700 gr and it’s quite the rifle to shoot. His load was 140gr of DuPont black under the patched roundball. Accuracy was excellent as he won a few informal shooting matches his local club hosted. I inherited this rifle several years ago and have taken two WI whitetail with it. Great rifle you have there.