Looking at a Lyman Deerstalker (Demo rifle) at the local "Toy" store and I'm wondering what weight powerbelts the rifle's 1:48" twist will stabilize.

Something tells me that I might have "issues"
with the 405's and 444's, but the lighter ones would be Ok.... anyone actually know?

This rifle seems to be the next thing to stealing at the asking price and I NEED a flinter for the PA winter flint only
(jan '07) season...

AllanD

Powerbelts have never been the most accurate choice in any of my rifles, regardless of twist, but I do have a Investarms 1:48 that shoots 348 Powerbelts fairly well.
I however don't like Powerbelts for hunting big game, IMO, there are just to many better choices.

I shoot a Remington .54 , How do you find out what bullet shoots at what twist.
Is there a formula or a guide.


By the way FairChase Grate Mule Deer
man After My own Hart , Favorite Hunt Mule Deer

Thanks B93.
The only formula I know of is trial and error, but as a general rule I match slower twist barrels with shorter bullets and longer bullets with faster twist barrels. At the far ends of the spectrum you have round balls that do best with very slow twists like 1:66 or 1:70 although I have heard of some people getting decent results with RB's and light loads with a 1:48. Then at the other end are sabots and any of those that are heavy (300+ gr.) tend to be long and seem to do best with the fastest twist barrels like 1:24 1:28. As far as an all around, do it all barrel I like a 1:28 or 1:32 for the more modern styled shooters.
It's been a number of years since I did much shooting with a Rem ML in .54 cal but I do remember it shot really well with 90 gr. of Powder and 300 gr. lead conicals. Just keep in mind every muzzleloader is an individual, and that no two guns will shoot exactly alike, that will give you a starting point. If I were you I'd search the various forum boards and see what other Remington shooters like. Finding a bullet and working up a load can be lots of fun. Good luck.

AllenD,
Check out these rifles, flinters with a 1:28 twist and barrels by Green Mountain none the less.

http://rmcsports.com/rmcsports_cfmfiles/product.cfm?msection=1040

Made in Pa. for your regulations. I would bet they're real shooters.

Nice rifles, but a bit more than I want to spend...

AllanD

I shot 348 grain power belts in 54 cal traditions inline. This rifle has 1:48 twist. I use a 120 grains of loose american pioneer powder. At fifty yards this produces a nice little three shot clover leaf group. At a hundred in opens up to about 2 inches. Pretty good as I use a holosight which has no magnification. I tried the 405s as well. They shot about an inch and a half at fifty. They were a lot harder on my shoulder. Besides 348 is plenty for deer. I know a lot of people don't like the powerbelts. I think the ease of loading is trade off for possible poor expansion. I look at this way. A 54 caliber 348 grain is very much the same as a standard foster style shotgun slug. Do you really need a hole bigger than 54 caliber through any animal?

Powerbelts are easy to load, but so are many other conicals. A slip to fit conical like a PR Ultimate 1 or a No Excuses is no tougher to load and is likely to be more accurate...at least in the rifles I own.

I have a couple of problems with PB's, neither has any thing to do with over penetration, quite the opposite in fact. I am a fan of heavy for the caliber bullets and PB's do not give me enough penetration. A couple of years back I was shooting a copper 348 gr. PB with a 100 grs. of Pyrodex and the slug blew-up on an antelopes shoulder at 125 yards??? Now that’s hardly a bullet that hits harder that any other, as they claim in their ad’s.

The other thing I have noticed when shooting these bullets is once in a while PB’s will hold on to their plastic gas checks and land cockeyed at 100 yards off by 6-10 inches! That is the last thing I need to worry about while taking shots at big game. So IMHO, Powerbelts are weakly constructed conicals on a brightly colored plastic gimmick.

I have no use for Power Belts's either. In a .54, a prb will do anything you need done right on completely through a pig, bear, deer, moose, or elk within 100yds. You can use a Maxiball, or a REAL if you want more weight and ease of loading, or you can get loose sabots fron T/C and fill them with the .45cal bullet or boolit of your choice. 1:48's will sometimes shoot a surprising weight range of projectiles accurately, but every one is different.

Like fairchase said, the only way to find out what shoots best in any given rifle is to try a bunch of different projectiles and powders. Start with light charges and shoot 5shot groups from a solid rest. Don't shoot offhand for testing loads, you want to eliminate the human factor and see what the rifle/load are capable of. Swab the bore out between groups, and work up in 10grain increments. You will see the groups shrink and then start to open up as the charges are increased. My .54's have liked 80-90 grain charges for the best accuracy, but yours will likely be different. Pellets are convenient, especially for hunting, but seldom hit the "sweet spot" accuracy-wise. They may, however give you a load that is acceptably accurate for hunting, then their convenience is worth considering.

Allan,

I have a Lyman Great Plains rifle in .54 and it loves Powerbelts. I only shoot them hunting cuz I hate how expensive they are. It'll be replaced this year with a 16 bore round ball gun. I've never shot the Deestalker, but the Lyman is a pretty good gun.

quote:

Originally posted by brianbo:
Allan,

I have a Lyman Great Plains rifle in .54 and it loves Powerbelts. I only shoot them hunting cuz I hate how expensive they are. It'll be replaced this year with a 16 bore round ball gun. I've never shot the Deestalker, but the Lyman is a pretty good gun.

Thank you, a very useful answer, not to say the other answers weren't but an answer from an owner of a rifle from the same manufacturer has got to be closer to what I needed to know.

I just passed up a deal on a T/C Stainless steel flinter yesterday. I passed it up Mostly because of the black plastic stock.
Laminates I can deal with, black tupperware I can't.

And I've heard stories that the T/C frizzens are too soft and usually have to be replaced with a modified Lyman frizen to make them reliable. I don't know how true that is but the Lymans I've handled just seemed... a bit nicer

AD

I don't have any flintlocks. Not to say I wouldn't ever get one, just haven't gone their yet. I'm gonna hijack the thread abit and say that I prefer the English pattern design (Alex Henry, Whitworth, Westley Richards, etc.) and think that they built a much better rifle from a design perspective. I have to admit that the early American design of muzzleloaders ie., Kentucky rifles with their excessive DOH and curved metal buttplates don't do much for me. I took my Great Plains rifle and cut the curved buttplate off and grafted a higher comb onto it from another stock. Now it has 1 9/16" DOH and works perfectly with the Lyman peep. Don Brown in Yakima, WA builds a wonderful rifle off a pattern from an Alexander Henry percussion pattern. Years ago Don had the entire pattern C&Cd and now makes hand finished sidelock percussion rifles and also sells kits for those who have the skills to build their own. He should have my 16 bore rifle complete some time this summer and I can hardly wait.

Yeah, well I had another charcoal burner (a T/C Renegade percussion 50cal) that I sold when moving out of new Jersey because I had planned to get a PA legal Flinter, but just didn't get to it until now.

And I completely agree the reduculous "Bent down"
stocks and the even more outragously hooked butt plates...
I cannot believe than anyone ever found them comfortable to shoot... Anyway, I've pretty much settled on a Lyman deerstalker in 54cal and that comes with a rubber butt pad.

AllanD

From a historical perspective, from what I've been told, the curved iron buttplates cam in handy in an indian fight but odds of that are slim these days. I rarely hunt near a casino.

I currently shoot a TC Hawken in .54 with a 1 in 48 twist and black powder. With RB and 105 grains of powder and iron sights I get about 4" group at 100 yrds. With power belts and proper loading techique I get about 3" groups. I have found that loading technique, consistency are directly related to accuracy. When hunting with RB I weigh all of them, anything less than 1 grain off is discarded for under 50 yrd practice. Loading pressure is consistent each and every time, too much or too little affect accuracy. With powerbelts, heavy pressure when I seat the bullet over the powder increases group size to over 6 inches at 100 yrds. I get the same results with my .50 and my .36