Dusty Texian wrote on Jun 15
th, 2022 at 8:59am:
If you are wanting to slug the bore you could use a 54 Cal. round ball . I have found swabbing the bore between shots is a must for best accuracy with the 45-120 , I would guess the 50-140 would be the same . That much Bp. leaves a lot of fouling . Good luck with your loading .,,,DT
Ohh, didn't even think of a 54 cal round ball. I have a few buddies that do CW reenactments. Going to see if they have any. Not versed using something that oversized. Any potential issues to be aware of?
Bent_Ramrod wrote on Jun 15
th, 2022 at 9:25am:
There’s a paperback book on shooting the 3-1/4” calibers: .40-90 Straight, .45-120, and .50-140. Forget the author and title (I’m away from my sources), but Buffalo Arms, C.Sharps Arms or Shiloh may offer it. Might be on Amazon or some of the gun book sources as well.
A friend shot a Shiloh .50-140 for many years. I seem to recall he used 138gr of Swiss powder and a paper-patched bullet around 600gr. Can’t remember the twist or any other details. He finally gave up on it as not accurate enough for the Quigley and switched to his “light” rifle, another Shiloh in .40-90 Straight.
When he shot that thing offhand, the recoil drove the barrel up a good 60 degrees. A “serious” black powder caliber, to be sure.
I remember one year he shot the peepee off the 805-yd Buffalo at the Quigley with the thing. Buz Coker brought it back from a repainting session and was waving it around asking “Who did this?” We were all like mice.
BWahahaahaahaaahaaa hahahahahaahha OMG. If that was captured on video, perhaps the greatest moment in shooting history. I would have loved to have been there for that. And yeah, seems some get decent accuracy and others don't. Thinking of doing a chamber cast as well, just to be sure if there's any freebore that needs to be taken up. Or at least be aware of it. Seems like the freebore was done to accommodate paper patch shooters, and greasers and didn't do anything positive for no one. Just don't know what year that was started.
I'm actually excited to shoot it. Even if the recoil makes it and me reach for the sky. I just don't have the range to go past 200yd locally within 2 hour drive. There's one range that does have a 800yd range I found out about yesterday. But before you can open it up, they make you qualify with 10 shots at 200yd, then 10 shots at 300. No exceptions.