Euroarms Kentuckian, need help

Fox

Fox

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Hey, so this rifle that I have has shallow rifling, unlike my Kentucky 50 cal, and is marked 44 cal on the barrel.

I decided to slug it and within the first few inches down from the muzzle it has a bore that measures 0.450 and 0.460, lands and grooves.

Does anyone know if these guns were tapered? Or is this just actually a 45?

Anyone know the twist rate? I do not currently have a tight fitting swab so I cannot easily figure out the twist, but some people have said online 1 in 36in, does that seem right?

If a 1 in 36in with these shallow grooves I would think that it should fire a conical quite well, any suggestions on the diameter of the conical or weight that should work with this twist rate?

Thanks a lot
 
Have an identical piece that I have never shot and just tried a .440 ball and it went clean down the barrel so with a 15 thou patch that should be the ticket. Looks to be fairly fast twist so you might find a long bullet would work.
 
Hello,

I read about your rifle and it seems many of them were 45s, no matter what the marking said. if your measurements were correct it is a 45 (these barrels are not tapered). So using a ,440 and appropriate patches would make sense. I believe store bought maxis made for 45 cal rifles would work, usually around 250gr.

As to twist you will likely have measured it by now, either from your slug or using a cleaning rod. It may be 1/36 or 1/38, as you guess, which may work with either type of munition - the fun will be testing it. Somewhere between 30-70gr of FFF the magic will happen wrt to accuracy. If 45 is legal for hunting in your woods, the mini/maxi would be more effective on game.
 
I'll second what wr suggested. With a fast twist like that round ball tends to work best with charges on the low end like 30-50 gr and conicals with heavier charges. Testing is the only way to know though.

I'd try the 440 balls and experiment with different patch thickness for a tight fit. 445 ball and a patch thickness of 8-10 thou might also be worth a try if available. Most muzzleloaders like a tight fit but not so much that you wish to have a hammer to get them started.
 
With it saying 44 cal on the thing and testing a buddies 45 cal round ball (not sure the diameter), I went and picked up 100 0.430 round balls, ha ha, they may work with a thick patch or I may keep them for ammo for the 44 Webley pistol.

I read about the ramrod being short on these and someone said that there was a piece screwed on that probably broke off. I had a gunsmith take it apart and verify that it was safe, he said nothing weird about the channel for the ramrod, so I assume it was just always too short and you had to put on an extension, that is my plan anyway.

For the maxi balls, something around 0.454in should work with this bore diameter?
 
vagrantviking said:
With a fast twist like that round ball tends to work best with charges on the low end like 30-50 gr .
Click to expand...


I had a 54 cal with a 1:48 twist and benched it with a series of charges to find the most accurate load. I assumed that the most accurate load was a most accurate velocity but apparently not so. 55 grains of 3F or 80 grains of 2F gave the best groups but very different velocities. At the time I didn't have a chronograph to shoot over and judged the velocity by shooting through a series of 2" fir If my memory is correct, 50 gr of 3F went through 2 pieces and deeply dented the third while 80 grains of 2F went through 3 pieces and deeply dented the fourth

cheers mooncoon
 
So I took a brass brush that works for the 45, pushed it down with a tape flag on the rod and although it is possible there was some slip it made just slightly more than 1 turn for the length of the barrel, which is about 35in. So a 1 in 36in or 38in twist rate.

Now to look up what that should shoot well.
 
tbrwlf said:
.440 round ball and .010 patch. That will fill it out fine. It does not need to be a fight to get the ball down the barrel.
Click to expand...

Would this twist be good for a conical? I know a 1 in 48 and faster is good for conicals in a 50 cal but not sure if that idea is different for a 45 cal.

Thanks
 
Same idea. 1-36 in a 45 is probably about the equivalent as a compromise twist.

A slow twist for round ball in a 45 would be in 1-60 inch range. The bigger the bore the slower the twist seems to be the trend.
 
I have two, one is a Euro Arms the other a Pedersoli. Both are identical rifles except one is a flint and the other a caplock. They are stamped as .44 cal but the bore measures out to .45. Short time later they started to stamp them as .45 cal.
 
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