Hunting loads for .50 cal 1 in 48

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Bluffton Bill

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I just bought a .50 cal percussion Lyman Trade Rifle. Unfortunately, I am pretty wet behind the ears. So far I'm 'minute of deer' at 50 yards, but I'd like to get a little better. Being a centrefire handloader I started out carefully weighing (yes weighing) out 80 grains of Pyrodex RS and shooting 370 grain TC maxi ball conincals. I now realize that I was likely overloading to the tune of about 110 grains when I went to proper powder measure. So now I'm back to an actual 80 grains. I bought the Lyman loading manual and see that the loads go all the way up to 120 grains, but I have to assume that they are not necessarily for the Trade Rifle. I have a pile of questions...

1) Is it normal for a conical to slide so easily down the barrel? I mean it hardly takes any effort to move them down. I decap and check several times when I'm hunting and they don't seem to be coming off the charge, but I do worry...

2) Should I be using a felt wad over the charge with conicals?

3) What is the best bullet weight for moose.

4) Has anyone had any luck shooting sabots in a 1 in 48 twist barrel.

Sorry for such a long post but I'm in dire need of mentoring here. I have become so addicted to billowing clouds of smoke and sulfer that it scares me. What a blast

:)
 
I was hunting deer this fall with 50 grns (by volume) of FFFG. I can't attest to its effectiveness because I haven't found a deer to shoot yet but with conicals it packs a helluva whallop. Judging by its performance against steel plates and blocks of wood it should go through a deer just fine. Conicals have a hollow base that expands when fired to seal the gases and slug into the bore. They don't need to be a tight fit all the way down like a patched round ball.
 
Bill
#1 Conicals are supposed to load easy and expand at ignition to full bore dia, and as long as the bullet stays on the powder all is good
#2 The felt wad probably will not help your accuracy with a bullet but with a ball it will help greatly
#3 What ever the rifle will shoot well 180grn to 500grn
#4 No but the cva powerbelt bullet is almost like a sabot and will shoot very well from a 1:48 twist
#5 I have found that I got better accuracy with FFF black powder than pyrodex when shooting conicals as the black seems to bump the bullet in to the rifling better.
#6 110 grns would not be out of the question when loading for moose as long as you are burning it. Easy way to find out is shoot it over fresh snow and see if you have unburnt powder on the snow.The law of deminishing returns comes into play as you load heavier so you should play with some different charges to get the most bang for your buck.
Have fun!
 
get your self a powder measure and measure by volume.I would say a good load would be arouind 70gr.fffg a .490 patched round ball and you should be ready to go,providing your rifle is sighted in.Any deer out to 100 yds. could be in a lot of trouble.
 
The felt wad will help protect the base of the bullet, and most definatley help accuracy. If you are hunting deer a patched round ball and 80g of Pyrodex Rs will work great. For moose I would try the great planes bullet, or PB bullets. Try prbullet.com . There are a lot of bullets out there to try, and yes a 1 in 48" will shoot some sabots. I have used sabots in a Lyman Deerstalker with great accuracy, but didn't like the clean up. Good luck and shoot lots.
 
maxi-ball is not a hollow base conical tho.... it does not expand much if any to catch the rifleing.... great plain's and buffalow conical's are very fine hollow base's and are available in the 400gr. range and they shoot quite nicely from my TC hawkin with 100-110gr. of FFg goex.... my suggestion would be in the 70-90gr. area with FFFg pyrodex but irregardless they do fit loose in the bore to some degree... as a rule if it start's out in the first few inches of the rifleing rather stiff then slides down easily it's due to the lead seating itself in the land's but if it pretty much fall's down the bore then i would look for a better (tighter) fitting conical.


for moose i would use a round ball.... or a 365gr conical.... or a 435gr conical... or a saboted pistol bullet.... because i know if i'm within 50yrd's i could pluck out the mooses eye or shoot between his rib bone's with any of the above.... of course a heavy slow moving conical will always be my choice with any game big or small it's all about shot placement and with a soft lead projectile it's far more important then say a 150gr copper clad .30cal bullet going 2500fps.... if you can shoot maxi ball under 6" at 50yrd's then hunt whatever you please at 50yrd's with maxi ball.... if you hit it, it will drop.

sabot's are a love hate thing to me.... they load smooth as silk in a clean bore but after 1 shot on a cold day i allmost have to jump on my ramrod to load the next one.... they are accurate and they have a great ballistic advantage over bore size bullet's but for all the fuss i'd rather stick to patched round ball or conical's... if you have access to a shop that carry's a wide variety of sabot's and .45 hollow point's then you can find just the rite combo for your rifle but range time will learn you how much hold over you need better then just getting a flatter shooting bullet....

just my .02 take it or leave it.
 
I shoot 100 gr Pyrodex RS and the 370 gr Maxi-ball in my Trade rifle and it shoots very nice groups. I used some 250 gr R.E.A.L. bullets but couldn't keep them on a sheet of plywood at 100 yds if I used any more than 80 gr of Pyrodex.
 
The Lyman Plains bullet as cast by MT Chambers was easily the most accurate projectile i tested in my Lyman before I sold it. This bullet would be good for deer or moose at a full .50cal. (as opposed to smaller sabots) and close to 400grs, with a big flat point. Friends saw how well it did, but were bound and determined to make the patched roundball shoot, but I think they're still trying.
 
Some suggest using a felt wad or a overpowder card over the powder. I'll be trying that myself. Any Maxi ball Iv'e loaded usually takes a bit of effort to start in the muzzle then goes down easier with the rod.
 
Blair at Lock N' Load suggested that I use patched round ball out of my .50.. I worked up to 100 gns and got a 3" group at 100 yds with 5 shots. I picked up a book about black powder shooting written by Sam Fadalla who wrote that shooting black powder over snow isn't a good way to see if you are loading too much, because black powder is inefficient at burning anyway.
I'll find that article and post what he said.
 
I tried to shove a maxi down my bore with out bullet lube, it went down after about 5 minutes of fighting. Then I used bullet lube on the next one what a difference! It slid down like a blue point oyster!
 
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