Practice/Target Ammo for Muzzleloaders

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kevinh

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Hey y'all,

I have a newbie/newb/noob question as I'm just researching flintlock rifles.

Does anyone make or use rubber balls as practice/target ammo in muzzleloaders?

I remember learning about wax loads in revolvers like the Colt SAA (which I owned one but sold)
and I'm wondering if there is an equivalent for muzzleloaders.


Thanks for reading this.
Have a great new week everyone!

Cheers,
Kevin H.
 
Eh you could shoot caliber sized cork wads out, not sure how accurate that would be.
With a 50 cal flintlock you could probably down-load those to as low as 10 gr of black powder, and it wouldn't be that loud, if that's your goal of having practice ammo. I would expect accuracy to be terrible though

For real at-the-range shooting, a flintlock is slow enough that a box of patched round balls is cheap and lasts a long time
 
If it's feasible, it's time you started casting your own bullets.

If you have a smooth bore, flint lock I can see no reason why you cant make up wax bullets for it.

I used to make up wax 50 cal maxi balls for my Lyman Plains rifle, which is percussion cap fired and is rifled 1-15inch twist. I used the paraffin packs, you get at the grocery store for sealing preserves.

It made a hell of a mess and took a long time for the mold to cool enough to release the wax bullet, without deforming it. When I shot them, it was quickly evident they needed some sort of patching if I wanted any accuracy.

I punched out cardboard wads, then used wax paper to wrap around the bullets and fold over the base. I had to use a hot iron on the wrapped edges to keep it from unraveling. This held everything together nicely and provided OK accuracy out to 10 yards. I used 5 grains of IMR4227 with these loads, as they were being used in an old barn at the time.

I also made a bunch of bullets out of the same paraffin by punching them out of the blocks. These worked just as well as the cast Maxis, but they still needed to have a wad attached to the bottom and patching. I still had to "warm up" the paraffin or it would crumble under the punch, when it was cold. I ended up using a cheap round cooky cutter from the dollar store to cut out the bullets later. It worked better than anything else.
 
you definitely would not want rubber bullets; I expect they would bounce back dramatically. I think wax or cork bullets would only be good for 5 or 10 yards and useful mostly for practicing trigger release or sight picture. I think they are used in cowboy action shooting for very close range targets and for some measure of safety during quick draw shooting

cheers mooncoon
 
I don't believe that anything else other than lead balls would have anything that may even remotely close to being accurate. If you are out at the range to practice you might as well practice with the real thing. Shooting muzzleloaders is not like going out and shooting a center fire rifle. You will shoot a lot less practice rounds with a muzzle loader. Just start to cast your own balls or have some one cast them for you.
 
quite by accident, i may have made just what your looking for. I was fireforming some 45-70 brass to 38-56 and used ordinary carpenters glue in the case necks to hold the cornmeal/powder in place. Let them dry overnight and shot the next morning. Those little slugs held together very well out past 20 ft...and stabilized very well...put a perfect round hole through the brand new deck slats that the wife had just saved up a year to buy...

If I were trying to do what your wanting I would drill a few holes in a piece of 1/2" thick hardwood...start with a smaller hole and sand to finished size you desire. fill the holes with the glue and let harden and then just push them from the board. It should be very easy to build a few "wadcutter" shaped slugs that would work well for an indoor range.
 
Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well.

Sorry, I forgot to come back to this thread.

Thanks, appleorangefish, for the tip.

Thanks, bearhunter for sharing your experiences.

Thanks mooncoon - no rubber!

Thanks for the advice MC One Shot

Thanks for your input fingers284.



Thanks everyone!

Be well!

Cheers,
Kevin H.
 
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