Patch lube? & .62 ball size?

[mark davidson]

I traded for a custom .62 flinter this week and am shooting it this evening. I have pillow tick patching and need to know what to lube it with?  Spit?  Bore butter? what.....?

Also, the only balls I could get locally are .600s.  I would rather have .610s I think but will have to order some. What should I expect from the .600s and .018 pillow tick patch and a hefty charge of 2F in terms of accuracy??

Also, do I need to use wasp nest or something as cushion between powder and ball to prevent patch burning out?

Thanks in advance!

[jbullard1]

Is this a rifle or smoothbore?

[Bigsmoke]

In my .62 which has a 1:104 rifling, .006 deep, I use a .610 ball and .015 patch on top of 135 grains of Ffg or GOEX Cartridge (preferred).
Whenever I go over 150 grains of powder, I use a Ox Yoke 20 ga cushion wad to prevent patch burn.  At 135 it is not a problem for me.  For a patch lube I use Ol' Thunder (or spit, if I am in a hurry).  I use musket caps to get things going.  That is my load for my rifle, YMMV.
The .600 ball with the .018 ticking should not be hard to load, how it will shoot remains to be seen.
As far as accuracy with a "hefty charge" the gun will tell you the answer to that.  With mine, off a bench on a good day at 50 yards, with the above mentioned load, I can pretty much put them in one ragged hole.  As to whether you will be needing something between the powder and ball, ask your spent patches.  Go pick them up and see what they have to say.
With my rifle, I think I started working on a load at about 90 grains and went up in 5 grain increments until I found its preferred load.  Shot 3 shot groups.

[mark davidson]

Thanks men!  Jerry, the rifle that I will light up this evening is rifled. I am primarily a hunter and 100 yard accuracy is a real must for me. I never owned or shot a smooth bore but most folks I have read on here about seem to indicate that accuracy beyond 50 yards with a smoothie is minimal. I could be wrong so no offense intended. Mine is 36" octagon, not swamped.

Jerry or Bigsmoke: I don't have any 20 guage cushion wads yet. What will substitute if I am getting burned patches and poor accuracy?

Also, I have plenty of .54 pre lubed cotton patches and some .54 pre lubed pillow tick patches. Is is possible to get good accuracy with the .62 ball using the smaller .54 patches??

[mark davidson]

I have another question.  In working up a new load should I measure my powder by volume with a store bought brass powder measure with the increments marked or should I weigh the charge on my powder scales and work up the load by weight instead of volume?  If this is a dumb question, please excuse it. :-)

[jbullard1]

Mark
I weigh a couple of charges and then set an adjustable measure
after a load is worked up i make a fixed measure

[Sir Michael]

It really doesn't matter if you weigh your charges or simply measure them using an adjustable measure.  Your gun will not shoot its best just because you measured the load.  It will shoot its best when the right amount of powder is used.  By adjusting either up or down from a starting point you will see the groups get larger or smaller.  From my experience if you experiment enough you'll end up finding two loads one light and one heavy that will produce almost the same results.  The only reason in my mind to weigh a powder load is to find out for curiosity sake what the best load for your rifle weighs.  It is really irrelevant what it weighs.  The key is to find the amount that works best and use it consistently.

[Mitch]

as to "smoothbore accuracy being minimal at best beyond 50yds"...my standard response is "stand out there at 100yds and let me shoot at ya!"....with practice and proper load, you should be able to put 3 shots on a small paper plate(kill zone on most mammals including humans) at 100yds...perhaps not "pinpoint MOA" , but works for hunting for me....

[mark davidson]

Thanks for the info. I am going from 90 grains in .54 on up to possibly 200 grains! Since that range is so wide, I thought I should approach measuring powder cautiously and ask how to measure it since I am playing with large amounts or at least what seem large to me. :-)
  Mitch, we have been through this before. I am just repeating what some here have said about smoothie accuracy. What is acceptable to one person is perhaps not to another. Pie plate accuracy just does not cut the mustard for me at any distance especially not 100 yards. I don't demand sub MOA at 100 from a Mler but I do not think two inches or less is asking too much. If the best a rifle will do from solid rest (bench) is a pie plate then the odds of keeping rounds in the kill zone under field conditions are not good. Just my opinion.  My rifle is going to put its rounds from rest on an index card at least and grouped nicely on it or it is going to find a new home.

By the way: hitting the broad side of a human should be pretty easy; you would need to be able to shoot maybe ....what....a two foot wide by six foot tall group! :-)

See ya'll tommorrow! I'm going home to make smoke!!!

[Sir Michael]

For short ranges I found that 62 grs does an excellent job as does 110grs for longer shooting 75-200yds.  90 is a good starting point.  I doubt that you'll get to 200 grs.

Shoot 5 rounds, set up a clean target add 5 grs and shoot 5 rounds, repeat the group will get smaller the closer you get to the optimum and then it will start to get larger.  Go back to the load above and below the best group and try a charge 1/2 way between the two and see what that does.

BTW - All this must be done from a bench off sandbags or similar to remove as much of you from the equation as possible.  If you do this with .600 balls you should also repeat the above process with .610 balls and again with patches of different thicknesses.

It is a time consuming exercise but in the end you will have a load that you know will hit the target if you do your part.

[mark davidson]

Well, I survived the .62 but barely. I started with 100 grains of 2F which honestly was kinda wimpy and at 60 yards hit about 10" low. I moved on up in powder to 180 grains which was a pretty hefty load. I went on up above 200 grains of 2F and at over 200 grains recoil was noticeable, noticably heavy. Without filing my sights yet, the 180 grain load hits level up and down but only groups off the bench about 2" or just under which is OK but not great at just 60 yards and is actually still just a little low of level. Recoil with 180 grains of 2F is still very reasonable. I used pillow tick with spit for patch and cut at the muzzle. Some of the patches show signs of blowing through and holes but not all. I suspect the mediocre accuracy is due to the .600 ball instead of .610s. All in all I think the .62 is where I will settle for a while.  To me, it seems to have much more "thump" on both ends than the .54. I got lots of load development to do yet but the process is started and my original experience with the .62 was FUN!! Thanks for ya'lls help and information.  It was very useful.

[Sir Michael]

I think you'll find that with a .610 ball you will get a bit more recoil.  Also you might want to consider using fffg powder instead of ffg.  The maker of my rifle recommended it and after over 10 years I've never found a reason to change.  As for the drop, a .62 cal has a lot of it because of the mass, cross section, and drag.  My rifle is equipped with a leaf sight for 200 yds that is almost a 1/2 in. taller than my normal sight.

[mark davidson]

SM,  Thanks for the input. A leaf sight!! Neat! I will be OK with the recoil long as the accuracy improves. Two inches at 60 yards ain't that great. How much 3F would be the safe equivalent of 180 grains of 2F?

[rollingb]

Standard rule of thumb, has always been to drop the powder charge at least 10% when going from FFG to FFFG.

Personally, I prefer to drop my powder charge even more then that, and then work my way back up (if needed) for best accuracy.

[Sir Michael]

180 grs