600 Yard .50 Cal Patched Roundball

[Idaholewis]

This is something i have wanted to try for a year now, I finally got a chance to Swing at it Yesterday Morning. It was a Perfect Morning for it, Dead Calm. My Setup, A TC Renegade Stock with a Lee Shaver Super Grade Long Range Soule Tang Sight, A Green Mountain .50 Cal Barrel 1:70 Twist, I have a Tall Lee Shaver Adjustable windage Front Globe sight mounted in this barrel, (I needed his Taller front sight to be able to get a 100 Yard Zero) I have 3 Barrels with this Same Front sight that i Swap back n forth in this Stock, Due to the Long Range Soule Tang Sight
The Load was 80 Grains by Weight of Swiss 2F Powder, .020 Denim Patches from Bulk material that i Cut from a Home Made Cutter i fabricated that fits in my Drill Press, Patches Lubed with my Rendered Bear Fat/Bees Wax/Lanolin Mixture. The Balls are my Home Cast .495s from a Lyman Mold, They are Weighed and Kept to the 1/10 of a Grain, The Sprues Removed in my Vibratory Tumbler with Powdered Graphite.

Target is a Ranged 600 Yards (Same place i shot the 600 Yard Knight Mountaineer, and this Same Sidelock Stock, with 1:18 Twist .45 Cal Bullet Barrel) The Target is an MR-1, Official NRA 600 Yard Center, The Black Aiming Bull is 36” Diameter. That BIG Target gets Small again when it’s 600 Yards out there

Recovered 600 Yard Ball, This was Shot #1 that Went high, over top of the Target. It left the Barrel Weighing 184.1 Grains, and stil weighed that Exact 184.1 Grains When Recovered, The Little .495 Ball Was Out of Steam, I stil wouldn’t want Hit with it though

Another Pic of the Recovered Ball Beside a Fresh New one from the Same Batch

 

[Idaholewis]

I was hoping to be able to Shoot a Group on Target, Then on to my Gong. But as you can see in the Video i got Ran off by Wind, What Started out as a Beautiful Calm Morning, Turned Breezy/Windy.

I am looking forward to testing accuracy at this 600 Yard Range, I stil have everything loaded up to do so, I just need a Perfect Calm Morning, about 4:30-5:00am is my Best Times. I hope to get back to this in the next Few Days

Working up the Load i chose, I first tried .018 Ticking But the Patches were Blown. In this Photo you can see my 3 Shot Group at 60 Yards, they are covered with Target pasters, This load was Discarded. I went to a Heavier Denim Patch, and Also used another Patch as an Over powder Wad, This load Shot EXCELLENT, The 3 Shot Group made 1 Large Hole, Same 60 Yards. Both loads were 80 Grains by Weight of Swiss 2F Powder

some of you have seen these Bore Pics before, This is just to Show that i have This Bore polished out well, Like a Fine Mirror, But i stil have Issues with Blowing Patches

 

[edmehlig]

I bet it would be the first time you got to shoot the same bullet twice?

 

[MSalyards]

Lew, do you weigh the round balls before or after you vibrate the sprues off?

Mike

 

[sdporter]

Nice shootin Lewis!

 

[Matthew323]

Go to Joannes Fabrics and try to purchase some cotton canvas that measures about 0.022" crushed in the jaws of your S.S. dial calipers. With the barrel polished like you have it, the only reason for blowing/tearing patches like pictured above is a patch that is too thin with a weave that is not strong enough to withstand the forces of loading, ignition, and passage down the rifling.

There is a guy over on the American LongRifles Forum that shoots an original English Sporting Rifle in .66 caliber (16 bore) with a hunting powder charge of 165 grains of ffg Swiss black powder. Single patch and ball. TIGHTLY FITTING.

This is what gives the BEST ACCURACY in this particular rifle.

You MUST COMPLETELY SEAL THE GROOVES with the patch material. And imbed the material into the pure lead ball making an impression of the fabrics weave.

Then you will be good to go.

 

[deermanok]

Hi Lewis, I saw how your pillow ticking patches were all tore up.
I had the same experience with some dry .18 patches in my deerhunter rifle. I spit lubed them and also tried greasing them up with bore butter. They still were all ripped apart.
I switched to a .15 lubed patch and they were fine.
Odd thing for sure.

 

[Harleysboss]

Were you maxed out on elevation on your Soule sight? Any idea of time of flight? Like enough time to get a sip of coffee before impact?

 

[Ninering62]

This is something i have wanted to try for a year now, I finally got a chance to Swing at it Yesterday Morning. It was a Perfect Morning for it, Dead Calm. My Setup, A TC Renegade Stock with a Lee Shaver Super Grade Long Range Soule Tang Sight, A Green Mountain .50 Cal Barrel 1:70 Twist, I have a Tall Lee Shaver Adjustable windage Front Globe sight mounted in this barrel, (I needed his Taller front sight to be able to get a 100 Yard Zero) I have 3 Barrels with this Same Front sight that i Swap back n forth in this Stock, Due to the Long Range Soule Tang Sight
The Load was 80 Grains by Weight of Swiss 2F Powder, .020 Denim Patches from Bulk material that i Cut from a Home Made Cutter i fabricated that fits in my Drill Press, Patches Lubed with my Rendered Bear Fat/Bees Wax/Lanolin Mixture. The Balls are my Home Cast .495s from a Lyman Mold, They are Weighed and Kept to the 1/10 of a Grain, The Sprues Removed in my Vibratory Tumbler with Powdered Graphite.

Target is a Ranged 600 Yards (Same place i shot the 600 Yard Knight Mountaineer, and this Same Sidelock Stock, with 1:18 Twist .45 Cal Bullet Barrel) The Target is an MR-1, Official NRA 600 Yard Center, The Black Aiming Bull is 36” Diameter. That BIG Target gets Small again when it’s 600 Yards out there

Recovered 600 Yard Ball, This was Shot #1 that Went high, over top of the Target. It left the Barrel Weighing 184.1 Grains, and stil weighed that Exact 184.1 Grains When Recovered, The Little .495 Ball Was Out of Steam, I stil wouldn’t want Hit with it though

Another Pic of the Recovered Ball Beside a Fresh New one from the Same Batch

Another great shootin video.

 

[Ninering62]

Go to Joannes Fabrics and try to purchase some cotton canvas that measures about 0.022" crushed in the jaws of your S.S. dial calipers. With the barrel polished like you have it, the only reason for blowing/tearing patches like pictured above is a patch that is too thin with a weave that is not strong enough to withstand the forces of loading, ignition, and passage down the rifling.

There is a guy over on the American LongRifles Forum that shoots an original English Sporting Rifle in .66 caliber (16 bore) with a hunting powder charge of 165 grains of ffg Swiss black powder. Single patch and ball. TIGHTLY FITTING.

This is what gives the BEST ACCURACY in this particular rifle.

You MUST COMPLETELY SEAL THE GROOVES with the patch material. And imbed the material into the pure lead ball making an impression of the fabrics weave.

Then you will be good to go.

Great post Bruce.

 

[Idaholewis]

Were you maxed out on elevation on your Soule sight? Any idea of time of flight? Like enough time to get a sip of coffee before impact?

I will lay all of that info out in the next, and final Video of this Little Endeavor MOA it takes to Get there, How high the Ball is at it’s highest point, And Chronograph Data

 

[Idaholewis]

Another great shootin video.

This Long Range Patched Roundball stuff is All in fun, Definitely NOT Practical. My curiosity had got the Best of me, Wanting to know just how Far I Could Get a Roundball out there? And Stil have any Degree of Accuracy? I knew i had the right Sight setup to do it, This is something I’ve wanted to do Since last year

 

[45-70]

supposed to be a fellow at Battle of New Orleans accurate out to 300 yds.

 

[Idaholewis]

supposed to be a fellow at Battle of New Orleans accurate out to 300 yds.

I can definitely see that, my .54 Cal did very well at 325 Yards, Though I was Dealing with Bad Wind that Day

 

[sdporter]

I can definitely see that, my .54 Cal did very well at 325 Yards, Though I was Dealing with Bad Wind that Day

That you even hit the plate at all is amazing at 325 yards. Let alone, twice in a row. And to think they claim (I’ve heard anyway) that maximum accuracy distance with a round ball is 70-80 yards. Way to debunk that myth. You need to go on Myth Busters LOL...

 

[Idaholewis]

That you even hit the plate at all is amazing at 325 yards. Let alone, twice in a row. And to think they claim (I’ve heard anyway) that maximum accuracy distance with a round all is 70-80 yards. Way to debunk that myth. You need to go on Myth Busters LOL...

A .530-.535 Roundball is a Pretty BAD DUDE in all Fairness! At 325 Yards i had 1 of them, my last shot Due to the Wind, i missed the Steel, This was off Camera, I was simply unloading the Rifle to head for Home, I figured why not Try at the Target? When i got up there i found the Shot That .535 Ball BLEW RIGHT THROUGH my Top 2X4 Frame, And then entered that Fallen Tree in Behind the Target, I could see the Hole going in the Fallen Tree, But the Ball was Out of Sight! I Didn’t have any tools with me to Recover it

Entrance

Exit

 

[sdporter]

You are at 325 yards!!!! Shooting a round ball... Let that sink in. Unbelievable....

 

[Idaholewis]

Anyone that say’s a Roundball isn’t DEADLY Waaaaaaaay out there, is BADLY Mistaken!! The 325 Yard .54 Cal Stuff above Would be VERY DEADLY, the above Clearly Shows that, To Blow Through a 2X4 is Doing something, and then to Stil have Enough energy to continue on in to that Fallen Tree Behind the Target.

As with any other Projectile, The Key To Roundball is Shot Placement. Roundball due to it’s inferior Shape/BC compared to a Bullet, leaves less room for Error than a BIG HEAVY Bullet (this is why one should Stay at 100-125 Yards MAX when Hunting With Roundball, in my opinion) FACT is the Roundball will Kill ANYTHING out there Just as Dead as a Bullet, As long as you put that Roundball “Where the Critter Lives”

 

[Idaholewis]

You are at 325 yards!!!! Shooting a round ball... Let that sink in. Unbelievable....

It was the 325 Yard .54 Cal stuff above from last year that made me want to Test this 600 Yard Stuff, A few on here knew i was gonna attempt this, But Winter had Set in and I couldn’t do it til Now, I wish this .50 GM Roundball Barrel would have been a .54 Cal, Had it Been? 800 Yards here we Come! The 230-240 Grain .54 Cal Roundball Would Get there, I have Plenty of Sight to do it I could probably “LOB” these .495 50 Cals on out there, But after seeing what i did at 600 Yards, there is no use to, These 184 Grain .495 Balls are WELL DONE at 600

 

[Ninering62]

I can definitely see that, my .54 Cal did very well at 325 Yards, Though I was Dealing with Bad Wind that Day

I'm not very familiar with .54 cal ( only shot a friends a few times at a 200yd range like 25+yrs ago) I thought hitting the 24" gong at 200yds with it was really cool & rung the heck outta that gong. It got everyones attn. IDK what charge he was using in it, I remember he had silk patches & it packed quite a thump from both ends & the brass buttplate only didnt make it very pleasant to shoot more than a cpl times. From what I'm gatherin here is that even as a confident proficient of shooter as you are, that attempting to shoot at a live animal at 325yds with that is not what I'd call an " ethical shot " & way too much room for error/wind. Old school will always be cool with me & I love seeing someone else that loves doin it old school, thinking outside most ppl's tiny lil box they insist upon living in & seem to condemn others for NOT living inside the same tiny box, and your " pushing the envelope " nature sure makes mine smile like a Chessy cat.