Saturday was looking like an awesome day here - so decided to head to the farm... There was really only one problem, the wind. Here in town it really did not seem that bad - the FARM - a whole different story! But, I was there and any day is a good day for shooting.
I had taken another PRB gun, a 54 TC Renegade caplock. I was really interested in getting some velocities shooting T7-3f with different powder loads. The gun is sighted in with a load of 60 grains T7-3f, 0.015 Ox-Yoke cotton patch and a wad. I was out of my preferred wad, so I stopped at the local store to pick up a pack. they did not have the one I wanted either but did have a pack of 'Muzzleloaders Originals' Felt Wads - Center Lubed with Precision Lube 2000 Plus. I did pick up the pack and after using - I wish I had passed. They are way to soft and difficult to load in the bore - no they are easy to load but very difficult to keep them and on top of the powder flat. In my experience OX-Yoke wads are much stiffer and load great. The Ox-Yoke wad just seems to be made for a more dense felt...
Got all the equipment set and started the shoot. I had decided to shoot 60, 70, and 80 grain loads with the mentioned round ball and patch. Patch - that turned out to be another possible problem. I had only taken 0.015 patches with me and I am thinking that a 0.018 would have been the better patch in this particular 54 barrel.
The wad and the patch were two of the three problems I had. The third was that I was shooting wearing my prescription glasses (progressive lens) - which I never do - I always shoot with contacts. Glasses are terrible!!!
Anyway, this is a composite picture of the shoot...
With the complications - mainly the glasses - and the wind - I gave up on accuracy and went directly to velocities... This table shows the velocities achieved.
The reason for this testing - last week shooting the 50 cal Renegade - shooting PRB's - I was wondering about hunting with such a small load of powder (60 grains). But several people assured me the velocities that I was getting was more than adequate - so I felt I wanted to get 54 velocities to compare with the 50. It seems to me more people prefer to hunt with a 54 round ball versus a 50 round ball.
I think this information - still leads me to believe if I were going to - I would hunt with the 54 PRB in preference to the 50???
