Hi folks,
I recently completed a Traditions Trapper pistol kit. It's .50 caliber. I went and test fired it today using .490 balls and .010 Ox-Yoke patches. Every charge clear down to 20 grains was shredding patches. The lower charges didn't do it as bad but it still blew them out. 20 grains is pretty light for a .50. The 30-35 grain loadings was blowing them completely apart. I was using Pyrodex. Ran out of light before I got around to trying Goex.
I tried .015 patches and it didn't seem to help. I don't have any other ball sizes to try just yet. It's already hard to load using the .015 patch, though that might just be from a rough barrel rather than an overly tight fit. I haven't lapped it yet and Traditions isn't known for making the best guns.
I have several other BP guns and have never had any issues blowing patches, so I'm not sure where to start. Any suggestions? Should I go for a .495 on .010 patches? Could it be a rough bore causing it?
I recently completed a Traditions Trapper pistol kit. It's .50 caliber. I went and test fired it today using .490 balls and .010 Ox-Yoke patches. Every charge clear down to 20 grains was shredding patches. The lower charges didn't do it as bad but it still blew them out. 20 grains is pretty light for a .50. The 30-35 grain loadings was blowing them completely apart. I was using Pyrodex. Ran out of light before I got around to trying Goex.
I tried .015 patches and it didn't seem to help. I don't have any other ball sizes to try just yet. It's already hard to load using the .015 patch, though that might just be from a rough barrel rather than an overly tight fit. I haven't lapped it yet and Traditions isn't known for making the best guns.
I have several other BP guns and have never had any issues blowing patches, so I'm not sure where to start. Any suggestions? Should I go for a .495 on .010 patches? Could it be a rough bore causing it?