Thread: Cracking the Code on another Double Rifle

I can well imagine those balls will be pretty effective, that's a beautiful rifle

So I've been back playing with the 20 gauge double rifle

Got given this Superb new unused conical bullets mould



It casts a perfect big bore hunting conical with a flat meplat and sharp edge on the driving bands.
So the perfect cookie cutter bullet
.662" diameter
.650" long
480 grains

I cast up 40 of these conicals

Had to unload some cases by firing on my range ( out the workshop door )

They fitted the CBC 20 gauge brass cases perfectly but not the cases made from 577 basic brass which are thicker walled

So i spent an hour shooting and reloading the 2 cases 10 times
I didn't clean the BP fouling at all in that hour.
So the right barrel straight rifled barrel shots just gradually opened up to a raged 200mm group at 35m

While the left twist rifled barrel kept shooting easily into 50mm at 35m with a heavily foulder bore and cooled between shots.

These are the last 2 left rifled barrel shots



That's a pretty harsh test of a hunting BP rifle
But if you forgot your field cleaning rod you could keep shooting confidently

Then last night I made up 2 rounds of a buckshot load for the long chamber right straight rifled barrel

8x 47 grain balls sitting on a hard card and 70 grains of 1 1/2 FG BP

Lets go hunting. Give me a decade os so and Ill get one of these https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...n_id=101034957 (they come in centrefire as well) - steel frame break action, Ill need a second barrel for mine!

Originally Posted by Tentman

Lets go hunting. Give me a decade os so and Ill get one of these https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...n_id=101034957 (they come in centrefire as well) - steel frame break action, Ill need a second barrel for mine!

@Tentman I can bring spare rifles for a whole platoon of shooters

I'm free after this week of fine weather until 18th September
Where, when and what are we hunting ?

"Woozles" just like Pooh and Piglet ?

The last piece of the puzzle is testing those two buckshot loads at 35m

Sort of a vertical string and 15 of the 16 balls ( 2x 8 balls ) are in the target area
This sort of thing is "not my cup of tea ols chap"
And I think it's probably beyond it's effective range at 35m
But I will load some up and have them in my belt for the occasion when they might be useful

Thanks for sharing your venture of old history shooting Most i us will never experience what you have there Cheers Mate

Originally Posted by akaroa1

The last piece of the puzzle is testing those two buckshot loads at 35m

Sort of a vertical string and 15 of the 16 balls ( 2x 8 balls ) are in the target area
This sort of thing is "not my cup of tea ols chap"
And I think it's probably beyond it's effective range at 35m
But I will load some up and have them in my belt for the occasion when they might be useful

Attachment 282296

That 35 yards is about it unless you get really serious with buckshot and do some serious experimenting with wads. If you can find a handful of uncut/ unslit steel shot wads,they might be worth a crack. You could try adding some sort of super light buffer between those loosely stacked balls. At end of day it's for up close finishing shot in tight scrub,up and bang with instinctive point rather than proper aim.

Originally Posted by AR7

Thanks for sharing your venture of old history shooting Most i us will never experience what you have there Cheers Mate

I got a bit lucky on this one

Know a guy in Australia who'd had a 20 gauge rifled rolling block
So he'd done similar and had a custom mould made.
He thought he could improve on that mould so ordered another with all his ideas applied to it.
Then he sold the rifle and MK1 mould

So he had the MK2 mould sitting there and was keed to see if it was any good.

So he sends me the Perfect Mould with every feature you would want when hunting with a big bore
Flat meplat
Sharp cookie cutter front driving band
Huge lube groove
Beveled base for ease of loading

I got lucky
It's a bit of what you know and a bit of who you know

Now on to the next challenge .....

Also try felt was instead of hard card...lower charge weight maybe to fit it in... There will be something usable if you tootoo enough.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Also try felt was instead of hard card...lower charge weight maybe to fit it in... There will be something usable if you tootoo enough.

Yeah I've got 6 plastic hulls ready to play with
Bigger charge leaving the barrel quicker might group lower
Card and felt under shot wads
Tune then number of pellets to suite the available space

I only need to tighten a bit and I would be happy