Apr 05, 2014 Does anyone here paper patch muzzle loader bullets? I just got a.36 caliber rifle and it seems that the bore is.37. I've been using maxiballs lately, but I. Paper Patching Bullets. I always get asked why? Followed by the same questions about how the paper survives in the barrel. It may not be the best way, or even the.

• Paper Patch Muzzleloader Bullet

When I made the move to Montana, from the Midwest, back in December 2007, the.50 caliber Pedersoli fast-twist rifling Missouri River Hawken shown in the two above photos came with me. I had received the rifle in late summer that year, and had actually gotten in just a couple of range sessions with the slick looking percussion bullet rifle.

The rifle had been shipped from Italy to Dixie Gun Works, for delivery to me. For several years, I had pushed for Davide Pedersoli & Co. To produce a true high quality American styled 1-in-24 twist.50 caliber long range muzzleloading rifle. When the rifle finally reached me, I was already preparing for a nearly 2,000 mile move to just west of Montana's stretch of the Rocky Mountains.

Not too far from the headwaters of the Missouri River. Before the rifle had shipped from Italy, the folks at Pedersol i had slipped in 20 near 500-grain bullets to get me started - and they shot great. Only problem was, no one in the U.S. Offered those bullets - and I could not locate one of the Pedersoli molds for casting my own. The three bullets shown above left are some of the bullets that came with the rifle. The Missouri River Hawken tended to shoot 'okay' with just about any.50 caliber bore-sized bullet I stuffed into it. But I wasn't consistently getting those sub 1 1/2-inch hundred yard groups I sought.

Even before installing one of the long circa 1855 styled Wm. Malcolm 6x scopes, from Hi-Lux Optics, I had managed to shoot a couple of solid 1 1/2-inch groups with the superb open sights of the Missouri River Hawken.shooting the Pedersoli bullet. One bore-sized bullet I have found to shoot just as well as the Pedersoli bullet was the Hornady FPB bullet, shown at right. Both the 300- and 350-grain bullets proved fully capable of punching groups measuring close to 1-inch across. Shooting a weighed 90-grain charge of Alliant Black MZ (appx. 98.5 grains by volume), the Missouri River Hawken actually produced several sub 1 1/2-inch groups - like the one shown below left. As well as the Hornady FPB bullet shot out of the circa 1850 styled bullet rifle, my goal with this rifle was to develop an accurate and reliable traditional load - for target work and for hunting.

I've always been intrigued by the American shooters dating from about 1840 to the early 1860's - and the innovative thinking behind the development of elongated bullets.the rifles built to shoot them.and the 'telescopic rifle sights' produced to tap a rifle's and load's long range potential. With that said, let me say right here that the Missouri River Hawken shoots as well with modern saboted bullets as most modern in-line rifles.

Here's a link to a report published on this web magazine in October 2015. No matter which bore-sized bullet, or for that matter saboted bullet, I've shot out of this rifle.I have always enjoyed shooting it. Fortunately, in mid 2014 Pierangelo Pedersoli shipped me one of the bullet molds for casting the very same 478-grain soft lead bullet which had been originally shipped with the rifle. And.that's when I honestly began working on a traditional 1850's hunting load for the rifle's 1-in-24 twist.50 caliber bore. The bore of 'my' Missouri River Hawken measures just a shade over.501' land-to-land, and the bullet as it drops from the Pedersoli mold measures right at.498' in diameter. Simply filling those grease grooves with a bullet lube allows the bullet to be very easily loaded into the rifle. In fact, without a bit of heavy lube, the bullet will literally fall into the bore.

Shooting the bullet as it comes from the mold and lubed, I could easily take every deer I shot at out to 100 yards. But, I wanted this rifle.and the load developed for it.to be fully capable of taking deer out to, and maybe a little past, 200 yards.

In the past, I have owned and shot a couple of original bullet rifles, and a modern copy of a Whitworth hexagonal bore rifle, which required paper-patching the bullet in order to achieve best accuracy. Fortunately, the.003' difference of the cast Pedersoli bullet's diameter and the top flats of the rifling lands perfectly provided the 'clearance' needed for paper patching. There are actually a couple of different ways to paper patch a bullet. The one I chose, and which in the end proved the best for this rifle's bore, was to simply cut two narrow strips of paper.1/2-inch wide and 2 inches long. Then, rub the paper down with a good 'patch lube' - such as Precision Lube 2000, from Muzzleloader Originals. The two strips are laid across the muzzle, as shown above left, to form a perfect 'X'.with even amounts of the strips on each side of the bore.

Next, a little of the lube is rubbed into the bottom groove of the bullet.then the bullet and cross-strips of paper are pushed into the bore with a short starter. The paper patched bullet is then ramrodded down on top of the powder charge.and seated with around 70-pounds of pressure. The reproduction Whitworth.451 caliber rifle shown here has long tended to prefer that the bullet be wrapped with lubricated paper. This rifle does not have rifling. Not in the sense of 'lands' and 'grooves' anyway. The bore of this rifle is hexagonal in shape - and that bore is machined with a 1-in-21 rate of twist - a right hand twist. Now, there may be rifles out there with a left hand twist, but I'm not aware of them.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, right hand twist rifling is definitely the common order of rifling business. And that dictates how the bullet needs to be wrapped. And to some degree how the paper is cut. For wrapping the 500-grain hex-shaped bullet for the Whitworth, I start with a piece of paper cut 1 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches long. The left end of the paper is cut with an angle. Before wrapping the bullet, the paper is rubbed with a good lube - again I use Precision Lube 2000. The paper is laid on a flat surface, and the bullet is positioned on the right side of the paper, with the bullet down just enough for the upper edge of the paper to be above the upper grease groove.

Then the bullet is rolled in the paper, as tight as possible, to the left. Note how the upper point of that angle cut is the last to be rolled. The excess paper at the bottom is then twisted tight against the bottom of the bullet. Photo at far right shows the wrapped paper-patched Whitworth bullet. When it exits the muzzle of the rifle, it is spinning in a clockwise direction at tremendous RPM's.and that little pointed cut catches air and quickly peels the paper patch away from the bullet.

As you can rightfully assume. NOT JUST ANY PAPER WORKS FOR THIS APPLICATION.

I've found 100% cotton Onion Skin paper to perform best. The cotton base is long grained, making it stronger - even though such paper is much lighter and thinner than standard bond typing or printing paper.

The Esleeck 'Fidelity Onion Skin' paper being used in these photos is just.002' thick. While standard bond wood pulp based typing or printing paper is around.004' thick. It's important to get right at two complete wraps on the bullet.which would be impossible to load with two wraps of.004' thick paper.

A couple of months before this was written, I spent several weeks working on a Wm. Malcolm vintage scope video for Hi-Lux Optics. Shooting a 90-grain charge of GOEX FFg black powder and the cross-strip paper-patched Pedersoli cast 478-grain.498' diameter lead bullet, on camera I managed to punch the.600' center-to-center three-shot 100-yard group shown at right.

Not only is this the best 100-yard group I have shot with this rifle, shooting a traditionally styled bore-sized bullet.it is also the best 100-yard group I have ever shot with a big and heavy muzzle-loaded bore-sized conical bullet. One of the best books ever written and published on loading and shooting the long range muzzleloading target rifles of the mid 1800's was 'THE MUZZLE-LOADING CAP LOCK RIFLE', by Ned Roberts. In this book he details the rifles.the rifling twists.the telescopic rifle sights.the bullets.the powders.and the people who took precision shooting to an all new level. In those days, shooting paper-patched bullets, some of the top shooters managed to keep ten shots inside of two inches at 40 rods. Which is 220 yards! I don't ever expect to be able to do that. Paper patched bullet or not.

Paper Patch Muzzleloader Bullet

But the accuracy I'm now getting with the Missouri River Hawken has given me the confidence to now take shots at deer at 200 yards.with a traditionally styled muzzleloading rifle. Toby Bridges, NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING Published October 7, 2016.