I finally got some time to wring out some loads for my Crockett .32 rifle. One thing I did was changed the sights. I needed a wider front (I'm old) and I wanted the same rear as I have on my Great Plains rifles.
I only used Pyrodex P and am so happy, I won't bother using my reserve stock of holy black. One thing I noticed, I did not wipe at all today and the bore did not develop a crud ring. On my .50's and .54's, they will develop a hard crud ring if you don't wipe at least every five shots.
I used Hornady .310 balls with Joanne's striped ticking that measured out at .016 crushed. My lube was 8 to 1 water and Ballistol. I also tried .315 balls but did not see any advantage with them.
Several folks on the net recommended starting with 15 grains so I did. Since some of my patches were burning through, I added 10 grains of cream of wheat. This was the ticket and the combo gave me one ragged 1/2 inch hole for 6 rounds at 25 yards. I tried 20 grains and got about the same thing.
I then moved to 50 yards. Here I had to up the powder to 25 grains as I was fighting some wind. I was using the same cream of wheat combo and came up with a 1 inch six round group. ( I was trying to shoot between gusts and seemed to have succeeded. POI was about an inch or so higher than at 25.
Back at home I tinkered with my plinking load and it turns out 7 grains with 10 gns of cream of wheat gives me a nice 1 inch group at 25 yards, poi=poa. This load sounds almost like a subsonic 22 shot out of a Rossi 62 with a 22 inch barrel. You actually hear the ring of the bullet trap louder than the report.
While I had to do some tinkering with the trigger group, overall the rest of this rifle has been excellent quality. The 1 in 48 twist gives good round ball accuracy and the wood is a nice piece of birch. I'm never thought an off the shelf .32 would shoot so well but this gun is a tack driver.
I only used Pyrodex P and am so happy, I won't bother using my reserve stock of holy black. One thing I noticed, I did not wipe at all today and the bore did not develop a crud ring. On my .50's and .54's, they will develop a hard crud ring if you don't wipe at least every five shots.
I used Hornady .310 balls with Joanne's striped ticking that measured out at .016 crushed. My lube was 8 to 1 water and Ballistol. I also tried .315 balls but did not see any advantage with them.
Several folks on the net recommended starting with 15 grains so I did. Since some of my patches were burning through, I added 10 grains of cream of wheat. This was the ticket and the combo gave me one ragged 1/2 inch hole for 6 rounds at 25 yards. I tried 20 grains and got about the same thing.
I then moved to 50 yards. Here I had to up the powder to 25 grains as I was fighting some wind. I was using the same cream of wheat combo and came up with a 1 inch six round group. ( I was trying to shoot between gusts and seemed to have succeeded. POI was about an inch or so higher than at 25.
Back at home I tinkered with my plinking load and it turns out 7 grains with 10 gns of cream of wheat gives me a nice 1 inch group at 25 yards, poi=poa. This load sounds almost like a subsonic 22 shot out of a Rossi 62 with a 22 inch barrel. You actually hear the ring of the bullet trap louder than the report.
While I had to do some tinkering with the trigger group, overall the rest of this rifle has been excellent quality. The 1 in 48 twist gives good round ball accuracy and the wood is a nice piece of birch. I'm never thought an off the shelf .32 would shoot so well but this gun is a tack driver.