accuracy from a rough bore

[topbreak]

Recently I resurrected an old project gun that I gave up on several years ago. I had this old CVA Frontier rifle I bought cheap and tried to get into shooting trim with no success, groups were abysmal at 30 yards. Long story short, I scavenged its parts to put together a CVA Hawken, which came out nice. A couple of weeks ago I took the old Frontier barrel out and scrubbed the bejeepers out of it and managed to get the rust out. What I had as a result was a bore that was a bit rough but had clearly visible rifling. A friend suggested I re-crown the muzzle and see if that improves accuracy. He provided the necessary tool and I purchased the missing parts and after refinishing the stock and reassembling the gun I was off to the range. I only dealt with one variable and that was patch thickness. The rifle clearly preferred a .018 patch over the .015 patch and I got a 4 inch group at 30 yards. Yeah, not great but at least consistent with 6 shots fired. I'm not expecting to have a tack driver here but if I can improve the accuracy a bit more and get groups more in the 2 and a half or 3 inch range at 30 yards I keep the old war horse as a plinker. I haven't messed with powder charge yet, I was shooting 60 grains of 2f 777 to keep fowling down. I have read in a couple of places that shooting a larger diameter ball can really improve accuracy so I'm considering buying some .495 round ball. Feel free to opine on my situation.

Don

[hotfxr]

I would work on powder next. Try starting with 50 grains of 3fff and work up from there. Of course I am talking about using real honest to gosh black powder.

[Hanshi]

What hotfxr said.  There is also nothing wrong with experimenting with larger ball/patch/etc.  An old barrel like that may perform a little better with real BP.  Got any photos of the rifle?

[topbreak]

Even with the thick patch I had no trouble seating the ball. The rifling is probably worn down so I think the route I'm going to go is either a .020 patch or the .495 ball. I want to stick with the 777 because of the roughness of the bore and their tendency to foul up more than a good bore. I wish I could post a pic but I don't have the equipment or know how to do it. Next time I take it out to the range I'll tinker with the powder charge a bit and try it with some Swiss powder if the 777 doesn't satisfy me.

Don

[hotfxr]

I have resurrected several barrels that seemed beyond redemption. Going off the advice from others here who shoot extremely accurate with smooth bores I figure rifling is nice but at shorter ranges not imperative. Simply taking a larger than the bore wire brush, wrapping it tightly with steel wool and running it up and down the barrel with black polishing compound while attached to a drill, most of the time I have wound up with smooth lands. then using the same brush and a cleaning rod that spins, up and down until the grooves clean up. Will I have a perfect, new looking barrel? Of course not. But I wind up with a decent, much smoother bore and consequently a much more accurate rifle. I did this recently to the 1" barreled T/C Hawken I got for a friend and his 75 yard groups went from 6" to 8" down to 3". As an added bonus, fouling was almost non existent.
Of course you must make sure you are shooting with a dry clean barrel.
Side note, we keep that "Muzzleloading Propellant" crap far away from our firearms. That stuff is what ruins the barrels in the first place and in our group it is simply not allowed on the range. I have seen too many muzzleloaders destroyed by that stuff. Well truthfully, only two, but two is too many.
Sorry for pontificating, but I really hate that stuff.   

[old salt]

This may be something you should do, that is check you used patches. they maybe torn and if they are I would suggest that you go to a good auto parts house and get some valve lapping compound. You will have two small containers. One will be course and the other will be fine, pitch the course and keep the fine [a can of the fine in my shooting all the time]
Now take a good cleaning patch, coat it with the lapping compound and run it up and down the several times
[15-20 times] and clean all the compound out of the barrel. This may take several cleaning. Now go to the range and shoot it a few time and recheck the patches, hope this helps.

Old Salt