a friend just sold me a tc 56 cal smoothbore still in the box , .i had one of these years ago and as i remember they were tough to load, i thought we used to double patch a 54 cal ball with .018 pillow ticking. anybody remember doing this or should i try to find 56 cal balls?
56 cal renegade smoothbore
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As with the .62 caliber smooth bores, they take a .600 or .595 ball. The reason is there are no grooves for the patch to compress in. With a patch I'd go with a .535 ball and a .018 to .020 patch. Another thing you could try is a .562 ball with wadding. Both Lee and RCBS makes this mold. You can also get them at Track of the Wolf. Try them first before buying the molds.
I'm shooting mine with Speer 535 swaged balls.I bought 100 cast 550 balls from Track Of The Wolf.They are a bear to load with a patch.The accuracy isn't any better than the 535s.You can load them with shootgun wads but the accuracy doesn't seem to be any better.That being said I'm amazed by the accuracy of this smootbore with patched balls
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Forget the patch. Try a greased 550 over one or two 1/8" felt waddings followed by an overshot card. You might also try just a tight o/s card instead of the wadding, sometimes that works well too.
I go up one bore size with my waddings and os cards as tighter is better...to a point. Most smoothbores I've owned shot as accurately loaded this way as with a prb at traditional smoothbore ranges, generally 60 yds and in when the proper powder load is found.
The nice part is the utility and ability to shoot shot or prb. The 56 is a good little caliber for small game and turkey to about 20 yds with shot and out to about 60 with round ball.
I go up one bore size with my waddings and os cards as tighter is better...to a point. Most smoothbores I've owned shot as accurately loaded this way as with a prb at traditional smoothbore ranges, generally 60 yds and in when the proper powder load is found.
The nice part is the utility and ability to shoot shot or prb. The 56 is a good little caliber for small game and turkey to about 20 yds with shot and out to about 60 with round ball.
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