Fuhrmann-

You have a very beautiful hunting rifle!
I would love to hunt with it.

Have you ever had your barrel off the breech plug?
If so have you ever 'slugged' it by pushing an over size lead ball through the bore to determine if the bore is tapered or has any bulges in it's length?
I ask this because of your comment on the breech plug 'chamber' issue.
In a conversation with a gun builder who makes very high quality muzzle loading rifles, he told me of an old antique European muzzle loading rifle that he found to have a special feature.
The chamber area was slightly larger in diameter than the rest of the bore -- and it did not appear that the chamber area was bigger because of an accidental overload or bore obstruction in the past.
As I recall the story, he did not discover this until he had the breech plug off for cleaning.
He noted that the 'fat chamber' appeared to have been made that way intentionally.
He found that when loaded properly, that rifle was amazingly accurate.
When loaded with enough powder and a patched ball, so that the ball was 'just behind' the 'step' in bore diameter - so that when touched off the patched round ball 'jumped' to the step (only a little bit) he thinks that the ball most perfectly obturates, 'bumping up' to perfectly fit the bore and grooves creating the best possible gas seal and consistent ignition and interior ballistics.

It would be interesting to hear if your rifle has a feature like this.

BirdHunter-

Daryl and Steve Sihn both are great contributors to this community with their deep working knowledge of the muzzle loading rifle, it's build and design, and it's effect in the field on large game.
I often feel quite fortunate to have their company here on the site.
I'd really like to get out to visit both of them for hunts some time in the future!

On your SxS 20b 'slug rifle', I would like to see a photograph of the projectiles you are casting for it.
Did you design/make your own mould?
Also, on it's effective range of ~100 yards, that is the range that I very much prefer to work within as I most enjoy the hunts that get me into the life of the game, and up close to the animal. Stalking in thick woods is the best, but it can also be quite challenging.
Your 20b SxS sounds like a great woods hunting rifle.

Daryl-

On twist and roundball I so completely understand the slow twist for roundball concept.
I have requested the build of a high grade .62 rifle with long, slow twist for roundball and stiff charges of black powder for great accuracy at the high velocity you speak of.
I have requested this rifle in Flint ignition too -- just to ensure it's reliability!

Something to mention though, about a rifle that I took in trade, that I had intended to give away to my father-in-law.
The rifle is a 24" Lyman Stainless Deerstalker in .54 caliber. It was in never-fired as-new condition.
As you're already thinking to yourself, the stainless model is only offered in 1/32" twist.
While working loads up for that rifle, I discovered that with very tightly patched roundball it was it's most accurate with a very hot charge of FFg. As I recall the most accurate load was between 110 and 115 grains.
I also found that the FFFg performance at this charge was similarly accurate, but the patches were looking a bit 'worked'
Both the FFg and the FFFg loads have been consistently the most accurate with this rifle, and I've chosen to stick with FFg at 110gr as it's swift and flat.

The strange thing is that this rifle with the fast 1/32" twist performs best with roundball over the hotter loads, note that the patch material is thick (I think .024" denim) and I'm using a Murphy/Castor patch lube.
I have not attempted to run anything but patched round ball through that rifle.
Strange, no?

--Tinker