Bill - the best way to determine if the ball and patch will work, is to take a strip of cloth, lube it in the middle - then seat the ball flush with the top surface of the muzzle, then pull it out using the ends of the strip. Check the ball (pure lead) for land marks all the way around. The bottom of the grooves should also mark the patch, but faintly with a load that will work, and hard for a load that will probably give the best accuracy.

For a 1.016 bore size, I'd go with a 1.00" ball. Your rifling, being .009 deep per side means a groove diameter of 1.016 + .018" = 1.034" groove to groove. A 1.00" ball would require a patch of 1.034" - 1.00 = .034" divided by 2 = a .017" patch to reach the bottom of those beautifully shallow grooves. You may find a ..015 through .020" denim to work the best. This would be 8 and 10 pound denim as sold in cloth stores. I wash it twice to remove the sizing and it sometimes gains a thou, sometimes loses a thou. in thickness. I prefer the thicker patches as they hold more lube. You could easily get by with a slightly smaller ball in the .995" range, increasing patch thickness as you go.

You guys have me all wound up over another BIG bore. Guys over on the americanlongrifles forum have me wanting a small bore - maybe .28" to .30" cal. for a walk-around gun for gopehrs. I'm tired of the .22 for walking around. I guess a 4 bore would kill a gopher - if you jit him right.