I bought this Isaac Hollis 8 Bore Big game rifle - no clue what to load

[buckstix]

I bought this Isaac Hollis 8 Bore Big game rifle - no clue what to load

Hello All,

I bought this 8 Bore Big game rifle at the last Poulin Auction but I have no clue what to load for it.

Bore measures .850" and I bought some .830" round balls. Now I need to find out how much powder to use and patch thickness.

any suggestions?

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8bore-000.jpg

 

[Nevada Smith]

Well, I believe 360 grains of black powder is too much:

Search for "8 bore black powder rifle load," e.g.

 

[Nevada Smith]

FYI:

"A Master Class on the Muzzle Loading Percussion Rifle - Part 3 Developing An Accurate Load"

and Part 4 Load Development Continued

 

[buckstix]

Thanks for the reply. I've pictured some of the proofs for interest. There is a small J.N. stamp in front of the wedge cage. I wonder if anyone knows anything about this stamp.

Per suggestion from a different forum, I used an old tapered plum bob with various grit papers (120 to 600) to bevel the muzzle. When I removed the barrel from the stock, I found that the wedge was years ago broken with half missing. (see pics) Not sure if this is a shooting issue or not.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8bore-proofs.jpg

 

[Josh P]

Your ability to locate and follow through on the procurement of items for you collection is impressive. I appreciate you sharing the fruits of your labor. It’s fun to see!

 

[buckstix]

I repaired the wedge with silver solder

 

[Sarg]

I repaired the wedge with silver solder

View attachment 686415

Well done, good idea to fix now !

They must of made a lot of these as a quick search found 3 for sale or sold recently, two look a fair bit rougher than yours, I think one is yours was at Lewis Drake ?

Near all the same, one has a patch box how ever !

 

[buckstix]

yes, mine was for sale with Lewis Drake, but went to Poulin auction as part of the Lewis Drake collection. I bought it for 1/4 what Lewis Drake was asking. I saw the 2 other similar ones when researching and both were much rougher than mine, and sold for more than mine. Bore on mine is excellent. I have a mold coming so I won't have to mess with spit & patches. The mold will allow a hollow base to vary the weight.

 

[Kynoch2015]

I had one almost identical to yours, but not near as much finish as yours. I went with the ball and got pre lubed patches from Track of the Wolf. Ended up adding a 8ga fiber wad to protect the patch. Never got to a final load before I sold it. I will say to try some 1Fg if you have some. Less recoil in this and other larger bore rifles over 2Fg. The service load for 8ga ML (shotgun I assume) was 135gr with ball. May give you a reference point. Neat bullet design! My barrel had a pretty slow twist rate so stuck with ball. “JN” was probably the barrel maker. Had an English dbl rifle marked A&T for Adams & Tate. Not uncommon to see barrel maker initials. Let us know how it shoots! (Mine was 12” high a 25yds - must have been zeroed at 50 yds. )

 

[buckstix]

I will be going to the range today using round balls. I won't have the custom bullet mold in hand for about 4 weeks. I chronograph every single shot I take so I will have velocity data also.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

The original loading for an 8 gauge muzzle loading spherical ball rifle, was eight drams of Curtis & Harvey’s fine grained black powder. So you need something which can replicate that.

Blue Dot has been successfully used to emulate black powder rifle loadings in the past, so I highly suggest that you look into that.

 

[Kynoch2015]

I’ve used blue dot in an 8 bore Cartridge gun. Works great as a black power substitute in large bore cartridge shotguns/rifles. I don’t think it can be used in muzzleloaders in the same way.

 

[buckstix]

I’ve used blue dot in an 8 bore Cartridge gun. Works great as a black power substitute in large bore cartridge shotguns/rifles. I don’t think it can be used in muzzleloaders in the same way.

I agree. I have used blue dot in big bore cartridge rifles, but won't try it in a Damascus muzzle loader.

 

[buckstix]

Well, I went to the range to test my newly acquired muzzle loader. I have reaffirmed my dislike of muzzle loaders. When I go to the range with a cartridge rifle, all I bring is the rifle and a box of ammo. When I finish shooting, I go home. Not the case with a muzzle loader. Look at the picture of all the crap I had to bring. And, after shooting for only 20 minutes, I had to spent the next hour cleaning everything. Below is the target showing the results.
I am not sure if the results is good or not, so comments are welcome.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/bp8-2.jpg

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/HOLLIS-TARG.jpg

 

[AZDAVE]

Shooting the holy black get stuff dirty. Looks like a fun pinker load. You might try a few 150-200gr loads and see what you get for groups at 50 and velocity’s.

Looks like a nice old muzzle loader.

 

[buckstix]

Not sure I want to go to 200gr load ... Recoil may be too much ?

 

[Sarg]

I load 2 1/2oz (1100gr) of 3 shot & 165gr of FFg in my 8ga cartridge gun & recoil is light in my double & noticeable in my single of 10lb 14oz, so 150gr should be mild & 180-200gr doable ?

 

[Kynoch2015]

First outing - I’d be very happy with those results. If the patch/ball combination pushed in easily, you could always up the thickness. By the way, where did you find .830 dia balls? I could only find .820 from October Country. Thanks!

 

[buckstix]

I load 2 1/2oz (1100gr) of 3 shot & 165gr of FFg in my 8ga cartridge gun & recoil is light in my double & noticeable in my single of 10lb 14oz, so 150gr should be mild & 180-200gr doable ?.

A 200gr load would be about 125 lbs recoil in my rifle. I am not sure I want to try it. Well, maybe, once.

Yes, I am shooting .820 dia. balls from October Country. I ordered the custom hollow base bullet mold (as pictured previous) from Accurate Molds in .842 dia. The forward portion 2 bands will be bore ride, and the 2 base bands will expand to .850 dia. I have used similar custom hollow base bullets in my 600ne and 700ne double rifles, with very good results.

 

[buckstix]

Well, instead of increasing velocity to lower the impact at 25 yards, I raised the front site. According to my math, I needed to raise the front site by 0.12" which would result in hitting 3" high at 25 yards, thus being dead-on at 100 yards. As I have done on some of my other rifles, I glued on a small copper hood over the original site. This is easily removed by heating with a match so that the original site is not harmed. Next trip to the range should tell if I'm successful.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8-bore-site-redo.jpg