what size ball mould for .42 bore

[tazanimal]

hi as a newbe to muzzleloders i need some help
i have a percussion deer rifle from 1840 by reilly of london
first do you use a pach with a sporting rifle?
second i have sluged the bore and it comes out at .4200"
do i get a mould at .42 or smaller?
thanks taz
ps i would love to meet some one local for a coffee and a chat about shooting one like this as i have not found a local club i think this one will stay as a display thing shame as it is in working order i am close to milton keynes

[steve medlock]

Hi Taz,

I don't really have experience of calibres that small but I would suggest that you may have to experiment to find the best ball and patch combination.

I do have a .54 cal patched ball rifle and that uses a .53 nominal ball and a 0.010" patch quite happily. On that basis, you might like to try a ball around 0.41" and then get a small quantity of different thickness patches and see how easy each combination is to load.

There may be some rook and rabbit gun shooters on the forum who haven't seen your post yet.

Steve.