My brother-in-law recently passed away... when going through his Dad's guns my nephew found the TC 50 Hawken his dad had built from a kit years ago.. he was just a little squirt and "helped" his dad with the kit by handing parts and mostly watching... anyway as a boy he had the opportunity to take several nice whitetail with the rifle... fast forward to today.. he was disheartened to find that his dad had left it uncleaned for years and asked if I could help restore it... I spent over a week, soaking in Kroil, scrubbing and got most of the rust out, but the barrel was severely pitted. Luckily I live in central PA and only about an hour for Bob Hoyt's shop and took it to him... Bob was able to rebore the barrel, but now it is about a .508... I tried paper patching some of my plains bullets running @460 grains with poor accuracy results..... tried a 580 grain bullet and the 1:48 twist was not enough to stabilize the bullet with two out of three key-holing @ 50 yards... Round balls are not an option, he lives in Idaho and wants to use it for big game.
I am now in the process of trying to "beagle" a couple of molds to increase size to .510, but that is going to take about .006"... seems like a lot...
I did try knurling my current bullets to increase diameter, but still not enough.. now contemplating powder coating too to increase size and may have to do all(beagle, knurl, and powder coat) to get them there.
Do any of you have any .510 plains style or minie bullets running around 400 grains that I could buy to try? Know of anyone who could make a mold? I found that NOE did make a hollow base in .510, but that is out of stock...
Any and all advise is welcomed... my goal is to get the rifle back in his hands so he can kill an elk or deer in Idaho this fall...it would make this Uncle feel like he is helping in some small way. By the way, I did offer to replace his barrel with mine or buy another, but he does not want that.. he wants to keep the original because it was his dad's.
Thanks for reading and offering any and all suggestions.
Kindest regards,
TheMoose