I made reference to a book over 30 years old that pointed out the fact that the subject has been "researched" by serious competitors. Dpharsis could very easily with his knowledge construct and know how to build a PRB rifle that could shoot X-rings. That type of shooting is not popular on this web site as most have TG's attitude. I do not think I have seen anyone, since I have viewed the website, build or showoff, a halfstock rifle with a match grade barrel at 1 1/8 inches, 50-54 caliber, 35 inches long, with a top grade percusiion lock and triggers. If you really want to get into it you build it around an inline or underhammer action to put more weight in the barrel. That is the specs for light bench or an X sticks guns weighing under 14 pounds. Add a false muzzle. The loads are ball diameters at bore diameter or even slightly over (for heavy powder charges) and a heavy patch. Mallet loaded. Personally, while I have thought about building one, I would not have much use for it, because like TG, I just want to enjoy my shooting at a much less restrictive level. The biggest restriction on PRB is the ball itself as the wind plays hob with it and it does not retain velocity well. Picket bullets and other bullets replaced the round ball because they are quite simply, more efficient ballistically. The developments in BPC have been toward using a very heavy pointed bullet.
DP
The BPCR "technology" was basically lost when Dupont destroyed the powder industry in the US circa 1900 and blackpowder primers disappeared about WW-I when the makers essentially doubled the amount of compound in all the primers. This last REALLY hurt.
The primer change alone destroyed accuracy for shooters like Harry Pope and they only go it back by using smokeless in some manner. So BP disappeared in the cartridge world for any serious shooting. We lost the "link" to the old target shooters and much of what was available was for schuetzen shooting and no longer worked without using smokeless.
It was so bad that at least one pretty big name in shooting stated that accuracy with BP loaded cartridges was impossible. Not only did we not know how, one key component, a "soft" primer, had not even been made for about 60-70 years.
We had a few books and such and more have since come to light. But one of the "light bulb" moments for me was reading Rywells book with the Sharps catalog reprints. An old catalog reprint told how to load shells and it WORKED.
Eventually I was telling people that they needed to forget 75%, or more, or what they "knew" about smokeless reloading to load for BPCR. Some "laws" for successful smokeless reloading often do not apply and are sometimes 180 degrees out.
MLs on the other hand never completely died. The loss of powder makers did not effect them as much, the "primers" did not change. People were still shooting MLs the old way. What a 1980s a new to ML shooter could draw on NMLRA matches/experience that had been running for decades. When I started in the mid 1960s I could learn the basics, good info, by reading Muzzle Blasts. A greenhorn could load a rifle with about 1/2 ball weight of powder +-, a .005-.010"under ball, a heavy patch with almost any lube and it will shoot pretty well if the barrel is OK.
When serious BPCR competition came into being we had a lot of competitors, good shots with decent rifles, who were loading ammo that would not hit the backstop every shot at 300 yards, the easy target in silhouette.
Other things.
The conical, the Minie and picket bullet certainly did not universally replace the RB in hunting rifles. The picket especially took over for long range and a lot of target work in the 1830s-40s. But the extra powder and lead needed, the exacting process and the tools generally needed made them a little too complex for the average squirrel hunter. The Minie was easy to load but was prone to sliding off the powder and was very limited as to its velocity due to its large hollow base, it was unsuitable for subsistence hunting. The slug gun evolved but was more impractical for general use than the picket.
Elongated projectiles do upset and fill the bore as Mann wrote in "The Bullets Flight". In fact Mann believed the lead bullet was to easy to deform at higher pressures. The PP bullets used in slug guns and BPCRs *must* do so failure to upset will blow the patch. I have shot cylindrical PP/GG bullets that were near or under *bore* diameter for their full length in both ML and BPCR and they work fine and do not gas cut. This is how the various "naked" modern ML bullets work.
"Reinventing the wheel". A lot of this has gone on since, in some cases, the "wheel" had been lost. Yes some have even rewritten history to sell products or for other reasons and not just concerning projectiles.
Yes, this may be "too scientific". But suspect that everyone here is using their rifle/gun in a manner that was figured out by someone who was "too scientific". Some "rifle crank" will post something here and it goes into everyone's "data" base when they read it. I learned how to make a smooth rifle shoot better here and other things. Like paper cartridges for rifles etc etc.
I HATE doing serious load development anymore. Its not "fun" to me. But it must be done from time to time.
Now I need to seriously "develop" the trim in a closet.... Before my wife gets home
![Grin ;D](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
Dan