.58 or .60

[Brittowner69]

Thanks for all of the replies. I should have given more info in my original post. The barrel is a .54 Rice swamped 42inch. I am not sure of the “weight” classification (I don’t actually know how the scale works) but the barrel is a tad bit heavy. Allen Martin suggested having Bobby Hoyt remote it to make the gun lighter. Bobby said there is plenty of metal to make it work. Pretty sure I’m going with a .60 as I have another .54 that I’m currently shooting.

[Kevin Houlihan]

 I had  Bobby Hoyt bore and rifle a barrel for me. It was a 43” Rice JJ Henry in .54 that weighed 5 lbs. 10.5 ounces. Due to a shoulder injury, that was going to be too heavy.  Bobby cut 3” off and bored and rifled it to .60 cal. The barrel weighs a pound less now which should be more manageable.
Kevin

[Bob Roller]

I'd stay with the .54. I don't see any advantage to going bigger than that.

The "Hawken"style I made years ago was .54 and was a fierce performer at 100 yards.Bill Large barrel and the rest was mine.
I think that ball weighed 230 grains and 125 grains of 3fg got it from under the front sight.Sold it to Wes Kindig and don;t know where
it is now.The 54,I agree will do about anything that needs done with around ball.In the early 1960's I gave Turner Kirkland $65 for a Colt Special Model military rifle with a 40" barrel that had been reamed smooth.I took it to Bill Large's shop and made a 54 caliber barrel and
grafted the original breech to it and it would reach out and touch the ground hogs in the Smoke Hole area here in WVa.The last trip to that area was in 1965 and the Colt+the Len Meadows SMR and the Whitworth were all involved then.

Bob Roller