Muzzleloader bullets?

Question

will Hornady Pennsylvania Conical Muzzleloading Bullets 50 Caliber work in a gun with a 1 and 28 twist.

Answer 1

Somebody has to add this to all the other answers, that the 28 twist is also correct for the new saboted bullets, which awesomely increase your range for hunting uses.

Answer 2

Perfect twist for that conical bullet.

Answer 3

In a day when you're used to 1:8 or 1:10 twist rates with modern cartridges, keep in mind that with the ole' smokepole, 1:60 is about the typical twist rate for round balls, so 1:28 is, within that context, a fast twist rate for conical ball.

Answer 4

A 1 in 28 twist should be fast enough to stabilize a conical bullet.  A little bit faster twist would be better.  A 1 in 26 is sort of a compromise twist rate.  It is intended to be able to handle both a conical bullet and a round ball which requires a slow twist rate.  Most round ball barrels have about a 1 in 66 twist rate and most connical bullet barrels have about a 1 in 10 to a 1 in 14 twist rate.  As you can see, the 1 in 28 is somewhere in the middle and the intention is that it is both fast enough for a conical bullet and slow enough for a round ball.  In reallity, it does neither particularly well.  All you can do is to buy some of the bullets in question and see how well they perform.  As long as you are getting round holes at about 25 yards, you are okay.  If the bullets are "key holing", that is going through the target sideways, they are not being stabilized.  If you have that problem, try going up or down in powder charge to see if you can get the bullets to stabilize.  With a 1 in 28 twist rate, you should be able to find a load that will stabilize the bullets and give you nice round holes in the target.

Answer 5

John got 2 thumbs down but he is correct.

Those conical bullets were designed to be used in patched round ball "only" rifles. Round balls loose energy very fast and accuracy at longer ranges aren't very good. Those conicals were specially designed to extend the effective range of round ball only rifles.

Patched round ball only rifles usually have 1:60 - 1:66 twist rate. 1:48 twist rate might be too fast for those bullets already.