At risk of showing my brain damage so early in my posting career here, let me run this hair brain idea past you guys.
To start with, I have a CVA 50 cal Staghorn 209 Mag that I never even shot or cleaned for that matter. I'm not sure I ever will. After recieving this gun as a gift, I discovered it ain't cheap to shoot. For the most part, I like cheap to shoot. I currently work in the grocery biz and deer season comes at the worst time of the year to be asking off.
Now I dearly love to squirrel hunt, especially being we have a very long season that works much better with the demands of work. I looked into 32 cal ML's and them things are way over priced for me. Nobody makes an inexpensive entry level 32 as they do with the 50's.
Down to brass tacks, I got this idea that just maybe I could re-line the barrel to 32 cal. useing a 32-20 liner. I'd have the only in-line 32 I ever heard of. If the original barrel would handle 50 cal x 150 gr pressure levels, surely it could handle 32 cal levels (whatever they are).
I looked on Brownells site, and they recommend a 13mm drill for the liner. Man, that's really close to 50 cal. Close enough ?? The brand is Redman. I looked on Redmans site as well. One site says it had 1:18 twist, the other says a 1:20 twist. I honestly don't know if that is too fast or will require something other than a round ball (which is just fine by me).
Any way you cut it, a barrel liner, dab of acra-glas and possibly a drill bit is alot chaeper that even a used 32 muzzleloader. Except for the rare find on a 32, I think you could even buy a cheap 50 and still come out ahead of the game.
Surely I'm not the first to have such an idea. What is my addle mind over-looking here ??