.54 CALIBER BORE & GROOVE DIMENSIONS

[BAGTIC]

Can anyone tell me what the normal bore and groove dimensions are for .54 caliber guns?

[flintlock]

Nope, there is no industry standard...
 
Why do you need to know???
What barrel do you have and what are you trying to shoot in it???
 
Most barrels will shoot well with a .530 ball and either .015, .018 or .020 patches and 80-120 grs of black powder...

[keith44]

From rifles listed in the DGW catalog
 
Bore diameters (land dimentions) range from .520 to .547  (nominal should be .540 for patched ball rifles)
 
Groove diameters range from .540 to .560 in patched ball rifles the depth of the groove will give you a hint of a starting patch thickness. 
 
Rifles designed for conical shooting only will usually have tighter bore and groove diameters compared to patched ball rifles.  These are not rules nor are they standards, just my interpretation of what I see in one catalog from several manufacturers.
 
What are you looking for?
 

[BAGTIC]

Thanks fellows.
I am not a muzzleloader shooter but I like to shoot round balls from cartridge guns. I was thinking about building a RB cartridge gun using the little .56-50 Spencer (Taylor) brass opened up. It is the largest diameter small capacity case readily available. I figure it should take a ball up to about .530 diameter. I was hoping there was a rebore service that cut barrels to .525/530 but there don't seem to be any in this country other than for muzzleloaders.
Any gunsmiths that recut muzzleloader barrels?
 

[keith44]

you could also find a ball close to the groove diameter of the existing barrel, and push it through a sizing die of the right size.  This would leave a slightly oblong projectile, but is perfectly doable.
 

[flintlock]

Sounds interesting...Ed Rayle makes muzzleloading barrels and recuts and rebores them, if anyone can do it, he can...
 
I'm assuming you are shooting these without a patch??? See a roundball barrel has cut rifling .015 or so deep...Production barrels have button rifling only about .006-.008 deep....So you need to decide what depth rifling you want as well as bore...Also, there is a guy in MuzzleBlast that will make you a round ball mold any diameter you want...Some of the older guns that were hand made use ball diameters that aren't standard calibers...
 
You might do a little research on the Ferguson rifle...It was a breach loader from the 1780s and if you can find what depth rifling it had it will put you on the right track...
 
I know a fellow that owns one on another Forum, if you don't have any luck let me know...Ed might know what depth rifling to go with as well...