Dealing with an 1850s British percussion single shot sporting rifle in .40 cal with five folding sight leaves. The thing must have had one heck of a trajectory. The bore shows the two grooves that would have gripped a winged bullet. Anyone who can direct me to more information on this subject and caliber will be most appreciated, thank you

Winged bullet or belted ball? I'd wager the latter.

Twist rate?

pamtnman,

I have been confronting the same problem. I have a William Powell & Son
cape gun c.1860. One barrel is a shotgun and the other a 2-groove rifle.
It came with two 30-bore moulds (the British spelling) that are serialized
to it. The conical bullet is .54 in the body and .59 at the outer edge of the
wings. Casting with pure lead, it weighs 490 grains. The two diameters of
the belted ball are the same. The barrel is 29-b so a patch of the appropriate
thickness is necessary. I have a friend who has a 2-groove Purdey and some
original patches. I will try to duplicate what he has.

I have been unable to find any articles on appropriate loading techniques for
the 2-groove winged bullet.

As Brent said, measure your rate of twist. How much does the rifle weigh? With your rifle being a .40 cal I would think a winged bullet but it could be a belted ball gun. I have a 2 groove 14 bore belted ball rifle by William Moore with an incredibly fast rate of twist, yet it shoots those belted balls wonderfully. If you go belted ball, do a cerro-safe casting of the muzzle and have Jeff Tanner make you a mould. Felt wads are very useful for creating a gas seal as well.

A great place to start if you have not read it already would be the Forsyth book:
https://www.amazon.com/Sporting-Rifle-Its-Projectiles/dp/1437339433

Steve

Steve, is Tanner the guy in England that makes brass moulds? If so, I had one from him, and it was an excellent little mould.

Tanner died a couple years ago

A client had Jeff Tanner make him a mould a few weeks ago.

Thanks guys. I am comforted knowing Steve H is also confounded by this. Probably a belted ball; I wrote winged bullet because I lack the experience to get this terminology down right.
The firearm is not in my possession, it is in a far away land of great myth and dying freedom, and so the present owner, great-great-grandson of the original owner, is trying to show me what it is, to see if I am interested in purchasing it.
Just to get you all worked up, it was fully lacquered head to toe and used as a lamp stand lo these many decades. No lie.
Under the lacquer there appears to be a rifle.

Thanks, Steve. I do not have the Forsyth book. If I end up importing this gun, I will talk with you first.

Obituary
Looks like James, is carrying on the business

My Powell cape gun is No.3131. Both the conical winged bullet mould and the belted ball mould are marked "3131" - so I assume the two-groove barrel was designed to use both types of bullets.

Fascinating, thank you, Steve. The owner of the subject rifle has two antique moulds plus a Hawksley powder flask. One mould is for a bullet, the other for round ball. This assembly was confusing to me until your post here