Does anyone have any information, or experience with these? Specifically the .50 cal. Thanks.

Haven't thought of one of those in years. A friend from high school has one and it is a good shooting rifle

I have one. They were made at one time in Olney Tx, just south of Wichita Falls. It's a very high quality gun, and shoots very straight. I traded for mine years ago, and it sat in a closet for almost 20 years. After I got it, I found out it had been loaded all that time. I had a gunsmith extract the ball and tinker on the trigger spring and now it works perfectly. I took it deer hunting last year, but never saw any deer. Maybe next year.
Do you have one, or are you thinking about buying one? They haven't made them for years, but I saw one at a gun show not long ago. If you have one, I might be able to answer some questions. I usually shoot a .490 ball with a patch (don't remember the thickness) with between 70 and 100 grains of FF powder.

One probl;em that folks don't take into consideration with rifles like the Mowery's, is that once you reach a certain point in a load for muzzle loaders using patched round balls, only so much of the powder actually is used in propelling the ball when the shot is taken.

If you will take a sheet and place it on the ground, about ten feet from the muzzle, you will find many grains of unburnt powder after the shot.

There is a reason why, when metallic cartridges came into being, loads like the 45-70 and 50-70 were developed. Those charges used up to the best efficency the powder charge in them, additional powder did nothing for the shot.

From my experience wityh Mowery rifles, in a 50 caliber, he best performance will be with loads no heavier than 70 grains.

Thanks everyone. I've been told by a former employee of theirs that this particular rifle was designed to shoot the patch ball set up (not the conicles, etc.)which is no problem at all for me. I'm really excited about this one.

So why were the .45-90 and .45-120s developed. Longer barrels helped in consuming larger powder charges. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns in terms of velocity with a given combination. Many factors come to play when talking optimum powder charge such as rate of twist and muzzle velocity, ball and patch combination, lube, etc. work together or against each other. If I recall correctly, Bill used some Douglas barrels in making his rifles. I had a .50 Douglas with 1/66 twist that started getting good accuracy with a 90 gr load of FF and was REAL accurate at 120 gr.

TC

Your trying to compare a muzzle loader to a cartridge firing rifle.

With a muzzle loader, on;ly so much of the powder is used, the rest goes out the barrel with the ball.

With a cartridge, any cartridge, the powder is contained so that it is used up better before the projectile leaves the barrel.

Don't believeme, take a white sheet and place it on the ground about 10 feet or so in front of the muzzle and then shoot the gun, there will be unburned powder on the sheet.

Also, Bill Mowery did not build all of the Mowery named rifles.

When I worked there in the early 70's, the Cope brothers owned the business and then Neil McMullen bought them out.

We bought octagon barrel stock and drilled and rifled our barrels.

The rifles Bill built were of a better quality, but with every muzzle loader I have dealt with, after a certain point, there is no gain in performance with increased powder charges.

Cartridge loading rifles, even black powder cartridges are a different matter all together.

Sorry, you brought up the BP cartridges. Now you don't want to include them. OK.

I said there is a point of diminishing returns. So where is the disagreement?

Just because a 10 gr increase in charge doesn't gain as much velocity as the previous 10 grain increase (diminishing return) does not mean that the harmonics and other interior ballistics don't change and sometimes for the betterment of group size (improvement). IE the bench rest and cross stick PRB shooters burning 150-200 gr. If 70 gr produced the best accuracy, they would use 70.

You have your experience, I have mine. I have never noticed any improvement at normal hunting ranges for a normal muzzle loader with a large increase in powder charge.

Especially with patched round balls, which is what the Mowery's I helped build, were intended to shoot.

One of the reasons Mowery went out of business was because they could not compete price wise with the new at that time T&C Hawkens. Another was because the T&C could accurately shoot the Maxi Balls/conical slugs where the Mowery's could not.

My mention of the metallic black powder cartridges was just to to make the point as to why we went from muzzle loaders to cartridge loaders, better ignition system, easy method of having fast repeat shots.

What I said was that comparing the way a muzzle loader uses and developes the energy from the powder it is loaded with can not be readily compared to even the metallic black powder cartridges because the powder in the cartridges is in most cases a compressed load and being inside even a copper case, allows them to builf up higher pressures than a ball and patch can achieve out of a muzzle loader.

Yep, different experiences or lack there of. just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't so.

I have taken a .50 cal load from 70 gr to 90 and shrank a group from 4.5 inches at 100 yards to under 2". Stayed that tight up to 120 gr.

I've seen other .50s w/ the same twist shoot 60-70 grains just as tight. Had a .50 barrel cut with a faster twist to get desired grouping starting at 50 gr and got better to 90.