Hey all, I picked one of these up today, 50 cal smooth bore. Any opinions on them? Can any new englander barrel be swapped for the one I’ve got? Can they be caliber changed and rifled and who does that?
Thanks for any info

ebay has lots of barrels for them. i have a 12 gauge shotgun barrel and a .50 cal.rifle barrel for mine. never knew they made a smooth bore for it.i know they make a .54 rifle for it also.

The new Englander is a great muzzleloader. I've got one I bought almost 30 years ago when I was 17 years old. T/C made some muzzleloader to meet certain states weird regulations, like the Pennsylvania hunter model cause they had to use flintlock and round balls only or something like that.i got a buddy who grew up in Massachusetts and he told me when he was a kid you couldn't use a muzzleloader with a rifled barrel only smooth bore. Yes you can put any new Englander barrel on it, and you can find a rifled barrel for it.they also made a shotgun barrel for it, which aren't impossible to find but they are pricey

I never thought rifling made much difference. still shoot minute of deer to 50 yards or so which is about right for a round ball anyway

T/C factory barrels were made in .50,.54, and 12 gauge. Only the 12 was smooth-bored.
If yours is smooth, and factory marked by T/C it's probably been bored out. The New Englander barrel was fully round whereas the similar Penn. Hunter and white mountain carbine were octagon to round.

the new Englander is a nice rifle , it was a real shame TC had a fire that ruined most of the tooling for their muzzle loaders and it wasn't selling enough to justify replacing .

Trapper Alex, are you sure your 50 is a smooth bore, TC used to produce some of their rifles with a feature they called QLA I think. Anyway the first couple of inches of the bore were slightly oversized and smooth bored to facilitate easier and faster loading the rest of the barrel was rifled. That may be the case with your muzzleloader. If you have a light small enough to drop down the bore you can quickly tell.

K91773 that may be the case. My bore scope grew legs and I haven’t been able to look down the barrel properly. At the business end it’s smooth but I can only see in a little

yes a lot of TC had a recessed muzzle crown no rifling in the last half inch or so
for 2 reasons easy to thumb seat a ball or conical strait , and also so that the ramrod didn't wear on the crown.

it is good to carry a small flashlight with you when looking at muzzle loaders and really all guns very handy to look down barrels

if you have a ramrod with jag , put a patch on that is snug a bit of lube and make a mark on the ramrod push it in and see if it rotates as you move it down I would expect a 1:48 twist so on a 24 inch push of the ramrod you would get a half rotation

Shot my first deer with a New Englander in .54 caliber. Nice, reliable sidehammer. My dad has one I shot several deer with as a kid, pretty accurate with patched round balls. With the iron sights on it I could hit a softball at a hundred yards every time. Would probably be more accurate with better sights. The key to accuracy with patched round balls is the patch, use the same type patch every time and make sure it is centered.