Battle Rifle.....HELP

[Mulee Pete]

OK I'm just a simple salt and need a simple answer.  Can I use an ARMI Spencer Carbine .45LC as a Battle Rifle at the Musters.  If not what caliber do I need.

Mulee

[Guns Garrett]

I believe Sgt. Drydock is the go-to guy on this, but I can hopefully give what I think may be an answer...MAYBE
Drydock has a post on this forum that spells out the requirements for shooting "in-class" for Battle Rifle, and one of his replies to an inquiry was that initially, calibers other than original mil-spec may be allowed at first, but as the class develops and/or progresses, he would like to see it evolve into strictly "original" or "as-issued" calibers, with concessions to ammo requirements - Spencer rimfire ammo is rather difficult to come by, and you can't reload it.  I may have mis-interpreted what he posted, so your best bet is to PM him and get a direct answer.

[Drydock]

Short answer: for the forseeable future, yes, you can.  The Spencer is classified as a Milspec repeater, with caliber exemptions granted as needed.  Should numbers ever grow so great that we would have to close a class, then it might be a problem, but I don't see that happening for a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGG time if ever.

The .56/50 is considered the proper Milspec caliber in this weapon.  This caliber is also legal in SASS as a main match caliber.

[River City John]

Just as an aside, I was one who shot the Battle Rifle class at the last Muster in a calibre that had been given special dispensation. Remington rolling block carbine in .45LC. Barring a huge influx of equally erratic and misguided people who think shooting a single shot as a main match longarm makes perfect sense, I predict I'll be able to enjoy doing so at future GAF events until sometime in 2023, probably mid-year, most likely in the early afternoon after a heavy lunch.  

The .56/50 is considered the proper Milspec caliber in this weapon.  This caliber is also legal in SASS as a main match caliber.

Many NCOWS Posses allow this calibre at their ranges as a main match round also.
Technically as it was an existing period calibre it is 'approved', but as a courtesy due to varying Range circumstances check with individual Match Directors.

Several NCOWS posses have conducted extensive field testing which has shown that .56-50 loaded with BP and lead bullets are no more damaging, nor splatter prone, than the .45LC. And velocities are well within established guidelines. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

What John said.

I did a test of my own at our targets on the range for The Scarlet Mask Vigilance Society.  http://smvsposse.home.insightbb.com/index.htm  Our targets are nothing special, alloy wise.  I don't know if they are the "armor steel" T35 (?) types, but I don't think so.  About half are .250" (1/4")  and the rest are .375" (3/8")  I have fired at both thicknesses with my 45-70 (full BP load using a 405 gr. RNFP bullet) with only a tiny dimple to show what happened - at perhaps 75 feet.  It smacked 'em hard and they rang real nice - but suffered no real damage.  I don't intend to shoot 'em regularly, but we needed to know how they'd do.

A lot of range folks were worried about the Spencer round ruining their targets, but in the overwhelming majority of targets, it turned out NOT to be a problem.  (It's really just a big pistol cartridge  ... tho' I wouldn't wanna feel one!  )