Blackpowder hunting

[KDF22]

Welcome

 

[Greyfox]

A 50 cal custom that a friend built for me.

View attachment 150661 View attachment 150662

Very nice "Hawkin"!

 

[KDF22]

Here's another from this spring del2les

 

[Flatbow]

Beautiful rifles and aparantly good shooters.
I am with you KDF22 my first passion is traditional archery, build all my own equipment.
And also love to shoot black powder.
Not flint's yet but do shoot sidelock caps, black powder and patch and ball. Although black powder is getting hard to come by around here.
Was just talking with my oldest Son (main hunting partner) about looking into a custom black powder or building one.
Good post guys. Beautiful rifles!

 

[Tree Farmer]

Glad to know there are traditionalists using bow/black powder lurking on this site. I thought I was the oddball to enjoy modern firearm accuracy/reloading as well as hunting with primitive gear! For me, it all started when I was 5 and awestruck by Davy Crockett's ole Betsy on the Disney series back in the 1950's.

 

[Flatbow]

Yea, all my buddy's were giving my Son and I a hard time about shooting and loading for long range when we first got into it a few years ago.
They said it seems strange since before we always wanted to be within 30 yrds.
Guess they got over it since now I am doing all their load development for thier LR riffles!

I am having fun with this LR stuff but my passion is still traditional.

It is good to see others here still into it

 

[Greyfox]

I get just as excited still hunting for whitetail for a 20 yard shot with my longbow, as I do shooting at buck at long range with a precision rifle. Any of these "methods" require specialized skills, and can deliver a high level of satisfaction when successful. Just need the time and resources to do it all.

 

[Flatbow]

Let's keep this going for a bit by learning others and me about the finer things blackpowder!

So how do you guys go about working up a load in your muzzle loaders?
Do you try different projectiles, or find and "read" the patch after the shot or....

I am trying to get better shooting with my Lymans Great Plains 54 cal. 1/66 twist and patch and ball. Any suggestions?

 

[Greyfox]

Let's keep this going for a bit by learning others and me about the finer things blackpowder!

So how do you guys go about working up a load in your muzzle loaders?
Do you try different projectiles, or find and "read" the patch after the shot or....

I am trying to get better shooting with my Lymans Great Plains 54 cal. 1/66 twist and patch and ball. Any suggestions?

How does it group at 50 yards currently? What's your recipe/load?

 

[Flatbow]

So far this year I haven't had much time to shoot it .
Put one on paper at 50yrds 5 1/2" high 1/2" right
And one at 100yrds 5" low 1" left.
My patches were almost burning completely up so I think I need to drop down my powder charge of 100gr ff.

 

[Tree Farmer]

I use swaged round balls for my .50 & .54. I have .490 and.495 for the .50 and .530 and .535 for the .54. I start with patch material thickness of .015 and work up to .020 and find which combination of ball diameter and patch thickness loads best for hunting vs target use. For example, in my .50 I tried a .490/.495 ball and different patching up to the .020 thickness with a moderate load (70 grains black powder). Shoot a three round group with each combo and check each patch after the shot. Usually, there will be one ball/patch combo where the recovered patch is totally intact (no holes cut by the rifling and severely frayed on the edges ). This combo should also show the best group relative to the others. Then, using this ball/patch combo, I start working on a powder charge. My .50 shoots 70 grains well for targets and .90 grains for hunting. The ball/patch combo is critical before starting the powder charge development. I've had a barrel maker tell me that a frayed patch makes no difference in accuracy. That's true if you don't mind frequent, unpredictable flyers. I prefer tight groups, not a pattern.

 

[Greyfox]

This was shot out if my .45 Virginia Rifle Flinter(my favorite) shown in my previous post. The first shot(center) is my clean bore shot, the next four are consecutive shots at 50 yards. The load is 70gr(volume) of GOEX FFF, Same powder used to prime the pan, swaged .440 round ball, .015" patch lubes with mink oil(paste). Fired patches are intact/clean black stripes. Pulled balls have the patch weave engraved in the lead where contact is made with the lands. Consecutive shots will consistently drift slightly left/up as the bore continues to get fouled. I can pull it back into center if I run a spit patch or two down the bore.

 

[Flatbow]

Great info guys and impressive shooting Grayfox with a beautiful rifle.
KDF22 apparently shoots well also by the looks of the dead squirrels! Also, very beautiful rifles.
Something like those I hope is in my near future, just not sure if I want to go with a flint lock or preciusion cap as most my muzzle loader hunting is still hunting for Elk or Deer in somewhat rugged and brushy mountains in North Idaho with possible sudden shot opportunities.
Thanks for the info tree farmer and grayfox, good stuff, as soon as I have time between work and hunting I will try your advice.