My Hawken & Pistol make smoke!

[FrontierGander]

gun)

Alright! My day pooped me out but I learned a lot about my 58 and what items i need to order for it.

For starters, A new ball,patch,powder load.

90 grains Schuetzen 2f black powder
.575" round ball
.020" patch lubed with mr flintlocks patch lube

Right off the bat, there is nooooo friggin way that .020" patch is doable in the field, I had to use a small hammer to tap the patched ball into the muzzle and then shove it home with the ramrod.

3 shots, not a BAD group, but certainly not the best for this rifle at only 50 yards. My point of impact was really high as well with that larger ball. 3" high to be exact since I use 6 o'clock hold.

Next I wanted to try 90 grains Goex 2f with the thinner .015" patch and .575" ball. Still had to beat it into the muzzle, loaded nice and slick after that. I think the .570" ball will be just about perfect. Just have to suck it up and pay the price Lyman wants for their ball mold.
6 shots,

Here are some of the .015 patches I recovered. Not bad at all! Just to dang tight with the over sized .575" ball.

And these are the .020" patches,

Now for the sights, you can see the single shot in the bulls eye. I adjusted my sight all the way down but feel i will have to remove that sight notch deal in order to get it dead on at 50 yards.

Switching over to my CVA Mountain Pistol .50cal at 20 yards.

50 grains Goex 2f
.490" round ball
.015" patch lubed with the same mr flintlock lube.

Im not sure what the heck is wrong with me for pulling that shot to the left, I did the same thing in the video. That front sight is super thick and the rear sight notch is small. It just blurs all together making it hard for my eye to see clearly.

The next 4 shots though i was extremely happy with.

 

[RT2506]

I used to have a 50 cal pistol like that and used the same load but lubed the patch with spit. Was shooting one day at an old sand pit where people also dumped trash. It was notorious for cur-dogs to be dumped off here. I had just shot my rifle and heard something behind me. It was about a 40 lb dog that was not happy to see me. It was growling and advancing toward me slowly. I picked up my pistol that was loaded and as I turned toward the dog he started attacking. I fired as he came straight at me when he was about 20 yards away. It was like he hit a brick wall. He just dropped in his tracks. Bullet hit center of chest and exited just below his bung hole. For a pistol that is a powerful load. That soft lead ball turns into about a quarter size lead disk on impact.

 

[ENCORE]

I picked up two (2) T/C Hawken rifles at a garage sale for $150 this past summer. One a .50 and the other a .54. The lady had finally resorted to selling her deceased husbands sporting goods.

Now the old boy that owned these, used the .54 just about all the time, which left the .50 in really great condition. However he did something I've never done and don't like. He used bore butter for storing those rifles and they hadn't been shot in 16 years. I actually think he used the bore butter by squeezing an entire tube in the barrel of each rifle. OMG........ what a mess cleaning. It took me over 6 hours to clean two (2) barrels. I actually had to plug the nipples and fill the barrels with BRAKE PARTS CLEANER to soften it up enough to brush it out.

However when I was finished, I had two really nice barrels, shinning like new. I didn't need both and decided to sell the .54, which went to Penn. The .50 I kept but, trying to find patches and balls was quite the ordeal. I already had 4# of 2f, thankfully.......

I shot the rifle four times from the 100yd bench. Needless to say I was quite impressed with the rifle and how well it shot......... or I shot it. I've had three eye surgeries, two on my shoot'n eye this year and a fourth next month. But what I did find out is, this .50 is a really nice shooting Hawken.

I look at it as spending $75 for the above rifle and it shoots at 100yds like this..

90grs Goex 2f
.490 Speer round ball
.015" pre-lubed patch
T/C Hawken .50

She may not be a LONG RANGE firearm but, she'll do for 100yds

 

[FrontierGander]

heres the mountain pistol. Ive had a few handguns before but none of them ever shot like this one.