I wish I liked shooting Black Powder... but I don't.

[Mgderf]

During muzzle loader deer season last year I hit a male coyote with a .50cal CVA and 340gr a Power-belt at about 10 FEET!
I was dug into the side of a hill, sitting in a ground blind when two coyote went by right in front of my face, and on a dead run.

I had the muzzle loader on my lap when the female raced by, but the rifle was shouldered and fired directly in front of me, downhill and only 10 feet.
He rolled sideways down the hill and never took another step.

I get a kick out of the "front-stuffers".

 

[bwframe]

There is a whole dedicated deer season for muzzleloaders. For many years, the advancement of muzzleloaders and lack of advancement with our DNR regulations made the muzzleloader THE go to gun for all firearm seasons. A few years back, my Encore 209x50 took a buck on opening day of gun season. A couple of does taken since then, both with the Encore.

 

[ru44mag]

I hated it too! Way to much work and talk about filthy! Can't even see if you hit the target until all the lead smoke clears.

My uncle gave me a revolver and a rifle. I ended up sawing the barrels off them and into the trash-ola they went. Never again!

Did you ever think that selling them, or trading might be better than throwing them away?

 

[ru44mag]

During muzzle loader deer season last year I hit a male coyote with a .50cal CVA and 340gr a Power-belt at about 10 FEET!
I was dug into the side of a hill, sitting in a ground blind when two coyote went by right in front of my face, and on a dead run.

I had the muzzle loader on my lap when the female raced by, but the rifle was shouldered and fired directly in front of me, downhill and only 10 feet.
He rolled sideways down the hill and never took another step.

I get a kick out of the "front-stuffers".

I killed a coyote a few years ago with a Traditions .54 cal around 80 yards. I was deer hunting also. I had problems with the Traditions rifle so I traded it off. I still have a couple TC muzzle loaders. Much better quality.

 

[NKBJ]

Best .40 cal I'll ever own.

 

[Winamac]

I guess it is just a persons taste. Either one enjoys shooting BP or they do not. I enjoy BP revolvers. Especially my .44 cal Colt 1860 Army 2nd generation.

 

[sngehl01]

I tried it a few times but, I just didn't enjoy it. Too messy for one thing, and when I go shooting I want to shoot. I don't want to fiddle around with the powder, and patches etc. However, I enjoy watching those who shoot black powder, but it just didn't get into it.

Maybe it's cheating, but I bought a smokeless black powder rifle. It's a savage 10ML, and yes, it was made to safely shoot smokeless powder (I use IMR 4227).

Perfectly legal during muzzleloader season. When you shoot there is no smoke. Very fun gun to shoot.

There's a catch with the gun : You have to WEIGH your black powder. The powder is so fine and so much more volatile than something like volume measuring can throw you off substantially and make it unsafe to shoot. Also, when you load the projectile, you don't just tamp it repeatedly to get the bullet firmly seated. You just press the bullet down with the ramrod until it seats. You want make sure you use the same "pressure" every time. Sounds finicky but it's not.

Just throwing that out there in case you are interested.

 

[Nazgul]

I shoot black powder arms a lot. The key is SLOW DOWN. It is not a race. There are no mag dumps.

Relax, load, aim carefully, shoot, repeat. Smell the smoke, get your hands dirty.

Go home and clean them. It is an entire process.

I have a custom Hawken 54 caliber that I can get lost shooting for an afternoon. Shoot 30-40 shots and I am delightfully tired.

Don

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Still entranced by Lyman's GPRs and Kibler's SMRs.

 

[ru44mag]

Best .40 cal I'll ever own.

Very nice 1851. I have only seen them in .36 caliber and .44 caliber. Where did you find a .40 caliber?

 

[ru44mag]

Both .44 caliber.
The 1860 replica is black powder.
The 1873 replica is .44 Special.
Both fun to shoot. I prefer cleaning up after the .44 Special.

 

[NKBJ]

Very nice 1851. I have only seen them in .36 caliber and .44 caliber. Where did you find a .40 caliber?

Satisfying the needs of war production stopped further .40 experiments after only a few prototypes. I wanted to try it out so had a .36 rebored. These things are addictive. Also got a 1858 Remington rebored to use .41 molds.
This one uses .41 ball and has chambers slightly larger than the barrel groove diameter.

 

[NKBJ]

Just some results with the 1858.
The wadcutter was a total splatter bullet.

 

[ART338WM]

Only shot a lagit side hammer BP rifle 6-8 times really liked it thought I going to buy a TC Hawkin then I shot my first Inline a Knight and I was sold. I now own a TC
Encore, two Knight Elites, and a Savage 10ML-11. Added all up fired about 5000 shots combined out of my inline ML's. Been through 5-6lbs of 777, about 600-700
pyrodex pellets and 5 jugs and counting of the best BP sub known Black Horn 209.

I also have put about 8lbs of various smokeless poweders through my 10ML-II. My 10ML-II launches a 250 grain Barnes T-MZ ML bullet at a MV of about 2650fps and that's not using a
max load of powder. Max I can hit a MV of 2750-2800.

Love my inlines and I know someday I will buy a TC Hawken as I have always wanted one.

 

[Ericpwp]

This is interesting.

https://www.store.silencerco.com/co...m-50?variant=37950952529&avad=48247_f1344c4c1

 

[indy1919a4]

Satisfying the needs of war production stopped further .40 experiments after only a few prototypes. I wanted to try it out so had a .36 rebored. These things are addictive. Also got a 1858 Remington rebored to use .41 molds.
This one uses .41 ball and has chambers slightly larger than the barrel groove diameter.

Now that 40 cal is a nice item.. Funny how nothing is new... Years latter the new fad come out of 40 caliber pistols (now fading).. Already been there, done that.. So what are the steps to rebore an 1851.. ??? how did you handle the forcing cone???

 

[NKBJ]

Now that 40 cal is a nice item.. Funny how nothing is new... Years latter the new fad come out of 40 caliber pistols (now fading).. Already been there, done that.. So what are the steps to rebore an 1851.. ??? how did you handle the forcing cone???

I did it the easy way and had somebody do it that knew what he was doing.
The barrel was rebored to what is really 38-40 rifling and the forcing cone recut to suit.
The chambers were enlarged to just over groove diameter.
It was a mad money project but it's what i wanted and I like it.

 

[indy1919a4]

I did it the easy way and had somebody do it that knew what he was doing.
The barrel was rebored to what is really 38-40 rifling and the forcing cone recut to suit.
The chambers were enlarged to just over groove diameter.
It was a mad money project but it's what i wanted and I like it.

Very Nice, There is alot to be said for getting a professional doing work like this then learning as you go..

Would love to know the cost range of this kind of job?? At least there are lots of guns out there to start with.. Do you keep the powder load the same as a "normal" 36 cal????

 

[NKBJ]

I'm using .41 round ball and a full load of Jacks Battle Powder or FFFg is no strain at all.
The chamber walls are not as thin as with .44's so it's stronger than they are.
Might find a cast bullet it likes but in '51's I mostly stick with round ball and just fill 'em up to get the ball closest to the barrel.

As an aside, I've surfed around looking at the recovered (relics) 1861-1865 revolver bullets. It's a fascinating subject to me to be able to examine on the interseine what they were using. The powder space was really being cut down with the lengths of a lot of those designs they were inventing to increase penetration.

 

[Glock22]

This is my 1885 Highwall in 45-70 for BPCR