Muzzle-Loader Sighting -- Recommendations Please.

Frogdog

Traditions Hawken-style .50 cal muzzle-loader. Open sights. I'm getting ready to sight-in for deer hunting, and have two questions:

1. What projectile do you recommend (balls, sabots, powerbelt bullets, or the pre-lubed conical bullets)???

2. What distance should I sight-in at??


Thanks

eastwood44mag

1.) What's your rate of twist? If it's 1:66, patched roundballs. 1:28, powerbelts

2.) 100 yards or less. I'd say 50-75. If you had a scope, I'd say 150-200, but open, no more than 75, especially if roundballs. If you shoot roundballs, 50 MAX (energy drops off real fast and trajectory sucks)

O Lord,
grant me the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can,
and the supreme firepower to make the difference.

Frogdog

quote:Originally posted by eastwood44mag
1.) What's your rate of twist? If it's 1:66, patched roundballs. 1:28, powerbelts

2.) 100 yards or less. I'd say 50-75. If you had a scope, I'd say 150-200, but open, no more than 75, especially if roundballs. If you shoot roundballs, 50 MAX (energy drops off real fast and trajectory sucks)


Rate of twist is 1:48, right between your recommendations. So which is best for that?

Somebody told me hunting with the round balls was no good because it would just punch a hole (like FMJ) without doing enough damage. Not true???

I got the rifle about 4 years ago. Handbook mentions round balls and pre-lubed conical projectiles, but doesn't say anything either way about sabots or powerbelts (don't think powerbelts were out then anyway). Are either of these even safe to shoot out of it?

cletus85

It should shoot conicals or sabots reasonably well. Each has it's pros and cons. I'd use Hodgdon Triple Seven no matter what else you choose.

plains scout

I have tried to go traditional and use round ball with patch, pyrodex, and percussion cap. Shot several deer with it.

eyes got old and had to replace the white chalk on the front sight blade with fiber optic for low light.

They all work good.

If you use pyrodex use 100 grns. It knocks the deer down.



"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
~Abraham Lincoln

allen griggs

There is a bias against round balls, mostly by people who have never used them.
I have killed 14 deer and wild hogs with the .50 patched round ball. I found these round balls to be very effective game getters. I made lung shots and never had an animal travel over 60 yards.
The longest shot I made was 80 yards and that deer ran 40 yards and keeled over dead. Through and through shot with great blood trail.
I was shooting with a Hawken with 1:48 twist.
Did you know that when the pioneers arrived, there were great herds of elk in Kentucky? They were annihilated with the patched round ball.
Lewis and Clark were getting one shot kills on buffalo with the round ball.
Use 80 grains of black powder or 777, use the .490 round ball and sight in at 80 yards.

muss

I use 100 grains of fff black powder and a .490 patched round ball in my Hawkens, I also use a heavier cotton patch, if you buy the precut patches, I find that accuracy suffers. Go to a fabric store a get a yard of cotton material, They sell a material that is stripped with light blue and white stripes, I think it is .015 thick, that is what I use. And yes I know that .490 + .015 +.015 = more than the .050 barrel diameter, but it is very accurate, and easy to load, just put a little bore butter, or solvent or the patch, I usually stick it in my mouth for awile.

If you are shooting a flintlock, use ffff powder in your pan.

The hawken was designed to shoot patched round balls, why mess with the design. I love my hawkens, They just give me a warm feeling when I walk in the woods with them. Kinda must be what the mountain men of old felt like.

ALso, keep you r sights close, I usually sight in mine at 25 yards, then take a few shots at 50, they are not much good after that. I used to shoot them in competitiion out to 200 yards, but that was just a hope and prayer of a rainbow shot. However, after a few shots, you can get pretty consisitant at 200 + yards, just would not kill anything at that velocity.



muss

Frogdog

Okay, so it sounds like patched balls will be sufficient for my hunting purposes. That's good news -- cheap and easy. One more question, though. I already have a box of .490 lead balls, but they have that gold coating that Remington puts on them. Is that okay, or do I need to get some that are bare lead? Thanks!

eastwood44mag

I think it's fine. Probably, it's just to keep it from deforming and fouling your barrel. That's my understanding.

O Lord,
grant me the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can,
and the supreme firepower to make the difference.

jjmitchell60

At 100 yards 490 patched RB and 50 to 70 grains of either FF or FFF is all you need for deer. I have taken many deer with both caplocks and flinters useing RBs and never use more than 70 grains of powder even on my 75 cal Brown Bess. Most powder I ever shot in a rifle was 150 grains in my friends true 75 cal hawkin. 150 grains of FF pushing a patched 750 RB kicks like a mule and I have never shot it since! The coating on the Remington balls will not harm the barrel at all. As to patching, Ox-Yoak prelubed/pre soaked patches are the easiest to use and accuracy is not efffected at all.

As to FFFF in a priming pan, I use FF, FFF, or FFFF to prime! In the days of old they actually did not carry 2 horns with different grainage powder. They primed with the same horn they loaded from.

Just my 2 cents worth but there again I have been BP shooting for 25+ years.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
Rita Mae Brown

iluvguns

When I hunted with my Hawkins (it's a wall-hanger now) I used the Buffalo Bullets. That is the "pre-lubed conical projectiles" you said the book mentioned. Always had great success with them. I still use them in my Traditions with good accuracy. Might want to give them a try.