1st time with black powder

vinco91

Well Wisconsin gun season is over and I didn't get a buck. a couple friends of mine are going out with a muzzleloader Sat. I don't have one so I asked a friend from work to lend me his, he said OK. I went and picked it up last night, it wasn't what I expected. This gun is beautiful, it says Cabelas on it. It has a very nice satin finished wood stock. He bought it so he could use real black powder not the newer stuff. I have never shot a muzzleloader before so he showed me how to load it last night. Today I got to go to the range, I was the only one there. I traced a circle with a styrofoam cup on cardboard and stapled it up at 50 yds. The first shot was 1 1/2" low, I think the hair trigger startled me. To my surprise the second shot was a perfect bullseye. I think I'm hooked, I need to get myself one. Oh, by the way he is using patch and ball with 75 grns of powder. My buddy is shooting an inline with 150 grns of the pellet powder and a jacketed hollowpoint.

hillbille

that dead deer will never know it was a roundball that killed him. You don't have to have the newest and fanciest to kill deer, the tried and true black powder guns have killed deer for hundreds of years I would say they still have quite a few years left in them.

allen griggs

You have a great deer-killer.
I have killed over 60 deer with a 30-06, and to my surprise, I found that the patched round ball kills them better than the 30-06 does.
That is, on the lung shot, they run half as far when hit with the Davy Crockett slug.

Maybe those pioneers weren't so dumb after all.

Good luck, put it an inch behind the shoulder and get out your skinning knife!

Those Cabelas guns are nice guns but dig around, you can get a great deal on a used Thompson Center Hawken, just as beautiful and American made.
The TC Hawken in .50 is my pet deer killer, 80 grains of ffg black powder and a .490 ball. I have also killed 6 wild hogs with that load, just as lethal.

CapnMidnight

I totaly agree with Allen. I've got and old TC Hawkin 50, with a Green Mountain round ball barrel and a Sile lock. It kills them just as dead as any of my modern rifles, and alot more fun.[:D]
W.D.

skeeterhd67m

ITS FUN TILL THE CLEANING STARTS , I USE WD40 WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED IT ? CLEANS AND LUBRICATES .....

hillbille

hot water and soap, cleaning is just part of black powder shooting, it may take a few minutes longer, but it is something that needs done and is part of the experience.

Mort4570

Yep, a T/C Hawken is a might fine rifle gun.I sure like mine,and my sonlikes his.
soap and water ,dry ,oil it up. only one barrel so doesn't take long at all.Just DON'T forget the powder....
we all have,but DON'T. lol

Gatofeo

WD-40 is not designed to clean black powder fouling. Black powder fouling is water-soluble, not oil soluble.
After a time, WD-40 will turn to a hardened varnish. I've experienced this with my modern guns. I don't use WD-40 for any of my guns.
Black powder, and black powder substitutes, are best cleaned with a water-based solvent. Hot, soapy water will work just fine. After cleaning the barrel thoroughly, rinse it with boiling water.
This will heat the metal. Now, run dry patches up and down the bore until all moisture is gone. Stand the rifle muzzle up while you're drying the bore, so moisture can evaporate from the muzzle.
If you're using a rifle with a nipple, remove the nipple before cleaning.
Some rifles have removeable barrels: modern ones and the Hawken or Plains rifle style are typical. It's best to remove the barrel from the stock before cleaning, so you don't slosh water on the wood.
A pail of hot water, with a squirt of dishwashing liquid (not the automatic dishwasher kind, but the sink kind) is a fine cleaner.
If the barrel and nipple are removed, you can stand the breech end of the barrel in the pail and pump a patch up and down the bore, loosening any fouling and expelling it out the hole left by the absent nipple.
This will also heat the barrel.
An oven mitt helps hang onto that hot barrel, and protects your hand from hot water splashes.
After the bore is clean, empty the pail, give it a quick rinse, and fill it with boiling water. Now, pump a fresh, clean patch up and down the bore to rinse off the soap and any extra crud. This will get the barrel mighty hot, but that's good.
Remove the barrel from the pail, turn it sideways to drain the last of the water out the hole made for the nipple, and pump dry patches upu and down the bore.
Some folks use a hair dryer with an adaptor to shoot dry, hot air down the bore. This works well, I'm told.
Once the bore is dry, oil it lightly with olive or vegetable oil.
Avoid any and all kinds of petroleum-based lubricants in the bore.
Petroleum-based lubricants, when used with black powder, create a hard, tarry fouling. Use all-natural greases and oils in the bore and you'll find cleanup is much easier.
I wouldn't use ANY petroleum-based oil (WD-40, CLP, 3-In-1, motor oil, STP, etc.) in the bore. Simple vegetable or olive oil will keep the bore free of rust if you've cleaned and dried it properly.
Sorry that this is long, and rambling, but it's late and I'm off to bed. Hope the above helps.

vinco91

Thanks for all the advice, I returned the rifle without even seeing a buck. There are 2 more days till season closes but I have to work. I really enjoyed shooting this gun and will have to get one before next year. One bonus with the muzzleloader was I "had" to shoot it one more time before I returned it.[:D]