TC New Englander

Picked up a .54 cal new englander off gunbroker a couple of weeks ago. Turned out to be in very good condition at a reasonable price, had a TC tang sight laying around,put it on, loaded up with 70gr 3f .15 patch and 530 ball,oh my gosh, shoots great, tried Brown Bears load of 35 gr. and it's spot on at 25 yds.Looks like it will be a great little rifle.

I got one of the same cal. off gunbroker about 3 weeks ago, have not shot mine yet. Seem's like a nice little rifle.

pkarr said:

Picked up a .54 cal new englander off gunbroker a couple of weeks ago. Turned out to be in very good condition at a reasonable price, had a TC tang sight laying around,put it on, loaded up with 70gr 3f .15 patch and 530 ball,oh my gosh, shoots great, tried Brown Bears load of 35 gr. and it's spot on at 25 yds.Looks like it will be a great little rifle.

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I had the identical New Englander for quite a while. "Had" because after she tried it at the range, my wife immediately added it to her armory. Haven't shot it in a couple of years, but I'm basking in her smiles. She's taken who knows how many snowshoe hare with that 35 grain load, but doesn't like your "magnum" load of 70 grains. :grin: She popped a deer with it at about 40 yards last year using her favorite 54 cal load of 60 grains of 3f. DRT.

My first muzzleloader was a TC New Englander in .54 cal and a 12 gauge choked barrel back in the early 1990's. Shot a bunch of deer with it and it has been my grouse gun all this time. It's one gun I won't part with.

I think the New Englander over looked and under rated. They aren't flashy and don't have double set triggers, but are well built. The stock design is more comfortable for me than a TC Hawken or Renegade. .50s seem far more common than .54s, and there seem to be a lot of rough bored .50s out there, so perfect candidates to rebore to .54 or .58, rifled or smooth.

I have one in .50 that was my primary firearm during regular gun season for many years. That or slugs hereabouts then; and it is a wonderful hunting tool.

I "built" a 95% finished kit in the 12 gauge and added the rifle barrel later. Great fun for bunnies.

These were probably the best m/l at a price ever.

I have one in .50 as well. Friend had given it to me/sold it to me. He knew I was into Blackpowder big time and he wasn’t! He also knew that I wouldn’t take it unless I could at least give him something for it. He named some off the wall crazy low price.

Anyway, I have a beautiful little New Englander. I personally can’t give any performance reviews due to the fact that I haven’t shot it yet? I will say it’s a solid and well built little rifle. Nice looking little muzzleloader too! Should be a nice deer gun!

Respectfully, Cowboy

I have one as well mine is a .54 70 grains olde eynesford 2F .530 roundball and .018 ticking patch is this little rifles favorite, I also own 2 of the clones a greyhawk and black mountain magnum.

excess650 said:

I think the New Englander over looked and under rated. They aren't flashy and don't have double set triggers, but are well built. The stock design is more comfortable for me than a TC Hawken or Renegade. .50s seem far more common than .54s, and there seem to be a lot of rough bored .50s out there, so perfect candidates to rebore to .54 or .58, rifled or smooth.

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Is the New Englander a 1" barreled firearm like the Renegades?

The New Englander(s) have round barrels. The one in .50 that I just pulled out and measured is 7/8"ths across.

The New Englander is a really good rifle. Currently i own .50 and .54 rifles and a couple extra barrels.

Some New Englander barrels are 24" and others are 26" long. Some of the later rifles have Tupperware stocks. Both my rifles have good triggers.

Several times i've had a problem with New Englander sights. Recently my .54 caliber started horizontal stringing of shots. Turns the sight adjustment screw had stripped.

Last spring i bought a .50 caliber 26" barrel on ebay. The bore is pristine and someone had installed a set of Remington rifle sights. The front sight has an ivory bead. My old eyes really like those sights.

After the rifle was sighted in i broke clay pigeons at 78 yards. Minute of deer.

Perhaps a bit surprising with the 1-48 twist, I get three inch 100 yard grouping out of my .54 New Englander's using the TC 430gr Maxi Balls, with Natural Lube 1000, over 100gr of Pyrodex RS. Sighted in three or four inches high at 100 yards yields a point blank hold on deer out to 135 yards. We have taken many deer with this load, but you want to be sure your teeth are glued in good when you pull the trigger. Then 42gr and a PRB puts them into the x ring at 50 yards with the same sight settings. Not exactly a big game load, but it worked just fine wacking those big Nevada jackrabbits!

I shot my first bear with one many years ago! Taking my NE 12 gauge my Moosehead area camp for a couple days. Hope to shoot a few partridge with it.
Nit Wit

My graduation gift to my son last May was my .54 New Englander, WITH the 12 gauge extra barrel which I'd scrounged as part of the gift earlier in the year. Now if I can only get him to put down the silly "black rifle" that he has, and concentrate on the New Englander. Well, he wants to hunt deer with me and can't legally use the black rifle, so we will be spending some time at the range this weekend and next. :haha:

LD

I think the TC muzzleloaders are some of the best BP guns you can get. They are the "Rugers" of the muzzleloader world. Fed properly and they will surprise you with the accuracy they can deliver. I only have one right now. A 50 cal Renegade I paid $210 for off GB a month ago. It was a poorly done kit gun. I redid the metal and stock. The stock in linseed and Formby's tung oil and the metal I browned with BC Plum Brown. Its a good looking gun now. I wish I could post pictures here but I can't.

I have one in .50, fun range shooter with patched round balls.

I use .480 balls with .005 patches, and 50 gr of 777 or 2f as a 50 yard plinker load in the pistol pits at my range....those round balls and patches just glide down the bore, can shoot em all day. Maybe not match grade accuracy but I don't always feel like using a ball starter and having to force a tight RB/patch combo down a bore.

The hammer spring isn't quite strong enough to make use of the musket cap nipple, but #11's work fine.

Had one relined long ago to shoot .458 diameter molds. Now there's a kit gun New Englander in the rack with a wrongly sanded and finished stock to rework. Don't know what it may end up as but a modern day "Volunteer" isn't beyond the pale with a .458 drop-in barrel and slendered down stock... maybe a Malcolm scope?
Eh, not something to be rushed into but could be way lot of fun.

The only thing I don't like about my new englander is removing the lock

Darmo said:

The only thing I don't like about my new englander is removing the lock

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To solve that problem you can take out the tang and file that flash shield down even with the top of the lock. Touch it up with a bit of cold blue & yer gold.