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What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

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Spent time with a nice cigar and a glass of scotch some music and cleaned 3 of my BP firearms, two being Percussion muzzle loaded. 1863 Springfield rifle, 1854 Johnson Pistol and the 3rd 1880 Trapdoor Carbine 45-70. Shot BP Brass cases rounds with it. Yeah I know that one doesnā€™t count šŸ™„ šŸ˜
 
Cut down a Hackberry, it kind of gives me an excuse to buy another bottle of stump remover to nitrate some coffee filters and maybe have some left over for the stump.
 
Work part time in an unmentionable gunstore. Guy brings a beautiful TC 50 cal hawken he restocked in tiger stripe maple and left it blonde with a nicely browned barrel. Said had a stuck load. Afraid to shoot as short started. Please pull the bullet. As know one knew how and shop no tools, i bring mine in. 30 minutes, a bit of kroil down the barrel to wet the patch and lube the barrel a bit, co2 discharger not enough umph, hammer and industrial ramrod to pound it down, no movement. One ball puller, could not get enough grip and pulled free, little bigger ball puller, range rod in a vice, jerk and out comes a sabot! Do it again, out comes the skirt on the sabot. Some powder, ran wet patch down, ugly brown results. Owner of gun asked how long it had been in there? Well over a year, pre covid! And used pellets! But it was one pretty rifle and the youngens in the store got a lesson in how to.

Today gonna work on my crocket. Please be nice to me today Ms. Crockett, it was not a pretty day yesterday.
 
Thats the type of part time type of job I would want. I'm about a year from pulling the pin and retiring from any work, thought though to eliminate boredom to find a part time job in a gunstore/range. Then I can work for more gun parts, ammo and guns and use the range instead of money lolol
 
Chrono'd two bullets in the Third Model Dragoon.
195 grain bullet, 40 grains FFg, 762FPS.
230 grain bullet, 35 grains FFg, 709FPS.
 
Finally hung up my wall hanger- Model 1816 musket. Made in 1834, converted to percussion sometime before the war.
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added some refinements to my Ball bag. may carve the plug into a mountain man face.
made a lubed patch holder out of antler. has 24 inches of lubed patch strip. good for one outing. the strip is lubed, rolled tight and pushed into the bottom of the antler. i pull from the inside of the roll and it feeds out nice. has enough room i can stuff the cut end back inside to get it out of the way. RB on the stopper lace has the size of the balls stamped on it , cause i'm making more for every caliber.
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Went to the range for a little load development for my Hawken. I tried 60, 65 and 70 grains of 3fg GOEX, 0.445 swaged ball wrapped in my 7 water 1 part water soluble oil dampening a 0.017" cotton drill patch. I have a 1 in 56" twist so I need a little more stout load.

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So far 70 grains seems to be the winner today.
 
I had a little free time and did some out-of-the-pouch flintlock shooting out the front yard. Gosh I am rusty! Caught myself flinching much too much! Anyway I think my aim is improving and as Fall nears I hope to get my shooting more precise. This was off-hand at twenty-five yards. Not good shooting but I enjoyed myself.
 

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Worked with two gentlemen on their rifles. We are an unmentionable shop but they are coming in for me to work on our bp stuff we talk about here. First CVA rifle, rusted nipple threads, retap, oversize nipple, other one broke my nipple wrench! Gave him some 50 cal reals and said never put a sabot in there, get it clean and we can talk some more about stuff. Gave em both shopping sites for their supplies. Good day for our discipline.
 
Nice to see more and more getting out to shoot. Love seeing everybody's targets and the loads used, pics of rifles and gear too. I received my new caps order last night and restocked my inventory. Today I printed the August target for the members shoot. Shortened up and re-stitched the sleeves on a buckskin shirt today, and looking forward to cooler weather on weekend to make some smoke. :)
Tonight I am repairing moccasins....
 
addendum to my day.
had to try out the new ball sack and patch dispenser so i was shooting the August mail shoot.
lousy excuse but I have MS and am unstable on my feet ( as well as other unstable ways, according to some), anyway i stumbled, fell and dropped my Mortimer. broke right through the wrist a half inch above the break that happened when it was shipped.
at least i know my repair worked on the first break. now i have two stocks to make.

some days you are the Dog, some days you are the tree. šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ˜­
 
made a sheath for my patch knife. now to attach it to my bag. thiss patch knife is high carbon steel and doubles as my steel for fire starting. sharp flint down the back and watch the shower of sparks. there is about 1.25 inches below the tip of the knife . i am making a stopper for the slot and am going to put char cloth in there. was in the process of tossing that elk stub to the dog when i saw it would work for the knife. that knife has lived in the bottom of my shooting bag for about 10 years. a friend was digging for some round balls and stuck his finger so i figured i needed to make something for it.
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Finally cooled off and raining! Went to the range to shoot my members monthly target and forgot to take it with me. Oh well, got 4 shots off in the rain before the real downpour started. 60g Goex 2F, .015 patch, .490 ball. 50 yds off hand. No wind and 50F. A short shoot but a fun one. My .50 cal Frontier rifle.
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Finally cooled off and raining! Went to the range to shoot my members monthly target and forgot to take it with me. Oh well, got 4 shots off in the rain before the real downpour started. 60g Goex 2F, .015 patch, .490 ball. 50 yds off hand. No wind and 50F. A short shoot but a fun one. My .50 cal Frontier rifle.
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I could not shoot like that if I had a zip line for the ball. Great shooting. Dale
 

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