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Pirate's Son
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
I have a T/C
54 Caliber Renegade. My first wife gave me this Kit Muzzleloading Rifle as gift on our 1st Christmas together in 1981. We were stationed at Camp LeJeune NC and I was finishing my first enlistment. My wife was just starting her first enlistment. I decided to do "one more" to be with her. From then until I retired from the Navy that Renegade went with us.exvept for a 3 year tour in Spain.
My efforts building my Renegade were definitely apprentice quality. But it shot and it shoots well. I introduced smoke pole shooting, muzzleloader kit building and bullet molding toany shipmates and Marines I served with.
Helping my convert's build their muzzleloaders fine tuned my kit skills. By my 14 or 15th kit and my 4th Renegade a beautiful rifle was produced. The 4th Renegade was a kit my wife's friend bought as a Christmas gift for her husband. He was so taken with the rifle he did not want to shoot it. Instead he displays it in a glass gun cabinet. He had fired my Renegade many times and liked the "used look" and said wanted something that he didn't need to worry about. His choice was a T/C Mountain rifle kit. I got the joy of supervising his efforts and drinking his beer!
It also got me to tear down my Renegade and rebuild it. It wasn't nearly as beautiful as my friends rifle but it was helluva lot better looking than the original build.
While in the Navy I hunted deer with rifle, shotgun with slug or buckshot and archery. I found that using a true muzzleloader was the most challenging. I found even archery took a back seat to using a true muzzleloader. With a bow built out of a Pawn Shop frame and adding all the attachments I could reliably group at 50yds. I had 2 Whitetails let me get a second shaft off after the first was deflected. If you've missed with a muzzleloader you know you missed. After the smoke clears you find you are all alone.
A true "one shot, one kill" hunting experience.
I took Whitetails in 5 Southern states and a Razorback in Arkansas with my .54 Renegade. When I retired from the Navy and moved back to my native Pacific Northwest I shot Blacktails and Muleys in Oregon and Washington. My most challenging hunt was outside Illwaco/Long Beach Washington. There is a small area that is owned by those cities that is opened for Muzzleloaders only for Deer and Elk. While deer hunting I was able to harvest my deer and observe several Roosevelt elk herds. I was primed for the 4 day Elk season. Hunting on the Oregon/Washington coast is tough. Thick brush, heavy rains, slick ground and limited time to get a sight picture before the animal moves behind cover.
So Murphy had his say and it rained the whole time.
I knew I was going to have trouble at the end of the first day. I went to discharge my rifle before heading to camp (my Dad's beach house, heat, hot water, dryer and cable.) It took 3 caps to get a discharge. The second day I did a better job of keeping my powder dry, one cap discharge.
Murphy showed up on the third day, rain with a stiff breeze.
Sitting on the edge of an old clear cut I was somewhat sheltered from the rain blowing in my face when I heard sounds of animals coming near. A cow and that springs calf moved out in the clearcut about a hundred feet from me.a couple more cows were hanging at the edge of the clearcut. I recognized this group and I was pretty sure that the calf didn't belong to the cow elk in the clearing. I carefully took the waterproof (hah!) covering off my nipple and cap. The same as I had used the day before. I took aim and waited for the cow elk to turn for a better shot. As the cow moved I pulled my set trigger and lightly touched the "boom" trigger. As soon as cow presented a good target a squeezed the trigger and... "Pop!" The cow I was aiming for was imitating a bucking horse, trying to get away from the elk calf that was trying to suckle. And this barren cow elk was having none of it!
The calf's mother came farther into the clearcut and the calf quit bothering"my" elk. I slowly moved into better concealment. With shaking hands I pulled out my emergency cap kit. I pulled off the miss fire cap, probed the nipple, tried to shake a little enhanced FFFFg powder (extra grinding, almost dust!) into the nipple and replaced the cap from my cap kit.
When I eased back to my firing position I was surprised all to hell to find "my elk" still in the open and perfectly positioned. I reasoned that between the wind blowing in my direction and a pesky youngster my cap noise was missed.
I sighted in on the cow elk, pulled my set trigger. The "click" going unnoticed. I told Murphy he'd done enough. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, let half out and squeeze the trigger. Just like it should the discharge surprised me! With the wind and rain the smoke cleared quickly. My cow elk had headed to the thick brush surrounding the clearcut. The elks front legs collapsed half way to the cover. Her back legs made a couple of pushes them she fell on her side, kicking her legs weakly.
Somehow I managed to reload my rifle and keep my eyes on my elk. How I did that in the cold, wet and wind with my adrenaline at the max is beyond me.
So when I got to my elk and found my "one shot, one kill" ethos worked I discharged my Renegade. And it fired! As excited and shaky as I was I didn't need a loaded firearm around.
When I field dressed her I found my 230gr round ball on top of 90grs of FFFg had been perfect! Cleanly hitting and destroying her heart and lungs. It wasn't easy but by using my Dad's chainsaw winch I got her the half mile to and into my truck bed. Getting her back to "camp" and pulling into the heated pole barn and using pulleys to hang her and put her on the scale. 325 pounds field dressed!
Shortly after this hunt I took a job with a rural hospital in Southeast Alaska. I've taken several Sika Blacktails and one Black bear with my Renegade. But mostly it's my "Fun Gun" when I go to the range. When I start making smoke I always get an audience. And I always offer them a chance to shoot. I thereby infect more people with the smoke pole itch.
I've had my Renegade for over forty years now. It's not the same rifle that came in the kit. I've been through a few ramrods and now have a space age rod. I changed the sights and installed a recoil pad. I added a tang mounted peep sight as my eyes got older.
The biggest change is hardly noticeable but it drove reliability right through the friggin roof!
I changed the No.11 percussion nipple to a Musket nipple and now use musket caps. I should have kept track but I figure I've run 3-400 rounds without a misfire. Now I keep up with the "inline weenies" and their shotgun primers. I've got a urge to go burn some powder!
54 Caliber Renegade. My first wife gave me this Kit Muzzleloading Rifle as gift on our 1st Christmas together in 1981. We were stationed at Camp LeJeune NC and I was finishing my first enlistment. My wife was just starting her first enlistment. I decided to do "one more" to be with her. From then until I retired from the Navy that Renegade went with us.exvept for a 3 year tour in Spain.
My efforts building my Renegade were definitely apprentice quality. But it shot and it shoots well. I introduced smoke pole shooting, muzzleloader kit building and bullet molding toany shipmates and Marines I served with.
Helping my convert's build their muzzleloaders fine tuned my kit skills. By my 14 or 15th kit and my 4th Renegade a beautiful rifle was produced. The 4th Renegade was a kit my wife's friend bought as a Christmas gift for her husband. He was so taken with the rifle he did not want to shoot it. Instead he displays it in a glass gun cabinet. He had fired my Renegade many times and liked the "used look" and said wanted something that he didn't need to worry about. His choice was a T/C Mountain rifle kit. I got the joy of supervising his efforts and drinking his beer!
It also got me to tear down my Renegade and rebuild it. It wasn't nearly as beautiful as my friends rifle but it was helluva lot better looking than the original build.
While in the Navy I hunted deer with rifle, shotgun with slug or buckshot and archery. I found that using a true muzzleloader was the most challenging. I found even archery took a back seat to using a true muzzleloader. With a bow built out of a Pawn Shop frame and adding all the attachments I could reliably group at 50yds. I had 2 Whitetails let me get a second shaft off after the first was deflected. If you've missed with a muzzleloader you know you missed. After the smoke clears you find you are all alone.
A true "one shot, one kill" hunting experience.
I took Whitetails in 5 Southern states and a Razorback in Arkansas with my .54 Renegade. When I retired from the Navy and moved back to my native Pacific Northwest I shot Blacktails and Muleys in Oregon and Washington. My most challenging hunt was outside Illwaco/Long Beach Washington. There is a small area that is owned by those cities that is opened for Muzzleloaders only for Deer and Elk. While deer hunting I was able to harvest my deer and observe several Roosevelt elk herds. I was primed for the 4 day Elk season. Hunting on the Oregon/Washington coast is tough. Thick brush, heavy rains, slick ground and limited time to get a sight picture before the animal moves behind cover.
So Murphy had his say and it rained the whole time.
I knew I was going to have trouble at the end of the first day. I went to discharge my rifle before heading to camp (my Dad's beach house, heat, hot water, dryer and cable.) It took 3 caps to get a discharge. The second day I did a better job of keeping my powder dry, one cap discharge.
Murphy showed up on the third day, rain with a stiff breeze.
Sitting on the edge of an old clear cut I was somewhat sheltered from the rain blowing in my face when I heard sounds of animals coming near. A cow and that springs calf moved out in the clearcut about a hundred feet from me.a couple more cows were hanging at the edge of the clearcut. I recognized this group and I was pretty sure that the calf didn't belong to the cow elk in the clearing. I carefully took the waterproof (hah!) covering off my nipple and cap. The same as I had used the day before. I took aim and waited for the cow elk to turn for a better shot. As the cow moved I pulled my set trigger and lightly touched the "boom" trigger. As soon as cow presented a good target a squeezed the trigger and... "Pop!" The cow I was aiming for was imitating a bucking horse, trying to get away from the elk calf that was trying to suckle. And this barren cow elk was having none of it!
The calf's mother came farther into the clearcut and the calf quit bothering"my" elk. I slowly moved into better concealment. With shaking hands I pulled out my emergency cap kit. I pulled off the miss fire cap, probed the nipple, tried to shake a little enhanced FFFFg powder (extra grinding, almost dust!) into the nipple and replaced the cap from my cap kit.
When I eased back to my firing position I was surprised all to hell to find "my elk" still in the open and perfectly positioned. I reasoned that between the wind blowing in my direction and a pesky youngster my cap noise was missed.
I sighted in on the cow elk, pulled my set trigger. The "click" going unnoticed. I told Murphy he'd done enough. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, let half out and squeeze the trigger. Just like it should the discharge surprised me! With the wind and rain the smoke cleared quickly. My cow elk had headed to the thick brush surrounding the clearcut. The elks front legs collapsed half way to the cover. Her back legs made a couple of pushes them she fell on her side, kicking her legs weakly.
Somehow I managed to reload my rifle and keep my eyes on my elk. How I did that in the cold, wet and wind with my adrenaline at the max is beyond me.
So when I got to my elk and found my "one shot, one kill" ethos worked I discharged my Renegade. And it fired! As excited and shaky as I was I didn't need a loaded firearm around.
When I field dressed her I found my 230gr round ball on top of 90grs of FFFg had been perfect! Cleanly hitting and destroying her heart and lungs. It wasn't easy but by using my Dad's chainsaw winch I got her the half mile to and into my truck bed. Getting her back to "camp" and pulling into the heated pole barn and using pulleys to hang her and put her on the scale. 325 pounds field dressed!
Shortly after this hunt I took a job with a rural hospital in Southeast Alaska. I've taken several Sika Blacktails and one Black bear with my Renegade. But mostly it's my "Fun Gun" when I go to the range. When I start making smoke I always get an audience. And I always offer them a chance to shoot. I thereby infect more people with the smoke pole itch.
I've had my Renegade for over forty years now. It's not the same rifle that came in the kit. I've been through a few ramrods and now have a space age rod. I changed the sights and installed a recoil pad. I added a tang mounted peep sight as my eyes got older.
The biggest change is hardly noticeable but it drove reliability right through the friggin roof!
I changed the No.11 percussion nipple to a Musket nipple and now use musket caps. I should have kept track but I figure I've run 3-400 rounds without a misfire. Now I keep up with the "inline weenies" and their shotgun primers. I've got a urge to go burn some powder!
Signature
Do you not think it odd that people have access to more information than ever before but know less? They only seek out that which supports what they already think!