“Zeroing” in my Hawken 50cal?

I’m sure everyone has their own way of figuring out a powder/yardage combination for your rifle.

I have access to my 30 yard indoor range where I’ve shot before. I usually start off with something arbitrary but easy to remember like 30 grains at 30 yards.

I’m shooting a Traditions Hawken 50cal ball.

How do you guys like to figure out, other than just raw trial and error, how many grains for each yardage benchmark?

Generally speaking, knowing it varies greatly, how many grains do you estimate to add to a powder charge per 5 yards for example?

At 30 yards would expect one hole with most any reasonable powder charge. If 30 grains gives you the accuracy you want at 30 yards, you are set.

Personally, I have powder puff loads worked out for some guns (25-30 yards), but typically play with various powder charges at 75, or preferably 100 yards, until I find the gun’s accuracy load. Sometimes two loads are found, a lighter load (aka target load) and a heavier load (aka hunting load).

My ideal hunting load would give a trajectory that was no more than 3” high at 50” yards and no more than 3” low at 100 yards. Sometimes that 3” low requirement means I have to back off to 75 or 80 yards to get a midpoint maximum height of 3”. Some would call the +/- 3” trajectory their point blank range, or the maximum distance they can shoot without making a sight adjustment because of distance.

I am of the school that goes with one charge for everything. I zero at 50 yards with whatever gives me decent accuracy, and still has enough zing to reach the long shots. I shoot a .58 Jaeger. The 'happy' load of 60 grains give me a pretty much identical hit at 25 yds. At 100 it strikes about 5 inches low. At 200 yds, it hits about 6 ft. low. Just a bit of Kentucky windage needed. I personally find it annoying to have to mess with powder measure changes on trail walks.

Should get consistent accuracy with a 50 using 70-80t85 gns and a proper fit PRB. 1:48, 1:60, 1:66 twist. Tighter twists drop by 1/3. The projectile can have tendency to skip over rifling at higher pressures. Shoot the load that provides best accuracy.

Interesting. So just know what you get at a certain charge and then adjust by hold over?

Are you hunting or only shooting paper? I come at it from a hunter's perspective. I find the the highest, most accurate charge I can (that does not exceed maximum) and then adjust the sights to hit where I want it at 75 yards. That way a slight adjustment in hold gets me out to 100. I dont shoot at game over 100. Target shooting, you will have to work out different loads to see what is most accurate with your gun/powder/patch/ball combination at that yardage. But that's half the fun of it!

Sounds like you're under the impression that we vary the powder charge for different yardages to maintain the same sight picture, we don't. We all strive to find the powder, patch, ball combo that gives us the best group, most often at 50 yards.

I have a GM barrel and a Bill Large barrel that will shoot any charge accurately. I have a Rice barrel that has been mistreated that I can spray and pray with most charges, If I put 80 gr of 2F, a .530 ball with a .015 patch it will group about 1 1/2" at 100 yards so that is the only load I will put in the gun.

Work out your most accurate load at your 30 yards, if you only plan to punch paper you need to go no further although it is fun to experiment around and see what works and what doesn't.

If you plan to hunt deer sized animals find a load of at least 50 gr and up that will shoot well in your rifle.

I hunt and target shoot. In my .50 TVM Early Virginia rifle, I found 70 grains of FFFg Goex and a patched round ball to be my most accurate load. It is sighted in at 75 yards, making it "a little high" at 50 and "a little low" at 100. This is great for hunting. I would only rarely shoot at an un-wounded animal over 75 yards.

When shooting in a match, I use the same load for 25, 50, and 75 yards. When I get to 100 or 125 yards, I increase to 85 grains and hold for center, rather than shoot the 70 grain load and "hold over." It lets me keep the same sight picture for all distances. I could shoot the heavier charge at all distances, but the majority of my target shooting is at 25 and 50 yards; why beat yourself (and the rifle) up with a heavy charge when you don't have to?

Your mileage may vary.

ADK Bigfoot

Armando said:

How do you guys like to figure out, other than just raw trial and error, how many grains for each yardage benchmark?

Generally speaking, knowing it varies greatly, how many grains do you estimate to add to a powder charge per 5 yards for example?

Click to expand...

You don't!

You do not increase the powder charge to increase yardage.

You develop a load that suits your specific need, for example, a target load or a hunting load. Target distances are known, so you want the most accuracy with the least amount of powder. For hunting you want to balance efficient killing power with accuracy.
To deal with distance for hunting you can;
1. Hunt within a known distance.
2. use adjustable sights.
3. know you holdover.
Keep in mind though that the range of a muzzleloader is short. As distance increases, both accuracy and power decrease.

Attempting to increase the powder levels to match distance and point of aim will not work because the increases are not linear.

I shot competition and hunted with one load in the rifles. 90 gr of real BP on the .45 and .50. The .54 uses 100 gr but for 200 meters I went to 120 gr and adjusted the sight. A round ball to knock over 50 meter chickens at 200 meters was easy.
Find what shoots at 50 yards and leave the charge alone to 100, It does not make sense to change spin and velocity for each range.

Armando said:

Interesting. So just know what you get at a certain charge and then adjust by hold over?

Click to expand...

Shooting a muzzleloader isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t use blackpowder like rocket fuel, where you might adjust the burn time to change downrange trajectory - 5 or 10 more grains of blackpowder won’t make the ball travel 5 or 10 more yards.

Members have suggested basically the same idea in multiple ways. Concentrate on finding an accurate load at the distance you want to shoot, be it 30, 50, 75 or 100 yards. You will likely have found a good load from the very end of your barrel out to that distance. For long distance target shooting there are adjustable sights, but that is different topic.

Thanks guys. I thought as much but wanted to make sure I understood. Lots of knowledge obtained here and misconceptions adjusted.

45man said:

I shot competition and hunted with one load in the rifles. .

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My deer hunting load, squirrel hunting load and target load are also the same in my .45
Sometimes you get lucky and your most accurate load is powerful enough for deer and accurate enough to take the heads of squirrels. The key is hunting within your means.

I 'm kinda old school with the patch & ball just remember,your cold clean bore shot may be off a bit, please don't start adjusting sights until you have shot a group of 3 to 5 shots. I find I need another 5grns. of powder with my first shot than my others this will be very noticeable on the second trip to the Range.

I have a 45, 50 and 58 rifled musket. All 3 shoot good at 65gn fff and PRB. The only variance I would consider is when shooting mini and only to insure best efficient skirt engagement.

bang said:

I have a 45, 50 and 58 rifled musket. All 3 shoot good at 65gn fff and PRB. The only variance I would consider is when shooting mini and only to insure best efficient skirt engagement.

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Nice! You only need one powder measure!

Woodnbow said:

Nice! You only need one powder measure!

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What works well for a PRB might not work for a mini or maxi.