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.54 Caliber T/C Hawken Question

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ugly old guy

40 Cal
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I have a (pre-fire) T/C Hawken percussion rifle with the "standard" 28 inch 1:48 twist barrel.

I do not have a means of measuring the actual bore diameter.

Question for those of you that have a .54 caliber "sister" to my rifle:

What size conicals do you use, or do you strictly shoot PRB?
I see conicals listed anywhere from .538 to .541 diameter and larger.

I am poor. I cannot afford to buy 20 or more of each size to determine which my rifle likes best.

I'm pretty sure I want to use a 525 to 535 grain slug when going after Elk, Moose, and Bear. (such should do "o.k." on deer size critters, if that is all I can locate and I have a tag for one.)

Thank you.

May your powder always be dry, your caps always pop, or flints always spark,
and there be no twig, leaf, nor flying bug or wind twix you and your intended target to deflect your shot! :)
 
I have cast and shot the 380 grain Lee REAL in my 54 TC Grey Hawk (basically a stainless new Englander). It shoots well in my rifle, but every rifle is a law unto itself. I have a mold for the 54 TC maxi ball, but have not tried it. In my 50 TC hawken, the 50 cal maxi ball shoots very well. I would suggest you track down some 54 maxi balls and try them. In my experience, they shoot well with 80 grains or better and with a felt wad underneath the conical. Should be enough bullet for your intended quarry.
 
Hey Ugly Old Guy, I have about 70 TC .54 caliber 435 grain Maxihunters (one bos is unopened) that I will give to you for the price of $10 to cover the shipping. I shot them in my gun and they shoot great but I switched to round balls and a flint gun. I was going to melt them down but I received a bunch of x-ray room lead and don't need anymore lead for the rest of my days. PM me if interested.

Dave
 
Hey Ugly Old Guy, I have about 70 TC .54 caliber 435 grain Maxihunters (one bos is unopened) that I will give to you for the price of $10 to cover the shipping. I shot them in my gun and they shoot great but I switched to round balls and a flint gun. I was going to melt them down but I received a bunch of x-ray room lead and don't need anymore lead for the rest of my days. PM me if interested.

Dave

That is a really generous offer considering they are out of production. Hope he takes you up on it.
 
I use 3 different conicals, I use the Hornady great plains 425 gr ( they are discontinued) I use the TC maxiballs 430 gr (discontinued and the No excuse 535 gr, o excuse is still in production. I always put a ox yoke wonder wad over the powder and below the bullet it helps my accuracy. you can still find the great plains if you look at online stores, the maxi balls are getting harder but track of the wolf casts them they are resonably priced they are non lubed so you will have to lube them
 
Hey Ugly Old Guy, I have about 70 TC .54 caliber 435 grain Maxihunters (one bos is unopened) that I will give to you for the price of $10 to cover the shipping. I shot them in my gun and they shoot great but I switched to round balls and a flint gun. I was going to melt them down but I received a bunch of x-ray room lead and don't need anymore lead for the rest of my days. PM me if interested.

Dave
PM Sent.
I forgot to ask ...
Do you take Zelle for money transfers?
I don't do PayPal - period, so the only alternative would be a postal money order via snail mail.
 
Pour a lead slug into your barrel to determine bore diameter.

SM
Only works if you remove the breech plug so you can get it out.
(BTW, Hard bees wax or Plaster of Paris works, too, and isn't as stinky or as toxic as lead fumes.)

I "misplaced" my vernier caliper and micrometer decades ago. :(
Come to think of it, I haven't used one of either in so long, I'm not sure I recall how to read them anyway.
 
I did not receive a PM and I have never heard of Zelle but I did look it up and my bank does not participate. I started a conversation with you. See if you got that in your messages.
 
Well I think you have two options to get a pretty good shooting result without a lot of technical data...,

You can use a TC designed bullet. Since TC made your rifle and the bullets, one can expect them to work well. I always found Maxi-Hunter bullets worked better in my TC than did the Maxi-Ball bullets.

OR you can use the REAL bullets from LEE, since they swage themselves onto the rifling when loading, you know these are engaging the rifling when you shoot. ("REAL" is an acronym for rifling-engraved-at-loading.)

LD
 
You could flatten one of your .54 lead balls so it`s larger than the bore, get a 12" length of copper or brass rod and slide it into the barrel then bang in the lube ball about 2" in from the muzzle. Now you can knock out the ball with the copper/ brass rod from the inside and you will have a slug of your bore size, take it to a engineering shop to get the size. I do this a lot to check ball and patches for fit and to check my barrel bores. . Homebrew.
 
If you pour a lead slug in your barrel all you have to do is put a small threaded rod in the center of the barrel with a rag stop at the end. That stops the lead, you only need a short slug, and you can pull the slug out. I use 10X32 rod and then use the slug on a rod to lap my bores.
 
IME, since pure lead is used, I would think that just about any ".54cal" conicals would work out OK

I use .54cal T/C Maxi-Hunter's in my T/C Renegade (same bbl as the Hawken) - they are 435gr, and have worked just nice on everything I hit with them.

I would suppose that the T/C .54cal molds would throw boolits the same weight (+/-).
 
Don't bother trying to cast a slug of lead in a barrel. The resulting casting will not be the size of the bore. It will be smaller.
 
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I have a factory box each of the .54 Caliber Maxi-Ball 430 grain and Maxi-Hunter 435 grain bullets. Maxi-Ball for superior Penetration and Maxi-hunter for maximum Expansion it says on the boxes. I have molds for both styles as well but have only cast and shot the Maxi-Balls. The catalog that came with the rifle only lists the above weights in the molds they sold; however, they list Maxi-Balls in 365, 430, and 530 grains as well as Maxi-Hunters in 360, 435, and 540 grains.

If I come across a measuring tool I'll let you know what my Maxi-Balls measure.
 
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