Powder Charges?

In my .54 Hawken, 110 or 120grs of 2F for long range (100yds+) or hunting. 60 to 75grs up to 75 yards. It's what works for me.

William Lincoln said:

Hey Loja man. Try real black powder. Go with 70grs of 2F in your Longrifle. Less kick. also
get a shooting vest or jacket with padding. The small increase triple 7 gives is not important.
Ya if you were shooting across a canyon at 250 yds maybe. But also maybe not. Real Black
powder is a very powerful propellant still used in modern warfare. If you stay with Triple 7
go down to 60 grains. 80 grains is not needed. Put up some 3/4" thick plywood targets.
Now try your loads. Very eye opening- The power of 70 grs Black and 60 grs T-7.! Too much
recoil leads to being gun-shy and affects aiming the rifle/gun. Remember powder charts
from manufacturers want to keep the consumption high as they can safely recommend.
You can even go lower than I am recommending. A 45-50 cal Hawken type rifle with 70 grains of
real Black Powder and a round ball will take deer across America. Sometimes with the
experience in mind, Less is More.

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One of the reasons I’m reading as much as I can on this form is for the education. The Bolivians have a saying where I grew up “Cada loco con su tema” Which translates into “ every crazy person with their own idea” . I have never been a big proponent of bigger is better when it comes to gun calibers. I have family that hunt elk with 7MM mag and 338 Win Mag that look down on anything smaller. I used 30-06 with my 30-30 as back up.

As I got in the black powder so often I was hearing 80 to 110 grains of powder for a hunting load. The more I have read it seems the most common number I see is 70 grains. Obviously different gun shoot better with different loads. If your gun shoots great with 90 grains perfect but mine doesn’t. So I’m trying to work up a solid load that will bring down deer. Right now I am shooting a good pattern with 60 grains of Tripple7 FFFG.

I do have real black in FFFG on had. So I may give that a whirl and see how it dose.

When sighting in the Kibler 58 I put together the sweet spot was right at 100 hrs FF. Anything from 80 hrs up was working well, just that at 100 hrs it was one hole at 70 yards if I do my part.

Don

You don't need huge powder charges. I use 80 grains for .66 and 100 grains for .75. It does the job. The 4 bore gets 450 grains of powder. Purpose of that rifle is to take care of my African explorer fantasy so it gets a full hunting load.

brewer12345 said:

Funny. I used a Grey Hawk for my first two ML deer. It shoots very well with conicals, but 54 conicals are heavy and recoil is a bit much for me with that light a rifle. So I spent a bunch of time working up a PRB load with Black MZ. After a whole bunch of load work up, I finally got very good accuracy with an over powder wad and a whopping 110 grains of powder. Recoil wasn't as punishing as the conicals (which were almost an ounce of lead), but it was definitely noticeable. I should go back and try again with a different powder to see if I can get better results without such a big charge, but the rifle became my backup/loaner for hunting and I moved on to other things for target work.

That much powder sure does fling the ball, though. The second deer was a Texas heart shot at 60 or so yards. Broke the big thigh bone and went all the way through the hundred pound button buck, lodging in the front shoulder.

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Your "...sure does fling the ball..." comment is spot on.

The .50 caliber minie ball I was using weighed in at 476 grs. With that 100 gr. FFg charge the white tail I shot was 'mortified'. Eight pointer was just under 50 yards away and quartering towards me left to right. Hit him in front of his right shoulder - bullet plowed through nearly every organ the guy had. His stomach was packed full of field corn (glutton) which slowed down the freight train quite a bit, but the bullet was still only an inch or two from exiting the left hindquarter.

My son who has never showed any interest in traditional muzzleloaders was Given a 50 caliber TC Hawken by his father-in-law. He stopped by the other day and asked if I would help him learn how to shoot it. We spent a couple of days finding a good load and settled on 80 grains of Goex 3F a .490 ball and a .018 mink oil lubed patch Being new he is going to keep his shots Around 50 yards but has been practicing every day. I am going to hunt with my 45 Seneca this year and 60 grains is giving me excellent accuracy out to 75 yards.

Guys at creedmoor shoot around 80 gra powder 451 bullet

I‘ve been reading this thread with interest having gotten back into BP cartridge stuff again. All this discussion about powder charges is worthless with out knowing each shooters loading components. IE: bore diameter, ball diameter, patch thickness, barrel length, patch lube, fowling control, etc. A water based wet patch needs less powder charge than a oil based greased patch which slickens the barrel and needs more powder for the same velocities. (Ned Robert’s) When target shooting, no need to kill the paper. Reloading continually one can use a wet patch. Hunting loads need the grease patch, which may set against the charge for hours. Two cents worth.

Loja man said:

One of the reasons I’m reading as much as I can on this form is for the education. The Bolivians have a saying where I grew up “Cada loco con su tema” Which translates into “ every crazy person with their own idea” . I have never been a big proponent of bigger is better when it comes to gun calibers. I have family that hunt elk with 7MM mag and 338 Win Mag that look down on anything smaller. I used 30-06 with my 30-30 as back up.

As I got in the black powder so often I was hearing 80 to 110 grains of powder for a hunting load. The more I have read it seems the most common number I see is 70 grains. Obviously different gun shoot better with different loads. If your gun shoots great with 90 grains perfect but mine doesn’t. So I’m trying to work up a solid load that will bring down deer. Right now I am shooting a good pattern with 60 grains of Tripple7 FFFG.

I do have real black in FFFG on had. So I may give that a whirl and see how it dose.

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FWIW, when I work up a hunting load I find the area of accuracy and keep pushing the charge up until accuracy drops off. Then I use the highest accurate charge. For target purposes, I just use the most accurate load, with the lowest charge if a range of charges is equally accurate..

I shoot muzzle loaders recreationally, and also hunt with them. I have a Pedersoli Brown Bess (.75), which I load with a maximum of 120 grains. With a smaller caliber rifle (.54) I would feel inclined to lower this maximum charge to perhaps 100 grains or slightly less.

working up a accurate load for my restored late 60's cva mountain rifle the other day.
.50 cal prb. .490 ball with .016 cotton sheet 1000 thread spit patch.
started at 50g of my brewed fffg. horrendous! 3 inch at 50 yards on the gong with 5 shots.
upped the powder to 60g with the spit patch. 2 inch at 50 on the gong. better!
repainted the gong
upped the powder to 65g with spit patch. one big splatter on the gong. made me grin.
repainted the gong. cleaned bore even though loading was still easy with no crud ring apparent.

loaded 50g fffg under a patch lubed with frontiers lube. same ball and patch thickness.
again 3 inch at 50 yards.
upped the load straight to 65 and shot 5 rounds with one splatter mark on the gong.
all together i burned a full half lb of fffg and ended the day with a 2.5 inch splatter mark on that gong.
now if i could do that off hand i would be more than happy!
going to try to repeat that as soon as a new main spring arrives. the dang thing snapped whilst cleaning.