What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

Scored a TC Renegade .50 today

Received my Midway birthday order today, not going to run out of roundballs for a while now.

Got scammed today, there is a site out there that has really good prices on caps and primers.
They dont exist. Their address is a PO Box. Had to cancel my card and wait for another one.

Cleaned my GPR today. Now it’s ready for a weekend hunt in Ohio with my brothers!

Johnny Tremain said:

Got scammed today, there is a site out there that has really good prices on caps and primers.
They dont exist. Their address is a PO Box. Had to cancel my card and wait for another one.

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Sorry that happened to you. Deals that look too good to be true often are not. I've learned to always check out any supplier that I'm not familiar with before ordering.

Johnny Tremain said:

Got scammed today, there is a site out there that has really good prices on caps and primers.
They dont exist. Their address is a PO Box. Had to cancel my card and wait for another one.

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makes one wish they could call a napalm strike on the rotten scum! hope it works out painlessly for you.
i came within a keystroke of getting taken by a scammer here. they are getting more sophisticated all the time.

Did some dry firing with my flintlock this morning. (Wood flint)

i shot 10 shots with PRB out of my Dolep fowler. attempted to hit a 60 yard gong. had to back up to 25 yards. have lots to learn about smooth bore shooting with PRB.

Messed around learning to cast RBs. Consistent Temps were a bit tricky outside on a homemade charcoal forge in the snow, but I think we did ok.

Switched around some slings and swivels. My Yellow Bird Gun had some stainless QD sling swivels that were too big for the sling. In the basement among junk I have been accumulating for some years, I found a shooting box with a couple of traditional non-QD sling swivels. They look much better on that gun.

Also found a partial box of Hornady Great Plains bullets (410 grain HBSP) and another partial box of Pyrodex pellets (.50 caliber 30 grain). Thought I would try them in the Yellow Bird Gun. Loaded up 7 grains of Old Eynsford 3f, followed by two of the 30 grain pellets. Yes, dark side down. This is roughly twice the normal charge I shoot in that gun with a much heavier bullet than I am used to.

The bullets were stuck in the Styrofoam packaging and the waxy manure lube that they use was crumbling, but my bore was already lubed with Bore Butter, so as soon as I extracted one of them from the packaging, I rammed it. Discovered that those bullets are very difficult to start in that bore for some reason. Pounding on the short starter in palm saver mode with my fist got it started and then it went down easily.

I should explain for those who are not familiar with my YBG, it is a T/C Greyhawk sort of, with stainless hardware mounted on a modified T/C New Englander stock. It will accept barrels from a New Englander. The stock has no ramrod channel and is capped with an ebony nose. I use an extra long short starter to ram the projectiles. I have three barrels that range from 9" to 12" and are .50, .54 and 12 gauge. I was using the .50 caliber 12" Greyhawk barrel this morning. This has a Remington rear sight assembly and a Williams ramp and gold bead front sight.

As it is raining pretty heavily this morning, I decided not to walk out into the mud, cold and damp. Instead I sighted on a puddle formed out in the yard from my back porch. I dropped the hammer and Absolutely Horrible Things happened. Was not accustomed to nearly that much recoil, muzzle blast or sound. When the smoke finally cleared and I could see the puddle again, there was no indication of a hit, so I found that I had shot a bullet into the air and where it landed I know not where.... but probably out in the field behind the house. Got a nice hillside bullet stopper out there.

I was impressed with the fact that after at least five years in that damp basement, the Pyrodex pellets still fired. I will probably take my YBG out again today, but will use lighter bullets (maybe a PRB) and only one pellet this time.

Edit: Tried again with only one pellet, same gun, with PRB. Target was an unopened soda can that I tossed out about 25 yards. Projectile had the standard devastating effect on a sealed container of liquid and the gun looked where it hit with no sight adjustments.

I've never really been a fan of Pyrodex, and the pellets always seemed even more useless as most of my guns are side hammer guns. That said, using the pellets with a loose BP ignition charge is a bit easier than carrying a second powder horn with Triple 7 as I normally do. I think I could get used to these things, and they seem readily available locally.

Now I gotta clean....

Edit: Stopped at Fleet Farm today. Discovered that they had NO gunpowder of any kind in stock, no Pyrodex or Triple 7 pellets and no primers either.

Bummer.

I have a rebored barrel that didn't come out very good, it has a very tight bore, so tight that I bought a .526 mold so I could shoot a ball with a patch thick enough so it wouldn't tear when shot. I had already given the bore a scotch bright scrub along with JB bore paste and JB bore shine treatment.

I decided to give a Joe Woods coning tool a try to make the gun easier to load.



The tool is easy to use, it does take some time to hone the bore out to the point you can thumb a ball and dry patch half way in the bore.

Cutting out the sand paper with double sided carpet tape backing.



The sandpaper applied to the tool and ready to put to work.



Working;



Almost there: looks like it needs a few more passes with the 220 grit paper and then it is time for the 320 and 400 to polish the bore.

I've heard of this tool, but never tried it. I own one T/C .50 caliber with factory QLA muzzle. It seems to me that some while back, I tried PRB in it with some success... of late I can't get balls to group at all. Sabotted pistol bullets load easily and fly true. I've decided to just not shoot PRB in that gun as I have others better suited to them.

Would be interested in hearing how well the barrel performs after the treatment.

I finished coning the barrel, to have it where I can thumb start a ball fairly easily, I had to go as far as to almost remove the lands at the bore.

I drug my travel trailer down to the new property where I plan to leave it until I can finish the bunkhouse. I have power here but no water or septic. Pretty much camping but I am excited to be here again. I spent a lot of time looking for a place to refill the water tank and getting the trailer set and level. Heat is on.

After finishing setting up, it was getting pretty dark and it’s raining, forecast suggests 30-40mph gusts, but at last light I managed to set up a target and squeeze in one semi-hurried shot. Smoothbore, 63 cal, 65 grains 3f, RB with powder cards over and under.

I swear that it is an honest 75+ yards. I don’t have my rangefinder but I ran this target out as far as I could make out from the trailer… and offhand, resting against a fence post, I let one fly. A shower of sparks, instant ignition and too dark and far away to tell the tape but it felt perfect.

Running up to the target, two inches to the right of dead center zero or POA. For a smoothbore this was the furthest shot ever and, with my flinch tendencies, I will sleep well tonight! Life is good.


I brought some impromptu materials to fashion a target so I should have pictures tomorrow.

Fisherking said:

I drug my travel trailer down to the new property where I plan to leave it until I can finish the bunkhouse. I have power here but no water or septic. Pretty much camping but I am excited to be here again. I spent a lot of time looking for a place to refill the water tank and getting the trailer set and level. Heat is on.

After finishing setting up, it was getting pretty dark and it’s raining, forecast suggests 30-40mph gusts, but at last light I managed to set up a target and squeeze in one semi-hurried shot. Smoothbore, 63 cal, 65 grains 3f, RB with powder cards over and under.

I swear that it is an honest 75+ yards. I don’t have my rangefinder but I ran this target out as far as I could make out from the trailer… and offhand, resting against a fence post, I let one fly. A shower of sparks, instant ignition and too dark and far away to tell the tape but it felt perfect.

Running up to the target, two inches to the right of dead center zero or POA. For a smoothbore this was the furthest shot ever and, with my flinch tendencies, I will sleep well tonight! Life is good.


I brought some impromptu materials to fashion a target so I should have pictures tomorrow.

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Sounds like fun times...

Sounds like a fun time @Fisherking !

TDM said:

Sounds like a fun time @Fisherking !

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Great minds think alike!

Dale Allen Raby said:

Great minds think alike!

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Yes they do!

Alone but as happy as you could hope. I have plenty of work planned for tomorrow but shooting is the biggest excuse for being here. Hoping the weather subsides for an hour at least but that doesn’t hamper the big picture.

Introduced myself to the local market owners. It’s a two mile drive. Everything is priced double but they seem real and we’re really nice while welcoming me to the neighborhood- like they really intend to remember my name. I don’t mind paying. Getting away from city crime, traffic cameras and everything else that describes the rat race I the worst sense… and the prevalence of the whole liberal agenda. God save me please!

This is SUCH a change that I was excited to see a tree had fallen across the road on the way back, in the dark, no streetlights, but an oddly welcome hazard. There are not enough trees in my old neighborhood. No one wants to hit a tree at 50mph obviously, but it’s just something so completely beyond the norm that it helps the heart beat.

I can’t wait to be here permanently.

I am envious.