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What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

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Took the Jonathan Browning Mountain Rifle .54 out to shoot January's postal targets again in order to sight it in for next month. Groups looked good and windage was adequate, but elevation was an inch or so off. Either I gotta take a file to the front sight or maybe try some other powder charges. I'm more inclined to vary the powder a bit. An inch low at 25 yards is likely to put me right on the money at 50 yards and a bit low at 100.

Could also put a red sticky dot at the top of the target for an aiming point and drop them right in there...
 
Finished up my Pedersoli Scout .50 refinish, I stripped off the ugly factory finish, and cleaned the brass, and after much rubbing with BLO , I’m happy with the results. I refinished a .45 T/C Seneca earlier and as you can tell, I love short, light, handy rifles.
 

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Finished up my Pedersoli Scout .50 refinish, I stripped off the ugly factory finish, and cleaned the brass, and after much rubbing with BLO , I’m happy with the results. I refinished a .45 T/C Seneca earlier and as you can tell, I love short, light, handy rifles.
OK, might regret asking this...what is BLO? That finish looks great. I do not have the patience to get such a good finish.
 
shot the January postal target. broke my RR with about 4 inches out of the muzzle. speared my little finger on my right hand, the one i cut off with a skil saw years ago and had reattached. not much feeling in it.
Due to breakage issues years ago I made replacement ramrods out of black polycarbonate for all of the rifles & pistols I actually shoot in the field.
For bench loading & cleaning at the range I use steel .50 cal. military cleaning rods that are fitted with T shaped brass-collars that prevent bore contact & have concave Treso cleaning jags fitted on the tips.
Polycarbonate is available at Plastics suppliers in various diameters & due to it's self-lubricating qualities it will not wear the muzzle. It is a heavier, semi-flexible material that makes loading easier & has a similar appearance to ebony. Due to it's self lubricating qualities is more difficult to taper without a lathe.
I no longer have a lathe so do it red-neck style by clamping a 1/2" drill in a vice & use another vice with a leather collar to do the tapering or reductions to fit RR tips. While rod is spinning I apply cutting pressure with two aggressive grit files in my hands over the RR as cutters & reduce the file's grit for a smoother finish.

As other forum members state, stay away from fiberglass ramrods, over time they work like sandpaper on muzzles.
 
Hawken vs unmentionable. I had a shoot out between the .50 cal. Hawken and my .45 cal. Henry Lever Action at 50 yards. The 60 grain loads did about as good as I can shoot. I checked some discharged patches and found a few with either one small cut or burn through on the side which may have been responsible for the two 60 grain fliers. In defense of the Henry, I replaced the original buckhorn sights, which were very precise, but too difficult for my old eyes, with High-Viz sights. They are much better for quick target acquisition and plinking but the front sight dot is rather large for very precise shooting. Or maybe I'm not a real good shooter. Anyway, a fun day!
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Winding down to the end of the SMR build. Used 2 applications of Jax Black on the barrel. Drew it back, not quite as much as I wanted, but the color is uniform. Have it soaked with oil now. Applied the 4th coat of T&T after a 2 day cure. The sun was out for a change with mild temps so I sat outside and hand rubbed for a while. The photos still show with the excess oil, need to let it sit awhile longer then I’ll wipe it down. I had planned to put a little bone black on it, but changed my mind for now. When the final oil coat drys I’ll buff it out and put some Renaissance Wax on it. So by Monday afternoon it should be finished.
 

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Is the nipple now centered on the hammer face? Looks a little off center, but if it fires, it's good!
Good question, it was off quite a bit in the beginning, now when it's all put in place the nipple is centered damn near perfectly. Pic below, shows it going into place while it was being fitted, but not quite all the way down.

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I attended a small gun builders get together today at Fort Boonesborough KY. They had a demonstration on how to do wire Inlay. I got to handle some beautiful guns by some really talented builders.
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On the table is my Fowler and my Mentors current build.
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Wish I had known about that. I only live about an hour away.

Some beautiful rifles there for sure. I look forward to the day I can actually see one in person.
 
Wish I had known about that. I only live about an hour away.

Some beautiful rifles there for sure. I look forward to the day I can actually see one in person.
This is a yearly get together of some of the ALR members. It's open to everyone. The host posts about it on the ALR forum.
There's a much bigger show coming up at Lake Cumberland you might be interested in.
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no pictures but finally got the rear entry pipe inletted and drilled for the .063 pin. Found some standard size barrel cross wedges, and made three new barrel lugs. GAve up on the tiny wedges I was going to install. It's slow going.
 
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