What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

A beautiful day on our summer river range.

Did some load development with my An IX pistol today. Decided I wanted a patched ball load to go with my paper cartridge load.

Ended up liking a 65gr load of Goex Fg, 15G nitro card, 0.01" oiled patch, and a .676" ball. At 11 yards the gun throws a patched ball 4" left of point of aim (my aim was at the right red dot of this target). Velocity for this load is good at 580fps and if the accuracy is repeatable then I will be very happy with it.

(first shot was high, might have been me)

Traded unmentionable backwards loader parts for a Brazilian made small smoothbore at a local antiques and gun show.
Confirmed it was unloaded with a long enough rod and an airpump, took the nipple off and checked the threads (in good shape), oiled the lock, and just cleaned up the outside a bit. Learned on here that other people have successfully shot with these, so I am making plans to try mine out soon!

Tied pathfindernc for top honors at our yearly woods walk.

Wonderful morning at the local Townsville range today with the muzzleloading lads for the monthly comp, using my Pedersoli 54 Tryon. Even better, happy to report I took out the day! The first target set me up for a good start. Mind, two others were close on my heels all morning with only four points between First and Third. We did our usual application, three targets, thirteen shots at each, counting the best ten of each set. I attach the first target to show off - it was shot, leaning post, at 50 metres. The high shot was entertaining. I caught a throat full of smoke from the competitors to the left and set the trigger off prematurely! As you can tell, our Shoot Captain recycles targets until they are unusable.

Kindest regards, Pete

Started reading My Sixty Years on the Plains by William Thomas Hamilton. Very interesting. Love the old stories by the ones that saw it all

Made a wooden 60 grain powder measure

Was able to get quite a bit accomplished on my trade gun build.

Fired the smokepole for the first time in a few years. Ragged line in a single hole group, except for one (flinch-flyer??) way off. Of course, this was just at 7 yards, so not threatening anyone's top score. But I did go to the range, and I did shoot. It felt good.

Finally got caught up with our monthly matches after floods on the first weekend, Easter on the second weekend. Yesterday we had a traditional muzzleloading experience for a local boy scout troop. I had converted my flint lock SMR to be a percussion lock. The Boy Scout organization seems to have some misinformation that flint lock rifles are dangerous. Oh, well. So today, I shot the SMR in percussion configuration and I did get to use my American smoothbore for the smoothbore match.

While it was cold at the range. Cold enough that picking up the 36 caliber balls for the SMR with no feeling in the fingertips was quite the challenge. The 20 gauge smooth bore was much easier. Getting better on target not quite so embarrassed by my score.

Naturally, while it was quite chilly, it was still a good day to be on the range.

Read a bit of the book The Company of Adventurers and started fixing up an old Lyman Model 61 lead pot. Posted questions about it. Hope to have it up and running in the near future to try .490 roundball and .595 roundball.

Finally learned how to take the barrel off the Zouave I have for sale. I thought it would be a huge pain, but nope, easy peasy. That will make shipping much less of a headache. Now if I could only find a buyer

Took my Slotter & Co. style rifle for a walk in the woods and banged some steel gongs.




Then after I got home, finished cleaning it and put it away, I sat out on my back porch and relaxed for about an hour.

Shot in the same cold, windy match as @Grenadier1758 (50 yard 5 bull bench match, 2 shots on each) I was shooting a .54 so it wasn't the balls I was fumbling with in the cold, it was the caps! It was still fun, though I'd practiced for this one a few times so I hoped to do better. The top right target did me in, it was the last one I shot and both shots went high, one of them too far outside of the ring to score. Two of the targets I put both shots in the same hole so I was happy with that! Just got done cleaning all my guns.

Well, it was yesterday now but I went to our monthly shoot at the club. Got there early and threw some Hawk & Knife until other folks showed up. We shot the Archery Trail Walk and I did my best yet on the course. Went over to the Woods Walk and enjoyed some fine accuracy with my .58 smooth Kibler. The other guys were impressed at what a smooth rifle could do. I had cast some .570 balls and although a little hard to start they did go down smoothly once swagged with a stout short starter. Patch was the thin, red .013 ticking from Joann's. I need to also try some .562 balls with the thicker blue ticking. I have both types presoaked with 1:5 Ballistol/water and dried. I store the strips in old clear film canisters my dear Mother had the foresight to squirrel away long ago.

Sounds like a great day Timber Wolf!

Justin.44 said:

Shot in the same cold, windy match as @Grenadier1758 (50 yard 5 bull bench match, 2 shots on each) I was shooting a .54 so it wasn't the balls I was fumbling with in the cold, it was the caps! It was still fun, though I'd practiced for this one a few times so I hoped to do better. The top right target did me in, it was the last one I shot and both shots went high, one of them too far outside of the ring to score. Two of the targets I put both shots in the same hole so I was happy with that! Just got done cleaning all my guns.View attachment 215413

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It was a windy day. Top score for open sights was 89. Still, Justin, you did pretty good on the pistol target.

Finished the last day of our black powder league. Was a great time. What a great bunch of people with a lot of knowledge,will definitely do it again. I didn't do too bad for the first time. If I counted right, I came in 12 out of 23. We will see for sure at our banquet on Wed.

This weekend I hand forged a nice gun barrel tomahawk from an actual muzzleloading gun barrel. Hand filed and hand scraped fitted handle. The hawk has a tool steel bit in the end tempered to take a razors edge. The hawk is finished to give it pleasing aged 18th century look.

Made a couple hundred lubed patches for my 58 nma remington. And yes, I know blue isn't PC, but I have several yards of blue felt in the closet.