What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

What the caliber @deerstalkert ?

it is the .50. shoots ok but i think it can do better.
it really surprised me how pleasant it is to shoot! now mind you, i am mostly numb from between the ears down, but i really didn't feel recoil at all from off the bench. topped out at 90g of fff so it wasn't a pip sqeek load but not a magnum load either.
have had a couple of the New Englanders over the years, sold one about 10 years back to CynthiaLee. don't recall what recoil was like with them. but then i don't recall what i ate for lunch either!

Ha! Know the feeling. And I like the New Englanders too. Would never part with mine.

I sold my New Englander to my brother in law this last fall. It shot well but it liked a really tight PRB. He liked that it shoulders like a standard hunting rifle compared to a Kentucky or mountian rifle.

At least it’s still in the family.

aussie pete said:

Another fine morning setting a ten-shot group together with the Pedersoli Rocky Mountain Hawken 54. This time, I set the charge a further 10 grains along the scale - 70gns FFG Wano instead of the usual 60. Should be a fine hunting load for the small deer in the block that I visit from time to time. The lateral spread is showing me that I'm not getting consistency in my aiming mark, centre of the red circle, but damn that circle looks small at 50 metres . Benched, of course. 70gns FFG Wano, .018 spit pillow ticking patch cut square, lubed over powder wad with 530 cast pure lead roundball.

Cheers all, Pete

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That'll do it mate.

Installed a new nipple on my Crockett rifle. Spring squirrel season opens two weeks from today!!

My son came home from college the day before. We loaded up our shooting gear and went to the range. Me with my flintlocks him with his inline. After a few volleys he packed his in-line away and used one of my rifles. And I’ll be he enjoyed the flintlock better than his, he also shot better than me. Now he wants me to build him his own rifle. If that’s what it take to get him interested in flintlocks it’s a win win.

First shoot with a traditions Kentucky pistol kit I put together in January of 22.

I went to the range this afternoon and shot my .32 Crockett. I’m really enjoying this little rifle. And I’m Really enjoying shooting Schuetzen too. I can shoot longer without swabbing. I’d like to try some Swiss too.

I got me a nice piece of good ol' Pennsylvania Wild Cherry. I can get 2 guns out of this. I'm looking at a Fantail and a Paddle Butt. I have 2 lock casting sets on the way from Chris Hirsch. Both guns will be .62 cal. tapered round barreled smoothies. I'll keep y'all up on my progress. Semper Fi.
The drawing isn't precise. Just an outline 'til I can do some research.

Before I came back up to the camp I stopped by the antique store where I bought the Pattern 1851 last week. The same guy had a powder horn for sale at $35, which I thought was too high by $5-$8. Now I wasn’t about to tell him that what he sold me for $250 was actually a Pattern 1851 Rifle Musket, no sense in rubbing it in, but I figured the least I could do was buy his overpriced powder horn. The horn was in good shape but very plain. And it did already have some nice rings cut and a little scalloping. I deepened the cuts and sanded it down. Then used different strength stains to get the color where I wanted it. Think it will make a nice little horn, probably give it to my Grandson. There’s one before and a couple of after photos.

I finished another gun today. It is the .50 cal. Jager with the Ash Stock. Didn't come out too bad. Again, crappy pic's. Semper Fi.

Carried this lovely crate into the house. It’s from some company in Ohio??

Went to a shooting match at the Log Cabin. Won enough $$ to buy a strawberry rhubarb pie from the nice Amish woman nearby that sells them. Enjoyed a piece of pie after dinner.

Doing the coning on my final ML barrel that I am doing. Down to the polishing now with 320 grit. .54 caliber H&A Underhammer.

Then I can talk about doing something other than coning!

I hit an estate sale yesterday. Tall tin cup and assortment of chisels. $3.total The long ones may have been used for ceramics or clay but with a bunch of sharpening May be usable. 5 of them are Vs. all are unmarked.

Shot the smooth bore match at the Florida Frontiersmen Mont h ly shoot

Today I made a couple brass drifts to use for removing the wedges on Colt-style revolvers, and rifles on which the barrel is held on with a key. I have a Grizzly G8689 mini mill that works great for small projects like this.

A man with a youngster stopped by today to drop an old couch off on the "go to the dump" pile. I gather he was a resident of one of the landlord's other houses in the area.

Anyway, I was in the back yard teaching certain birds that the holes in the eves of my house were not invitations to set up residence, using my T/C Renegade .56 SB. The man asked about the "rifle" and I explained what it was and what I had been doing with it. It seemed that he'd fired a muzzleloader before, but the youngster had not.

After admitting that he did not know what the difference between a shot charge and a round ball was and having that explained, the youngster elected to fire a shot charge. So I loaded up about an ounce of #8 shot over 50 grains of powder showing the different wads and explaining what their functions were. Using one of the old couch cushions for an improvised patterning target, he let fly and was a bit surprised at how heavy it "kicked", but not so intimidated that he would refuse a chance to fire a .550 round ball.

I coached him through the reloading procedure and he more or less hit his mark with the round ball at about twenty yards. After noticing a round ball stuck in a piece of wood, the youngster elected to borrow my Buck 110 to dig it our for a souvenir. It actually turned out to be a .690 RB from the "Yellow Bird Gun" with the 12 gauge barrel, but a souvenir is a souvenir.

All in all, it took about fifteen minutes of my time to help them with the old couch and possibly interest a young man in our favorite activity. Well worth the effort I'd say.